Solar leads in the UK: the complete guide

The short answer

A solar lead is a homeowner who has asked for a quote. You can buy them one at a time, take them as live calls, or run campaigns under your own name. Each suits a different installer, and the cheapest per lead is rarely the cheapest per job.

What solar leads cost, and why

Five things explain most of the price: whether the lead is sold once or shared, how it's checked, where it came from, the area, and how many questions it answers. Compare cost per sale, not cost per lead.

Scotland is its own market

Scottish leads are harder to win: a smaller audience, more sellers chasing it and a longer winter. Inside Scotland, the central belt sells almost every lead, while about one in five Highland and island leads finds no buyer.

The solar year

Interest peaks in spring and drops by about half in December. People still buy in winter, but they buy differently: lower bills and batteries, not sunshine.

What four months of our enquiries show

From July to November 2026, over 5,000 homeowners finished our solar quiz pages: about 9 in 100 of the people who opened them. Three in four who leave do so at the first question, and the next big drop is the name step. Whoever reaches you has answered everything and wants a price.

After that, price decides. One installer we work with called every lead within 10 minutes and still sold none: their quotes ran £12,000 to £17,000 against cheaper local rivals. Another doubled their booked surveys to about 1 in 5 in three weeks, on the same leads, by changing how they followed up.

Turning more leads into sales

The fastest gains are after the lead arrives. Call within five minutes, text when they don't answer, and keep trying for five days. A message that lands in seconds keeps people warm until you can call.

1. 1
   Call within five minutes

   Fifteen minutes is the limit in working hours.

2. 2
   Text when they don't answer

   Your name, your company, when you'll try again.

3. 3
   Six tries over five days

   Most people who can be reached are reached by then.

4. 4
   Know your local price

   If your quote is far above local installers, speed won't save it.

Finance and cheap loans

Most homeowners don't have £10,000 sitting in the bank. A monthly figure turns "too expensive" into "can we afford this a month?". The £0 upfront and monthly angle has run for up to 598 days in UK solar ads.

Since autumn 2026 there's a bigger lever: the government-backed Warm Homes Loan. Homeowners anywhere in the UK can borrow up to £15,000 for solar panels and up to £15,000 for a battery, through ten approved lenders. Some lend interest free; the others cut their usual rate.

The homeowner applies to the lender, and can do it through you. The installer must be MCS certified.

What works in solar ads

The solar ads that keep running show real local installs, put the battery first and answer the weather myth head on. Grant and free-solar angles bring leads that never buy. On Meta, more varied creative now beats more ad sets.

Your Solar Co

Fitting panels on Leeds homes this week. Is yours next?

Your Solar Co

Charge your battery on cheap night rates. Use it at teatime.

Your Solar Co

Is your roof right for solar? Free 60-second check

Get a quote

Examples, written as your own company. What they share: a real local job, one plain message and one next step. No grants, no "free panels".

AI prompts for your solar business

Copy these into ChatGPT or Claude and fill in the brackets with your own details. They’re written to give you something you can use today, not generic advice. Check anything before it goes to a customer.

You are a sales coach for UK solar installers. Write a first-call script for [company], an MCS-certified installer in [area], calling homeowners who asked for a solar quote online a few minutes ago.

About us: [years trading], [typical system and price range], [battery brands you fit], [finance yes/no], [how soon you can survey].

The script should:
1. Open in under 10 seconds: who I am, why I’m calling, check now is OK.
2. Ask 5 qualifying questions: home ownership, roof direction and shade, rough yearly electricity bill, battery interest, timing, and who decides.
3. Give a 30-second explanation of how we’d size their system, in plain English.
4. Close on a survey with two specific time slots.
5. Confirm by text afterwards.

Then list the 6 most common objections (price, “just getting prices”, winter, “need to speak to my partner”, payback, a cheaper quote elsewhere) with a short, honest answer to each. No pressure tactics, no promises of grants or exact savings. Ask me for any details you need first.

Create a 5-day follow-up plan for new solar quote requests at [company] in [area]. My team can make [number] calls a day and we work [hours].

For each day, list: when to call, what to send if they don’t answer (text, and WhatsApp only if they ticked the WhatsApp box on our form), and the exact wording of each message (under 300 characters, from [your name] at [company]).

Also give me:
- a message for evening and weekend enquiries,
- what to say on a voicemail (under 20 seconds),
- when to stop, and the polite last message.

Keep it friendly and specific to their solar quote. No discounts or offers, no grant claims.

A homeowner in [area] had a solar survey with [company] on [date] and received a quote for [system, battery, price]. They haven’t replied for [number] days.

Write a follow-up sequence of 4 messages over 3 weeks (text or email) that:
1. Checks they got the quote and offers to walk through it,
2. Answers the most likely worry (price, timing, payback, a cheaper quote) without pressure,
3. Offers one useful thing (e.g. a call with an engineer, a nearby install they can see),
4. Closes politely and leaves the door open.

Also tell me what to change in my quote document so fewer people go quiet.

Write 6 Facebook and Instagram ads for [company], a solar installer in [towns]. We’ve fitted about [number] systems and our best reviews say [quote].

Write 2 ads each for three angles: local proof (real jobs near them), batteries and cheap overnight rates, and a quick roof check. For each ad give: primary text (under 125 characters), headline (under 40 characters), and the photo I should use from my own jobs.

Rules: no grants or “free panels”, no guaranteed savings, no fake urgency. Plain, local and specific. Then tell me which one to test first and why.

We install solar and batteries in [area] as [company]. Write:
1. A text to send the day after an install, asking for a Google review, with [review link].
2. A reminder 7 days later if they haven’t left one.
3. A message 3 months later sharing how much their system has generated (I’ll fill in [kWh]) and asking if any neighbours or friends are thinking about solar.
4. A short thank-you for anyone who refers a friend.

Warm, short and personal, from [your name]. No incentives that would break review rules.

Here is a sales call (transcript or my notes) with a homeowner who asked for a solar quote: [paste].

Tell me, in short points:
1. Where I talked too much,
2. Which questions I missed (ownership, roof, bill, battery, timing, who decides),
3. How well I handled their doubts, with a better answer for each,
4. Whether I asked for the survey clearly,
5. The one thing to change on my next call.

Be direct. If I don’t have a transcript, ask me 5 questions about the call instead.

The rules

Calling a homeowner who asked for a solar quote is still marketing. Their consent has to name the business that calls, numbers on the Telephone Preference Service need care, and fines for marketing calls, texts and emails rose sharply in 2026.

What we'd do

If you're starting with solar leads, or not happy with what you're getting, this is the order we'd work in.

1. 1
   Work out what a sale is worth

   Your profit per job tells you the most you can pay per lead.

2. 2
   Start with a small trial

   50 to 100 leads from one supplier, in the areas you really cover.

3. 3
   Fix follow-up before buying more

   Speed and persistence move cost per sale more than the price per lead.

4. 4
   Judge on sales, by area

   Track surveys and sales per postcode area, monthly.

5. 5
   Plan for the seasons

   Change your offer in winter instead of switching off.

Common questions

Sources

1. Google Trends: "solar panels" in Scotland, past 5 years
2. ICO: direct marketing and privacy and electronic communications
3. Telephone Preference Service
4. Solar Power Portal: MCS reports record January for home renewables
5. GOV.UK: Warm Homes Loan Scheme factsheet
6. GOV.UK: Warm Homes Loan Scheme lenders
7. GOV.UK: Warm Homes: Local Grant
8. Home Energy Scotland: grants and loans
9. Welsh Government: Nest
10. nidirect: support to generate your own electricity
11. FCA Handbook: CONC 3, financial promotions