Privacy policy

1. About this policy

This policy explains what personal information solar collects, why, and what rights you have over it. It covers this website and anything you send us through it.

We keep it specific. Where a section says we do not do something, that is a statement about how the site is actually built, not a form of words.

2. Who we are

solar.org.uk is an independent information service providing free guidance on solar energy in the UK. For the purposes of data protection law, we are the data controller responsible for your personal information.

Contact: through our contact form. We do not publish an email address — the form is the only route to us, and it reaches the same people.

3. What we collect

Information you give us

• Contact form. Your name, email address, the category you choose and your message, plus the page you sent it from.
• Newsletter. Your email address, the date and time you consented, and the page you signed up from.

Information collected automatically

• Analytics. If you consent, Google Analytics records pages viewed, how you arrived, and approximate location. See section 7.
• Server logs. Our host records the usual web server information, including IP address, for security and diagnostics.

What we deliberately do not collect

• We do not ask for your postcode, address or phone number to show you anything.
• We do not operate any account or login.
• We use no advertising cookies, no social media tracking pixels, and no cross-site identifiers.
• We do not buy, rent or append data about you from any third party.

4. Our tools do not store your data

Every calculator on this site runs entirely in your browser, against pre-computed data shipped with the page. Your postcode, your electricity consumption and any other figure you type into a calculator never leave your device and are never sent to us.

This matters because it is not how most solar calculators work. Many exist primarily to collect a postcode and a phone number, and produce a number as the price of collecting them. Ours do not, and cannot — there is nothing in the page that transmits what you type.

5. How we use your information

• To reply to your enquiry
• To send the newsletter you asked for
• To understand which pages are useful, in aggregate, so we can improve them
• To keep the site secure and working

We will never

• sell your personal information, to anyone, for any purpose
• pass your details to an installer, manufacturer, supplier or broker
• send you marketing you have not asked for
• use your enquiry as a sales lead — we have nothing to sell you

6. Legal basis

7. Cookies

We use three categories, and only two of them exist.

Essential. A single browser storage entry recording your cookie choice, so we do not ask again. It contains no identifier and cannot be used to recognise you.

Analytics. Google Analytics, which sets cookies to distinguish repeat visits. These are only set if you choose “Accept all”. If you choose “Anonymous only”, or make no choice, Google Analytics is not loaded at all — the script is never requested.

Advertising. None. We run no advertising and no social tracking. Google’s advertising features, ads data sharing and Google Signals are disabled on our analytics property.

You can change your choice at any time using the “Cookie preferences” link in the footer of every page. More detail is on our cookies page.

8. Third parties

We will add our newsletter provider to this table when one is in place, before any newsletter is sent.

Our contact and newsletter forms are processed by a form handler we operate ourselves. Submissions from this site are stored and routed separately from any other site using the same handler.

9. How long we keep things

10. Data security

Information you send us is transmitted over an encrypted connection. Access to enquiries and the newsletter list is limited to those who need it to operate the service.

11. International transfers

Our website is hosted by 123 Reg on servers located in the UK and EU. 123 Reg is part of the GoDaddy group, which is headquartered in the United States. Google LLC and Honeycomb are both United States companies. Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, appropriate safeguards are in place, including the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework where the recipient is certified under it.

12. Your rights

You have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you
• rectify anything inaccurate
• erase it
• restrict how we use it
• object to our use of it
• portability — receive it in a usable format
• withdraw consent at any time, for anything based on consent

To exercise any of these, use our contact form and choose the Data protection request category. We will respond within one month.

13. Children

This site is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

14. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please tell us first — we would rather fix it. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Information Commissioner’s Office Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF Telephone: 0303 123 1113 ico.org.uk

15. Contact

Questions about this policy, or about your personal information: use our contact form and choose Data protection request.

Changes to this policy

Material changes are recorded in our changelog with a date. We do not change this policy quietly.