Residential solar in Orléans

Orléans has a large stock of two-storeys and splits built from the late 1970s through the 2000s across Queenswood Heights, Fallingbrook, Avalon and Cardinal Creek, and the roofs tend to be more complicated than Barrhaven's. Hip roofs, multiple gables, dormers and shallower planes are common, and that fragments an array across several faces, which raises the cost per watt and usually argues for microinverters or optimisers rather than a single string.

Panel capacity is the other Orléans pattern. A good number of houses from the 1980s and early 1990s still have 100 amp services, and adding an array plus a battery, or an array alongside a heat pump and an electric vehicle charger, can push a service past what it can carry. A service upgrade is a real cost and it is better identified during the site visit than after the deposit.

The newer Avalon and Cardinal Creek phases have the opposite profile: young shingles, large clean south-facing planes and 200 amp services, and in several of those phases a builder or community agreement still governs roof appearance. Ask before you design.