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By Rowan Halstead · Updated 1 October 2026

Which Plug-In Solar Kits Are Certified in the UK?

This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This does not influence our recommendations — we call out weaknesses as plainly as strengths.

Plug-in solar became legal in Great Britain on 27 August 2026. But "legal" does not mean "any kit you can buy is allowed to plug into a socket." The socket self-install route only applies to devices listed as compliant on the ENA G98 Type Test Register — and the brands on that register are not the brands most people are searching for.

Last checked: 30 September 2026. The register changes as manufacturers submit and retest devices, and entries have flipped status. Always verify your exact model before buying.

Quick Facts - Register status: 101 records, 84 compliant, 17 non-compliant (30 September 2026) - New trap — Perlight PowerPlug+ vs PowerPlug MAX: five new Perlight PowerPlug+ models (M2 and SPE2 codes) were listed non-compliant on 26 September. The PowerPlug MAX kits sold at Plug In Solar are unaffected and still compliant — but the names differ by one character, so check the code on the box - Compliant manufacturers: 21, led by City Plumbing (13 models), Perlight Solar (13), Worldwide Solar (10, new since 24 Sept), UKSOL (7), PatioSun (6) and Zendure (6) — plus Octopus Energy since 8 Sept, TSUNESS since 15 Sept, EcoFlow since 22 Sept and Solarfy (2, new) - Brands you can actually buy: six — City Plumbing, Perlight, UKSOL, PatioSun, Octopus Energy (£450–£650 direct) and PowerXpress (£669 at Screwfix) - EcoFlow crossed over on 22 September: both of its plug-in solar kit entries are now listed compliant — a STREAM-branded plug-in solar kit in three UK mounting variants, and EF-PS-800 with SPDG505 panels. Both are 0.8 kW solar-only configurations; EcoFlow's battery products stay outside the socket route - Zendure crossed over on 21 September: six SolarFlow 800 configurations listed compliant — again only for its solar-only kit - Still no compliant plug-in listing: Anker - TSUNESS crossed over on 15 September: three compliant Plug-in Solar entries — the earliest of the battery-adjacent brands to get there, ahead of Zendure and EcoFlow - The catch: every battery-integrated kit is excluded from the socket route permanently - Still required: G98 notification to your DNO within 28 days

The Short Answer

If you want to plug a solar kit into a standard 13A socket and install it yourself, you need one of the 84 devices listed compliant on the ENA G98 Type Test Register — most likely from City Plumbing, Perlight Solar, UKSOL, PatioSun, Octopus Energy or PowerXpress, which between them account for 41 of the 84 and are the only six brands we can confirm sell to the public at a checked price.

The familiar names are now breaking through, but only with their solar-only kits. Zendure's six SolarFlow 800 configurations were listed compliant on 21 September 2026, and on 22 September EcoFlow's two plug-in solar kit entries turned compliant — a STREAM-branded plug-in solar kit covering three UK mounting variants, and EF-PS-800 with SPDG505 panels.

Read that precisely, because the distinction is the whole point. What is listed is a specific solar-only kit configuration registered at 0.8 kW under the Plug-in Solar device type. EcoFlow's and Zendure's storage products — the STREAM units that ship with a battery, the Hyper 2000 — remain listed as Energy Storage Devices and are still outside the socket route, because the Interim Product Specification excludes battery-integrated systems by design. A brand appearing here does not make everything it sells self-installable; the kit in the box has to be the listed configuration.

Anker has still not submitted a plug-in solar kit at all. Its Solarbank remains legal to buy and own, but the mains connection must be hard-wired by a qualified electrician under BS 7671.

What's On the Register Right Now

The register is growing fast: 20 compliant devices from 4 manufacturers when we first checked on 3 September, 48 from 13 on 16 September, 61 from 16 on 18 September, 68 from 18 on 21 September, 70 from 19 on 23 September, 71 on 24 September, 83 on 26 September, and 84 from 21 manufacturers today. The socket route is no longer a niche with a handful of obscure brands — and the non-compliant column has been volatile: it went from 1 record to 24 in five days, then back to 15 on 22 September when nine of the eleven Worldwide Solar kits listed on 17 September were withdrawn, down to 9 on 23 September as the last six Worldwide Solar entries went and EcoFlow's two turned compliant, to 8 on 24 September when Perlight's PowerPlug+ MAX 465 was re-published as compliant, back to 9 on 26 September as three new non-compliant kits arrived and two older entries were withdrawn, and up to 17 on 30 September after ten new non-compliant entries in four days.

Compliant devices

Note the pattern in the capacity column: every compliant device is capped at 0.8 kW (800 VA) of AC output. That is the specification limit, and it applies no matter how much panel wattage sits behind it — up to 2,000 W of panels is permitted.

The six brands you can actually buy

A compliant listing is not a shop. Of the 21 manufacturers with compliant entries, we could confirm a consumer-facing page with retail prices for only six — covering 41 of the 84 compliant models between them. (Zendure's, EcoFlow's and Worldwide Solar's entries are compliant, but we have not verified a priced UK consumer page for those exact configurations — in Zendure's case the UK store does not list the SolarFlow 800 at all.) Each has its own breakdown:

Everything else on the register is a trade, distributor or installer listing: real certification, no straightforward consumer route. We do not count a brand as purchasable until we have fetched a priced consumer page ourselves.

The certified kit finder now carries per-model prices for 13 of these kits, each stamped with the date we read it from the retailer's own page, alongside a one-click link that drops the price straight into our payback calculator. Ranges above are brand-level; the finder gives the price of the individual model.

Buying from a high-street retailer

Most certified kits come from trade suppliers or brand-direct stores. Two high-street routes are worth knowing about:

The Octopus Energy entry: the export problem, solved for one kit

Octopus Energy becoming the first energy supplier with a compliant device (the M1-800-E, listed 8 September 2026) is structurally more significant than another hardware brand joining. A supplier that both sells you the kit and buys your exported electricity can resolve the export problem that makes balcony solar economics awkward — most Smart Export Guarantee tariffs require MCS certification, which plug-in kits do not have, so exported units typically earn nothing. A supplier-owned kit is the obvious route around that — and it has now happened: Octopus offers its Outgoing Prime export tariff to customers who bought its plug-in kit and are on Octopus supply. Octopus plug-in solar: prices, certification and export →

Non-compliant entries

The non-compliant column does not only grow. It reached fifteen records on 22 September and fell to nine the next day, as six Worldwide Solar entries were withdrawn and EcoFlow's two entries turned compliant. On 24 September it fell to eight, when Perlight's PowerPlug+ MAX 465 (PLM-PPM-M2-465) turned compliant. On 26 September it stood at nine: VDS, Cody Earth Solutions and a second VALE kit were added as non-compliant, and The Solar Home and Voltacon entries were withdrawn. By 30 September it reached seventeen: ten new non-compliant entries arrived (five of them Perlight PowerPlug+ models), while the VALE MX800lite kit was re-listed as compliant and the VDS entry was withdrawn.

EcoFlow was on this table until 22 September, and that is the headline. Its STREAM-based plug-in solar kit spent about two weeks listed as non-compliant after being submitted on 9 September. On 22 September both of its plug-in entries were re-published as compliant — the application did not merely exist, it has now passed.

Watch the version suffix, because this is how the change is recorded. The register did not flip the status on the existing rows. It withdrew them and published replacements with an incremented amendment number: ECOFL/21128/V1/A2 became ECOFL/21128/V1/A3, and ECOFL/21606/V1 became ECOFL/21606/V1/A1. Anyone tracking this register by device reference alone will see the old references disappear and may wrongly read that as a withdrawal.

TSUNESS went the other way. On 15 September TSUNESS became the first of the battery-adjacent brands to obtain compliant Plug-in Solar listings, with three models. It shows the route is open to this class of manufacturer, and it is the strongest signal yet that others will follow.

"Non-compliant" on the register can mean a test failure or incomplete documentation — it is not automatically a safety verdict, and a manufacturer can retest. But for your purposes the effect is the same: that device cannot lawfully use the socket self-install route today.

Correction history (16 September 2026): an earlier version of this table listed EcoFlow's EF-PS-800 and a TSUNESS TSOL-ESK800-UT as non-compliant, both taken from third-party sources. Checked directly against the register, that was wrong on both counts — and the position has since moved again in both cases, in opposite directions. The distinction that always matters is the device type, not the compliance status alone.

Correction history (23 September 2026): this page previously stated that EcoFlow's two plug-in solar kit entries were both non-compliant, which was correct when checked on 22 September and wrong by the following day. Both were re-published as compliant on 22 September 2026 under incremented amendment numbers. This page is checked against the ENA register directly; between 17 and 23 September the Plug-in Solar totals moved on six separate days, so any figure here should be read with its date attached.

Zendure changed sides on 21 September 2026. It now holds six compliant entries under Plug-in Solar (ZENDU/21469–21474/V1/A1), all configurations of the solar-only SolarFlow 800 with floor, wall or balcony brackets. Those genuinely carry the socket self-install route. Its battery-integrated products are a different matter: the Hyper 2000 and the ZDSF2400 series sit under Energy Storage Device, and every battery-integrated kit is excluded from the socket route permanently.

EcoFlow changed sides on 22 September 2026. It now holds two compliant entries under Plug-in Solar: ECOFL/21128/V1/A3, a STREAM-branded plug-in solar kit covering the flat-roof, façade and pitched-roof mounting variants, and ECOFL/21606/V1/A1, EF-PS-800 with SPDG505 panels. Both are registered at 0.8 kW.

This does not make "an EcoFlow STREAM" self-installable. What passed is a specific solar-only kit configuration. EcoFlow separately holds more than a hundred Energy Storage Device listings, including the battery STREAM variants (EF-ST5K-AC-UK-800-1 and the rest of that series), and those stay outside the socket route because the Interim Product Specification excludes battery-integrated systems by design. If the box you are buying contains a battery, the socket route does not apply to it no matter what the brand's register page says. Check the configuration, not the badge.

Anker remains outside it entirely. Anker's AE1032Z1-20 is listed compliant as an Energy Storage Device (ANKER/19909/V1, published 6 May 2026) and it holds no entry under the Plug-in Solar device type. A compliant listing under another category does not transfer, so for Anker the position is unchanged: a hard-wired BS 7671 connection by a qualified electrician.

A note on the numbers you will see elsewhere. Counts for this register vary between sources, usually because they are snapshots from different dates — we counted 20 compliant entries on 3 September, 48 on 16 September, 61 on 18 September, 68 on 21 September, 70 on 23 September, 71 on 24 September, 83 on 26 September and 84 on 30 September, so a figure gathered even a few days earlier will legitimately be lower. The ENA's Plug-in Solar type holds 101 total records, 84 of them compliant and 17 non-compliant; the register carries only these two statuses, with no "under review" category. Note that the non-compliant column falls as well as rises — it stood at 15 on 22 September and 9 the next day. Trackers quoting a smaller total may also be counting only complete, purchasable kits rather than every submitted record. We take our figures directly from the ENA register rather than a third-party mirror.

"Non-compliant" on the register can mean a test failure or incomplete documentation — it is not automatically a safety verdict. But for your purposes the effect is the same: that device cannot lawfully use the socket self-install route.

Why the Big Brands Aren't On the Compliant List

Two separate things are going on, and they get conflated constantly.

1. Battery-integrated kits are excluded by design. The Interim Product Specification defines a plug-in microgenerator as panels plus a grid-following microinverter — solar only. DESNZ stated the framework is "not intended to permit battery storage systems." The reasoning is behavioural: a solar-only device generates when the sun shines and shuts down when the grid drops. Add a battery and it can charge, discharge, shift energy overnight, respond to tariffs and potentially run in multiple modes — which changes the protection and control questions entirely.

That rules out EcoFlow STREAM, Anker Solarbank, Zendure SolarFlow and Jackery Navi from the socket route. Not temporarily — structurally, until the specification is widened.

2. Compliance attaches to the model number, not the brand. Anker's approach makes this concrete. It created the AE1032Z1-20, capped at 800W in the factory specifically so that one variant could register for the self-install route, while the more powerful AE1033Z1 still requires an electrician. Same brand, same product family, different legal status. Firmware settings do not determine this — the model number does.

The practical consequence: never buy on brand reputation alone. Check the exact model against the register.

What This Means If You're Buying Today

You want to self-install into a socket. Buy a device listed compliant — Perlight, City Plumbing, UKSOL, PatioSun, Thunder Energy or Octopus Energy. City Plumbing, Screwfix and Argos now stock listed kits — from £336 for a single panel or £444 for a two-panel kit, both at City Plumbing. UKSOL's own store sells ground-mount and hybrid-mount kits directly. Confirm the model number appears on the register on the day you buy.

You want battery storage. Accept that an electrician is part of the cost. Budget for it up front rather than discovering it after delivery. The kit itself is legal to own; it is the mains connection that needs a qualified person.

You're waiting for a supermarket kit. The widely repeated "£400 Lidl kit" figure came from a March 2026 government briefing, not from Lidl. Lidl's on-record position is that it is "exploring the possibility." As of September 2026, Lidl, Iceland, B&Q and Screwfix are not stocking plug-in solar despite earlier reports naming them as launch partners. Do not plan a purchase around it.

You already own a European import. CE marking and German VDE or TÜV certification do not carry over. The UK Interim Product Specification is a separate assessment, and a device that passed in Germany is not automatically permitted here. If it is not on the register, treat it as requiring an electrician.

G98 Notification Still Applies

Legalisation did not remove the notification requirement, and this catches people out.

You must still notify your Distribution Network Operator via G98 within 28 days of commissioning. It is not a request for permission, there is no fee, and the DNO cannot refuse a compliant installation. The one-device-per-household G98 limit continues to apply.

G99 — which requires pre-approval and an engineering assessment — only applies above 3.68 kW per phase. No balcony or plug-in system reaches that threshold, so G98 is the correct route for every kit discussed on this page.

The government has signalled that the current eight separate DNO forms may be consolidated into a single centralised online registration, following the German model. That has not landed yet.

DNO Notification for Plug-In Solar: UK G98 Form Guide →

How to Check a Model Yourself

1. Find the microinverter model number on the product listing or the unit itself — not the kit name, not the panel model.
2. Search the ENA G98 Type Test Register for that string.
3. Confirm the status reads Compliant, not merely that an entry exists. Anker's entry existed while showing non-compliant.
4. Check the published date. A recently flipped entry may not match older reviews or retailer claims.
5. Screenshot the register entry on the day of purchase. If an insurer or DNO queries the installation later, you have contemporaneous evidence.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Which plug-in solar kits are certified in the UK? A: As of 30 September 2026, 84 devices are listed compliant on the ENA G98 Type Test Register, from 21 manufacturers including City Plumbing, Perlight Solar, Worldwide Solar, UKSOL, PatioSun, Thunder Energy, Octopus Energy, TSUNESS, Zendure (six solar-only SolarFlow 800 configurations, since 21 September) and EcoFlow (two solar-only plug-in kit entries, since 22 September). No Anker device appears under the Plug-in Solar device type. Some of their other products are listed compliant under other categories (PV, Energy Storage Device), but only a Plug-in Solar listing grants the socket self-install route.

Q: Can I plug an EcoFlow STREAM or Anker Solarbank into a socket now that plug-in solar is legal? A: It depends entirely on the configuration, and for Anker the answer is still no — it holds no Plug-in Solar listing at all, so its Solarbank needs a hard-wired BS 7671 connection by a qualified electrician.

EcoFlow changed on 22 September 2026: a STREAM-branded plug-in solar kit and the EF-PS-800 + SPDG505 panel bundle are both now listed compliant under the Plug-in Solar device type, so those specific solar-only configurations do carry the socket self-install route. A STREAM bundle that includes a battery does not. Those units remain listed as Energy Storage Devices, and the Interim Product Specification excludes battery-integrated systems from the socket route by design. Check the exact model against the register before you assume either way — the brand name alone does not settle it.

Q: Why was Anker listed as compliant and then changed? A: The picture is more specific than "failed". As of 18 September 2026 the AE1032Z1-20 is listed compliant on the register — but as an Energy Storage Device (ref ANKER/19909/V1), not under the Plug-in Solar device type. Only a Plug-in Solar listing grants the socket self-install route, so the device still cannot lawfully be plugged into a socket. Register entries are also reassessed and can change type or status, which is why you should check your exact model number on the day you buy rather than relying on an article — including this one.

Q: Does a CE mark or German VDE certification count in the UK? A: No. The UK Interim Product Specification is a separate assessment. European certification does not automatically qualify a device for the socket self-install route.

Q: Do I still need to notify my DNO after 27 August 2026? A: Yes. G98 notification within 28 days is still required. It is free, cannot be refused for a compliant installation, and is separate from the product compliance question.

Q: How many panels can I run on a compliant kit? A: Up to 2,000 W of panels behind an 800 VA microinverter, with a maximum AC current of 3.5 A. The inverter output is the capped figure, not the panel capacity.

Q: Will more kits become compliant? A: Almost certainly — it already has. The register went from 20 compliant devices on 3 September 2026 to 48 on 16 September and 61 on 18 September, and TSUNESS obtained its first compliant plug-in listings in that window. Manufacturers that failed initial assessment can retest after modifications. We update this page as the register changes.

We check the ENA G98 Type Test Register regularly and update this page when entries change. Register status is a snapshot: verify your specific model before purchase.