Summary of this article: Including solar panels when designing a new-build home brings a variety of benefits. Solar panels don’t just reduce energy bills and improve your carbon footprint, they can also improve your EPC rating and add value to your home. The sooner you include solar panels, the more efficiently your home can be designed to gain as much energy independence as possible.
Building a new home isn’t just about choosing how it looks and what size it is. In today’s world, it’s also about designing a home that’s energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
Solar panels are just one of the products at your disposal from E.ON Next that can help you build a home that meets these criteria. But what else can they offer homeowners in return for the investment?
While the ability of solar panels to provide power for homes is widely documented, could they also have benefits that you may not be aware of? We explore five advantages of installing solar panels in a new build that you may not have considered.
1. Solar panels will help improve your EPC rating
Even if you have no plans to sell your new home once it’s built, most homeowners will look to move on at some point in the future. And, when it comes to selling your home, the EPC rating is one of the many things prospective buyers will consider.
According to the Energy Saving Trust, installing solar panels, such as those offered by E.ON Next, is one of the most effective ways to improve your EPC rating, potentially raising your EPC rating by at least one grade.
In financial terms, the higher the rating, the more likely it is that your energy bills are lower than other homes with ratings further down the scale. The Energy Saving Trust also advises that installing solar panels can reduce your household CO2 emissions by 750kg a year, so it’s easy to see how solar panels are key to getting the best EPC rating for your home.
2. A higher EPC rating will increase your home’s value
Research conducted by Rightmove shows that homes with a higher EPC rating, such as those that have solar panels installed, generally attract a ‘green premium.’ In other words, in return for your investment in solar panels, not only will you have saved on your own energy bills and potentially earned money back using a tariff such E.ON Next’s Smart Export Guarantee, you will have also improved your chance of selling your home for a higher price when it’s finally time to sell up and move on.
And, with the government’s Future Home Standard coming into force in 2028 – a move that will require all new homes to have heat pumps and solar panels – it means your home is on an equal footing with other properties on the market that may have been built later than yours.
3. Including solar panels from the start can help improve the design process
Although retrofitting E.ON Next solar panels is entirely possible, when designing a new home there are extra benefits for making sure they form part of the design process from day one.
Letting your architect know that you want to include solar panels means they can ensure the roof pitch, orientation and design is optimised for the inclusion of solar panels.
Subsequently, when it comes to getting your quote and bespoke package from E.ON Next, you can be confident that the roof will have no vents, fixtures, hidden cabling or features that could mean you end up compromising on your solar provision.
4. Solar panels can help ensure your home is fully ‘future-proofed’
When we talk about future-proofing a home, it generally means ensuring that whatever new technology comes along, your home is able to accommodate these new developments.
Adding solar panels to your home is a recognised way of creating an environment that will be compatible with emerging home energy technologies such as E.ON Next’s EV chargers, smart tariffs and solar batteries. All of these can use the power generated by solar panels, and it may be that you even decide to embrace them from the start in order to give you as much energy independence as possible.
5. Installing them from the start unlocks the long-term benefits sooner
Much like your new home, solar panels from E.ON Next are built to last, meaning the sooner you install them, the more time you will have to benefit from the potential rewards.
And with the long-term warranties provided when choosing E.ON Next as your supplier, you can be confident that your investment is protected for years to come.
And finally, you don’t need to worry that including solar panels as part of your new build will delay the process either.
Thanks to E.ON Next’s easy four-step process, once your solar panel quote is agreed, your bespoke design created, and approval obtained from the National Grid, installation of your solar panels can take as little as 1-2 days, meaning your build can continue as planned.
