How Much Solar Does a Thorne Roof Make in January? The PVGIS Figures, Month by Month
ElectriFusion Solutions · 15 October 2026
January is the month that decides whether a home battery in Thorne earns its keep from the roof or from the tariff. Below is every month for a south-facing Thorne roof, from the European Commission's PVGIS model, and what each one means for a 5 kWh and a 10 kWh battery.
A 4.85 kW array in Thorne, every month
| Month | Output | Average per day |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | 165 kWh | 5.3 kWh |
| Feb | 248 kWh | 8.9 kWh |
| Mar | 410 kWh | 13.2 kWh |
| Apr | 526 kWh | 17.5 kWh |
| May | 592 kWh | 19.1 kWh |
| Jun | 550 kWh | 18.3 kWh |
| Jul | 579 kWh | 18.7 kWh |
| Aug | 528 kWh | 17.0 kWh |
| Sep | 436 kWh | 14.5 kWh |
| Oct | 297 kWh | 9.6 kWh |
| Nov | 207 kWh | 6.9 kWh |
| Dec | 163 kWh | 5.3 kWh |
PVGIS 5.2, SARAH2 radiation database, Thorne town-centre coordinates, south-facing at 35°, 14% system losses, fetched 15 October 2026. Annual total 4,701 kWh (969 kWh per kW), about 1.1% less than Doncaster. Modelled averages, not a guarantee for any particular roof.
The best month here is May at 592 kWh (19.1 kWh a day) and the worst is Dec at 163 kWh (5.3 kWh a day), a ratio of 3.6 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 1,194 kWh per square metre a year, and the array converts it to 969 kWh per installed kilowatt; a Thorne 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
Rule of thumb: a 5 kWh battery fills from the roof on a 10 kWh day, a 10 kWh battery on a 16 kWh day, once the house has used its daytime share. For Thorne the first is true on average in Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep and the second in Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug.
From November to January the average is 5.8 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
The grid fills the gap. A time-of-use tariff charges the battery overnight at the low rate and the house draws it down through the evening peak; from November to January that is where almost all of a Thorne battery's saving comes from, and from May to August the roof does the filling instead. Both halves are rate gap times kilowatt-hours shifted.
Count each day once. A battery that filled overnight has no room for the morning's solar surplus, so on a summer day the saving is the solar or the tariff, not both added together.
So what size for a Thorne home?
The evening load decides it. Pull a week of half-hourly smart-meter data: if the house uses 4 to 6 kWh between dusk and midnight, 5 kWh is the size; an EV or heat pump pushes it to 10 kWh, and in Thorne that larger unit is working for the overnight tariff more than for the roof. Registration with the network, standalone options and the models we fit are on battery storage Thorne; the solar side is on solar panels in Thorne.
Questions
Does a home battery work in winter in Thorne?
It works, but from the tariff rather than the roof: PVGIS gives a 4.85 kW array in Thorne about 5.8 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 Thorne?
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.