Editorial and evidence policy
Evidence before certainty
Solar proposals mix real physics, real costs and marketing language. Our guides separate what a general explanation can cover from what needs a site survey. A qualified professional must judge the second part, because every roof is different.
A guide cannot see your roof, your meter or your bills. So treat every figure as a starting point. Ask installers for written calculations, then compare them with the costs and savings guide.
Source order
We rank sources in the order below. Official and standards bodies come first, while commercial material comes last.
- MCS's own installation standard (currently MIS 3002 v6.0) and certified-installer register.
- Ofgem's Smart Export Guarantee guidance, RECC's consumer code and Competition and Markets Authority guidance on unfair commercial practices.
- Other official UK energy-policy reporting for context.
- Commercial provider material only for clearly labelled examples, never as the sole basis for a technical or pricing claim.
Each guide lists its primary sources. Read sources and methodology for the full picture, for example the MCS standard and the Ofgem guidance.
AI-assisted production
Automated tools may help us sort research, draft outlines and refresh figures against current sources. However, a page does not go live just because a tool produced it. Each claim must fit the cited sources.
We avoid duplicate pages, so each topic lives in one place. Page metadata must also describe the visible content accurately. If it does not, we fix it.
Review and corrections
Every guide carries a review date. A changed date should reflect a real review or a material edit. We check standards references against MCS data at each review.
We correct mistakes in place, so a page keeps the same address. Tell us if you find an error. Report it through the complaints and corrections page. You can also use the contact page.
Who writes the guides
The Solar Panels Explained editorial team writes every guide. We have no named outside reviewer yet, and each page says so. We will add one only when a real person agrees to put their name to the work. Read the about page to see how we work.
Commercial separation
We order information by what readers need, not by what an enquiry might earn. We must label any active referral link or paid placement. An installer cannot buy an unqualified endorsement, however large it is.