About solarpanelsforcarehomes.co.uk

solarpanelsforcarehomes.co.uk is an independent guide to solar PV for the UK social care estate, published by SEO Dons. We research and maintain the sector's numbers — costs, yields, funding routes, CQC and SECR context — and we connect care home operators with MCS-certified installers who quote competitively for care settings. We are not the installing contractor, and we don't pretend to be.

Who we are

SEO Dons is a UK digital publisher specialising in commercial solar and renewable energy for specific sectors — care homes, nursing homes, dementia units, sheltered housing, extra-care schemes, hospices, retirement villages and supported living among them. This site exists because care home solar is genuinely different from generic commercial solar, and most of what operators find when they research it is either generic or salesy. We publish the sector-specific version: sourced, dated, and honest about where solar doesn't stack up.

Every rate, grant and deadline on this site is drawn from a maintained, sourced dataset — supplier tariff pages, gov.uk scheme guidance, Ofgem publications and published sector case studies — and reviewed on a rolling basis. Where a figure is time-sensitive, we date it in the copy. Where an example is modelled rather than measured, we say so.

Why care homes specifically

Three reasons. First, the sector is wide open — only a small minority of UK care homes have on-site solar despite some of the strongest commercial economics in the built environment (3–6 year paybacks at scale, 40–60% annual self-consumption, 24/7 operation matching the generation profile). Second, the sector is changing — CQC's Single Assessment Framework scores Well-led 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 stakes are real — energy is one of the largest controllable costs in a care home, and savings genuinely flow into resident care.

How the quote-matching works

• You send your details — a recent electricity bill and a rough idea of your roof is enough for desk-based feasibility.
• We match you with MCS-certified installers — contractors used to working in care settings, quoting against each other.
• You judge the quotes against this site's benchmarks — installed cost per kWp, payback range, self-consumption assumptions, funding-route comparison. Everything a good quote should contain is documented here, for free, whether or not you use the matching service.

What a strong care-sector installer should provide

Use this as your procurement checklist — it's what we look for in the installers we work with, and what you should demand from any quote:

• Modelling built from 12 months of half-hourly meter data, not a postcode rule of thumb
• Resident-first install protocols — scheduling around mealtimes, medication rounds and visiting hours, with dementia-aware working windows
• CQC Well-led evidence documentation at handover — system specification, generation logging, CO₂e accounting
• LFP-only battery chemistry where storage is specified in vulnerable-occupant settings
• Insurance notification documentation and an FRA addendum for your Fire Risk Assessment file
• All viable funding routes modelled side-by-side — PPA, capital purchase with AIA, hire purchase, lease, and SHDF where eligible
• An honest no when a roof is too shaded, too weak or too small to stack up

What we won't do

• Publish invented testimonials, star ratings or install counts — this site carries none, and our reviews page explains how to spot them elsewhere
• Present modelled figures as measured results — every worked example is labelled
• Quote a rate without dating it — SEG tariffs, grid prices and grant windows move
• Push one funding route because it suits the installer rather than the operator

Verification

Any installer we match you with can be verified independently: check their MCS certification number at mcscertified.com, their company record at Companies House, and their consumer-code standing (RECC or equivalent) before you sign anything. We'd encourage exactly the same checks on any installer who approaches you directly.