Solar Panels, Battery & EV Charger Hampshire

Package price ranges only tell you so much, so here is how I actually run the numbers at a survey. This is a modelled example for a typical 4-bed detached in Fareham — south-east/south-west split roof, family using around 4,100kWh of electricity a year, one car doing 8,000 miles. It is not a named customer case study; it is the arithmetic I walk every household through before they sign anything.

On the south coast a well-oriented 5kW array generates roughly 950–1,050kWh per kWp per year — call it about 4,900kWh for this roof. With the battery soaking up daytime surplus and the Zappi diverting spare generation into the car, around 80% of that gets used at home rather than exported. Here is the before-and-after, using the July–September 2026 price-cap average unit rate of 26.11p/kWh:

That is a benefit of roughly £1,850–£2,000 a year under these assumptions, which puts simple payback at a little over seven years — I quote seven to nine to allow for weather variation, tariff changes and your real mileage. The motoring saving is what pulls the payback in: every solar mile displaces petrol at around 15p, not grid electricity at 26p. Standing charges and gas are excluded because they are the same either way.

Three honest caveats. First, export rates move — Outgoing Octopus dropped from 15p to 12p in March 2026, so I model export income conservatively and you should check current SEG rates before you rely on them. Second, the 80% self-use figure needs the battery and charger configured to work together, not fight each other (more on that below). Third, your consumption is not this household's consumption — the survey exists precisely because no two homes give the same answer.

Most combined systems in Hampshire are not installed as combined systems. A solar firm fits the panels, an EV specialist fits the charger a year later, and a third company quotes the battery. Each is competent; the join between them is where problems live. Having designed and fitted every part of these systems myself — one person, every install — here is what a single-installer job saves you.

• One DNO application, not three. Everything here sits in SSEN's Southern licence area. A 5kW hybrid inverter with a battery needs a G99 application (anything above the 3.68kW-per-phase G98 threshold does), and a 7kW charger needs its own connection notification. I submit the whole system to SSEN as one coordinated application, sized once. On split installs, the second or third installer discovers the property's notified capacity is already spoken for — and the fix is an export limitation, a redesign, or a refusal, after you have paid.
• One load-management design. Your main fuse is checked once against the whole system's maximum demand, not three times against three fragments. More importantly, the CT clamps that tell the battery and the Zappi what surplus exists get set up as one hierarchy: house first, then battery, then car, then export. When two installers fit competing kit blind, the battery and charger chase the same surplus and you get a system that flickers between charging states instead of using your generation properly. Untangling exactly that is one of the more common call-outs I take on systems other firms fitted separately.
• One warranty conversation. When a fault appears on a three-installer system, the solar firm blames the battery firm's wiring and the battery firm blames the charger's CT placement. With one installer there is no gap to fall into: if it is my system, it is my problem. The install is MCS-certified and covered by HIES membership, so the workmanship protection sits behind the whole system, not a third of it.
• Hardware brands fail; your installer relationship shouldn't. GivEnergy Ltd entered administration in April 2026, which is why I no longer fit their kit — and why I now specify Sigenergy, Fox ESS and GoodWe. If you are affected, I have written up what the GivEnergy administration means for owners. The lesson for anyone buying today: the manufacturer warranty is only one layer of protection, and the installer who answers the phone in year six is the layer that matters most.

None of this means a split install cannot work. It means the coordination that makes it work has to happen somewhere — and with one installer it happens by default, in the design, before anything goes on the wall.

Plenty of households want the whole-home system but not the whole-home invoice in one go. Done right, staging works well — solar now, battery and charger when budget or the right car arrives. Done wrong, it means paying for a second inverter and a second round of DNO paperwork. The difference is entirely in what gets specified on day one.

The single most important word in that table is hybrid. A standard string inverter cannot take a DC battery later — you would either replace it or bolt on a separate AC-coupled battery inverter, and either way you are buying inverter hardware twice. A hybrid unit costs a little more up front and removes that entire problem; my 2026 hybrid inverter comparison covers the options I actually fit, and if you already have solar from another installer, adding a battery to an existing system is still very doable — it just needs the right coupling approach for your inverter.

One timing point worth knowing: the 0% VAT window on domestic solar and battery installations runs until 31 March 2027, and since the February 2024 rule change it covers standalone battery retrofits too, not just batteries fitted alongside panels. From 1 April 2027 the rate rises to 5%. That is not a reason to panic-buy — batteries keep getting cheaper per kWh — but if your staged plan has the battery landing in 2027 anyway, pulling it forward a few months keeps the whole system at 0%. Details on the relief are in my 0% VAT guide, and you can talk the staging order through with me directly via the contact page.

Can I add a battery later without replacing my solar inverter?

Do I qualify for the £500 EV chargepoint grant in 2026?

Is a combined solar, battery and EV charger system one DNO application or three?

Will a 5kW solar array genuinely run my home and charge a car?