Installation day: what to expect on your roof

For most homes, installing a 3 to 5 kW rooftop system takes one or two days. Knowing the order of work helps you plan the day and keeps it quick.

A day before, our site lead calls to confirm the time and asks you to clear the roof of drying clothes, pots and anything stored along the parapet. We also need access to the meter board and a spot near it for the inverter, ideally a shaded wall that stays dry and has some air around it.

The crew of four arrives by 9 am with the panels, the steel structure, cables and tools in our pickup. They first mark the positions of the structure legs on the roof using the drawing from your survey. The legs are fixed to the roof, then the rails, then the panels, usually by early afternoon on a single-storey house. Meanwhile, the electrician mounts the inverter, runs cables through a conduit down the outside wall, and fixes the earthing pit and lightning arrester.

By the end of the day, the system is connected to your home’s wiring and switched on, but on an on-grid system it may run only partly until the net meter is fitted. Before leaving, the site lead walks you through the inverter display, the isolator switches and the monitoring app on your phone, and gives you a handover sheet with serial numbers. Expect some noise from drilling for an hour or two. The roof is swept before the crew leaves, and any packing material is taken away.