Read Dacorum’s housing figures and you might picture a borough of semis and detached homes. Read Hemel Hempstead’s own thirteen wards and the picture changes. Across the borough, 21.3% of households live in detached houses and 20.6% in purpose-built flats; across the town’s wards, only 13.7% are detached and 25.7% live in flats, with terraces the largest group at 34.8% (our sum of the ONS Census 2021 ward figures). In Hemel, the battery more often has to fit inside a modest house or flat than in a large garage.
This post takes the town’s homes in the order the questions come up: who decides, which room, what the building’s age changes, and what follows once the spot is chosen. For the battery itself, including sizing and the grid, see our page on battery storage in Hemel Hempstead.
Why the town looks like this
Hemel Hempstead is a Mark One New Town, shaped by Geoffrey Jellicoe’s 1947 masterplan, with new town development starting in the 1950s. Planned new-town housing is a large part of why the town’s wards lean so much further towards terraces and flats than the borough around them. The town was awarded Garden Town status in March 2019, and the Hemel Garden Communities programme proposes new neighbourhoods to the east and north, so the mix is still changing.
First question: whose decision is it?
In the town’s thirteen wards, 57.0% of households own their home, 25.3% outright and 31.7% with a mortgage. Another 26.7% rent from the council or a housing association and 15.4% rent privately (our sum of the ward figures). A battery is fixed to the building and wired into its supply, so in about four Hemel homes in ten the landlord’s agreement comes before anything else. In a block of flats, the freeholder or managing agent decides too, whatever your lease says about the inside of your flat.
For owner-occupiers and private landlords at EPC D to G, Dacorum’s Warm Homes: Local Grant, delivered with E.ON, can pay for approved improvements, and every postcode on the council’s eligible list is in HP2 or HP3. Its list of measures names solar panels, not batteries, and the national scheme funds a battery only alongside solar PV. Landlords may be asked to contribute 50% for rented homes.
The terrace: Hemel’s most common home
A mid-terrace usually has no side passage and no garage, so the battery goes inside. The first place we look is the wall near the electricity meter and consumer unit, because a short cable run is the simplest job. An under-stair space can work if the unit fits with the clearances its manufacturer sets and stays within its temperature range. An end-terrace with a side wall gives more choice, including an outdoor-rated unit on that wall.
Terraces are also where Hemel’s efficiency figures look best: ONS puts Dacorum’s median terraced house at an EPC score of 69, the bottom of band C. For many terrace owners, the question is less about insulation first and more about whether the evening load justifies a battery at all.
Semis and detached houses
Semis are 22.9% of households in the thirteen wards and detached houses 13.7%. These are the homes most likely to have an integral or attached garage or a utility room, which is the easiest place for a battery and its inverter: dry, out of living space and often close to the meter. ONS puts Dacorum’s median detached and semi-detached houses at 67, band D, so on these homes insulation and draught-proofing often belong in the same conversation as storage.
Lofts come up often and make our shortlist rarely. Weight on the joists, summer heat and safe access for servicing all count against them, and the survey will say if one is ruled out.
Flats
Purpose-built flats house 25.7% of households across the wards. Inside a flat, the realistic spot is a cupboard or wall within your own home near your meter, never a shared hallway or stairwell. With no roof of your own, a battery can still charge on a cheaper overnight rate, if your tariff has one, and cover the evening; our guide to battery storage without solar panels sets out when that pays.
The conservation area and older houses
The Hemel Hempstead conservation area was designated on 7 October 1968 and amended on 21 January 2014. Dacorum’s published Article 4 list names streets in Berkhamsted, Tring and nearby villages, but none in Hemel Hempstead. We know of no planning rule written specifically for home batteries, so the practical line is simple: a battery indoors changes nothing outside, while a unit on a street-facing wall in the conservation area, or anything on a listed building, is one to raise with Dacorum first. Homes built before 1929 have a median EPC score of 60 across Dacorum, so older houses often need fabric work before storage makes sense.
Once the spot is chosen
Central Hemel Hempstead sits in UK Power Networks’ Eastern Power Networks licence area, and your installer handles the paperwork. A system up to 16 A per phase (3.68 kW), battery included, is notified under G98; anything larger needs a G99 approval before work starts. UK Power Networks says it approves automatically where the maximum export, after any export limitation, is under 5 kW. A standard grid-tied battery shuts down in a power cut; backup needs extra switching equipment near the meter, and on a terrace that wall space is often the limiting factor.
Size the battery to the evening, not to summer. PVGIS puts a 4 kWp south-facing array in the town at about 477 kWh in June and about 136 kWh in December. Our guide on what size home battery you need walks through it. The roof is covered on our page for solar panels in Hemel Hempstead, and the county on our Hertfordshire solar page.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, accommodation type and tenure (TS044 and TS054 categories), May 2022 wards Adeyfield East to Woodhall Farm, via the ONS Census API, sums ours; ONS Census 2021, TS044, Dacorum (E07000096), via Nomis; ONS, Median energy efficiency score, March 2025 edition (28 October 2025); Dacorum Borough Council, Dacorum Local Plan to 2041 Pre-Submission version (November 2024), Conservation areas (updated 25 March 2026) and Home energy efficiency grants and funding (updated 6 July 2026); GOV.UK, Warm Homes: Local Grant guidance (updated 2 July 2026); UK Power Networks Open Data licence boundaries and Solar and storage: cost, time and what’s involved; Energy Networks Association, EREC G98 Issue 2; European Commission JRC, PVGIS 5.3, PVGIS-SARAH3 2005–2023 (run 15 October 2026).