Plug-in solar demand soars - what it means for rooftop costs
A quarter of UK households want plug-in solar, Eco Experts data shows. Here's how that compares with installing a full rooftop system.
Plug-in solar panels are flying off the shelves
According to The Eco Experts, seven million UK households - 26% of the total - say they want plug-in solar panels. That's more than double the 10% who plan to have a full rooftop system fitted in the next five years, and well ahead of the 13% who say they actually intend to buy one.
Interest is highest in London, where 35% of people are keen, followed by Manchester (33%), Nottingham (30%) and Sheffield (29%). There's a sharp generational split too: 30% of Gen Z adults are excited about plug-in solar, a far higher share than among Boomers.
The surge follows a change in the law on 27 August that made plug-in solar panels fully legal to buy and plug straight into a household socket. Retailers including Currys, Screwfix, Argos and Wilko have started stocking them, and Octopus Energy - the UK's biggest energy supplier - sold through its own stock and had to reorder. The report also links demand to rising wholesale gas prices after the Strait of Hormuz closed following the outbreak of the US-Iran war, which pushed up household energy bills. Germany is held up as the market plug-in solar may follow here: after it scrapped rules letting landlords block installations, households bought the panels in large numbers, and it's expected to get 5% of its electricity from plug-in solar by 2045.
A plug-in panel is not the same purchase as a rooftop system
A plug-in, or "balcony", solar panel typically rests on a balcony rail, a shed roof or against a garden wall and feeds a small amount of power straight into a socket, with no roof work and no installer needed. It's a cheap way to shave a little off a daytime electricity bill, but the output is modest next to a properly specified rooftop array, and it won't come with the export payments or the scale of savings a full installation offers.
For anyone the Eco Experts data has nudged towards actually going solar on the roof, the costs are quite different from a plug-in panel. We calculate rooftop solar costs from labour hours at local trade rates plus panel, inverter and scaffolding costs, checked against current market quotes.
A typical 6 kWp system costs £12,600, with most quotes falling between £9,800 – £16,300. A smaller, budget-spec system starts from around £9,500, while a premium system with higher-output panels and a bigger inverter can run to £16,000.
Battery storage is the other big variable, and it's where a rooftop system pulls further ahead of anything plug-in: a 5 kWh battery typically brings an installed system to around £12,600, while a 13.5 kWh battery, large enough to cover most of a typical evening's use, takes it to around £17,800. See
| Material | Typical | Usual range | Lifespan |
|---|---|---|---|
| No battery | £9,500 | £7,450 – £12,400 | – |
| 5 kWh battery | £12,600 | £9,800 – £16,300 | – |
| 10 kWh battery | £15,600 | £12,200 – £20,300 | – |
| 13.5 kWh battery | £17,800 | £13,800 – £23,100 | – |
for the full set of battery options and what each one typically adds.
VAT relief still applies
Whatever's driving the renewed interest, now remains a reasonable time to get quotes for a proper rooftop installation: the 0% VAT rate on installing energy-saving materials, which covers solar panels and batteries, runs until 31 March 2027. The costs above already include whatever VAT rate applies, so they're comparable across quotes without any extra adjustment.
What to do with the numbers
The Eco Experts' figures point to a lot of curiosity about solar, but plug-in panels and a fitted rooftop system solve different problems at very different price points. If you're weighing up a full installation, start with our Solar panels to see how panel count and battery size change the price, and once quotes start coming in, use the "is my quote fair" tool to check them against local market data before you commit to an installer.