The installers are hard at work. The retiling of the roof is complete (you can tell the difference in colour between next door's roof and ours). The panels are currently leaning against the conservatory awaiting their final journey. All tested, all producing about 50 volts each. I had a brief chat with the gaffer about the HIT panels and about how I could expect them to perform compared to standard panels. He said that in full, direct sunshine, they generate about 10% more than a standard panel, but that I'll notice the difference most in 'diffuse' sunlight. For example, on an overcast day, they'll produce pretty much full whack, whereas the output of a standard panel will drop more noticeably. Also, in the morning, as the sun rises, these panels will rise to maximum output earlier, and also as the sun sets in the evening, they'll remain at maximum output longer. So they're operating at maximum output for more hours each day. He says that in England's weather/sunlight patterns, this translates to approximately 1/3 more kWh over the year compared to a standard panel.
The panels attach onto pairs of rails, which are fixed to the roof on brackets. You can see two of the rails on the photo - all the brackets are installed, and the top rail has yet to go in. For each bracket they lift out a tile and fix the bracket to a roof joist, and seal up the gap in the tiles with a lead flap to prevent rain getting in.
Each panel has two watertight connectors, to allow them to be daisy chained together, and the first and last one then connect to the two DC cables that run through the roof, into the loftspace and down into the under stairs cupboard. You can just about see on the photo where the two cables disappear under a tile.
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