Solar Panels Brooklyn

Panels on a Brooklyn roof can cover part of your daytime electricity use and cut what you buy from the grid. How much they deliver depends on which way the roof faces, its pitch, any shading and when your household uses power. We weigh all of that first, design a system to suit, and give you a written, fixed price before anything is ordered.

Holding panels down on Brooklyn's windy slopes

Brooklyn has a wind turbine on Polhill above its houses for a reason. The suburb sits on the eastern slopes above Happy Valley, close to Hawkins Hill, which holds the North Island's highest recorded gust at 248 km/h. Many sites here are likely to be in the Very High or Extra High wind zones, so the consent exemption for an array usually depends on a Chartered Professional Engineer designing or reviewing the fixings. We confirm the zone on the council's map and allow for that engineering in the quote.

Uplift is strongest at roof edges and ridges, so on exposed Brooklyn roofs we hold the array back from the perimeter and fix rails into rafters or purlins at the spacing the engineer sets. Roof condition matters too: many houses from the 1888 and 1902 subdivisions are around a century old, and iron that has done its time should be replaced before panels go on.

Slope cuts both ways. Houses facing east across the valley get strong morning sun but can lose the afternoon to the hill behind them, while homes higher up are more open. A tall downhill subfloor often gives an easy cable route from the roof to the board, and older boards with little RCD protection may need work before an inverter connects. Wellington Electricity approves the connection, and we lodge the application, engineering detail included, before anything is fixed to the roof.

Local tip: Your LIM may state the wind zone for your Brooklyn section, so have it handy when we talk through the design.

Solar Panels in Brooklyn: Local Conditions

Central Wellington villas and cottages often have corrugated iron roofs that take panels well, but tight hillside sections in Thorndon, Mt Victoria and Brooklyn can be shaded by the hill or the house next door. We map shading through the day before deciding where panels go.

On hillside sections the slope itself can shade a roof in winter when the sun is low.

Homes in Brooklyn

The early Brooklyn subdivisions mean plenty of homes are around a century old, and many have been renovated in stages. That can leave rubber-insulated cable in parts of the house and a board with little RCD protection. Later homes and infill are generally wired in plastic-sheathed cable but may still have an original board that is now full. Houses on sloping sections often have a subfloor that is tall on the downhill side, which can make it easier to run new cable underneath.

Brooklyn was connected to the city water supply on 24 October 1907, with a pumping station on Epuni Street.

Our electricians are in and around Hawkins Hill and Polhill gun emplacements and the rest of Brooklyn most weeks. For everything else, see electricians in Brooklyn.

How We Handle Solar Panels in Brooklyn

Once your Brooklyn system is approved and connected, we test it and show you how to watch its output. You get the Certificate of Compliance for the electrical work, which also goes to the lines company.

Pricing: a free quote and a fixed price agreed before we start. You get a written, itemised quote, and small jobs can be quoted from photos.

Solar Panels Jobs We Do in Brooklyn

Switchboard work for a solar connection
Battery-ready system design
Solar designed into a new build
Solar on a lifestyle block shed
Grid connection application