Last reviewed: 3 September 2026. Quotations are from SI 2026/848 and
from the DESNZ Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification, version 2.0, July 2026. The
specification is interim and will be superseded; we re-check this page when it is.
No. Not in the way the question is usually meant, and not by any product you can lawfully buy for
this purpose in Great Britain. A battery is excluded from the plug-in solar route by the statutory
definition itself, not by a guidance note someone could reinterpret. The “balcony power station with
storage” products sold across the EU are outside the British regime, and a compliant kit’s instructions
are required to say so in a prominent warning.
What you can legitimately do is have both things in one house — a plug-in solar kit on the
socket and a properly installed home battery wired into your consumer unit. They are two separate
installations with two separate legal regimes, and the moment storage enters the picture, so does an
electrician. This page explains exactly where that line falls.
Why the answer is no: the wording that decides it
The plug-in route exists because
SI
2026/848, in force since 27 August 2026, created a category called a plug-in microgenerator.
The definition has five limbs. The fifth is the one that ends this discussion. A plug-in microgenerator
is a source of energy which, among other things, “is not designed to import electrical energy from a
low voltage consumer’s installation for the purpose of storing energy for later supply, other than for
control or auxiliary functions permitted by the Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product
Specification.”
Read what that excludes. Not “a battery is discouraged”. A device designed to take
electricity from your home and store it to give back later is not a plug-in microgenerator at
all. It falls outside the category, and with it outside the permission to connect a generator to a
domestic socket by a standard plug. The carve-out for “control or auxiliary functions” is what allows a
microinverter to have internal capacitors and electronics — it is not a doorway for storage.
The specification then closes the door from the other side. Its scope clause states that the document
does not apply to plug-in battery systems, nor to plug-in solar PV devices integrated
with battery systems. And its documentation requirements oblige manufacturers to include a
prominent warning that the plug-in solar device is not intended to be connected to, operated
with, or used in conjunction with a battery energy storage system. A kit that fails to carry
that warning is telling you something about itself.
What people are actually asking, and the answer to each
| What you have in mind | Where it stands | What it would actually require |
|---|---|---|
| An all-in-one “balcony power station” with a built-in battery, plugged into a socket | Outside the plug-in regime. Excluded by the definition and out of the specification’s scope |
Nothing makes it compliant. Do not buy one for this purpose |
| A separate battery box plugged into the same socket or circuit, charging from the house | Outside the plug-in regime. It is designed to import and store, which is the excluded function |
Same answer, and note extension leads and multi-way adaptors are prohibited anyway |
| Wiring a battery between the panels and the microinverter on the DC side | Not permitted. The specification fixes what may connect to the inverter: up to four PV modules, max two in series, ≤120 V DC open-circuit |
It would void every compliance claim and the G98 type test the inverter depends on |
| A conventional home battery installed in the house, with a plug-in kit also present | Allowed — as two separate installations, not one product | A qualified electrician, BS 7671, building regulations notification, and a DNO application for the battery |
| A portable power station charged from a socket, used for camping or as a backup | An ordinary appliance, sold and used as such | Nothing — but it is not part of your solar installation and the kit’s instructions tell you not to operate them together |
The fourth row is the one worth dwelling on, because it is the honest answer to most people’s real
question. There is nothing in the regulations stopping a household from having both. What there is not,
and cannot be, is a single plug-in device that does both.
Why the rule exists
The plug-in permission is narrow on purpose, and it rests on a specific safety argument: a
generator with a maximum apparent power of 800 VA and a maximum current of 3.5 A, which disconnects
within 100 milliseconds of losing the mains and drops below 34 V at the plug pins in the same window,
can be tolerated on a domestic ring final circuit designed for import. That case was built on a study
DESNZ commissioned into plug-in PV on UK ring circuits, and the specification defines the limits within
which the conclusion holds.
A battery breaks the argument in two places. It can push power into the circuit at times and in
patterns a solar panel never does — including at night, when nobody is watching the weather. And it
turns a device with a single, weather-limited energy source into one with a stored reservoir, which
changes the fault behaviour on a circuit that was never designed to have generation on it in the first
place. Whatever one thinks of the caution, that is the reasoning, and it is why the exclusion sits in
the statutory definition rather than in a footnote. More on the regime in
the rules.
What crosses the line into needing an electrician
The dividing line is not “solar versus batteries”. It is whether anything is being connected to your
fixed wiring rather than to a socket. On the plug-in side, the specification is clear about where DIY
stops, and it stops sooner than most listings imply:
- Any modification to the final circuit — for example replacing the overcurrent
protective device for the circuit — is work for a qualified electrician under BS 7671. - An installation without modern residual current protection. If your board uses
older fuse protection rather than RCBOs, the specification says have it checked and, if necessary,
upgraded by a professional. - A doubtful, damaged or degraded socket. The device must not be connected to one,
and the specification tells you to get an inspection if you are unsure. - More than 960 W of panels. Above that threshold, manufacturers must advise a
professional assessment of your existing installation. - Fitting an outdoor socket to IP55, which many balcony and garden installations
need and no kit includes.
A home battery is on the other side of that line entirely and always has been. It is fixed
electrical work in a dwelling: consumer unit, notifiable under building regulations, a network
application, and a competent installer. There is no DIY route and there is no plug for it. See
do I need an electrician for plug-in solar
and where a home battery can be installed.
If storage is what you actually want
Then buy storage, and do not try to reach it through the plug-in route. A properly installed home
battery does something a plug-in kit fundamentally cannot: it lets you buy electricity when it is
cheap and use it when it is dear, which on a wide time-of-use spread is worth considerably more than
800 W of panels ever will be. It does not need solar panels to do it, and since 1 February 2024 a
standalone battery installed without panels has qualified for 0% VAT — a relief running to
31 March 2027, after which the rate is legislated to revert to 5%, not 20%.
Start with home battery storage for how it works,
home battery cost for what to demand on a quotation, and
VAT on home batteries explained for the tax position,
including the trap that a battery bought as goods and self-installed is standard-rated at 20%.
And if you want more out of the kit you have
The useful move is not storage. It is timing. Because a plug-in kit earns nothing for exported
units — there is no SEG payment for an
uncertified kit — every kilowatt-hour you use in the moment it is generated is worth the full unit
rate, and every one you export is worth nothing. Running the dishwasher, the washing machine or a hot
water immersion in the middle of the day converts exported units into saved money more reliably than
any hardware you can add. That is the subject of
using more of your solar at home, and the effect
of self-consumption on the numbers is built into our
savings calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Can I buy an EU balcony kit with a battery and use it here?
Not on the plug-in route. It falls outside the definition of a plug-in microgenerator and outside
the scope of the product specification. See
importing a balcony kit from the EU.
Will the rule change?
The product specification is explicitly interim and says it may be modified or superseded as
technology develops. The exclusion of storage, however, sits in the statutory definition, so changing
it would require amending the regulations, not just the specification. We will update this page if that
happens.
Can I have a plug-in kit and a home battery in the same house?
Yes. Two installations, two regimes: the kit notified to your DNO under G98 within 28 days, the
battery installed and notified by your electrician.
Does a portable power station count?
As an appliance, not as part of your generation. Do not connect it to, or operate it with, the
plug-in device — the kit’s own instructions are required to warn against it.
Sources.
SI
2026/848, definition of “plug-in microgenerator” (legislation.gov.uk) ·
DESNZ, Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification v2.0,
July 2026 (PDF) ·
HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6 ·
Energy Networks Association, find your network operator.
General information, not electrical or legal advice — see
editorial methodology.