Plug-in and balcony solar

Small solar kits that plug into an ordinary socket. Legal in Great Britain from 27 August 2026, within limits that are narrower than most coverage suggests.

A plug-in solar kit is one or more panels with a small inverter that connects to a household circuit through an ordinary socket, rather than being wired in by an electrician. They are common in parts of Europe. In Great Britain the plug arrangement they use was not approved for sale until now.

That changes on 27 August 2026, when SI 2026/848 comes into force. The permission is narrower than the headlines suggest: it applies only to devices meeting a specific government specification. And on the question everyone asks — how many can I have? — the answer for now is one per household, not one per circuit. The per-circuit allowance the specification anticipates was made conditional on a change to Engineering Recommendation G98 that we cannot confirm has happened.

Free, printable, ungated

Three documents you can download and use without giving us an email address, because that is not what we are here for.

  • Pre-installation checklist (PDF, 3 pages) — everything to settle before you buy: the buildings you may not install on, how to identify a circuit, the mounting rules, and what to do after it is connected. The consultation showed most respondents wanted exactly this, and the government committed to guidance rather than to a checklist.
  • Tenant’s request template (PDF, 3 pages) — a formal request for landlord consent, built clause by clause to the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) Regulations 2015.
  • Leaseholder’s consent request (PDF, 3 pages) — for flats: a letter to a freeholder or managing agent, written around section 19(2) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, including how to tell whether that section helps you at all.

Every element in all three traces to a named regulation or paragraph, listed on the final page so whoever receives it can check it as easily as you can.

What is here, and what is waiting on the market

Eighteen pages, covering the legal position, the instrument itself, the regulatory timeline, network notification, the output limit, export payments, insurance, renting, leasehold, fire safety, mounting, the savings calculator, what 800 W can run, the comparison with rooftop, conservation areas, how to check a kit against the specification, why batteries are excluded, and what Germany’s experience does and does not predict.

Two things are deliberately absent. A retailer tracker and a kit comparison need products that are actually certified and on sale, and nothing is before 27 August. We will build both when there is something real to compare — with no affiliate links, as with everything else here. Everything is published only once it can be sourced properly.

The documents behind this cluster are archived, with integrity hashes, on our source documents page.

Most people start here

Is plug-in solar legal in the UK?

Yes, from 27 August 2026 — for compliant kits, and one per household until G98 is amended. What the instrument, the specification and the government response each actually say.

Buying guide: what makes a kit IPS v2 compliant

The markings on the product, the markings on the plug, the warnings in the instructions and the network registration — a list you can hold a listing against, and the red flags that fail it.

The 800 W limit: per circuit or per household?

Both answers are in print. They apply at different times, and the one that applies today is the less generous one. How to identify a circuit, and why watts and volt-amperes are not interchangeable.

Do I have to tell my network operator?

Yes, and the specification makes it mandatory on the label. How G98 notification works, who does it, and why it is G98 rather than the law that limits how many devices you may have.

Can you get SEG payments for plug-in solar?

Two separate conditions a self-installed kit cannot meet — certification and export metering. Why the flat "no SEG" claim is still not quite right.

Plug-in solar and your home insurance

The specification makes checking your responsibility and then stops. What your disclosure duty actually is, and the questions to put to your insurer in writing.

Renting: can your landlord stop you?

There is a statutory request route in England and Wales that almost no coverage mentions, and photovoltaics are on the qualifying list.

Leasehold: do you need the freeholder's consent?

One distinction in your lease decides whether the freeholder must be reasonable or can simply say no. Plus what they may charge you even when they must agree.

Fire safety and cladding: where you may not install

Five prohibitions no permission can override, and a fire performance requirement on the panel itself that retail listings will not mention.

What does a kit actually save?

A calculator that shows its assumptions instead of hiding them, on generation figures we produced ourselves and you can reproduce.

What can 800 W actually run?

Not a car — the arithmetic is out by a factor of four against the minimum a home chargepoint must deliver. What it does cover is baseload.

Plug-in solar or a proper roof system?

If you own a house with a usable roof, the roof wins by about five to one and can claim export payments. Plug-in is for the people that route cannot reach.

Conservation areas and listed buildings

What Part 14 permits, the wall-fronting-a-highway restriction, and the open question of whether an unfixed device is development at all.

Start here

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