Plug-in solar rules: the full guide

Plug-in solar became legal to self-install in Great Britain on 27 August 2026. That is the short answer. The longer answer is that only a narrow category of kit qualifies, the limits are specific, and there are places you are not allowed to put a panel. This page sets out all of it, with the figures as they appear in the rules rather than as they get rounded off elsewhere.

We sell these kits, so take the sales pitch out of this page and judge it on whether it is accurate. If you spot something wrong or out of date, tell us and we will fix it.

Last checked 16 October 2026.

What actually changed on 27 August 2026

Before that date, connecting a solar panel to your home through a plug socket sat on the wrong side of several sets of rules at once. Wiring regulations expect generation to be wired into a dedicated circuit. Plug and socket safety rules did not contemplate anything pushing power back out through a plug. In practice, the kits on sale were legal to buy and not legal to connect, which is a distinction a lot of people found out about after the parcel arrived.

Statutory Instrument 2026/848 changed that. It amends two existing sets of regulations, the Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994 and the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002, and it opens a single narrow route for one type of product. The legal term is a plug-in microgenerator.

Narrow is the operative word. The route applies to solar, on its own, within set limits, using a device that has been through a defined test and certification process. Anything outside that, including anything with a battery in it, is in exactly the same position it was in before 27 August.

So the useful question is not whether plug-in solar is legal. It is whether the specific kit in front of you is one of the ones that qualifies.

What makes a kit compliant

Two things have to be true, and most of the confusion in this market comes from people treating the first as though it were both.

First, the kit has to meet the Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification. This is the technical document published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero that sets out what a qualifying device has to do. It has been revised once already, so the version that counts is v2.0 from July 2026. The earlier one has been withdrawn.

Second, the device has to be registered and confirmed as compliant on the ENA type test register before it is put on sale. The register is run by the Energy Networks Association on its Connect Direct platform, and it is public, so you can check any kit yourself.

Three traps on the register, all of which we see people fall into:

• Being listed is not the same as being compliant. The register carries entries marked Non-compliant as well as Compliant. A retailer can truthfully say their kit is on the ENA register while it sits there marked Non-compliant. Read the status column, not the presence of a row.
• Submitting a device does nothing. The specification is explicit that a device being submitted for registration is not, in itself, evidence of compliance. "Registration pending" is not a qualifying kit.
• Passing the type tests is not the end of it. The specification states that completion of type testing alone cannot be treated as demonstrating compliance with G98, the connection standard. Testing and registration are separate steps and you need both.

A UKCA mark on the inverter does not answer any of this. Nor does a CE mark, a certificate from the factory, or a declaration that the inverter meets a German standard. Germany went through this earlier and more loosely, and a lot of what is on sale in the UK is kit built for that market. Those kits are not covered by SI 2026/848.

The numbers

These are the limits a qualifying kit has to work inside. The first one gets quoted wrongly almost everywhere.

Limit	Figure	What it applies to
Inverter output	800VA maximum	Maximum apparent power supplied to the mains installation
Output current	3.5A maximum	At the point of connection, under all test conditions
Total panel capacity	2,000W maximum	The sum of the panels' rated output
Professional assessment threshold	960W	Above this, you should be advised to consider having your wiring assessed
Number of panels	4 maximum per inverter	With no more than 2 in any series string
DC voltage	120V maximum	Open circuit voltage at the inverter inputs
Plug fuse	5A maximum	BS 1362 fuse in a non-rewireable moulded plug
Devices per household	1	Under G98 as it currently stands

800VA, not 800W

The inverter limit is 800 volt-amps, which is apparent power, and it is not interchangeable with 800 watts even though it is written that way on most websites selling these kits. It is a cap on what the inverter can push into your wiring, which is why it sits alongside the 3.5A current limit. Both are about what your existing sockets and circuit can take.

Panels can add up to more than the inverter

The 2,000W figure is the total rated output of the panels, and it is deliberately higher than the inverter cap. Panels almost never produce their rated figure in British conditions, so fitting more panel capacity than inverter capacity gets you more useful output across a cloudy day rather than a bigger peak. The inverter limits what reaches your sockets whatever the panels are doing.

The 960W threshold is the one nobody mentions. Above that much panel capacity, the rules say you should be advised to consider having your existing electrical installation looked at by someone qualified before you install. It is advice rather than a requirement, and it does not apply at all below that figure, but you ought to be told about it rather than find out here.

Y-connectors are out

Splitting two panels into one inverter input with a Y-connector is specifically not permitted, however neatly it would solve a layout problem. Four panels maximum, two in series at most.

The plug, the socket and the lead

This is where the rules are tightest, because it is the part that was illegal before and the part that can hurt somebody.

The plug has to be a BS 1363-1 plug, moulded and non-rewireable, with partially insulated pins and a BS 1362 fuse of no more than 5A. You do not fit it, change it or rewire it. It arrives on the cable.

The socket has to be a BS 1363-2 socket, and if it is outdoors it has to be rated at least IP55. A standard indoor socket on an outside wall does not qualify, and nor does a weatherproof box with an ordinary socket inside it unless the whole assembly is rated.

Then the part people argue with us about:

• No extension leads.
• No multi-way adaptors, no travel adaptors, no RCD adaptors, no plug convertors.

The specification prohibits all of them, the plug itself has to carry a warning saying so, and the instructions have to repeat it. There is no exception for a heavy duty lead, a short lead or a lead you only use in summer. If the socket is not where you need it, the answer is an outdoor socket fitted by an electrician, which is a small job, rather than a lead across the patio.

The device also has to disconnect itself within 100 milliseconds of being unplugged or losing the mains supply, and the pins have to drop below 34 volts in that same window. That is the engineering that makes a plug-in generator safe to unplug, and it is a large part of what the type testing checks.

How many you can have, and on which circuit

One per household. That is the position today, and it comes from G98 rather than from the new regulations.

The government has decided the limit should be one device per power circuit protected by its own breaker at the consumer unit, which for most homes would mean more than one. That change needs G98 amending first, and until that happens the one per household limit still applies. So the direction of travel is clear and the current answer is still one.

Two further conditions:

• Socket circuits only. Not a lighting circuit, not a circuit feeding fixed equipment.
• Not two devices on the same circuit. If two sockets go off together when you trip one breaker, they are the same circuit, and that arrangement is not permitted even once the per-circuit rule arrives.

Batteries are not in this

Plug-in battery systems are outside the scope of the rules, and so is plug-in solar combined with a battery. The specification goes further than simply excluding them: the instructions supplied with a compliant kit have to state prominently that the device is not intended to be connected to, operated with, or used in conjunction with a battery energy storage system.

Which means a kit sold as plug-in solar with storage cannot be a compliant plug-in microgenerator, and adding a battery to a compliant kit takes it outside the route the law created. Battery products are being looked at separately. There is no date.

This is the single most common question we get, usually from people who have worked out that a 55 per cent self-consumption figure would be a lot better with somewhere to put the other 45 per cent. The reasoning is sound and the answer is still no, for now.

Telling your network operator

You have to notify your distribution network operator before you connect, and the product has to state that this is mandatory. You notify again if you disconnect it permanently.

Your network operator is not your energy supplier. It is the company that owns the cables into your street, there are fourteen of them across Great Britain, and which one you have depends on where you live rather than who you pay. People get this wrong constantly and send the form to the wrong organisation.

The process itself is a G98 notification, it is free, and it is a form rather than an application. You are telling them what you have connected so they have an accurate picture of what is on their network. You are not asking permission and they are not going to send anyone round.

Check which network operator covers your postcode, which takes a few seconds and will also tell you how to notify them.

A compliant kit also comes with a durable label to fit at or near your consumer unit, so that anyone working on your electrics later can see there is a generator plugged in somewhere. Fit it. It costs you nothing and it is the sort of thing that matters on the day it matters.

Where you cannot install one

These exclusions are about fire safety and they are absolute. A compliant kit does not become acceptable on an excluded building.

You cannot install on:

• Aluminium composite material (ACM) or metal composite material (MCM) cladding systems
• High pressure laminate (HPL) cladding systems
• Timber cladding systems
• Timber balconies
• Any building subject to external wall remediation or building safety remediation works

You also cannot fix panels to a wall that forms a property boundary between two dwellings, which rules out a lot of terrace and flat arrangements that would otherwise be ideal.

And on mounting: anything relying solely on cable ties, rope, string or adhesive tape is not permitted. A panel is a large flat object in a high wind, and the fixing has to be designed for it.

If you are in a flat or a building with cladding you do not recognise, our eligibility checker runs through the exclusions in seven questions. It will not tell you yes, because we cannot see your building. It will tell you whether anything rules you out.

Ground mounted kits sidestep most of this, which is the main reason we lead with them. A panel on a frame on your own ground is not attached to anybody's cladding.

Where the rules apply

This route applies in Great Britain: England, Scotland and Wales.

Northern Ireland sits outside it. If you are in a BT postcode, the position has not changed in the way it has changed on the mainland, and we do not ship there. We would rather lose the order than sell somebody a kit they cannot legally connect.

What all of this means in practice

If you are thinking about buying, the checks are short:

1. Find the kit on the ENA register and read its status. Compliant, not listed, not pending. If a retailer cannot give you the register reference for the exact kit they are selling you, that tells you something.
2. Check the inverter is capped at 800VA and the panels total no more than 2,000W.
3. Check your building is not excluded and that you have somewhere to put it that is not a party wall or a timber balcony.
4. Check you have a suitable outdoor socket, IP55 or better, within reach of the cable the kit comes with. Not an extension lead's reach. The cable's reach.
5. Notify your network operator before you plug it in.
6. Fit the consumer unit label.

None of it is difficult. It is just specific, and the specificity is the point: the whole reason this route exists is that a plug-in generator is safe inside these limits and not outside them.

Common questions

Do I need an electrician?

Not for the kit itself. That is what the law changed. You will need one if you do not already have a suitable outdoor socket, because fitting that is electrical work, and you may want one if you have more than 960W of panel capacity and are not sure about your existing wiring.

What happens if I do not notify my network operator?

You are in breach of a mandatory requirement, and the practical risk is your insurer. An unnotified generator connected to the network is the kind of detail that gets found after a claim rather than before one. It is a free form. Send it.

Can I take it with me when I move?

Yes. It is not part of the building, which is one of the genuine advantages over roof solar. Notify your old network operator that you have disconnected and your new one that you have connected, and check the new property is not excluded.

Can I have two if I have a big house?

Not at the moment. One per household until G98 is amended to allow one per circuit.

Is a kit I bought before 27 August 2026 now legal?

Only if it meets the specification and is registered as compliant. The date changed what is permitted, not what your existing kit is. Most of what was on sale before that date was built for other markets and does not qualify.

Does this cover sheds, allotments and outbuildings?

The rules are about the circuit you plug into and the building you mount on, not what the building is called. A socket circuit in an outbuilding on the same household supply is still your one device, and the mounting exclusions still apply.

Sources

• The Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994 and Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002 (Amendment) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/848
• Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification v2.0, DESNZ, July 2026
• Plug-in solar: regulatory framework, government response, DESNZ, July 2026