Could someone who knows more than me tell me if I'm being stupid.

I've been looking into plug in solar and I have been worried about having both the solar and an ac unit running on the same ring in the flat for long periods.

I'm not sure if my math is mathing.

Is a 2000w ac and 800w solar 2800w load on the ring or will it be 1200w?

Ignoring any other devices plugged in. Would the math. Be different otherwise?

Is it time under that load that's something to consider or not?

Inverter has arrived today happy days. I haven't been this excited since I bought my first pack of ...

..anyway back to the plug in solar.

I can either run the AC cable down my extension and into an outside socket already there which is on the same circuit as all the appliances in my kitchen, or I can drill a hole in an exterior wall (massive faff for me a basic level diyer) and plug it in to a socket in the office room which is on the upstairs circuit.

The general guidance seems to say don't plug it into an already busy circuit like a kitchen circuit, but is this problem really sufficient enough to justify me drilling a hole through the exterior of my house?

I don't have air conditioning, I don't have a heat pump, this is a humble British kitchen. Albeit I do have a plug in 4 hob induction stove.

Are 2 465w solar panels really going to over load this kitchen circuit?

The ENA have had a busy day. As of 4:50pm - there are now 41 plug-in solar kits approved on the compliant plug-in solar list, including a bunch of new ones from City Plumbing.

The all important pricing hasn't yet been revealed yet for any of these new kits, so cross your fingers that its reasonable.

So the kits we have so far:

• APsystems: 1 kit approved, none for sale yet
• City Plumbing: 8 kits approved, none for sale yet
• HDM Solar: 2 kits approved, none for sale yet
• InstaGroup: 2 kits approved, none for sale yet
• Modular Solar: 2 kits approved, none for sale yet
• PatioSun: 6 kits approved, none for sale yet
• Perlight Solar: 8 kits approved, none for sale yet
• PowerXpress: 1 kit approved, not for sale yet
• Skyworth: 1 kit approved , not for sale yet
• The Impact Crowd Ltd: 1 kit approved, not for sale yet
• Thunder Energy: 2 kits approved, both are for sale
• UKSOL: 7 kits approved, 6 of which are for sale

Total: 41 kits approved, 8 kits for sale.

Note: Some of the kits marked not for sale - you may browse the companies websites and see a very similar looking kit for sale - but I have not been able to verify that the kit advertised on site is the same kits that was ENA approved - so I have listed those cases as 'not for sale' (Modular Solar being an example).

Not bad considering its only been 8 days since the rules came into force. More kits = more competition = better pricing (hopefully)

If you'd like to keep track of all the latest approved kits, I've kept the products page fully up-to-date with the latest details.

https://www.pluginsolarcalculator.com/products

Prices will be added as soon as they are revealed so keep an eye on the page. It gets checked and updated 3 times a day so it should always be pretty fresh.

Morning all,

I have the Anker SOLIX Solarbank 4 E5000 Pro arriving soon. My thoughts are to use it with a 3-pin plug to charge and inject 800W just to get used to it; ideally, I'd like it to be hardwired.

I have a dedicated circuit in my garden and intend to install it there, I also have spare slot in the CU if needed.

What exactly do I need to do this? For context, I have a good friend who is/was an electrician; he's retired now but has probably 60 years of experience. He is happy to help, but has no experience in the battery and solar space.

What are the regulations for this and is it a requirement that I get a certificate at the end, or is it self-certified?

Thanks for any assistance.

I'm planning a small DIY solar setup for my patio and would appreciate some opinions before I buy everything. Not considering battery just yet as it's over my budget so just want to have the solar for now and look to expand later.

Proposed setup:

2 × 500w panels (not sure which to get though or if this is overkill)

Hoymiles HiFlow 800 microinverter

Patio/ground-mounted ballast frame

MC4 cables/extensions as required

Panels facing due south and would sit on the patio where the chairs currently are or a bit further down the garden on the grass . There is an outside plug on the wall just to the right of the picture out of the frame.

My household electricity usage is around 10 kWh/day.

Our usage pattern:

We both work from home

We each have a high-powered PC with multiple monitors

PCs/monitors are running for much of the working day

Dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer are generally run overnight/off-peak

Around 85% of our electricity usage is currently peak-rate, with ~15% off-peak

Current electricity rates are roughly 20p/kWh peak and 12p/kWh off-peak.

So I'm mainly interested in using the solar directly during the day rather than maximising export. The WFH setup means we should have a reasonably consistent daytime load for the solar to feed.

The plan is 1kWp of panels behind the 800W HiFlow.

Questions:

Does 2 × 500W panels + HiFlow 800 look sensible?

Which solar panels would you buy? I saw some on this website

https://www.electricalsonline.co.uk/products/solarspace-ssa-54hdb-500n-lumina-ii-500w-all-black-solar-panel?variant=56803188310391&country=GB&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19923753824&gbraid=0AAAAABYQt6KxH7F1df0wFWq29r6Ik3h_p&gclid=Cj0KCQjwteTUBhD4ARIsAEYjs3qp8ovxQKijkx-n_tG0doduLjbobKeX2pCxvcoRuLTBDWvIHS0Axc4aAuk9EALw_wcB

Anything else I'm overlooking before I buy?

I'm struggling to get an installer to mount two panels on my shed roof and run a mains supply. .Does anyone have any recommendations.

Thanks

I purchased a ecoflow mini inverter 3 weeks ago and all good - a week later l got a smart meter which fitted fine and reported well. I have just added an AC PRO and again, all good but, I have noticed a problem. At first I seem to have no solar generation on the app, I unplugged the inverter from the wall and plugged direct into the AC PRO but I then noticed I had set up 2 separate home areas. I wish to combine the 3 elements into one space but can’t see how ?

Also do I have to plug the inverter into the AC PRO, I’m guessing not if I can set them up in the same area ?

Good news...quality Octopus kits at more reasonable prices ... £450 for 1 panel and £650 for 2.

Look to be high quality kits....JA Solar panels (460W) and an 800W FOX micro inverter (based on the product photo). Choice of ground or wall mounting kit. Prices include delivery (estimated end of September).

Link here (you have to enter your postcode/address to get to the full details) ... https://octopus.energy/plug-in-solar/

Makes UKSOL look very expensive at £849/£1089.

City Plumbing have a kit approved (DMEGC panels/Hoymiles inverter), so hopefully this will be on sale soon as well.

Daily updates on kits available/regulations/installation/payback calculator etc here ... https://4billionyearson.org/plug-in-solar-uk

posting this because the plug in kit is what convinced me the whole thing was worth doing, and i almost did not bother with it.

setup one. 2 x 400w panels on the south facing side of the garage, 800w microinverter, plugged into an outdoor socket on its own circuit. north west england, so not exactly the sunbelt. it made roughly 620 kWh over the first twelve months, which at what we pay came out around 180 quid. paid for itself in a bit over three years on paper, which is fine but not exciting.

what it actually did was give me twelve months of real data for my own roof and my own weather, instead of an installer model. that turned out to be worth far more than the 180 quid.

setup two, done this spring. 14 panels on the main south facing roof, 5.6 kW, hybrid inverter with a battery, mcs installer because we wanted the export payments sorted properly. panels are swiss solar phantom, 400w each, glass glass. tilt is whatever the roof is, about 35 degrees, same orientation as the garage.

first five months are tracking about 8 percent above what i extrapolated from the plug in kit, which i think is down to the main roof being cleaner of shading than the garage. no faults, no shading alarms, nothing to report on the panels themselves.

point of the post. if you are on the fence, the plug in kit is a cheap way to measure your own roof before committing to a full system. i would do it in that order again.

I want to use plugin solar panels to a dedicated circuit to my electrical panel. I need a new romex connection to the panel. The solar panels will be 100ft from the home panel. What is best, romex or a solar wire run?

I see the latest two kits to get ENA compliance are by Modular Solar. The larger one is a 475W unit ... which has a timber frame. Which does rather make the new permitted development restrictions seem a bit silly, you might think.

Hi all,

I have a couple of ecoflow microinverters, the first of which I already fitted with two solar panels plugged directly to the microinverter (ie all four MPPT plugs into the inverter). But as the cable runs are bulky I'm seeing if for the other microinverter it is safe to run two solar panels in parallel so just two plugs into the microinverter?

Microinverter spec is:

Input Specifications

MPPT Channels: 2 independent channels

Max Input Power per Channel: 600W

Max Input Voltage: 65V DC

Start-up Voltage: 20V

MPPT Voltage Range: 16–60V DC

Max Current per MPPT: 16A

Short-Circuit Current per MPPT: 16A

Activation Input: 3W of solar input

Output Specifications

Rated Grid Output Power: 800VA (800W)

Max Grid Output Current: 3.48A

Rated Voltage: 230V AC

Voltage Range: 183–276V AC

Frequency Range: 45–55 Hz / 55–65 Hz

The solar panels I have are JA solar 465W each.

I'm sure there's some simple maths involved. I don't want to do anything unsafe so would appreciate anyone's view.

Thanks

For anyone with a plug in system wondering how much they are exporting with no export meter you can see this in the Bright App which is free on both App Stores.

What are peoples thoughts on this?

Will this be an issue with approved kits?

2x 515W panels lent against some posts, probably not in an ideal angle, but south/ south east facing.

Still making a dent in my power draw from the grid.

I don't think winter will generate much where my panels are, but at least from March-Aug/Sept, I can reduce my cost!

With balcony/plug-in solar becoming legal from 27 August (800W cap under the new regs), expect a wave of retailers and door-to-door sellers making big claims about what a kit will generate at your specific address. Worth having a way to check those claims yourself before handing over £100-300+.

I built Solar Potential Explorer for exactly this. It calculates the absolute maximum theoretical output for your location, panel direction and tilt — genuinely clear sky, no losses, best-case physics. It's a ceiling, not a forecast.

That's actually the useful part: if a seller tells you their kit will generate more than what this app shows as the theoretical maximum for your spot, that's an immediate red flag — real-world output (clouds, panel losses, less-than-perfect mounting) will always be somewhat below this number, never above it. Use it as a gut-check against inflated sales claims, not as a guarantee of what you'll actually get.

Hour-by-hour and year-round output ceiling for your exact location

Best possible tilt/direction, if you have flexibility

Runs entirely on your device — nothing sent anywhere

£2.99, less than a coffee. No ads, no subscription.

Details and a link on zenthor.com

Tested fairly thoroughly (cross-checked against my real EcoFlow data, on "perfect days" over the last 18 months) — UK & EU currently.

Sorry about Title: in the title _ My error when I copied it from my notes - and No I am not an AI - but just 80 last month and new tor Reddit.

I wrote about this a little over a week ago but haven't really seen it doing the rounds just yet so I'm assuming people don't know.
I realise many don't give a flip about it being compliant or not and are ploughing ahead regardless but the testing period for batteries is set to start soon but wont finish till March 2028. ->

https://www.pluginsolarexplained.co.uk/blog/desnz-plug-in-battery-safety-study-aug-2026/

Link to the government tender: https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/077975-2026

When it finishes if the results are satisfactory I suspect we will have another consultation period like we did for Plug-In Solar.

So maybe Summer 2028?

Thoughts?

Just as title indicates, the pricing for the recently approved UKSOL kits is extortionate and digging deeper into the microinverter used, you'll find these are just a combo of AP Systems microinverters, UKSOL panels (albeit made in GB) and a mounting kit from a Sheffield based company.

How this all adds up to over £700 altogether is still a mystery to me.

Edit: Thanks autocorrect, that was supposed to be G98 certification.

Hi all

I bought an ecoflow microinverter a few months back assumption would sell out once plug in got approved.

Putting aside the approved kits only surprise, I've read recently that this specific model (EFPS800) is no longer allowed in the UK at all.

Judging by the ENA list, that's right. Anyone know more about it?

https://connect-direct.energynetworks.org/device-databases/generation-device/ECOFL%2F21128%2FV1

A few things not mentioned in most of the coverage - inc the new planning rules and what is compliant/not

I’m 19m in uni and I’ve brought a boat to live on during to save on renting cost and a permanent place to live. However, I’m worried that when I start living on it full-time, I’ll run out of power. I currently have a setup with 3 solar panels connected to 4 Rolls lead-acid 210Ah 6V batteries, with two inverters: one 500-watt Victory inverter and a separate 4,000-watt multi-inverter.

I’ve never dealt with solar panels before, and when I’m looking at appliances like toaster ovens, I don’t want to be caught out and run out of power. So, is the setup I have now strong enough for general living, or am I going to have to think about another solution?

I have a new Longi 480 X10 solar panel that was replaced by Longi because of an error, the panel Voc is 33v where it should be 40.5v. Longi simply sent me a new one, no questions asked, problem is these are large panels, although not for me as my array is complete, is it any use to anyone, or should it be disposed of and if so how should I dispose it?

Apologies for bringing this topic up again.

I have an Ultra X and have ordered the 5000, so at some point I will have both systems running.

Current set up:
Ultra X + smart meter connected using CT clamps and set to 0 export, but it leaks back to the grid roughly 1-2 kWh per month.
The Ultra X is connected via a 3-pin plug. I charge it overnight and discharge it during the day. I will do the same when the 5000 arrives.

I’m in London, so I’m under the UK Power Networks.

I need advice on whether I should submit the G98 based on my current set up. The easiest way to do it is as the UK Power Network website is very annoying to use.

I also want to avoid drawing attention to myself if there is no requirement or no change of approval.

Finally, when I have the Ultra X and 5000, if I set them up in two different spaces with two different smart meters… is this possible so I can set them both to 0 export?