A barn roof near Melton Mowbray

What was there

A big working barn beside a home in the countryside near Melton Mowbray. Its long corrugated roof faced the sun and did nothing with it. The house is a short walk away, so the plan was panels on the barn and the battery at the house.

What we did

Scaffold up, then 12.74 kWp of premium all-black panels across the barn roof. At the house, a 12 kW Sigenergy inverter with 18.08 kWh of Sigenergy battery, a Sigenergy gateway that keeps the whole home running in a power cut, a Sigenergy DC charging module for the car, and a wall-mounted EV charger by the door. A myenergi eddi sends spare solar to the hot water, and the barn got a new board of its own. It was switched on in June 2026.

How it's doing

From switch-on on 11 June to 10 October 2026, the panels made 6,267 kWh. July was the best month, at just under 2,000 kWh. The home used 3,894 kWh in that time and only 84 kWh of it came from the grid, so 98% came from the panels or the battery. Another 2,418 kWh went back to the grid. We'll update this page after its first full year.