Illustration — not a photograph of a completed installation
Frequently asked
Mostly about permission. Some about whether it can run a kettle. The answers to both are below, and neither has been improved for the sake of a sale.
The basics
Since 27 August 2026, yes — in Great Britain, if the kit is a compliant plug-in microgenerator: solar only, 800 W or less of AC output, no storage, and meeting the government’s Interim Product Specification version 2. We still hard-wire the systems we install, because it means no lead through a door and it produces an electrical certificate — the document your landlord or factor will ask for. That is a choice now, not a legal requirement, and we price it as one.
Mostly VAT, and it is the part people miss. A fitted system is zero-rated until 31 March 2027; a kit you buy and fit yourself is standard-rated at 20%. Our kit line is £929.52 before VAT, so buying the hardware yourself costs about £1,115 once VAT is on it — against £1,380 fitted. Everything the visit includes, from the railing wind-load assessment to the certificate and the G98 filing, comes to about £264. If you are confident about your railing and do not need a certificate, buying a compliant kit and plugging it in is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, and we would rather say so.
With the landlord’s written consent, yes — and they say yes more often than tenants expect, because the answers to their three real questions are good: nothing is drilled that cannot be made good, the electrical work is certified, and the whole system leaves with you at the end of the tenancy. We put those in writing for you to forward.
Probably, yes. A balcony is very often common property with an exclusive right of use, which means the structure is not yours to alter alone. Ask the factor before you order anything — it is the longest lead time in the project, and it is a five-minute email.
A south-facing 800 W system in central Scotland generates about 530 kWh a year. What it saves you is less than that sounds, because with no battery you only bank the units you happen to be using at the moment they are produced — on the MCS self-consumption tables that is roughly half to three-quarters of them. For a household on an average bill that works out at about £90 a year, and £1,380 fitted means a payback in the mid-teens of years. On a very low bill it may not pay back inside the panels’ warranted life at all. The estimator will tell you which of those you are, and we would rather it did that than a salesperson didn’t.
No, and nobody selling you balcony solar should say otherwise. The Smart Export Guarantee needs an MCS or Flexi-Orb certified installation and a balcony system is neither. Surplus goes to the grid for nothing — and on a typical flat that surplus is a quarter to a third of everything the panels make. It is the single biggest thing standing between the generation figure and the saving figure, which is why the estimator shows it as its own line rather than burying it.
No. A grid-tied microinverter is required to shut down the moment it stops seeing the grid, so that a panel on your balcony cannot electrify a cable somebody is working on. Backup power needs a battery and a changeover switch — a different product at a different price.
Better than you would guess. A vertical panel is aimed at a low sun, and Scotland has one — on the MCS tables a south-facing vertical array around Edinburgh collects about 670 kWh per kWp against about 695 in London. The gap that hurts roof solar up here barely applies. Winter is the vertical array’s relatively good season, and snow slides off instead of settling.
It comes with you, because you own it — the brackets unbolt and the whole thing fits in a car. Moving it is at your cost rather than ours, but you are paying for a visit, not for the system: you already own the hardware, so a refit is the install line plus a fresh certificate and notification. Against a roof array, which you leave behind and buy again from scratch, that is the whole argument for balcony solar if you move every couple of years.
Balcony solar
Yes, at the numbers above rather than the numbers on a German website. A south-facing 800 W balcony array in central Scotland generates about 530 kWh a year. Panels work from daylight rather than direct sun, so overcast days still produce; and because the array is vertical it does relatively better in winter than a roof system, when the sun is low and hits it square on.
No — but you do need permission from whoever does. For renters that is the landlord, and it should be in writing. For flat owners it is usually the title deeds or lease, and often a factor or management company as well, because a balcony is frequently common property even when only you can stand on it. Our guide to the rules covers both.
Since 27 August 2026, yes — if the kit is a compliant plug-in microgenerator. We still make a fixed connection on the systems we install, because it avoids a lead through a door and produces an electrical certificate, which is the document a landlord or factor asks for. That is now a choice rather than a legal requirement, and the fitted price is argued on its merits rather than on the connection being illegal. Our guide to the rules sets out what compliant actually means.
It comes with you, because it is yours. The brackets unbolt, the panels come off the railing, and the electrician disconnects the spur and makes the point good. Moving it is at your cost — but you are paying for a visit rather than for a system, since you already own the hardware. That is exactly why people who move every couple of years buy one.
It should not, and not damaging it is a design constraint rather than an afterthought — most of our customers have a landlord or a factor to answer to. Fixings are chosen to suit what you are allowed to do: clamp-on brackets that leave no holes where the railing permits, through-fixings only where the structure needs them and permission covers it.
No, and there is not one coming. Two reasons, and the second is the one that settles it. First, the law: a plug-in microgenerator must not import energy for storage, so a battery sits outside that category entirely and could only ever be a fitted, hard-wired product. Second, the arithmetic: a battery can only be worth what the system currently spills, which on a typical flat is about 176 kWh a year — £46 at current rates, and that is the ceiling, assuming storage captured every unit of it, which nothing does. There is no battery on the market whose price is repaid by £46 a year inside its own warranty. If you want storage, you want it against a system several times this size.
The rules
Yes. Since 27 August 2026 that includes plugging a compliant kit into a socket — solar only, 800 W or less, no storage, meeting the Interim Product Specification version 2, with an approved plug. A fixed connection made by an electrician was the only lawful route before that date and remains perfectly good; it is now a choice rather than a requirement. Either way, notify your network operator under G98 within 28 days and get the building owner’s consent for anything fixed to the structure.
Whoever owns the structure you are fixing to. A renter needs the landlord in writing. A flat owner usually needs the freeholder, the factor, or the other owners, depending on what the title deeds or lease say about common parts and external appearance. Planning permission is a separate question and usually does not apply, unless the building is listed or in a conservation area.
The Energy Networks Association process for connecting a small generator — anything up to 16 A per phase, which an 800 W inverter is comfortably inside. It lets an installation of this size be connected and then notified to your distribution network operator within 28 days, rather than needing permission first. There is no fee and we handle the paperwork.
You are not required to, and there is nothing to gain from it — a balcony system is not eligible for the Smart Export Guarantee, so there is no export tariff to sign up to. Your meter will simply record less import. Tell your DNO (we do that) and your insurer (you do that).
If you fitted it without consent, yes, and they can charge you for making good. With written consent, the agreement is what governs — which is why getting it in writing before anything is fixed is worth the fortnight it sometimes takes.
It changed on 27 August 2026, when plug-in solar became lawful in Great Britain, and this page was rewritten for it. Every regulatory statement on this site carries the date we last checked it. If you are reading a balcony solar page anywhere that still says plugging in is illegal in the UK, it was written before that date and has not been maintained since.
Email sales@plugsun.co.uk. A real person replies, usually within a working day, and we would rather answer an awkward question now than at the survey.
That is a PlugSun address rather than a Solar Balcony one because Solar Balcony is a trading name of PlugSun Ltd — same company, same crew, same inbox. More on who we are.
Your postcode, your aspect, your bill. About a minute, no salesperson, and a number you can check against our published method.
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