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Show HN: Helios – what plug-in solar could generate for any address in Britain (helios.southlondonscientific.com)

126 points by ruaraidh ↗ HN
Plug-in solar panels (no electrician needed) have just become legal in the UK and will go on sale soon. Helios estimates how much electricity a typical installation could generate at a given address and what that's worth against your tariff.

It uses UK government LIDAR data to reflect the actual skyline, so it knows whether there's a building or a hill blocking the sun.

Caveats: - Outside LIDAR coverage (most of Scotland and Wales) it falls back to a synthetic horizon (less accurate). - Trees and recent developments (post-2022 or so) may not be in the data, and some address placements could be off (geocoding via OSM).

Feedback on the shading model especially welcome.

16 comments

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GordonS
This is really nice! Would be great if it could handle regular rooftop solar calculations too.
ltrg
Really cool stuff. Nitpick: it failed to grab an OSM ID for my house and fell back to postcode centroid, but then still reported LIDAR-derived shading at quite high precision.

I'm wondering if it should fall back to a more general shading approach when no OSM building footprint is available, to avoid false precision? My street has a gap in the houses on the other side from mine, so picking the right location matters for the calculation.

You could also try Inspire Index polygons instead of OSM? These correspond to actual lease/freehold boundaries.

realty_geek
Nice. I'm working on a project called homestocompare to help people house-hunting in the UK.

Would be nice to add this as an extra data point when comparing. Are you open to collaborating at all?

domh
Would be good to be able to select multiple points on the compass and have it tell me the best place for it (front and back garden)
ifh-hn
> Worth it. The kit pays for itself in 7.1 years; over 20 years it's good for about £1,095 net.

This is my issue with this sort of thing. Am I going to have this kit in 7 years? Or would I upgrade to better stuff at the technology improves?

toomuchtodo
Great work. Is it possible to use this dataset to calculate total plug in solar potential within the geographic constraint?
dnlzro
This is a great use of open data!

Please consider making the source code available. I’d love to make something similar for your friends across the pond (in Canada).

IshKebab
What if I already have solar, can I add this?

Also do you actually need a balcony or can you hang these out of a window somehow? Very few houses in the UK have balconies.

ErroneousBosh
"Any address in Britain"

"Caveats: - Outside LIDAR coverage (most of Scotland and Wales) it falls back to a synthetic horizon (less accurate)"

So, "any address in the most of the southern half of Britain"?

overfits_ai
This is a really interesting project! The use of LIDAR data to account for actual building shadows is a clever approach. I'd be curious to see how this compares to commercial solar assessment tools in terms of accuracy. The UK's move to legalize plug-in solar is great for residential adoption.
pinkgolem
I am just surprised about the cost?

Kits in Germany are 300€ without a battery.

mattlondon
Nice.

It would be nice to be able to pick the precise location on the map (house number appears not to work).

Also "ground floor" seems to say 1.5m off of the floor? I would like to tweak those values for e.g. panels on the floor in a garden.

benj111
What are the costs of the installation based on? I haven't been able to find any for sale?
syedofc
This is a nice example of making sustainability practical rather than abstract. Showing potential generation at an address level makes the decision much easier for non-experts.

A lot of climate tech needs this kind of interface: not just “this is good,” but “this is what it could mean for your specific situation.”