Plug-In Solar Is Now Legal in Great Britain: What the New Rules Mean

For years, the honest answer to "can I just plug solar panels into a socket?" in this country was no. The kits were freely available online, they were legal to own, and they were not legal to connect to a domestic circuit. That changed on 27 August 2026, when new wiring rules took effect and plug-in solar became a legitimate option in Great Britain for the first time. This guide sets out what the rules actually say, what a compliant kit looks like, and what you can realistically expect it to save.

What Changed, and When

The change was announced in March 2026 and came into force at the end of August. The mechanism is an amendment to BS 7671, the national wiring regulations, which now contains a route for small plug-in generation to be connected to an ordinary domestic socket circuit safely. Before the amendment there was no compliant way to do it, which is why reputable retailers did not sell these kits here even though they have been common in Germany for years.

One important limit on the scope: the new rules apply to Great Britain, meaning England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland operates its own regulations, which have not been amended, so the position there is unchanged for now.

The Rules in Practice

A kit that complies with the new regime looks roughly the same wherever you buy it. The conditions that matter are these:

• The inverter output is capped at 800W, expressed as 800W, 800VA or 3.5A. This is the ceiling for the whole installation, not per panel.
• The kit plugs directly into a suitable socket outlet. Extension leads, multi-way adaptors and daisy chaining are not permitted.
• One kit per household. You cannot install several and add them together.
• The equipment must be type tested and appear on the Energy Networks Association register of compliant devices.
• You must notify your Distribution Network Operator using the G98 process within 28 days of commissioning.
• No electrician is required in a standard installation, though the fixings and the socket circuit still need to be sound.
• Storage is excluded. The rules define a plug-in microgenerator as a device that is not designed to import electricity in order to store it, so kits with an integrated battery fall outside the permitted category.

The G98 Notification

G98 is the connection standard for small generation, and it is the one piece of paperwork you cannot skip. The process is genuinely light: it is free, it is done online, it typically takes about twenty minutes, and for plug-in solar it is a notification rather than an application. In other words you connect first and tell your network operator afterwards, within 28 days. You do not wait for approval.

Your Distribution Network Operator is not your energy supplier. It is the company that owns the wires in your area, and which one you have depends on where you live rather than who you buy electricity from. The retailer selling you the kit will usually point you at the right form, and the Energy Networks Association website will identify your operator from your postcode.

What It Costs and What It Saves

This is the part where expectations need managing. Around twenty devices were listed on the compliant register in early September. Argos ranges six bundles from £599, and Octopus Energy became the first major supplier to sell a kit directly, at £450 for a single 460W panel and £650 for a two panel version, both including VAT and delivery. Availability is still catching up with demand and several of the first listings carry waiting times of a month or more.

Independent estimates put the annual saving on a full 800W kit at somewhere between £43 and £84 for a typical household, which gives an indicative payback of roughly seven to fourteen years. Octopus quotes a more optimistic £50 to £150, and the gap between those figures is really a difference of assumption about how much of the day someone is at home. Either way, plug-in solar sits in a different category from a full rooftop installation. An 800W kit is about a fifth the size of a normal 4kW roof system.

It is worth noticing that the cheaper single panel bundles do not shorten the payback. A 460W panel costs less than an 800W pair but generates proportionately less, so the two roughly cancel out. Buy the smaller kit because it fits the space you have or the money you want to spend, rather than in the expectation that it pays for itself sooner.

The reason the range is so wide is that all of the value comes from electricity you use as it is generated. There is no export payment involved, which we come to below, so a kit fitted to a home that is empty every weekday will save considerably less than the same kit on a home with someone in during daylight hours. Appliances that run constantly, such as a fridge, a freezer, a router and standby loads, are what an 800W kit covers well.

Where You Are Allowed to Put It

Microgeneration up to 800W mounted on a balcony or an external wall does not normally require planning permission. The usual exceptions apply and they are the same ones that affect conventional solar: listed buildings require consent regardless of where the panels sit, and conservation areas place restrictions on anything visible from the highway. Our guide to planning permission for solar panels covers those rules in full.

If you rent, or own a leasehold flat, planning is rarely the obstacle. Permission from your landlord, freeholder or management company is, and it is worth getting that in writing before you buy anything. Balconies in blocks of flats also carry fire safety considerations that the building owner will want to consider, particularly on the external walls of taller buildings. We look at the practicalities for flats and rented homes in our guide to balcony solar for renters and flat owners.

Is It Worth It?

For a homeowner with a decent unshaded roof, almost certainly not as a substitute. A proper rooftop installation generates several times more, qualifies for export payments, and has a shorter payback despite costing more. If that describes you, plug-in solar is the inferior option and the honest advice is to look at a full system instead. We compare the two directly in plug-in solar versus rooftop solar.

For everyone else, and that is a large group, this is the first time solar has been available at all. Renters, flat dwellers, people with north facing or heavily shaded roofs, and anyone who cannot justify a five figure installation now have a route in at under £600 that they can take with them when they move. Judged against nothing, an 800W kit is a reasonable proposition. Judged against a 4kW roof array, it is not.

The sensible first step is to find out which category you are in. If your roof turns out to face south and sit in clear sun, the plug-in route is probably not the one to take. Check your roof orientation with our free tool before you spend anything.