What a Plug-in Solar Kit Must Tell You — and When You Get to Read It

A plug-in solar kit is required to tell you a great deal — considerably more than most buyers realise. The specification puts information duties on three separate surfaces: the product itself, the plug on the end of the lead, and the documentation supplied in the box.

What none of those surfaces is, is the shop listing. Or the datasheet, or the manufacturer’s website. The rules govern the physical things inside the carton, which means almost everything you are entitled to know arrives after you have paid — and usually after you have decided where the panel is going and what it is being plugged into.

That is not a loophole anyone is exploiting. It is simply where product law operates. But it does mean the questions worth asking are the ones you have to ask early, and this page sets out what the answers are supposed to be.

Specification §8.2.3.1. The product as a whole must carry, indelibly:

• The manufacturer’s name, postal address and email address.
• A model number and a serial number, so the device can be identified.
• Rated values — mains voltage, mains frequency, highest continuous current, rated power.
• IP degree of protection, and the protective class.
• A statement that a maximum of one inverter of up to 800 VA may be plugged in per household circuit.
• A statement that notification to the distribution network operator about connection and disconnection is mandatory, including a link to instructions on how to do so.
• A statement that the product complies with the specification.

That last one is the single most useful thing on the list for a buyer, and Electrical Safety First say so directly: the product you intend to purchase must clearly state that it conforms to the Interim Product Specification.

Specification §8.2.3.2 treats the plug as its own surface, which makes sense — it is the part someone is holding at the moment they decide where to put it. It must carry:

• That only one plug-in solar device may be connected per household circuit.
• The rated current of the device.
• The ISO 7010-M002 mandatory sign — “observe the instructions for use”.
• A warning that the device must not be connected to an extension cable, multi-way adaptor or RCD adaptor.

This may be a durable label or band positioned close to the plug. If you are holding a kit and there is nothing of the sort near the plug, that is a reasonable thing to query before it goes anywhere near a socket.

Specification §8.3.1 to §8.3.5 run to roughly forty distinct items. The ones most likely to change what a household actually does:

• DNO registration and deregistration, with a QR code directing you to the guidance and registration process.
• The 960 W referral — above that total module power, you must be advised to consider a professional assessment of your installation before installing.
• Check your protective devices — that the installation has modern residual current protection and is in good condition, and that older fuse protection without RCBOs should be checked and, where necessary, upgraded by a professional electrician.
• How to identify which sockets share a circuit, with advice to consult a professional electrician if you are unsure how to do it safely.
• A prominent warning against ACM and MCM cladding, HPL cladding, timber cladding and timber balconies, and against buildings subject to external wall remediation works.
• A prominent warning that the device is not intended for use with a battery energy storage system.
• That you are responsible for obtaining permission from the owner, landlord, freeholder or managing agent, and for any planning permission or Listed Building Consent.
• That you are responsible for checking whether the product affects your insurance — your own, and where applicable the building’s.
• That you must not fix the panel to a wall forming a property boundary between dwellings, and must keep escape routes clear.
• The test button routine (§8.3.4) — press it periodically while the device is generating, and contact a competent professional electrician if it does not trip immediately.
• Decommissioning and disposal information, compliant with the WEEE Regulations.

The instructions must also state plainly that any testing or modification of the building’s electrical system is work for professional electricians, in accordance with the distribution code, G98 and BS 7671 — and that where connection requires modifying the final circuit, such as replacing the circuit’s overcurrent protective device, that is work only a qualified electrician does.

Easy to miss in the packaging, and worth digging out. The product must be supplied with a durable label intended to be affixed at or near the consumer unit, indicating that a plug-in PV device is present on the installation. The instructions must tell you to fix it somewhere clearly visible — and to produce and fit a new one if the consumer unit is ever replaced or relocated.

It matters more than it looks. The next person to open that board needs to know there is a source of energy sitting on one of the final circuits, and they will not necessarily be told by the householder.

Here is the practical problem. Every one of those surfaces — product, plug, paperwork — is inside the box. The specification regulates what you are told after the money has gone, and typically after you have already decided where the panel is going and which socket it is destined for.

It shows in the material buyers actually see. Reviewing the pre-purchase material for a compliant British range — three kits, datasheets revised August 2026, from the first provider listed on the ENA register — exactly one of those obligations appears anywhere a buyer would encounter before purchase. No mention of G98, the network operator, notification, RCDs, extension leads, one-per-circuit, the 960 W threshold, or conformity with the specification.

What is there, in small print beneath the warranty disclaimer, is a line saying the kit is designed for connection to a suitable outdoor socket installed and certified by a qualified electrician — on the same sheet whose step three of four reads “plug into a standard socket and start generating clean energy instantly”.

To be fair about what that does and does not show: §8.3 governs the manual supplied with the product, not the datasheet or the website. A gap in pre-purchase material is a gap in pre-purchase material — it is not evidence that anybody has failed to comply. The manuals themselves may well carry all of it. The point is only that you will not see it until the box is open.

• Does the listing or product state that it conforms to the Interim Product Specification? ESF tell buyers it must clearly say so.
• Is the exact model on the ENA Connect Direct register, shown as compliant? Not merely present — assessed and identified as compliant.
• What is the total PV module power? Above 960 W and the manufacturer is obliged to point you at a professional assessment.
• Is there a battery in it, or marketed with it? Battery-integrated plug-in solar sits outside this route entirely.
• Where is it going, and what is that wall made of? The cladding and balcony restrictions decide whole buildings at once.
• Is there a suitable fixed outdoor socket? No extension leads are permitted, so if there is not, that is electrical work you will need before the kit arrives, not after.

ESF also publish a straightforward buyer’s checklist, and their headline advice is to have the installation assessed by a competent electrician registered with a competent person scheme before purchasing — particularly in older properties, or where the condition of the installation and the type of protective devices is unknown.

One category gets none of this, because it is not covered. Loose panels and a micro-inverter bought separately are not a plug-in solar device, however the listing describes them. The specification requires a complete product including “a factory assembled connection line fitted by the manufacturer with a plug designed to BS 1363”.

A self-assembled build cannot meet that definition, cannot be registered on the ENA register as a device, and comes with none of the information duties above. Panels sold loose through national merchants routinely carry manuals with no mention of plugs, sockets, inverters, BS 1363, RCDs or the network operator anywhere in them — and which state that installation requires professional skills and is to be carried out by qualified personnel. Those are documents for a designed installation under BS 7671 Section 712.

The wider rules, and the limits that apply, are on the plug-in solar hub page.