Plug-in solar, answered properly

The safety worry is a live plug and a shock. The government specification answers it with numbers: disconnect within 100 milliseconds, under 34 volts at the pins, and a hard limit on panel voltage. Here is what each means.

The EcoFlow STREAM 800 W microinverter costs about £123 to £129 and is the cheapest route into plug-in solar if you own panels. Here is what it is, how it compares with Hoymiles, APsystems and SolaX, and what is not yet proven.

The G98 paperwork has four forms and a plug-in kit needs one of them. Here is which, what it asks for, where each network operator publishes it, and the newer online registration route some sites now describe.

Three routes exist for a flat: a shared rooftop scheme, a ground-mounted array if your building has grounds, and plug-in solar. Only one of them is realistically available to a renter or leaseholder acting alone.

A kettle, no. A fridge, usually. The honest answer depends on the difference between a continuous load and a momentary one, and the rating plate on the appliance settles it either way.

Only one brand we can confirm actually sells a grid-connected plug-in kit into the UK. Here is what it costs at each entry point, and why the obvious alternative is not the same product.

Not yet. Lidl has pledged support for the government scheme, not launched a product, and the £400 figure being quoted everywhere is an estimate from a March 2026 briefing, not a Lidl price.

Three parts, in plain terms: a panel that makes DC, a box that turns it into AC, and a plug that feeds it into whatever in your home is switched on. Here is each part, and the one safety feature that makes the whole thing legal.

The new UK law caps plug-in solar at 800 watts of AC output. Panels do not make AC. The microinverter is the component every legal number attaches to, and here is what the government specification actually demands of one.

A complete kit is £329 to £419 today, not the round £400 most articles quote. Here is every line item priced and sourced, the VAT position nobody explains, and a payback worked from our own output model.

Balcony, garden or wall: a south-facing tilted panel makes 808 kWh a year in London, the same kit upright on a north-facing railing makes 162. Here is every placement option with its number, and the rules that rule half of them out.

Yes, and a panel flat against your railing does it better than a tilted one. In December a vertical panel in London produces 27% more than the same panel angled at 30 degrees. Here is the data and why it happens.

Yes, a DNO notification is compulsory. Permission is not the same thing, and most guides confuse the two. Here is the regulation that says so, why an 800 W kit qualifies, and who to tell.

Between 506 and 833 kWh a year from an 800 W kit, depending on your city and how you mount it. We modelled seven UK cities. Mounting it flat against a railing costs about a quarter of the output.

We checked B&Q, Screwfix, Argos, EcoFlow and Anker before the law changed, and Argos again after it did. Almost everything on sale is a portable panel or a power station, which is not the same thing, and compliance evidence is still the exception, not the rule.

Yes, from 27 August 2026, if the kit meets five conditions written into law. Here is the actual wording, what it permits, and the one part of the UK it does not reach.

There is no special statutory right to reasonable consent for most renters, whatever several sites currently claim about the Renters Rights Act 2025. Here is what the law actually says, quoted from source.

Only if they ask, and it is your contents insurer, not your landlord's buildings policy. UK insurance law changed the rule in 2012. Here is what it actually requires.

Yes, and that portability is the point. But you owe your network operator two notifications, not one, and the second is the one everybody forgets.

A planning order in force from 27 August 2026 stops you using permitted development rights to fix plug-in solar to a wooden balcony or a garden fence. Those are the two places most renters would choose.

The DELTA 3 Classic is a 1,024 Wh, 1,800 W power station listed between £399 and £649 depending on seller and sale. It is a backup and camping battery, not plug-in solar, and the Plus and Max cost far more.

The RIVER 3 is a 245 Wh, 300 W portable power station at £249. It is not plug-in solar and will not cut your bill. It can keep a router, laptop and lights running in a power cut. Here is the honest version.

Lidl at about £260, EcoFlow STREAM Ultra at £1,399, Thunder Energy at £1,699.99: batteries for balcony solar exist and vary tenfold in price. Here is what is on sale, what each is, and the compliance question none of them has answered.

The law says a plug-in kit must not store energy drawn from your home, and the government specification requires a warning against using one with battery storage. Yet batteries are on sale. Here is what the rules actually permit, product by product.

Ofgem caps electricity at 26.32p per kWh plus a 54.83p daily standing charge from 1 October 2026, with no VAT until March 2027. Here is the bill arithmetic, and how much of it an 800 W plug-in kit can realistically remove.

Read the yearly kWh figure on your fridge energy label and multiply by 26.32p. That is the cost. A plug-in kit can offset the running load, but only while the sun is up, because a fridge runs day and night.

Not in any way that pays. A plug-in kit has no export meter and, according to industry coverage, is not eligible for the Smart Export Guarantee, so any surplus goes to the grid for nothing. Here is what that means for how you use it.