PARTLY

As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly compare solar panels for your business premises.

This still needs a person who signs their name to it.

Can you do it?

15 minutesto a draft.

1 hourto something you’d act on.

Cost, all in£0

Skill neededchat-fluent

Who has to check ita professional

What the alternative costsNo priced human alternative is provided in the available tool information.

If this goes wrong, you can select equipment that performs poorly on your site or commit the business to an unsuitable installation.

What to actually do

  1. Hand it to a person

    The route this page recommends

    Someone with a licence or accountable authority has to sign this before it counts.

  2. Use a tool built for this

    Second choice

  3. Do it yourself

    The distant third

    A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

    How to actually do it

    1. Open the latest manufacturer product pages and supplier quotes for each panel option, and save the product sheets, warranty documents and installation assumptions.
    2. Gather twelve months of business electricity bills, your opening hours, the proportion of electricity used during daylight, available roof dimensions, roof direction, shading information and any known roof or electrical constraints.
    3. Ask a qualified UK solar installer for a site survey or written confirmation of roof, structural, electrical, access and planning requirements, then add that response to the evidence pack.
    4. Paste the documents, source URLs and site information into the prompt, keeping each panel's information clearly labelled by manufacturer and model.
    5. Export the model's comparison table and shortlist, then compare every specification, warranty term, price and assumption against the original documents and correct any unsupported entry.
    6. Send the flagged questions and corrected comparison to at least one installer, ask them to validate the generation and installation assumptions, and make the final choice only after their response.

    Prompt

    Compare the solar panel options in the documents and data below for a UK business premises. Do not invent specifications, prices, savings, generation figures or installation details. Extract the facts into a table with these columns: manufacturer, model, panel technology, rated power, efficiency, physical dimensions, weight, product warranty, performance warranty, degradation terms, temperature coefficient, operating conditions, certifications, quoted price, installation assumptions, and source. Preserve the original units and mark missing information as not supplied. Then assess each option against these business priorities: [self-consumption, export, available roof area, expected operating hours, budget, desired payback, battery compatibility, warranty preference, and planned premises lifetime]. Separate documented facts from calculations and assumptions. Do not claim that a panel is suitable for the roof, electrical system or planning position. Flag every item that needs confirmation by a qualified UK solar installer or structural and electrical professional. Identify contradictory specifications, unclear warranty wording, exclusions, unusually important missing data, and questions to send to each supplier. Give a ranked shortlist only if the supplied evidence supports one; otherwise explain why it cannot be ranked. Cite the exact document or URL for every material claim. Data and documents: [paste product sheets, supplier quotes, bills, roof information and source URLs here].

    Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

What it gets wrong

What caps this at PARTLY: context depth, verification cost and stakes of error.

How we scored this

Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.

AxisScore (0–2)
Output2
Inputs1
Verification1
Liability1
Effort delta2
Total7 / 10

The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.

FAQ

Can AI compare solar panel specifications?
Yes. It can extract specifications from product sheets, put models into a consistent table, identify missing information and compare documented warranties and prices. It cannot confirm that any panel is suitable for your particular roof or electrical system.
Can AI tell me which solar panels are best for my business?
Partly. AI can rank options against the priorities and evidence you provide, but the result depends on site conditions, installation assumptions, tariffs and supplier information that it cannot independently validate. Get a qualified installer to check the shortlist before you commit.
Can AI calculate the payback of business solar panels?
It can model scenarios from your bills, tariffs, system size, generation assumptions and costs. The output is only as reliable as those inputs, so an installer or energy specialist should validate the generation, export and installation assumptions before you use it for a business decision.
Do I need a survey before choosing solar panels for my business?
Yes, if the comparison is going to support a purchase rather than just early research. A survey is needed to check the roof, shading, structure, electrical system, access and installation requirements that product documents do not cover.

Nearby answers

All Product research & specs rulings

Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.

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