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Octopus Plug-In Solar: £450 Kits, Certified, Paid Export (2026)
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.
Octopus Energy sells two plug-in solar bundles: one panel for £450 and two panels for £650, both including VAT and kerbside delivery. It started taking orders on 28 August 2026, the day after plug-in solar became legal to self-install in Great Britain.
Two things make it different from every other kit on sale. Octopus is the first energy supplier to hold a compliant plug-in solar listing on the ENA register. And it is the only supplier we have found that offers to pay you for the electricity you export from a plug-in kit — but only if you bought the kit from Octopus and Octopus supplies your home.
Prices, delivery dates and register status checked 26 September 2026.
Quick Facts
- Price: £450 (1 panel) or £650 (2 panels), inc VAT and kerbside delivery
- Panels: JA Solar 460W, bifacial N-type TOPCon, black frame, 1,762 × 1,134mm, 22kg each
- Inverter: Fox ESS microinverter, 800W output cap
- Register status: Octopus Energy M1-800-E, Plug-in Solar, Compliant, published 8 September 2026 (ref OCTOQ/21124/V1/A5)
- Warranty: 25 years on the microinverter; 25-year product guarantee on the panels
- Export payments: Outgoing Prime, if Octopus also supplies your electricity and you have a working smart meter
- Delivery: orders placed from 11 September arrive end of October to mid-November
- Mounting: wall bracket or ground mount — no balcony-railing bracket in the bundle
- Connection: 5m cable with a 3-pin plug, into a weatherproof outdoor socket only
Search "Octopus" in our certified kit finder to see the live register entry, or check any other model before you buy.
The Short Answer
If you are already an Octopus customer, have an outdoor socket and somewhere to wall- or ground-mount a 1.8m panel, this is a strong buy — it is the only plug-in kit we know of where exported electricity earns money, and the 25-year inverter warranty is the longest we have seen on a certified kit.
If you are not with Octopus, it is simply a mid-priced certified kit. City Plumbing's two-panel 930W kit does the same job for £444 against Octopus's £650.
If your panels need to hang on a balcony railing, look elsewhere: the Octopus bundle comes with wall or ground mounts only.
Is It Actually Certified? Yes
To plug a solar kit into a socket yourself in Great Britain, the device must be listed compliant under the Plug-in Solar device type on the ENA G98 Type Test Register. We pull the register directly rather than relying on news coverage, and on 26 September 2026 it held:
| Field | Register entry |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Octopus Energy |
| Model | M1-800-E |
| Device type | Plug-in Solar |
| Status | Compliant |
| Capacity | 0.8 kW, single phase |
| Published | 8 September 2026 |
| Reference | OCTOQ/21124/V1/A5 |
Some coverage has said Octopus has no register entry, or that its entry is non-compliant. That is out of date. The record carries an amendment suffix (A5) and has shown as compliant since it was re-published on 8 September.
One caveat. The register lists the inverter by Octopus's model number, M1-800-E, while the product page describes it as a "Fox ESS microInverter" without giving a model number. When your kit arrives, check that the label on the inverter reads M1-800-E before you plug it in. That is the device the listing covers.
Octopus also holds three older compliant listings, but they are for vehicle-to-grid EV chargers, not solar. Only the Plug-in Solar listing gives you the socket route. See every certified kit →
What You Get
| Single panel bundle | Two panel bundle | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (inc VAT + delivery) | £450 | £650 |
| Panels | 1 × JA Solar 460W | 2 × JA Solar 460W |
| Panel capacity | 460W | 920W (inverter caps output at 800W) |
| Mounting | Wall or ground mount | 2 × wall or ground mount |
| Pallet weight | 90kg | 112kg |
Both bundles use the same microinverter and the same 5m cable with a standard UK 3-pin plug. The panels are bifacial, so a ground mount over a pale surface picks up a little extra from reflected light.
The warranty is the headline. Octopus's product page gives the microinverter a 25-year warranty and the panels a 25-year product guarantee. The inverter is the part that usually fails first, and most certified kits cover it for far less: Screwfix's PowerXpress kit carries one year, and the best of the specialist retailers offer ten.
Getting Paid for Export: Octopus's Real Advantage
Almost every plug-in solar owner earns £0 for the electricity they send back to the grid, because Smart Export Guarantee tariffs normally require MCS certification that plug-in kits do not have. Why plug-in export usually earns nothing →
Octopus has changed that for its own kit. Its plug-in solar page sets out three cases:
| Your situation | Export payments |
|---|---|
| Kit bought from Octopus, and Octopus supplies your electricity | Access to Outgoing Prime, Octopus's top-tier export tariff. Needs a working smart meter |
| Kit bought from Octopus, another supplier | You have to arrange export with your own supplier — most will pay nothing without MCS |
| Kit bought anywhere else | Not eligible for an Octopus export tariff |
You cannot sign up straight away. Octopus says you must first register the system with your network operator through the ENA portal and wait for approval, then tell Octopus. How registration works →
How much is it worth? Less than the headline suggests, because plug-in solar is mostly used in the home. A south-facing two-panel kit in London makes roughly 860 kWh a year. At 75% self-consumption, about 215 kWh of that is exported, so every 1p/kWh of export rate adds about £2 a year. Octopus has not published an Outgoing Prime rate on its plug-in pages, so we have not assumed one. Octopus's own blog puts the export upside at "max… £50/year".
What It Saves
Our figures use the October 2026 Ofgem cap of 26.32p/kWh, a south-facing London installation and 75% of generation used at home. Export is left out.
| Bundle | Price | Annual generation | Rough annual saving | Simple payback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single panel (460W) | £450 | ~430 kWh | ~£85 | ~5.3 years |
| Two panel (920W) | £650 | ~860 kWh | ~£170 | ~3.8 years |
Octopus's own estimate is £50–£150 a year, and it is more conservative than ours even though it assumes an "optimal set up, south facing positioning" and includes any export earnings. Its press release says a two-panel system on a smart export tariff could pay back in about five and a half years, which implies roughly £118 a year. The gap comes from the generation and self-consumption assumptions, not from export. Treat our figure as the top of the realistic range: a west-facing wall, some shading or a household that is out all day will do worse than both.
Put £650 into our payback calculator with your postcode and orientation, which moves the answer more than the choice of kit does.
The Catches
You need an outdoor socket. Octopus is explicit: plug the 5m cable "directly into a suitable weatherproof outdoor socket — do not use an extension lead." A cable through a window or balcony door is out. If you do not have an exterior-rated socket, adding one is an electrician's job and a real cost.
No balcony-railing mount. The bundles include a wall bracket or a ground mount. Each panel is 1.8m × 1.1m and 22kg, which is a lot to hang on a railing without a purpose-built bracket.
Not on timber (in England). The new planning rules for England (SI 2026/896) take plug-in solar out of permitted development where any part of it would be installed on a wooden wall, balcony or enclosure, a timber-clad exterior, or a wooden fence or gate. Octopus's own guidance on this is broader than the legislation — it is the timber that matters — but if your balcony or fence is wooden, you would need planning permission.
Kerbside delivery. The kit arrives on a pallet of about 1.8m × 1m × 1.2m, weighing 90kg or 112kg, left at the kerb. You need two people to get it inside.
Returns cost £60. Octopus deducts a £60 collection fee from refunds, and only unopened kits can be returned.
One kit per home. Octopus limits you to one plug-in system per household.
The wait. Orders placed from 11 September are due between the end of October and mid-November, which means the first weeks of use fall in the lowest-generation months of the year.
Octopus vs the Other Certified Kits
| Kit | Price | Warranty (inverter) | Export payments | Balcony mount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Octopus two-panel | £650 | 25 years | Yes, on Octopus supply | No |
| City Plumbing DMEGC 930W | £444 | 12 years (Hoymiles) | No | Brackets sourced separately |
| Screwfix PowerXpress 800W | £669 | 1 year | No | No |
| Perlight PowerPlug MAX | £588–£810 | 10 years (retailer) | No | — |
| UKSOL Pro Duo 890W | £849–£899 | UK warranty entity | No | Hybrid-mount version |
On price alone, City Plumbing wins by about £200. Octopus's case is the warranty and, for its own customers, the export tariff. Over ten years, a 25-year inverter warranty is worth more than it looks: a replacement microinverter outside warranty costs a meaningful slice of the kit price.
Should You Buy It?
Buy the Octopus kit if: you are an Octopus customer with a smart meter, you have an outdoor socket, and you can mount panels on a masonry wall or on the ground.
Buy City Plumbing instead if: price matters most, you are with another supplier, or you want collection from a branch rather than a pallet at the kerb.
Wait if: your panels need to go on a balcony railing or a wooden structure, or you want a battery. Octopus says plug-in batteries may follow in early 2027, but UK rules do not currently allow battery kits on the socket route.
Best for: Octopus customers with an outdoor socket and a wall or garden to mount on
Not for: balcony railings, timber structures, or anyone chasing the lowest price
£450–£650 inc VAT · M1-800-E listed compliant · checked 26 September 2026
FAQs
Q: Does Octopus Energy sell plug-in solar panels? A: Yes. Octopus sells a single-panel bundle for £450 and a two-panel bundle for £650, including VAT and kerbside delivery, from its own website.
Q: Is the Octopus plug-in solar kit certified? A: Yes. Octopus Energy's M1-800-E is listed compliant under the Plug-in Solar device type on the ENA G98 Type Test Register, published 8 September 2026. Check that the inverter you receive is labelled M1-800-E.
Q: Do I need to be an Octopus customer to buy it? A: Octopus's pages do not say you must be. But you only get its export tariff, Outgoing Prime, if Octopus also supplies your electricity.
Q: Can I get paid for exporting from the Octopus plug-in kit? A: Yes, if Octopus supplies your home and you have a working smart meter. You must register the system through the ENA portal and wait for your network operator's approval before you can sign up. Kits bought elsewhere are not eligible for an Octopus export tariff.
Q: Can I put the Octopus kit on my balcony? A: Not easily. The bundle includes wall and ground mounts only, the panels are 1.8m long and 22kg each, and in England the planning rules exclude wooden balconies from permitted development.
Q: Do I need an electrician? A: Not to install the kit, as long as you plug it into an existing weatherproof outdoor socket. If you do not have one, fitting it is electrician's work.
Q: How long is delivery? A: Octopus says orders placed from 11 September 2026 are expected between the end of October and mid-November.
Q: What inverter does the Octopus kit use? A: Octopus describes it as a Fox ESS microinverter with an 800W output limit and a 25-year warranty. The register lists it under Octopus's own model number, M1-800-E.