What Does Plug-In Solar Cost in the UK?

Where the £400 figure comes from

Search for "400 pound plug-in solar" and you will find a few press stories that use the same round number. On 22 May 2026, The Independent ran a piece headlined "Lidl to sell £400 plug-in solar panels". Read the article and it is more careful than the headline. It says a kit costing "around £400 to £500" would be a reasonable illustration for working out payback, and it also says there was no confirmed Lidl product, price or sale date. We keep a separate page on whether a Lidl plug-in kit is actually on sale, and it says what we have and have not been able to find.

On 27 Aug 2026, the day the rules started, an opinion piece in The i Paper said the government expects kits to cost between £400 and £600 as competition increases. We have not found that range in a government document we have read, so treat it as the writer's claim.

Other guides picked up the same range. The ones we read do not quote a real price from a shop. So treat £400 as a rough market expectation for a basic kit, not something you can go and buy.

What a kit should include

An approved device is more than a panel. By definition it comes with a microinverter (the small box that turns the panel's output into mains power), a factory-fitted plug lead and a mount. When you compare prices, check that the mount is in the box. A cheap panel that needs a separate bracket is not that cheap.

• The panel or panels
• The microinverter (this is what limits the output to 800 W)
• The lead and plug
• A mount for a balcony, wall, fence or the ground

What can you save?

GOV.UK's launch announcement says households could save up to £110 a year. "Up to" is doing a lot of work. It assumes a well placed kit and someone using the power while the sun is out. A shaded balcony or an empty house from 8am to 6pm will save less, sometimes a lot less.

How to work out your payback

Divide the price of the kit by the amount you save each year. That is your payback in years. The table shows the sum for a few prices and a few yearly savings. The £110 column is the government's ceiling and the others are illustrations, not forecasts.

Read across the row for your price. The bigger the gap between your real saving and £110, the longer you wait. Nobody knows yet what typical UK homes will save, so if a seller quotes a payback of two years, ask what they assumed.

Costs people forget

• Mounting: if it is not in the kit, price it before you buy.
• Permission: a landlord or freeholder may say no, and you need to ask first.
• An electrician: not required, but worth the call if your sockets or wiring are old.
• Insurance: tell your insurer. Ofgem points this out to buyers.

Check before you pay

Not every plug-in kit for sale is approved. The ENA register lists plug-in devices with a status of Compliant or Non-compliant. Look up the exact make and model, and only buy a Compliant one. Our guide to the UK plug-in solar rules explains why, and the approved kits snapshot on the UK hub shows how many devices are listed today and who makes the most of them.