One device per household: the plug-in solar rule nobody mentions
G98 permits one plug-in device per household rather than one per circuit. The move to a per-circuit allowance is intended but has not been made, and it has no date.
Last updated 22 August 2026.
You can install one plug-in solar device per household. The allowance is counted per household, whatever the number of sockets, circuits or balconies you have. That limit comes from G98 Issue 2 Amendment 1 (2026), and it is the operative rule from 27 August 2026. It is also missing from most of the coverage, including several pieces that suggest running a unit at the front of the house and another at the back.
The confusion is understandable, because two documents point in different directions. The Interim Product Specification anticipates one device per final ring circuit, and the government has said it intends to move to a per-circuit allowance. But that intention was expressed as being subject to a corresponding amendment to G98, and no such amendment has been made. Until it is, the household limit is what applies.
Where the limit comes from
The connection of a small generator in parallel with the distribution network is governed by Engineering Recommendation G98, the industry document that sets out how micro-generation may be connected and what the network operator must be told. G98 applies to aggregate registered capacity of up to 16 A per phase, which is comfortably above anything a plug-in device does on its own.
Amendment 1 (2026) is what makes plug-in devices workable within G98 at all, and it permits one such device per household. The statutory instruments do not contradict this. SI 2026/848 defines what a plug-in microgenerator is and removes the safety and ESQCR obstacles to connecting one. It does not authorise any particular number of them. The count is a G98 matter, and G98 currently says one.
If you read that you can install two or three on separate circuits, you are reading about an intention rather than a rule. The per-circuit approach is what the specification anticipates and what the government has said it wants. It requires an amendment to G98 that has not been made and has no published date. Installing a second device today puts you outside the framework and, depending on the arrangement, outside what your notification to the network operator covers.
Why the network operator cares about the count
An 800 VA device is trivial on its own. The reason for any limit at all is aggregation. Distribution networks were designed on the assumption that power flows from the substation to the house. Generation reverses that at the street level, and the effect that matters is voltage rise: when many properties on the same low-voltage feeder push power outwards at the same time, local voltage climbs, and it has a statutory upper bound.
Solar makes this worse than most generation because it is synchronised by the weather. Every device on the street peaks in the same hour of the same sunny afternoon. One device per household is a cautious way of keeping the density of that on a known trajectory while the network operators find out what real uptake looks like.
There is a second reason, internal to your own home. A ring final circuit has a design current, and the DESNZ safety study (carried out by Arceio Limited with laboratory partner Eurofins E&E UK) found that export limitation was not uniform, with some devices exceeding their declared ratings, and recorded one RCBO trip time of 89 ms against a 40 ms standard. Its conclusion was that plug-in PV can behave safely and coherently but that “product quality is not uniform across the market”. Multiple injection points on one circuit is exactly the scenario where inconsistent products stop being a curiosity. The findings are worth reading in full.
What counts as a household
The unit is the household, which for most people is the dwelling with its own consumer unit and its own electricity supply. That has some sensible consequences for flats and shared housing.
- Flats with individual meters. Each flat is its own household with its own supply, so each may in principle have a device. That is a legal proposition rather than a permission. The freeholder or landlord still governs whether anything may be attached to a balcony or a wall, and the flats guide covers that separately.
- Houses in multiple occupation on a single supply. One supply is one household for these purposes. Four tenants cannot have four devices on the shared meter.
- Annexes and outbuildings. If it is fed from the main dwelling’s supply, it is the same household. A separately metered annexe with its own supply is a different matter, and worth confirming with your network operator rather than assuming.
If you already have rooftop solar
This is the question we are asked most often, and it does not have a single clean answer.
An existing rooftop system is already a generator notified to your distribution network operator, under G98 for a typical domestic array or under G99 for a larger one. Adding a plug-in device does not create a fresh, separate case. It changes the total generation at your property, and the network operator’s record of your installation needs to reflect that. G98 works on aggregate registered capacity at the connection, up to 16 A per phase.
Two points follow. The one-device-per-household allowance concerns plug-in devices, and a rooftop array is a different kind of installation, so having solar does not automatically use up your allowance. But the aggregate position is a real constraint, and it is decided by the network operator rather than by you or a retailer. If you already generate, ask your operator before you buy. That is a short email, and it is a great deal cheaper than a kit you cannot connect.
The same applies to any other G98-notified generator on the property: a small wind turbine, a micro-CHP unit, or a battery system with grid-parallel export capability. It is the aggregate at your connection that the operator is managing.
Notification is still required, once
One device does not mean no paperwork. Connection falls under G98 with no exemption for small output. Section 8.3.1 of G98 Issue 2 requires the installer to advise the distribution network operator no later than 28 days after commissioning, inclusive of the day of commissioning, using the Form B Installation Document at Appendix 3. If you fit the kit yourself, you are the installer. You must also notify on disconnection, and the product marking is required to say so.
One caveat about versions. The 28-day window is the position under G98 Issue 2, and we have no indication that Amendment 1 (2026) changed it, though we have not seen the amendment text. If in doubt, notify promptly rather than at day 27. The notification process is covered here.
What this means if you wanted more than 800 VA
Realistically, if one device is not enough for your household, plug-in solar is not the product for you today. The alternative is a conventional roof or ground-mounted installation, notified under G98 or G99 and installed by a competent installer, which also opens the door to MCS certification and therefore to Smart Export Guarantee payments, which plug-in solar does not offer. The other option is to wait. If the per-circuit amendment to G98 is made, the position changes, and no date for it has been published.
In the meantime, spend the headroom you do have wisely. You may fit up to 2,000 W of module Pmax behind an 800 VA inverter, and over-panelling widens the hours in which the device produces useful power rather than raising the peak. Because you are very unlikely to be paid for exports, more hours is worth considerably more than more peak. The 800 VA and 2,000 W limits are explained here.
The short version
The rule today is one plug-in device per household. A per-circuit allowance is intended, but it has not been made and has no date. If you already have a notified generator, ask your network operator before buying. Any article recommending a second unit on another circuit is describing the specification rather than the rule in force.
For the rest of the framework, start with what became legal on 27 August 2026 or the legal rules guide.