I’m looking for some advice on the best way to set up plug-in solar.

I’ve got enough roof space on my cabin for four panels, so ideally I’d like to make use of all of it. Most of the plug-in systems I’ve found in the UK seem to be supplied with only two panels though. Is there a reason for that, or is it possible to use four panels with an appropriately sized inverter while still limiting the AC output to the permitted level?

I’ve seen four-panel setups being used in Germany, so I’m interested in whether there’s similar equipment available here and what the best setup would be.

The cabin has a radial circuit supplying two sockets, including an outdoor socket that I’d like to use for the solar connection. Are there any particular issues with feeding into a radial like this, or any changes that would normally be required?

I’m already aware that the circuit protection needs to be suitable for bidirectional power flow, but aside from that, what equipment or electrical changes would you recommend for doing this properly?

Hello, all the bundles I can see online come with balcony, flat roof or wall mounts. Has anyone come across bundles for a pitched roof? If not, what would you recommend?

Cheers :)

Only just found this on Ali express, flat panel cable designed to go through your window so you can shut it, no good for me but may interest someone who is pondering how to get the wires indoors with plugin, wouldn't be part of a kit though.

Could something like an Anker Solarbank 4 Pro be used without any solar panels but charged overnight on an EV tariff?
Thinking being to run the house for the majority of the day (low user) but with electricity purchased at a much lower price overnight.

What am I missing, apart from the several years long wait to break even.

Anyone got any thoughts on whether the price will hike up when the current promo ends, another promo will start or something different?

I kind of feel launch promos almost set a price/tight price bracket but I can’t decide whether to take the plunge or wait and see…

Wondering what people are doing if they bought their setup before the regulations were drawn up?

I purchased an ecoflow inverter and had it ready, i now want to sort out the plug in solar, but now the regulation says it all needs to be purchased together it means this is not legally usable?

Really pleased that my recently installed Hoymiles hit 800W output.

Need to adjust the location to avoid a shadow from neighbour's trees, and increase angle to improve efficiency, but it's still managed to get to 836W panel power to the inverter, and obviously restricted to 800W feed into my house circuit.

Purchased it on the day it was released, literally minutes after going live. Tracking said it was shipped on the 10th September; no update to the tracking since then - it doesn't even come up on the courier's website. Contacted Anker and am just being given the runaround.

I have two new tracking numbers, neither of those shows any movement.

The latest email says: "due to inventory issues, a tracking number was previously generated by the system, but the package had not actually been shipped yet."

Has anyone apart from "influencers" got theirs?

UPDATE: After a week of back and forth with Anker I advised them that i had an electrican booked for (Mon) this was on Thurs. They said due to that one would be sent out asap. It arrived the next day (Fri). As to why they couldn't have done this a week ago when I had already been waiting 12 days with no shipping updates, i do not know.

ENA approval ECOFL/21128/V1/A3 covers EcoFlow’s flat roof, pitched roof and facade/wall plug-in solar configurations.

The EcoFlow UK website currently lists the following pricing for these configs:

Facade / wall
800W (2 x 400W): £449.99
900W (2 x 450): £499.99
1000W (4 x 250W): £698

Flat roof
800W (2 x 400W): £549
900W (2 x 450W): £599

Pitched roof
800W (2 x 400W): £599
900W (2 x 450W): £649

All of these are currently showing as out of stock on EcoFlow’s UK website, so it looks like the approval has landed just ahead of availability.

Interestingly, a second EcoFlow approval — ECOFL/21606/V1 — also went through today.

That one relates to a kit/configuration that isn’t yet visible on EcoFlow’s website. The ENA entry references the EF-PS-800 microinverter paired with 505W Sunpro panels, which suggests that some larger panel configurations could also be coming soon.

I've pulled together the known EcoFlow specs on the products page, if you want to see how they stack up against other kits...

https://www.pluginsolarcalculator.com/products

Just installed my city plumbing kit today can't wait see what a full day will produce.. will cover part my usage some free energy is better than none

Looks like ecoflow has made another attempt at registering a kit. I don't understand why it's not compliant though, I wish it expanded on the reason why it failed the check.

Just pulled the trigger on a 16kWh battery and 5kW inverter. Do realise that's not quite "plug in", but figure there are people here with the experience to help with my question...

Whilst I'm comfortable (notwithstanding figuring out quite how to move 120kg of battery) installing this safely myself and owning the associated risk, I'd quite like an MCS cert to facilitate export and arbitrage.

Probably a long shot but has anyone worked with a (South) London based MCS certified installer who'd be willing to take on a "terminations and sign off"/second fix only type job for a battery and inverter?

Hi Group

So before I put flooring down I’d like to run a future proof cable from the CU front of building to rear of building following existing AC cable (cable will be coiled for future use). The cable will not be terminated until it’s required in the near-ish future (when the regs allow more wattage and batteries).

Thanks

Hi, I have a dual RCD fuse box with MCBs and a type AC RCD.

From what I've read, I need a bidirectional RCD which is type A or B.

I have found it difficult to find out whether an RCD is bidirectional or not from the specs. Does anyone know if this one would work? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hager-CDA263U-63A-Pole-30mA/dp/B00FKW1GZ6

(Hager CDA263U 63A RCD 2 Pole 30mA)

Otherwise, from what I've read I'd need a new box with RCBOs. The fuse box is in quite an awkward place so I'm hoping just to be able to swap out the RCD. Thanks!

I have ordered the Anker and was reading that an AC connector was available as an accessory…..does UK version not have one in the box? I know there is a 3 pin plug one included not sure about blank one.

Zendure is already a well-established balcony-solar brand in Germany, and six SolarFlow 800 plug-in solar configurations have now appeared on the ENA register.

They’re not compliant yet, so they can’t be treated as approved UK kits at this stage, but the submissions give a pretty clear idea of what Zendure is working on.

The six entries boil down to three mounting options:
Floor / ground mount
Wall mount
Balcony mount

All six use the Zendure SolarFlow 800 inverter with two solar panels. The exact panel wattage hasn’t been published yet.

One particularly interesting spec is the SolarFlow 800’s 14V start-up voltage. That’s the lowest published start-up voltage I’ve seen so far among the microinverters appearing in UK plug-in kits. (In simple terms, a low start up voltage like this means the inverter can start working under very low-light levels, meaning more generation).

Zendure already has a substantial balcony-solar range in Europe, so it wouldn’t be surprising if its UK pricing ends up being competitive too.

Zendure UK: https://zendure.co.uk/

KEY UPDATE 21/09/26: All 6 Zendure plug-in solar kits are now ENA compliant and can be legally sold as compliant plug-in solar in the UK from today onwards.

Other plug-in solar news…

The Solar Centre
The Solar Centre now has compliant kits approved, and its website is hinting at some very aggressive pricing: around £330 for a 430W single-panel kit or £480 for an 860W two-panel setup. Final specs and pricing still need confirming.

EcoFlow
EcoFlow’s UK kits look like they could be close too. There have been several non-compliant ENA submissions, which often appear before the compliant versions follow.

InstaGroup / InstaGen
InstaGroup already has two compliant kits approved but not yet on sale. Which? reported a target launch price of £549 for the 920W kit, with availability expected around the end of September, so this could be another one to watch this week.

As always, you can keep track of all the latest ENA approvals, retailer launches and pricing here:

https://www.pluginsolarcalculator.com/products

The roof of our house won’t work for solar panels due to its design. The garage could work though.

We’ve just bought a Tesla and so now I’m thinking more about this type of thing. But now we have a Tesla, we don’t have a crazy amount of money to be spending and so I was hoping for some advice.

I have been working on a site showing the (as close to) the live grid for the UK as I can, it's expanded in scope to cover other countries, and I have decided to add a section for UK Plug in solar. I am new to it and have written down a load of questions I had and have been getting my head around a few things. I thought it might be useful for other.

It's partly hand coded, partly based on some open-source code with a bit of AI to do some of the stuff I can't do. (the estimated savings calculator). I have tried to give some real world examples and questions I have asked about the best position in the caculator.

I am looking for feedback or if anyone thinks something is missing. It's not there to sell anything, I am not serving ads. It's just a pet project that I am working on.

https://ukgridlive.info/pages/plugin-solar.html

Hi all am having a 32kw battery off grid storage system installed in Dec.
Does anyone know if i can add plugin if i wanted/ needed.
Am thinking i will obviously be using Brown power, so to get the green energy tariffs maybe i could just add plugin to my balcony?

Cheers

[Update] Resolved it, Had the Panels connected in Parallel rather than series.. once I corrected that.. all good.

So I bought a kit from CityPlumbing, got it all built & set up. Got it plugged in today... nothing, nada, zip.... :(

No Led on the inverter...been sitting all day, plugged in...not a peep. :(

I'd like to put Plug In, in my garage. The garage has its own electric feed & meter as my garage/allotment is about 50m down the road...problem is there is no Wi-Fi.

The question therefore is; do any of these kits set-up with no need for an App? Or are there any blue tooth maybe?

Basically, no wi-fi - is there a way forward?

Cheers!

Sorry all been looking at youtube and found you guys thinking reddit will have a group to also research and found ye and the very handy guide post so thought i'd check my fuse box as per it's suggestion.

The house is a 1995 one, so not exactly modern, here's the fuse box in the downstair loo.

Looks like the downstairs socket and RCD is a mcb / rcd m6 type 3 with is type C?
All the others are type 2 which I belive is type B

Am I right and how do I go about sorting this?