The short version
Using the estimator sends us nothing. If you send an enquiry we keep your name, email, phone number and postcode so we can answer you, and the estimate you were looking at so that whoever replies does not have to ask you everything again. It is stored in the UK and never leaves it. We run Google Analytics if — and only if — you accept cookies, and we have never sold a lead to anyone.
Who is responsible
The data controller is PlugSun Ltd, a company registered in Scotland with company number SC884455, which trades as Solar Balcony. Email sales@plugsun.co.uk about anything on this page.
Registered office: 5 South Charlotte Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4AN.
Using the estimator sends us nothing
Your bill, your balcony’s aspect, the shading and every figure the estimator produces are worked out in your browser and stay there. Nothing is stored and nothing is sent anywhere unless you choose to send an enquiry.
The one exception is the postcode. When you type one, our server looks up which MCS irradiance zone you are in, and to do that it asks postcodes.io — a free public service built on the ONS Postcode Directory — to confirm the postcode is real and name the local authority. Because our server makes that call rather than your browser, postcodes.io never sees your IP address. We do not store the result or attach it to you.
What we collect if you send an enquiry, and why
| What | Why | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Name, email, phone | To reply to you and arrange a survey. | Steps taken at your request before entering a contract. |
| Postcode | To work out whether we can reach you, and which area list you join if we fit there in batches. | Steps taken at your request before entering a contract. |
| Whose permission you need | It decides what we send you next — a survey date, or the wording to forward a landlord or factor. | Steps taken at your request before entering a contract. |
| Your estimate | So the person replying can pick up where you left off instead of asking you the same six questions. | Steps taken at your request before entering a contract. |
| How you use the site | To see which guides get read and where people give up, so we can write better ones. Only if you accept cookies. | Consent — which you can refuse, and which nothing depends on. |
| Your customer record, if you buy | To perform the contract, and to keep the business records and installation paperwork we are required to. | Performance of a contract, and legal obligation. |
Consent is the basis for one thing only — analytics — and you can withdraw it at any time by clearing this site’s data in your browser. Everything else runs on the fact that you asked us for something, so there is no consent to withdraw there; you can still object or ask us to delete, and the rights section below says how.
There is no marketing list. We will not email you about anything other than the enquiry you sent, and if you stop replying we stop writing.
The form fields are needed to answer you. If you would rather not give a phone number, say so in the message and we will work by email — but we cannot reply at all without an email address.
Who else sees it
Your enquiry goes into our own operations system, which is run by the same company — Solar Balcony and PlugSun are one legal entity, so that is not a transfer to anyone else. It is not passed to a lead-generation network, an aggregator, or another installer, and it is never sold.
Three suppliers handle data on our behalf, under contract and on our instructions:
- Vercel — hosts this website. Its servers process the form submission in transit.
- Railway — runs our operations API, served from London.
- Neon — the database your enquiry is stored in, hosted in London.
And two third parties receive something:
- postcodes.io gets a postcode and nothing else, as described above. This happens whether or not you accepted cookies, because it is how the estimator answers your question rather than how we measure you.
- Google Analytics gets your browsing of this site — pages viewed, how long, roughly where from — but only if you accept cookies. Reject, or ignore the banner, and it receives nothing at all. It never receives your enquiry: name, email, phone and postcode go to us, not to Google. Accepting also grants advertising storage, which nothing currently uses — the cookie policy explains why that permission exists.
Your data stays in the UK
All three of those run in London — the website, our operations API, and the database your enquiry is stored in. Nothing is transferred out of the United Kingdom, so there is no overseas transfer for us to justify to you and no set of contractual clauses standing between you and your own data.
That is worth saying plainly because it is unusual. A great many UK businesses store customer details on US servers by default, disclose it in a paragraph most people skip, and rely on a legal framework that has twice been struck down. We would rather not be in that position, and the only reason we are not is that somebody checked which region the database was in.
How long we keep it
If you enquire and do not buy: twelve months from the last time we were in touch, then it is deleted.
Twelve rather than three because of how we work. Outside Fife, Angus and East Lothian we fit in batches — we group bookings by area and travel when there are enough in one place — so somebody who joins the list may be waiting months for a run to their district. Deleting their details after a few weeks would mean breaking that promise by accident. If you would rather we did not hold them that long, say so and we will remove you the same day.
If you become a customer: six years after the install, or after the last time we visited, whichever is later.
Two reasons for that one. HMRC requires businesses to keep their records for six years, and it is roughly the period in which you could still bring a claim about the work — which would be difficult for either of us if we had deleted the file. Your electrical installation certificate and the G98 reference for your inverter are part of that record, and they are worth having if you ever need to prove the system was fitted properly.
Both periods run from the last contact rather than from when you first got in touch, so an ongoing conversation is never deleted halfway through.
What you can ask us to do
All of these are free, and we will respond within one month.
- See it. Ask for a copy of everything we hold about you.
- Correct it. If something is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
- Delete it. Ask us to erase it. We can usually do this immediately for an enquiry; for a customer record we may need to keep the parts the law requires us to.
- Restrict it. Ask us to stop using it while something is being sorted out.
- Object. Tell us to stop processing it, and we stop unless we have a compelling reason not to.
- Take it with you. Ask for it in a portable format, or ask us to send it to someone else.
Email sales@plugsun.co.uk and we will action it. There is nothing to fill in.
Nothing on this site makes an automated decision about you. The estimator does arithmetic on figures you typed; it does not profile you, score you, or decide anything. The analytics are counted in aggregate — we look at which pages work, not at what you personally did.
Cookies and analytics
Google Analytics, and nothing else. No advertising pixel, no remarketing tag, no chat widget, no heatmaps, no A/B testing. Consent defaults to denied before any script runs, so nothing is set until you press Accept — and if you never touch the banner you are in the same position as if you had rejected.
The full detail, including what is stored when you decline and how to change your mind, is on the cookie policy.
If you are unhappy
Tell us first — sales@plugsun.co.uk — because most things are a misunderstanding we can fix the same day.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, or by phone on their helpline. You do not have to come to us first, and complaining to them costs nothing.