Plug-in solar is legal now. What an electrician should do when a customer asks

Since 27 August 2026, anyone in Great Britain can buy a solar kit, put it outside and plug it into a socket. The government says Amazon, Argos, Currys and Wickes have committed to stocking them.

It's the first time a householder can legally connect a generator just by plugging it in. And the rules behind it send people to an electrician more often than you'd think. Here's what changed, where you come in, and what to say to a customer who fitted panels on the roof themselves.

What became legal

Until this year, plug-in solar couldn't be sold or used lawfully here. Part of the problem was the plug: BS 1363 prohibits plugs for connecting a generator to a socket-outlet.

Regulations made on 16 July 2026, in force from 27 August, changed that. They define a "plug-in microgenerator": a device that turns sunlight into electricity and gives out no more than 800 watts of AC. It connects by a standard plug and socket, and isn't designed to take power back from the house. One may be installed and used if it meets the government's Interim Product Specification, published the same day.

The specification is based on Germany's standard for the same products, adapted for the UK. Its limits:

• 800VA out, and no more than 3.5A.
• Up to 2,000W of panels. Above 960W, the manufacturer must advise customers to consider a professional assessment of their installation first.
• No batteries. Plug-in batteries stay prohibited.

The government's safety testing found no concern that would stop an 800W device operating safely on "appropriately protected ring circuits". Northern Ireland has its own network rules, and the specification's use there is "subject to further consideration".

The rules the customer is given

The specification sets what the instructions must tell the customer. Most of them are worth knowing, because they're the questions you'll be asked:

• Socket circuits only. Not lighting, and not a spur supplying fixed equipment such as a cooker or a boiler.
• No extension leads, multi-way adaptors, RCD adaptors or travel adaptors.
• One per household, for now. The specification would allow one per circuit, but the network rules, G98, still say one per household.
• A label at the consumer unit, and a new one if the board is replaced or moved.
• Tell the network operator. Under a change Ofgem approved in August 2026, the customer notifies their distribution network operator, not an installer.
• Test the RCBO now and then, while the panel is generating. If it doesn't trip straight away, call an electrician.
• Not on timber balconies or certain cladding, including aluminium composite, high pressure laminate and timber.

Where the electrician comes in

The specification names the electrician's work in plain terms:

• Old boards. "If the electrical installation is using older fuse protection and does not incorporate RCBOs, the installation shall be checked and, where necessary, upgraded by a professional electrician".
• Unknown boards. Where the consumer unit doesn't use modern protective devices, isn't clearly labelled, or is of unknown condition, the customer should get it inspected by a qualified electrician before installing.
• Changes to the circuit. Any change the final circuit needs, such as replacing its protective device under regulation 551.7.2 of BS 7671, must be marked as work only an electrician can do.

Electrical Safety First goes further. Its view is that "not every home will currently be suitable for plug-in solar". It wants "at least a Type A bidirectional RCD" on the circuits used, with Type AC devices upgraded first. And it recommends an assessment "by a competent electrician registered with a competent persons scheme" before anyone buys a kit.

So the job is the check before, not the install. My reading of what it involves:

• The board. Rewireable fuses, or MCBs with no RCD protection, mean an upgrade conversation.
• The RCDs. Type AC or Type A, and whether the device is bidirectional or marked for one direction only, with LINE and LOAD or IN and OUT.
• The circuit. A socket circuit, not a spur to fixed equipment.
• What's there already. A customer with rooftop panels needs the sum done. Under the change Ofgem approved, plug-in and wired-in generation together must stay within G98's 16A per phase, about 3.68kW on a single-phase supply. Above that, G99 applies, and G99 needs the network operator's approval before anything is installed.

Price the check as a job of its own, and quote any upgrade separately. On a condition report for a house with a kit already plugged in, look for the warning notice. Electrical Safety First's coding guide gives C3 as an example where a notice about a microgenerator is missing.

A customer who fitted panels on the roof

Panels on the roof, wired into the board by the customer, aren't plug-in solar. None of the plug-in rules apply.

In England, it's Part P work. Approved Document P names "photovoltaic panels on roofs" in its scope. The work is notifiable when it includes a new circuit, a consumer unit replacement or work in a special location. There are three ways to certify notifiable work: self-certification by a registered competent person, third-party certification, or building control. Approved Document P has registered installers certify "every job they undertake". NAPIT's third-party scheme has to be arranged before the work begins, and its certifiers "are not permitted to certify work retrospectively". My reading is that this leaves building control for a finished DIY job. Notifiable electrical work covers what counts, nation by nation.

G98 has a notice due. The installer must make sure the network operator knows about a micro-generator before it's commissioned or within 28 days afterwards. If the customer wired the panels in, that's them.

There's no export payment without certification. Ofgem's guidance for the Smart Export Guarantee asks, for solar up to 50kW, that "their installation and installer are suitably certified": MCS, or an equivalent. A DIY system won't meet that test. The same goes for most plug-in kits. The government's own assessment says the Smart Export Guarantee is "likely not to apply in the first instance for many plug-in solar installers".

In Scotland, most electrical work in a house needs no building warrant, though it must still meet the building standards. Whether panels count as an alteration to the roof is a question for the council's building standards service.

Registration is about to get a law of its own

Network operators don't know about most of what's connected. In the government's own words, "less than 40% of these distributed energy assets are currently being registered with DNOs". That means chargers, heat pumps, solar and batteries.

The Energy Independence Bill, published on 4 November 2026, would create a legal obligation on installers to register them. The details will come in regulations. Solar already needs telling under G98, and the bill would widen that. My reading: make registering every system you connect a habit now.

The qualification you now need

From 1 October 2026, an electrician installing solar PV, EV chargers or battery storage under a competent person scheme needs the matching Level 3 qualification, such as an award in small-scale solar PV systems. NICEIC says it will agree an action plan with registrants who can't show it yet. What registration costs has the rest of the scheme picture.

Where grafter.ly fits

grafter.ly doesn't certify installations or notify network operators.

The check is a job like any other. Take photos of the board as you found it before you touch anything: they stay on the job with their date. Then quote the inspection and, separately, any upgrade the customer needs before the kit goes on the wall.

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Sources. The law: the Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994 and Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002 (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (made 16 July 2026, in force 27 August 2026). The government: announcements of 24 March 2026, 16 June 2026 and 26 August 2026; the consultation response, the Interim Product Specification, version 2.0 and the impact assessment (all July 2026); and the Energy Independence Bill factsheet on registering installations (4 November 2026). The networks: Ofgem's decision on plug-in microgeneration (11 August 2026) and the ENA's Engineering Recommendation G98, Issue 2. Safety: Electrical Safety First on the roll-out (27 August 2026) and its Best Practice Guide 4 (August 2026). Building rules: Approved Document P; NAPIT's note on its Electrical Certifier scheme; the Scottish building standards technical handbook. Export: Ofgem's Smart Export Guarantee guidance for generators. Qualifications: NICEIC and NAPIT on the October 2026 changes. All checked 9 November 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

These are the rules as they stood on 9 November 2026, not advice on a particular installation. BS 7671 and the product specification are the documents to work to.