Is Plug-in Solar Legal in the UK?

Published 31 August 2026

Yes. Plug-in solar is legal in Great Britain from 27 August 2026, for a complete solar-only product rated at 800 VA or less, fitted with an approved plug and verified G98 evidence, plugged directly into a standard 13A socket. Anything outside those conditions still needs an electrician to make the final connection.

That date is when amendments to the Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations and the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations came into force, and with them a new route to owning solar panels: buy a compliant product, plug it in, done. No installer, no scaffolding, no roof.

The route is narrower than the headlines suggest. This page sets out what is actually allowed, in the order it matters.

The 800 VA ceiling

UKSI 2026/848 opens the socket route for a complete solar-only product rated up to 800 VA. That figure is the inverter's AC output rating, not the panel wattage, which is why kits sold at 880 W or 1,000 W of panel are still inside the rules: the panels are oversized against an 800 VA microinverter on purpose, because in British light the inverter rarely sees its full rating anyway.

Above 800 VA there is no socket route at all. That equipment is not illegal to own, but connecting it means a full G98 or G99 application and an electrician making the final connection, which is a different job at a different price. The plug-in solar savings calculator flags an over-cap inverter for exactly this reason.

Solar only, and complete as sold

The route covers a complete solar-only product. That wording does two things. It excludes battery storage from the socket route, so a kit with a battery bolted on is not covered by it. And it means the product has to be certified as a whole: panels, microinverter, cable and plug, sold together and compliant as a unit. Assembling your own from separately bought parts does not inherit the exemption, however good the parts are.

Into a socket, directly

The kit plugs into a standard 13A socket and nothing else. Specifically banned in between:

• Extension leads
• Cable reels
• Multi-way adaptors and travel adaptors

This is the rule most likely to be broken by accident, because a balcony rarely has a socket on it and an extension lead is the obvious answer. It is not a technicality: the ban exists because these devices are rated for drawing current in one direction and a plug-in kit pushes it the other way. If there is no outdoor socket within reach of the fixed cable, the job needs an electrician to add one, and at that point the socket is the only part that needs installing.

Where it cannot go

Three exclusions, all fire-related, and all absolute:

• Timber balconies. No plug-in installation.
• Buildings with combustible cladding. No plug-in installation.
• Buildings currently undergoing external wall fire remediation. No plug-in installation while the work is live.

If you live in a flat and are not certain which of these applies to your building, the managing agent will know, and asking is cheaper than finding out later.

Telling the network operator

The product route relies on verified G98 evidence recorded on ENA Connect Direct. G98 is the engineering recommendation that covers small generation connected in parallel with the grid, and the notification exists so your distribution network operator knows there is a generator on that part of the network.

In practice: ask the manufacturer or retailer for the forms and the technical datasheet, submit the notification, and keep the confirmation with the product documents. It is paperwork rather than an application, and there is nothing to approve or wait for, but it is part of what makes the installation compliant rather than merely physically possible.

Permission from whoever owns the wall

Fixing brackets to an external wall or a balcony structure needs written consent from the landlord or freeholder. Leaseholders in flats will usually need to ask the freeholder or the management company, and a lease that forbids alterations to the exterior forbids this too. Free-standing installations on a balcony floor, or in a garden, sidestep the question entirely, and are worth considering for that reason alone.

What this replaced

Before 27 August 2026 the socket exception was enacted but had not commenced, so the legal route was the conventional one: a qualified electrician making the final AC connection and a G98 notification to the network operator. That route still exists and is still valid. It is what you use for anything over 800 VA, for a system with a battery, and for a self-assembled installation. Nothing about the new rules makes the old ones unavailable.

What it is worth

The government's own figure at commencement was a saving of up to £110 a year, with panels providing up to 20% of a household's electricity. Treat "up to" seriously. A plug-in kit earns nothing for the power it exports, because there is no export payment on this route, so the return depends almost entirely on how much of the output the house swallows as it is made.

An 880 W kit hung vertically on a south-facing balcony in the Midlands makes about 634 kWh a year. If someone is home for a good part of the day it saves around £98; if the house is empty every weekday, about £41. The plug-in solar savings calculator works your own version of that out, including the units you spill to the grid for nothing.

Frequently Asked Questions