A solar kit with a battery in it is fine to own. It is not something you can simply plug into a socket. It has to be fitted by an electrician, like any other solar or battery installation — which is precisely the thing a plug-in kit was meant to save you.
That is worth knowing before you buy, because the kits with a battery are the ones selling best. A panel, an inverter and a battery you charge in the day and use in the evening is an obviously sensible thing to want. It just is not covered by the rules that changed on 27 August 2026.
Why the battery makes the difference
The new rules (SI 2026/848) describe what you are allowed to plug in, and a device only counts if, among other conditions, generates electricity from sunlight and is "not designed to import electricity in order to store it."
A battery, by definition, imports and stores electricity. So a kit built around one does not meet the definition — not because of anything about its safety or its wattage, but because the legal category itself is written to exclude storage.
Why this is in the definition, not the spec
Most of the detail that decides whether a device qualifies — the 800W AC cap, the plug-and-socket requirement, the grid-parallel condition — sits in requirements a minister could revise by amending the Interim Product Specification. The no-storage condition is different: it is written into the legal definition of a plug-in microgenerator itself, in the statutory instrument.
That matters because it means the exclusion is not a technicality that might be loosened as the market matures. Changing it would need Parliament to amend the primary category, not a regulator to update a spec document. Do not expect a battery route to open up quickly.
"Not covered by the new rules" is not the same as illegal
This is the distinction worth getting right, because it is easy to read "not a plug-in microgenerator" as "not legal" — and that is wrong.
A solar-plus-battery system can still be lawful. It just cannot use the new plug-and-socket route. It needs to go in as a fixed installation, wired in under the existing G98 or G99 process by a qualified electrician, the way solar and battery installations have always been done. Nothing about the new law closes that off.
What you lose by going that route is the thing that made a plug-in kit attractive in the first place: no electrician, no fixed wiring, no installation appointment. A battery system typically means exactly the process plug-in solar was created to avoid.
What we found on sale
Across the vendor pages in our database, 17 products from 9 sellers include a battery. Examples of what "plug-in solar with a battery" looks like on the UK market today:
| Seller | Product | Panel (DC) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plug In Solar Ltd | Storm 360W + Vault Battery | 360W | Same seller also lists a solar-only "Storm 360W" with no battery, at a lower price |
| Plug In Solar Ltd | Storm 710W + Vault Battery | 710W | Same pairing at 710W |
| EcoFlow Innovation UK Ltd | STREAM kit with battery | 900W | Listed inverter AC rating 800W — the storage element, not the wattage, is what puts it outside SI 2026/848 |
| Jackery UK Ltd | HomePower 2000 Ultra Solar Balcony Kit | 2,000W | |
| Certus Energy Ltd | 800W Garden Kit + 2.5kWh Battery | 800W | |
| Verity Vox Ltd (SunVault) | 4 Panel Balcony Solar DIY Kit | 1,800W |
Full, current list with prices in our comparison table, filterable to show battery and solar-only products separately.
The Plug In Solar example is worth dwelling on: the same company sells the identical panel both with and without a battery, at different prices, as genuinely different products under different legal routes. That is a clean illustration of the rule — it is the storage, not the brand or the panel, that decides which route applies.
If you are choosing between the two
- Want no installation, no electrician, and to stay inside the plug-in route? Choose a solar-only kit and check its AC rating is 800W or below (see our guide to AC vs DC wattage).
- Want to store what you generate for evening use? You are looking at a fixed installation, arranged through a qualified electrician under G98/G99 — budget for installation cost and time on top of the kit price.
- Being sold a "plug-in" battery kit with no mention of an electrician? Ask directly how it is being connected, and whether that meets G98/G99 as a fixed installation. A battery kit marketed as plug-and-play, with no installation process at all, is the combination that does not fit either lawful route.
Related reading: we checked every plug-in solar kit on sale in the UK against the ENA register, and the number on the box isn't the number in the law.