Solar panels with or without a battery - costs compared

A 6 kWp solar panel system without a battery typically costs £9,500 in the UK, with most quotes between £7,400 – £12,300. The same panels with a hybrid inverter and a 5 kWh battery come to about £12,500, usually between £9,750 – £16,200. Both prices include scaffolding and installation and use the 0% VAT rate that applies to solar panels and batteries until 31 March 2027. Whether the battery is worth the difference depends mostly on when you use your electricity.

The two systems side by side

	Panels only	Panels with battery
Typical price	£9,500	£12,500
Usual range	£7,400 – £12,300	£9,750 – £16,200
Panels	13–14 x 450 W all-black	Same
Inverter	6 kW string inverter	6 kW hybrid inverter
Storage	None	5 kWh lithium battery
Scaffolding, cabling, monitoring	Included	Included

Everything except the inverter and the battery is the same, so the difference between the two prices is what the storage costs you. For a bigger 10 kWh battery on a three-phase supply, budget around £15,800. See the full breakdown and change the system size in our Solar panels.

What both prices include

• Scaffolding put up, hired for the job and taken down
• 450 W monocrystalline all-black panels, enough for 6 kWp
• Aluminium mounting rails fixed with roof hooks under the tiles
• DC isolation and surge protection, and solar cable from the roof to the inverter in conduit
• AC cable to the consumer unit with a dedicated breaker
• A monitoring meter showing generation and household use
• Two permanent roof anchor points for safe access later
• Connection and commissioning

Not included: roof repairs under the array, a new consumer unit if yours has no space, a three-phase supply upgrade, and any fees or paperwork with your network operator.

We build these prices from the equipment and the labour it takes to fit it, at local labour rates, and check them against market prices and real quotes. Scaffolding, the inverter and the electrical work cost much the same for a small or a large system, which is why the price per kWp falls as the system grows.

When a battery makes sense

Panels produce most in the middle of the day. Without a battery, whatever you do not use at that moment is exported to the grid. A battery stores it for the evening instead. It tends to pay off when:

• The house is empty during the day and most of your use is in the morning and evening.
• You can use a time-of-use tariff, charging the battery cheaply overnight in winter when the panels produce little.
• Your evening use is steady, for example cooking, lighting, a heat pump or an electric car charged at home.

It helps less when:

• Someone is home all day and already uses much of the solar as it is generated.
• Your usage is low, so the battery rarely fills or empties.
• The budget is tight. Panels alone deliver most of the saving for less of the outlay.

Size the battery to your evening use, not to the panels. An oversized battery sits half-empty and takes much longer to earn back its cost.

Adding a battery later

You can add a battery later, but it costs more to do it that way. A panels-only system uses a standard string inverter, so a battery added later usually needs either its own inverter (an AC-coupled battery) or a swap to a hybrid inverter. Either way you pay for electrical work twice. If you are fairly sure you will want storage, fitting it now avoids that.

There is also a timing reason. Installing solar panels and batteries is charged at 0% VAT until 31 March 2027, and our figures use that rate. A battery bought as part of the job before the deadline gets that rate; a battery added after it may not.

Other things to settle before you sign

• Roof. Our estimate assumes a south-facing pitched roof with tiles. Slate, east-west splits and flat roofs change the price.
• Consumer unit. An old unit with no spare way may need replacing.
• Electrical rules. Connecting the system to your consumer unit is notifiable electrical work in England and Wales: it must be done by a registered electrician (Part P) or notified to building control.
• Other help. The Warm Homes Plan, published in January 2026, commits £15bn to 2030, including grants for low-income households and low- or zero-interest loans that are being phased in.

Compare quotes on the same basis

Ask every installer to quote both options: panels only and panels with the battery size you want. Check that the panel wattage, the inverter and the battery capacity are listed, then compare each total with our figures. Our "Is my quote fair?" tool does this for your area: Is my quote fair?.