Plug-in solar panels in the UK: legal, on sale, and what they save

What plug-in solar panels are

A plug-in solar kit is one or two solar panels and a small inverter that turns their output into mains electricity and feeds it into your home through a normal 13 A socket. Whatever the panels make goes first to whatever is switched on in the house, the fridge, the router, the washing machine, so you buy less from the grid while the sun is up. Nothing is wired into your consumer unit and there's no roof work.

Germany has had them for years as Balkonkraftwerke, balcony power stations, which is why you'll see them called balcony solar. In the UK they go just as often on a garden stand, a flat garage roof or a wall. If you want the ground-up explanation of how the parts fit together, our beginner's guide starts from zero.

Is plug-in solar legal in the UK?

Yes, since 27 August 2026. SI 2026 No. 848 changed two sets of rules at once: it lets a UK plug be approved for a plug-in solar device, and it lets that device be connected and used, provided it meets the government's Interim Product Specification. The permission to use one covers Great Britain; Northern Ireland is different, and our Northern Ireland guide explains how.

The gate is the ENA Type Test Register. A kit has to be assessed and confirmed as compliant there, and a listing that says “registered” or “further information required” doesn't count. At our check on 30 September 2026, 84 kits had passed. Our certification tracker lists every one with its register reference, and we re-read the register every week. If you're looking at a listing and aren't sure, our guide on how to tell whether a kit is legal shows what to check.

The rules a kit has to meet

These come from the specification, and a verified kit already meets them:

• Output: no more than 800 VA and 3.5 A into the socket, single phase. Our 800 VA vs 800 W guide explains why the law and the spec use different units.
• Panels: up to 2,000 W in total and no more than 4 panels. The maker has to advise a professional check of your wiring above 960 W of panels.
• Plug: a BS 1363 UK plug with a 5 A fuse and part-insulated pins, into a wall socket on a socket circuit. No extension leads, no adaptors.
• No battery. A device that stores energy is excluded, both by the specification and by the law itself. More on that below.
• One per household for now. Engineering Recommendation G98 Issue 2 Amendment 1 2026 limits a home to 1, whatever the number of circuits.
• Labelling: a declaration that the product meets the specification, and a QR code to the network operator notification process.

Which plug-in solar kits are on sale

Of the 84 verified kits, we've found 28 on sale from 13 retailers, made by 9 brands. These are the cheapest, at the price each retailer's own listing showed on the date given:

The full list, with every retailer for each kit, is in our best plug-in solar kits guide, and our where to buy guide covers every retailer we checked, including the big names that don't sell one yet. Two makers have their own reviews: UKSOL, the first brand verified and the one Argos stocks, and City Plumbing. We haven't tested any kit, so we don't rank them against each other: the register tells you a kit is safe to plug in, and the choice after that is about fit, price and the seller.

What plug-in solar costs

The verified kits we found were priced from £336 to £989. That's the whole cost: a plug-in kit needs no electrician, no scaffolding and no certificate. The spread mostly comes down to panel wattage and the mounting you get in the box, whether it's a ground stand, balcony hooks or wall brackets. Our cost guide goes through what drives the difference.

Battery systems cost far more and are a different kind of purchase. The EcoFlow STREAM range and the Anker SOLIX Solarbank 4 Pro need an electrician and a fixed connection in the UK, because batteries are excluded from the plug-in route. Our EcoFlow vs Anker comparison covers them.

What plug-in solar will save you

The government's own estimate is £70 to £110 a year. Where you land depends on three things. The first is angle and direction: a panel hung near-vertical on a balcony railing makes less than one tilted on a stand, and south beats east or west. The second is where you live, since the south of England gets noticeably more sun than Scotland. The third, and the one people miss, is how much of the power you use as it's made. Anything the house doesn't use at that moment goes to the grid for nothing.

As simple arithmetic, the cheapest verified kit at £336 would pay for itself in about 3 to 5 years at those savings. That's before any change in electricity prices, and it isn't a forecast for your home.

Our savings guide breaks the figures down by region, and the savings calculator works it out for your postcode, direction and kit size.

Where you can put the panels

• A balcony railing, the classic spot for a flat, as long as it isn't wooden.
• A garden stand, often the best performer because you can tilt the panels and face them south. Popular for a garden office or shed.
• A flat roof on a garage or extension, on a weighted frame. See the flat roof guide.
• A wall, on brackets. Our mounting guide covers fixings for each.
• A fence, but not a wooden one: see our fence guide.

Wood is the one hard no. The specification bars mounting on timber, and in England SI 2026 No. 896 takes plug-in solar on a wooden wall, balcony, fence or timber cladding out of permitted development too. The reason given is fire spread.

Planning permission

In England, since 27 August 2026, plug-in solar on a house is permitted development with written limits: panels on a wall or balcony may stick out up to 0.4 metres, or 0.2 metres where the wall abuts a highway. You still need permission on a listed building, on any wooden or timber-clad surface, and in a conservation area where the panels would front a highway. On our reading, flats keep the older, tighter conditions. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own systems. Our planning guide sets out each limit and where it comes from.

Renting, flats and leases

Plug-in solar is the first kind of solar most renters can realistically have, because nothing is wired in and it moves house with you. You'll still want the landlord's agreement before fixing anything to the building, and a leaseholder in a block needs to check the lease and, often, the managing agent's rules. Start with our renters' guide and, for blocks, plug-in solar in blocks of flats.

Telling your network operator (G98)

Notifying your Distribution Network Operator is mandatory for any plug-in kit, and a verified kit carries a QR code to the process. It's a free form, most operators ask for it within 28 days of switching on, and you don't need their permission first. Our network operator finder tells you who yours is, and the G98 guide walks through each operator's form.

Export payments (the Smart Export Guarantee)

Don't count on being paid for what you export. Every Smart Export Guarantee supplier asks for installer certification or electrician-signed paperwork, which a plug-in kit doesn't come with. Octopus pays export only on the kits it sells to its own customers, and puts that at about £50 a year at most. A plug-in kit earns its money from the power you use yourself. The SEG tariffs guide tracks each supplier's position.

What about batteries?

A battery is the obvious way to use more of what you generate, and it's exactly what the plug-in route leaves out. SI 2026 No. 848 excludes a device designed to store energy for later, and the specification bans storage inside the device. A battery system can still go in the conventional way, with an electrician and a G98 notification, and our battery guide explains which products do what.

Plug-in solar vs rooftop solar

They're different purchases. Rooftop solar is several kilowatts on a roof you own, installed and certified by a professional, and it can earn export payments. Plug-in solar is a single small kit you fit yourself, which suits renters, flats and anyone who wants a low-cost start. If you own a house with a good roof, rooftop wins on output. Our plug-in vs rooftop comparison sets out the numbers.

How to get started

1. Run your numbers through the savings calculator.
2. Pick a spot: not on wood, a socket within reach of the cable, and as much sun as you can get.
3. Choose a kit from the verified list and check the model on the listing matches the register.
4. Fit the mounting, plug the kit straight into a wall socket, and check the app shows it generating.
5. Send the G98 notification to your network operator.

Frequently asked questions