Which plug-in solar kits can you actually buy in the UK?
We checked B&Q, Screwfix, Argos, EcoFlow and Anker before the law changed, and Argos again after it did. Almost everything on sale is a portable panel or a power station, which is not the same thing, and compliance evidence is still the exception, not the rule.
Rules and product details last checked on .
Key takeaways
- Sixteen days before the law takes effect, we could not find a UK retail listing that evidences compliance. That is a finding about the listings, not a verdict on the products.
- Most “solar kits” on sale are not plug-in solar. Portable panels and battery power stations do not feed your home in parallel with the grid, which is the whole point of the new category.
- The two ranges built for this purpose are EcoFlow STREAM and Anker SOLIX, and neither page we read carried a type-test reference.
- The thing to look for is not the panel. It is the microinverter, its AC rating, and its entry in the industry type-test register — we explain all three in our guide to microinverters.
- Argos began selling a dedicated plug-in range after the law changed. Checked 3 September 2026, priced £849 to £989. See below for what its listing does and does not confirm.
- Prices below are snapshots from the date each section was checked and will have moved. We keep current verified prices on a separate page.
On 11 August 2026, sixteen days before plug-in solar becomes legal in Great Britain, we went looking for a kit you could actually buy and be confident in. We did not find one.
That needs stating carefully, because it is easy to misread. We are not saying the products on sale are unlawful or unsafe. We are saying something narrower and more useful: the listings we read did not contain the evidence a buyer would need, and several of the things being sold as “solar kits” are not plug-in solar at all.
What we were looking for
This is the part most comparison pages skip, so here is our test in full. A kit qualifies as evidenced plug-in solar when the listing lets you establish:
- the make and model of the microinverter, not just the panel;
- its nominal AC output and current per phase;
- a system or manufacturer reference in the industry type-test register;
- an explicit G98 or “Fully Type Tested” declaration, or equivalent proof;
- the export limit and protection settings;
- who is making the declaration, whether manufacturer, retailer or installer.
None of the following, on their own, satisfy any part of that test: “plug-and-play”, “balcony solar”, the wattage of the panel, the presence of a mains plug, or the words “UK” and “800W” on a product image.
We set that bar because the regulation ties everything to the product specification, and because a network operator cannot authorise a micro-generator that is not type tested. The government’s own Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification, version 2.0 sets out the technical and safety requirements a compliant device has to meet, and it is the document a seller should be able to point to.
What is actually on the shelves
| Retailer | Product | Solar rating | Price on 11 Aug 2026 | Compliance evidenced in listing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B&Q | Urban Center, 2 flexible plug-and-play panels | 400 W | not recorded | none found |
| B&Q | Lowenergie 150 W kit with charge controller | 150 W | not recorded | none found |
| B&Q | BLUETTI AC70 with PV200 panel | 200 W | £748 | none found |
| Screwfix | V-TAC 450 W monocrystalline, 4-pack | 1,800 W | £399.99 | none found |
| Argos | Jackery SolarSaga 100 W | 100 W | £269 | none found |
| Argos | Jackery E300 Plus with 40 W panel | 40 W | £289 | none found |
| Argos | EcoFlow RIVER 3 UPS with 45 W panel | 45 W | £249 | none found |
| Argos | Anker SOLIX C300X with PS100 panel | 100 W | £359 | none found |
| EcoFlow UK | STREAM Series Solar Plant | varies | up to £1,299 | states plug-in use; no type-test reference found |
| Anker UK | SOLIX range | varies | from £849 | notes the 800 W limit and operator notification; no type-test reference found |
Listings read on 11 August 2026. “None found” means the evidence was not present in the page we read. It does not mean the product fails to comply. Prices are snapshots and marketplace sellers change.
Most of that list is not plug-in solar
Look again at the middle of the table. A Jackery SolarSaga, an EcoFlow RIVER, an Anker SOLIX C300X, a BLUETTI AC70: these are portable panels and battery power stations. They are good products. They are not the thing this law is about.
The distinction that matters is whether the device feeds your home in parallel with the public network. A power station charges a battery and you plug appliances into the box. Nothing flows back into your ring main, so no operator notification arises and no type testing question arises. It also means it does not reduce the bill for anything still plugged into the wall. If you were hoping to combine solar and storage, read what the law actually allows before spending anything.
Plug-in solar does the opposite. It pushes power into the house through a socket and offsets whatever is running. That is why it needed a change in the law, and why it comes with conditions a power station does not have.
A retailer listing both under “solar kits” is not lying. It is just not answering the question you came with.
The two ranges built for this
EcoFlow STREAM and Anker SOLIX are the ranges positioned for the UK plug-in market, and Anker’s page is notably straight with readers: it states the 800 W limit and mentions notifying your network operator, which most retail pages do not.
Neither page we read gave a microinverter type-test reference. That is the one piece of information that would let a buyer check the kit rather than trust the listing, and its absence is the single biggest gap in the market right now.
We are not linking to either as a recommendation. When a kit’s compliance is verifiable we will say so, name the evidence, and say plainly if we earn a commission from the link.
What changed after 27 August: Argos
We went back on 3 September 2026, a week after the law took effect, because the “coming” promise at the bottom of this page was about exactly this moment. Argos now sells a dedicated plug-in range under the brand UKSOL, separate from the portable panels it carried before. Live listings that day showed a Pro Compact 460 W ground-mount kit and a Pro Max 1,260 W hybrid-mount bundle, priced between £849 and £989.
This is a real change from what we found in August: it is a purpose-built range at a major UK retailer, not a portable panel relabelled. We have not, however, found a type-test system reference on Argos’s listing, the same gap that applied to EcoFlow and Anker in August. Coverage elsewhere states the range “meets the full requirements”, but we could not independently verify that claim against the ENA type-test register or against UKSOL’s own documentation, so we are not repeating it as fact.
We are treating UKSOL the same way we treat every other brand on this page: named, priced, and not recommended until its compliance is something we can check ourselves rather than take on trust.
What to do if you are buying before the register exists
Until the market catches up, the questions worth asking a seller are short:
- Which microinverter is in this kit, and what is its model number?
- Is it Fully Type Tested, and under what reference?
- What is the AC output in watts, not the panel rating in watts?
- Does it meet the Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification?
A seller who can answer those is selling plug-in solar. A seller who answers with the panel wattage and the phrase “plug and play” is selling you something else, possibly a very good something else.
And whichever kit you end up with, you still have to tell your network operator before you commission it.
What we have verified, and what we have not
Verified. That these listings existed at these prices on 11 August 2026, that the Argos UKSOL range existed at its stated prices on 3 September 2026, and that we could not find compliance evidence in either.
Not verified. Whether any individual product does or does not comply, including UKSOL’s. We have not tested anything, have not seen a type-test certificate, and have not contacted the manufacturers. Absence of evidence in a product page is not evidence of non-compliance, and we will not present it as such.
Coming. A maintained register of kits whose compliance we have been able to check, with the evidence and the date attached to each entry. That is the page this one becomes once there is something to put in it. Argos entering the market is the first real candidate for that register; it is not on it yet because we have not been able to check the claim ourselves.
Our editorial policy explains how we handle claims we cannot check.
This page carries the date it was last checked, and it will date faster than anything else on this site. If a kit now publishes its type-test reference, tell us and we will verify it and add it.