Balcony solar in the UK: what to buy, and what it actually costs
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.
Rules and product details last checked on .
Key takeaways
- We can only confirm one brand actually sells a compliant kit into the UK. EcoFlow’s STREAM range is explicitly built and marketed for grid-parallel plug-in connection. Several other well-known power station brands sell portable batteries and off-grid panels through their UK stores, which is a different product even when the marketing sounds similar.
- Three real entry points. A microinverter alone from £122.55 if you already have panels, a complete two-panel kit typically in the low £500s, or the higher-capacity STREAM Ultra X at £1,399 if you want battery storage alongside generation.
- The bundle price has moved since launch. We priced the complete kit at £329 to £419 in an August pre-launch check; live listings on 3 September 2026 show it nearer £549. Check the live price before you decide, not the number in this paragraph.
- A fourth product, STREAM 5000, is not something we can price yet. It is listed as a deposit-based pre-order, not a confirmed retail price, so we are not recommending it until that changes.
- Buying the right kit is only half the decision. Where you put it changes output by up to five times; see our placement guide before you order.
Type “balcony solar UK” into Google today and the results are mostly Amazon listings, EcoFlow’s own store, and news coverage of the law change. What is missing from most of it is the one question that actually decides what you should buy: which of these products can legally go into a UK wall socket, and which only look like they can.
The product category is smaller than the marketing suggests
A plug-in microgenerator, the legal category created by SI 2026/848, is a specific thing: panels, a microinverter capped at 800 W of AC output, and a cable ending in a standard plug, sold and certified as one package. A lot of what shows up in a search for “balcony solar” is not that. It is a portable power station, a battery with its own solar input, designed to be charged by a panel and then carried somewhere else to run something, not connected to your home’s wiring at all.
We keep a live assessment of which UK retailers actually sell the grid-connected product, not the adjacent one, in the data behind our kits guide. As of our last check, EcoFlow’s STREAM range is the one range built and marketed for this purpose. Other well-known power station brands sell portable batteries and off-grid panels through their UK stores; we looked, and we could not find a UK balcony or plug-in collection to match. That could change, and if it does, this page will change with it. Until then, this guide only recommends what we can confirm is the actual product.
| Entry point | Price checked 3 Sep 2026 | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microinverter only | £122.55 | 800 W inverter, no panels | You already own panels |
| Complete balcony kit | ~£549 (moved from £329-£419 in August) | Two panels, inverter, mounting | Starting from nothing |
| STREAM Ultra X | £1,399 | Generation plus 3.84 kWh storage | Storage as well as generation |
Three ways to buy in
If you already have solar panels. The STREAM microinverter is sold on its own for £122.55, discounted from a £179 list price when we checked on 3 September 2026. It is rated at the full legal 800 W of AC output and pairs with panels you already own, provided your setup meets the two-panel-per-input, 120 V-open-circuit limits we cover in our microinverter guide. This is the cheapest legal route into the category, and the one most likely to already fit money you have spent.
If you are starting from nothing. EcoFlow’s complete two-panel STREAM balcony kit bundles the microinverter with panels and mounting hardware. We priced this bundle at £329 to £419 in mid-August, before the law changed; live listings on 3 September 2026, including EcoFlow’s own store and Amazon, show it nearer £549. We are not going to print a single confident number for a price that has already moved once. Check the live price at the point of buying, and treat anything printed here, including our own earlier guide, as a snapshot rather than a promise.
If you want storage as well as generation. The STREAM Ultra X at £1,399 adds a 3.84 kWh battery to the same generation category. This is a materially different proposition to the plug-in kit alone: a battery this size sits closer to the boundary condition (e) in the statutory definition, the one that excludes devices designed to import and store energy from your home’s own circuit. We have not found EcoFlow’s own documentation resolve exactly how the Ultra X’s storage interacts with that condition, and neither has our guide to plug-in solar with a battery, which covers the question in more depth than belongs on a buying page.
A separate mounting bracket, sold apart from the panels, showed up at £59 in the same listings. If your kit does not include a mount for your specific railing or wall, budget for it separately.
What we could not confirm, and left out
STREAM 5000. EcoFlow’s own marketing describes a 5 kWh unit with a £9.90 deposit and “£100 off” against a launch price that is not yet fixed. That is a pre-order, not a product with a price we can check, so it is not in the list above. If a firm UK retail price appears, this page will be updated to include it.
Everything else marketed as balcony solar. We are aware of other brands selling panels, brackets and batteries into this search term. Where we could not find a UK page confirming the complete package is certified for grid-parallel connection, specifically, not just sold alongside solar panels generally, we have left it out rather than guess. Our kits guide has the fuller comparison, including what we found at B&Q, Screwfix, Argos and Anker.
Before you order
Buying the right kit answers one part of the question. Three more sit alongside it, each with its own guide:
- Where you put it changes annual output by up to five times between the best and worst spot on the same building. We modelled every option rather than guess.
- Whether you are allowed to fix it there depends on what the surface is made of, since 27 August 2026 removed permitted development rights for timber balconies and fences specifically. We cover the planning side here.
- Whether your landlord can say no, if you rent, does not have the statutory backstop several other sites currently claim it does. We checked the actual law.
What we have verified, and what we have not
Verified against a live source, checked 3 September 2026. The microinverter’s discounted price and list price, the STREAM Ultra X’s price and capacity, the mounting bracket price, and the fact that STREAM 5000 is currently sold as a deposit against an unfixed launch price. All checked against EcoFlow’s own UK store and, where its page did not load a verifiable price, against current live retail listings on Amazon UK, which we do not sell through and link to here only as the source of the number.
Carried over from an earlier check, and now flagged as moved. The complete kit’s bundle price, which we priced in mid-August before the law changed and have not seen hold since.
Not verified. Which specific EcoFlow STREAM models currently carry a completed type-test reference on the ENA register, which we cover in detail, with the checking method, in our microinverter guide rather than repeating here.
Our editorial policy explains how we handle prices that move between the date we check them and the date you read this.
Prices in this category are moving quickly. This page carries the date it was last checked; if you find a live price that contradicts one printed here, tell us and we will verify it and update the date.