Solar Panels Te Aro

Panels on a Te Aro 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.

Solar for Te Aro apartments, warehouse conversions and the odd cottage

Most people in Te Aro live in apartments, many inside buildings that began as offices or market warehouses, and a growing number in rooftop units added on top of existing structures. In those buildings the roof is common property, so a solar array is a body corporate decision rather than a single owner's project. What we can do is assess the roof for a shared system that feeds the building's common supply, such as lifts, corridor lighting and car park ventilation, which draw power through the working day when panels produce most.

Flat commercial roofs bring their own design questions. Panels usually sit on tilted frames, and wind racing between taller buildings in the flat southern part of the central city puts real load on those frames, so we confirm the site's wind zone and bring in a Chartered Professional Engineer whenever it sits above High. Buildings due for earthquake strengthening are worth timing carefully, because an array installed before the roof or structure is reworked may have to come off again.

Pockets of small cottages and terraces remain off Cuba Street and around Haining Street. Their roofs are compact and often overshadowed by neighbouring buildings several storeys taller, so a modest system aimed at daytime use is the realistic option. Wellington Electricity approves every connection here, and for a building with several units we work through the supply arrangement with the body corporate before lodging.

Local tip: If your body corporate is already planning roof or strengthening work, raise solar at that meeting so the array can be designed around the new roof rather than added afterwards.

Solar Panels in Te Aro: 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.

Apartment owners usually cannot add solar alone, because the roof is common property.

Homes in Te Aro

Most Te Aro homes are apartments, and many sit in buildings that started life as offices or warehouses. Each unit usually has its own distribution board fed from a main board in a shared plant area, so some faults are inside the unit and others belong to the building. Work on common property, such as risers, car parks and main boards, needs body corporate approval. Converted buildings can contain wiring from several eras, and rooftop additions bring their own new supply. Older cottages and small terraces remain in pockets, and these may still have rubber-insulated cable that should be replaced rather than extended.

The Waitangi Stream once formed a swamp on the eastern side of Te Aro that flooded in heavy rain, until the 1855 Wairarapa earthquake uplifted the land and drained it.

You will often see our vans near Courtenay Place and Cuba Street on the way to a job in Te Aro. For everything else, see electricians in Te Aro.

How We Handle Solar Panels in Te Aro

Once your Te Aro 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 Te Aro

Grid connection application
Inverter replacement
Battery added to an existing system
Rooftop solar on a corrugated iron villa roof
Switchboard work for a solar connection