Is plug-in solar legal in the UK?

What actually changed

The instrument is called the Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994 and Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002 (Amendment) Regulations 2026. It amends two existing sets of rules rather than creating a new regime.

The problem it solves is narrow and specific. A plug-in solar kit feeds electricity into a socket, which the 1994 plug safety rules did not contemplate. The amendment permits approval of a standard plug on a device that deviates from BS 1363 in this respect — but only where the device complies with the Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification.

The instrument defines a plug-in microgenerator as one that “has a maximum rated alternating current output not exceeding 800 watts”, is intended for connection by a standard plug and socket, is designed to operate in parallel with a distributor’s network, and is not designed to import electricity for storage. That last clause is why battery-integrated products are outside all of this.

So “legal” here does not mean plug-in solar is generally permitted. It means a device meeting one particular specification may lawfully be sold with a plug on it.

How many you may install

This is where nearly all coverage goes wrong, including — until we read the government response in full — an earlier version of this page. Three documents say three different things, and the order they apply in matters.

SI 2026/848 sets a limit on the device: 800 watts of rated AC output. It says nothing about how many devices a home may have.

The specification sets a limit per circuit. It caps the device at 800 VA of apparent power and 3.5 A, and requires the label to carry a “statement that a maximum of one (1) inverter of up to 800 VA may be plugged in per household circuit”.

The government response is the document that tells you whether that per-circuit allowance is actually live. It is not:

the government has decided that the IPS should allow one plug-in solar device per individual power circuit protected by a circuit breaker at the consumer unit, subject to a corresponding amendment to G98. Until such an amendment is made, the current requirement in G98 limiting installations to one device per household will continue to apply.

G98 is an Energy Networks Association engineering recommendation, not legislation. So the practical position is that the law permits the product, the specification anticipates one per circuit, and an industry document that has not yet been amended holds the number at one per home.

Two further points, since the documents are precise and most summaries are not:

• Watts and volt-amperes are not the same measure. The instrument says 800 watts of real power; the specification says 800 VA of apparent power. For most domestic inverters the two are close, but they are not interchangeable terms.
• The circuit, when it applies, is a specific thing — an “individual power circuit protected by a circuit breaker at the consumer unit”, not any wiring you can identify. The government’s reasoning for allowing more than one was that “most UK dwellings have a minimum of two power circuits”.

What a compliant kit must have

From version 2 of the specification:

• A plug designed to BS 1363-1 with partially insulated pins, and a BS 1362 fuse not exceeding 5 A
• Maximum apparent power of 800 VA supplied to the mains installation, and a maximum current of 3.5 A
• PV modules limited to 2000 W combined — “the maximum permissible sum of PV module DC power output (Pmax according to BS EN IEC 61730-1-2018) is 2000 W” — so the panels may be rated well above the inverter’s output
• Anti-islanding protection: on loss of the grid supply, the inverter must “automatically disconnect from the mains supply within 100 ms”
• Live parts inaccessible before, during and after installation
• Labelling carrying the manufacturer, model, serial number, rated values, IP rating, protective class, and the one-per-circuit statement
• Where supplied as a multi-component kit, up to four PV modules, no more than two in series in any string, with cables and connectors provided by the manufacturer, no Y-connectors, and open-circuit voltage at the inverter input not exceeding 120 V DC

Above 960 W of combined panel rating, the manufacturer must advise you to “consider professional assessment of their existing electrical installation” before installing. That is advice rather than a prohibition, but it is the document’s own marker for where a plug-in kit stops being a plug-and-forget purchase.

Compliance is not self-declared into a void: the government response says products “will be listed on the Energy Networks Association (ENA) G98 Type Test Register”, and that only devices identified as compliant on that register are considered to have demonstrated compliance.

What you may not do with one

Two restrictions that are easy to miss and hard to undo.

No extension leads, and no daisy-chaining. The specification requires manufacturers to “clearly state that the use of extension cables, multi-way adaptors, RCD adaptors and travel adaptors are not permitted”. The device goes into a wall socket, on the manufacturer’s own lead, and nothing else goes between.

Not on certain buildings. Installation is prohibited on ACM, MCM and HPL cladding, on timber cladding and timber balconies, and on buildings undergoing external wall remediation. This is a safety restriction, not a planning one. If you live in a flat with a balcony it is the first thing to check, and it is the restriction most likely to be skipped by a retailer selling on convenience.

Insurance, landlords and freeholders

The specification puts the checking duty on you, and requires the manufacturer to tell you so: “users are responsible for checking, before installation, whether the product may affect any relevant insurance arrangements, including their own insurance and, where applicable, insurance covering the property or building”.

The government response goes further on permissions, saying its forthcoming guidance will “make clear that renters, leaseholders and residents in managed buildings should obtain any permissions that may be required before installing a device”.

Neither document tells you what a given insurer or freeholder will actually say, and we are not going to invent an answer. Those are separate pages, and they will be written when we can source them.

Self-assembled kits

The specification governs devices placed on the market — the government response puts the obligation on “manufacturers, suppliers and retailers” to provide instructions, warnings and product information, and requires products to meet the specification before being placed on the market.

It does not describe a route for a system somebody assembles from separately purchased components. A self-assembled kit is therefore outside the specification, and the permission SI 2026/848 grants is tied to compliance with that specification.

Two things this framework does not cover

Batteries. Battery-integrated products are outside the scope — the instrument’s own definition excludes a device designed to import electricity for storage, and the government response confirms “battery-integrated products remain outside the scope of the current framework”.

An end date for the interim period. The specification is explicitly interim. The government response says “work will begin on the development of longer-term standards to succeed the IPS”, but gives no date on which the interim specification stops applying. Where you see a specific end date quoted for this transition, ask which document it comes from — we could not find one in these.