About solarpanelsforcarehomes.co.uk

solarpanelsforcarehomes.co.uk is the dedicated care home division of SEO Dons Renewables — a UK commercial solar installer specialising in healthcare, social care, and education. We design, install and commission solar PV for care homes, nursing homes, dementia units, sheltered housing, extra-care schemes, hospices, retirement villages and supported living across the UK.

Who we are

SEO Dons Renewables was founded in 2010 and has delivered over 350 commercial solar installations across the UK in the years since — totalling 24+ MW of commissioned capacity. Our head office is in Essex with regional engineering teams across the Midlands, North West, North East, South West, and Scotland. The business is led by founder and director Donovan Fawcett, with a senior team drawn from the UK commercial solar and electrical contracting sector — every project lead is MCS commercial certified and NICEIC-qualified.

Our care home practice was established in 2022 following early installations at residential homes in the South East and the Midlands. Since then we've built sector-specific expertise across the full social care estate — from 18-bed family-owned residential homes through to 240-unit retirement villages — and developed CQC-aligned documentation, dementia-friendly site induction protocols, and integration with care home insurance and fire risk frameworks. We are not a generalist contractor with care homes as one vertical; we are a specialist with deep familiarity in how social care operates.

Why care homes specifically

Three reasons. First, the sector is wide open — fewer than 3% of UK care homes have on-site solar despite the strongest commercial economics in the entire built environment (3–6 year paybacks at scale, 40–60% annual self-consumption, 24/7 operation matching solar generation profile). Second, the sector is changing — CQC's Single Assessment Framework now scores Well-led KLOE evidence including environmental sustainability, SECR has put group operators on a reporting obligation, and ESG investor pressure is mounting on the major care brands. Third, the work is meaningful — the savings genuinely flow into resident care, and the visible sustainability commitment matters to residents and their families. We've heard family members at three different installations comment on the live generation display in the reception area.

Our approach

Three principles run through every job:

• Model from your data, not industry estimates. Every proposal is built from 12 months of half-hourly meter data, your roof drawings, and a site visit. We don't quote from a postcode-based rule of thumb. The model is wrong if reality doesn't match it — and we want it right because we'd rather lose a quote than over-promise and under-deliver.
• Manufacturer-independent. We're not tied to a single panel brand or inverter manufacturer. The right specification depends on your roof, your demand profile, and your budget — not on which manufacturer we're upselling this month.
• Resident-first install protocols. Every install is scheduled around mealtimes, medication rounds, and visiting hours. We brief care staff before mobilisation. Dementia residents get an adjusted site induction with quiet-working windows. We've delivered installs in active dementia units with zero complaints to the registered manager.

What you get with us that you don't always get elsewhere

• CQC Well-led KLOE evidence pack as part of standard handover — sustainability KLOE actions documented for your inspection file
• Dementia-friendly install induction for our site teams
• LFP-only battery chemistry where storage is specified — significantly lower thermal-runaway risk than NMC, appropriate for vulnerable-occupant settings
• Insurance notification documentation ready for your broker
• FRA addendum covering the installed system for your Fire Risk Assessment file
• SECR-style Scope 2 reduction documentation for group operators
• SHDF Wave 2.2 grant writing support for housing-association schemes
• Honest no — if your site doesn't suit solar (wrong roof, wrong demand profile, planning blocker), we'll tell you in the desk-based feasibility, before you've paid anything

What we won't do

• Sell you battery storage you don't need (we'll model the actual return — battery only makes sense above ~30% self-consumption gap, or where backup is a stated requirement)
• Overstate self-consumption to make payback look better
• Quote without a structural and asbestos survey for pre-1980 stock
• Use NMC battery chemistry in any vulnerable-occupant setting
• Skip the planning check on listed buildings

Reviews and verification

Our work is independently reviewed on Google Business Profile, Checkatrade, and via RECC's customer feedback system. Every accreditation we list can be verified against the issuing body — see the verification links below.