Bradford Solar Output Month by Month: When Does a Home Battery Actually Fill?
ElectriFusion Solutions · 15 October 2026
A Bradford household asking whether a battery is worth it usually gets an annual kWh figure in reply, which is the one number that does not answer the question. What matters is the month. This is a south-facing Bradford roof, every month, from the European Commission's PVGIS model.
A 4.85 kW array in Bradford, every month
| Month | Output | Average per day |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | 152 kWh | 4.9 kWh |
| Feb | 239 kWh | 8.5 kWh |
| Mar | 398 kWh | 12.8 kWh |
| Apr | 512 kWh | 17.1 kWh |
| May | 576 kWh | 18.6 kWh |
| Jun | 532 kWh | 17.7 kWh |
| Jul | 561 kWh | 18.1 kWh |
| Aug | 505 kWh | 16.3 kWh |
| Sep | 411 kWh | 13.7 kWh |
| Oct | 274 kWh | 8.8 kWh |
| Nov | 189 kWh | 6.3 kWh |
| Dec | 145 kWh | 4.7 kWh |
PVGIS 5.2, SARAH2 radiation database, Bradford town-centre coordinates, south-facing at 35°, 14% system losses, fetched 15 October 2026. Annual total 4,495 kWh (927 kWh per kW), about 5.4% less than Doncaster. Modelled averages, not a guarantee for any particular roof.
The best month here is May at 576 kWh (18.6 kWh a day) and the worst is Dec at 145 kWh (4.7 kWh a day), a ratio of 4.0 to one; that ratio, not the annual total, is what a battery has to live with.
For scale: PVGIS puts the in-plane irradiation on that roof at about 1,137 kWh per square metre a year, and the array converts it to 927 kWh per installed kilowatt; a Bradford household with the regional average evening load would see the battery cycle fully on about 214 days a year on these figures.
What that means for the battery
Take daytime usage off the top and a 5 kWh battery fills on days the roof makes about 10 kWh or more. In Bradford that is Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep on the monthly averages. A 10 kWh battery is a 16 kWh-a-day proposition from solar alone, which here means Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug.
From November to January the average is 5.3 kWh a day. A house that runs a fridge, a router, a kettle and some lighting through the day uses most of that as it arrives, so the battery sees a few hundred watt-hours of surplus, not five kilowatt-hours. That is not a fault with the battery or the panels; it is the latitude.
That something else is the grid
On a time-of-use tariff the battery charges in the cheap overnight window and discharges into the evening peak, every day of the year, solar or not. In the dark months that is the whole of its job in Bradford; in summer it is a top-up, because the roof has already filled it. The saving is the rate gap times the kilowatt-hours shifted, so ask for the tariff's night and peak rates before the battery's brochure.
One caution: do not add grid-charging savings on top of solar savings for the same day. A battery that charged overnight is already full when the morning surplus arrives, so the summer saving is one or the other.
So what size for a Bradford home?
Measure the evening. The kilowatt-hours used between the panels switching off and bedtime are what the battery has to cover, and a smart meter's half-hourly export tells you in a week. In Bradford a typical three-bedroom semi lands at 5 kWh; a larger house with an EV or a heat pump justifies 10 kWh, mostly for the overnight charging rather than the roof. The sizing and registration details are on our battery storage Bradford page, and the panels themselves on solar panels in Bradford.
Questions
Does a home battery work in winter in Bradford?
It works, but from the tariff rather than the roof: PVGIS gives a 4.85 kW array in Bradford about 5.3 kWh a day across November to January, most of which the house uses as it is generated. On a time-of-use tariff the battery charges overnight and runs the evening peak all winter.
Which months will a 5 kWh battery fill from solar in Bradford?
On the PVGIS monthly averages, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, when the roof makes 10 kWh or more a day after daytime use. A 10 kWh battery fills from solar alone in Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug.