A typical solar panel installation in the UK costs between £5,000 and £9,000 depending on system size, with most homes opting for a 3-4kW setup at around £5,500 to £7,000.
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A typical solar panel installation in the UK costs between £5,000 and £9,000 depending on system size, with most homes opting for a 3-4kW setup at around £5,500 to £7,000. You won't pay VAT on domestic installations, which knocks off roughly £1,000 to £1,500. If you're on qualifying benefits, ECO4 could fund the whole thing. Most systems pay for themselves within 10 to 15 years, and that's before you factor in export payments for surplus electricity.
£5,500 to £7,000. That's what most homeowners actually pay for a 3-4kW system after the 0% VAT relief, which applies automatically to all domestic solar installations and runs until at least 31 March 2027.
But that range hides a lot of variation. A small 2kW system on a terraced house might come in under £4,500, while a larger 5-6kW array on a detached property can push past £9,000. The panels themselves account for roughly 40-50% of the total bill. The rest is scaffolding, inverter, mounting hardware, electrical work, and the MCS certification that qualifies you for export payments.
Here's a rough breakdown by system size:
| System size | Typical output | Panels needed | Cost (inc. install, ex. VAT) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2kW | ~1,700 kWh/year | 5-6 | £3,500–£4,500 |
| 3kW | ~2,500 kWh/year | 8-9 | £4,500–£6,000 |
| 4kW | ~3,400 kWh/year | 10-12 | £5,500–£7,500 |
| 5kW | ~4,200 kWh/year | 13-15 | £7,000–£9,000 |
| 6kW+ | ~5,000+ kWh/year | 16+ | £8,500–£11,000 |
Those figures come from MCS installer data and Energy Saving Trust estimates. We've written a detailed cost breakdown if you want the full picture, including regional price differences.
One thing we see regularly: quotes that look cheap but exclude scaffolding. Always ask whether scaffolding is included. On a two-storey house it adds £300 to £800, and some installers treat it as an extra.
So is the price coming down? Slowly. Panel prices have dropped about 15% over the past three years thanks to manufacturing scale in China, but labour and scaffolding costs have gone the other way. The net effect is that total installed costs are roughly flat compared to 2024.
Right, so here's the honest bit. There's no single "solar panel grant" that hands you a cheque for panels. The government's support comes through a patchwork of schemes, and whether you qualify depends almost entirely on your household income.
The biggest one is ECO4. If your household receives qualifying benefits like Universal Credit, Pension Credit, or Child Tax Credit, ECO4 can fund the full cost of a solar panel installation. Fully funded. The scheme runs until December 2026, and your energy supplier is legally obligated to deliver a certain number of installations. The catch? Your home also needs to have an EPC rating of D or below, and the installer has to demonstrate that solar is an appropriate measure for your property. We've covered every solar panel grant in detail separately.
What about the Warm Homes: Local Grant? This is the newer scheme that replaced parts of the old Local Authority Delivery programme. It's open, and funding varies by local authority, so what's available in Manchester might be completely different from what's on offer in Plymouth. Some councils are prioritising insulation over generation, so solar isn't always on the menu. Worth checking, but don't bank on it. Our Warm Homes: Local Grant guide has the current details.
For everyone else, the main financial help is the 0% VAT rate. It's not a grant, but it saves you £1,000 to £1,500 on a typical installation, and you don't need to apply for it. Your installer simply doesn't charge VAT. If an installer quotes you 20% VAT on a domestic solar installation, challenge it.
Then there's the Smart Export Guarantee. Again, not a grant, but it pays you for every unit of electricity you export to the grid. Rates vary wildly by supplier. Octopus Energy currently offers around 15p per kWh on their best tariff. British Gas pays closer to 12p. Some smaller suppliers offer as little as 3p. You need an MCS-certified installation to qualify, which is another reason to avoid uncertified cowboys.
Not every roof works.
The ideal setup is a south-facing roof with a pitch of 30 to 40 degrees, no shading from trees or neighbouring buildings, and enough space for at least 8 panels. But "ideal" isn't the threshold. East or west-facing roofs still generate about 80-85% of what a south-facing one does, which is often perfectly viable.
North-facing roofs are the problem. You'll lose 40-50% of potential output, and at that point the payback period stretches to 20+ years, which honestly makes the numbers hard to justify. A few installers will still fit panels on a north-facing roof if you ask, but a good one will talk you out of it.
Shading is the other killer. A single chimney shadow falling across two panels at midday can reduce your total system output by more than you'd expect, because panels in a string are only as strong as their weakest link. Modern systems with microinverters or optimisers handle partial shading much better than older string inverter setups, but they add £500 to £1,000 to the cost.
Here's what an installer will check during a survey:
One thing that catches people out: listed buildings and conservation areas. You don't always need full planning permission for solar panels (most domestic installations fall under permitted development), but if you're in a conservation area or your home is listed, you'll need to check with your local planning authority first. This isn't a dealbreaker, it just adds a step.
And if your EPC rating is low, sorting your insulation first often makes more sense than jumping straight to solar. A well-insulated home uses less electricity overall, which means a smaller (cheaper) solar system covers a bigger share of your needs.
10 to 15 years for most households. That's the realistic range, and anyone telling you 6-7 years is either assuming you use every watt yourself or quoting pre-2022 electricity prices that no longer apply.
The payback calculation depends on three things: how much electricity you generate, how much of it you use directly (rather than exporting), and what you'd otherwise pay your supplier.
A 4kW system in the Midlands generates roughly 3,400 kWh per year. If you use 50% of that directly, at a current electricity cost of around 24.5p per kWh, that's about £415 saved per year on your bills. The other 50% gets exported. At Octopus's 15p rate, that's another £255. So roughly £670 per year in total value.
On a system that cost £6,500 after VAT relief, that's a payback period of about 9.5 years. Sounds good on paper.
But. Most households don't use 50% of their solar generation directly unless they're home during the day or have a battery. The national average for self-consumption without a battery sits closer to 30-35%. That pushes payback to 12-14 years.
Honestly, this one depends on your situation and we can't give you a straight answer without knowing your electricity usage, your roof, and your export tariff. We've built a more detailed comparison in our are solar panels worth it guide that walks through the numbers for different household types.
The panels themselves last 25 to 30 years with minimal degradation, so even with a 14-year payback you're looking at 11-16 years of essentially free electricity. The inverter will probably need replacing once during that period, at a cost of £800 to £1,500.
MCS certification. That's the non-negotiable.
MCS (Microgeneration Certification Scheme) is the industry standard that qualifies your installation for Smart Export Guarantee payments, VAT relief, and any grant funding. Without it, you lose access to all three. There are currently around 3,500 MCS-certified solar installers in the UK, so you've got options.
Beyond that, here's what separates a good installer from a mediocre one:
Get three quotes minimum. We see price differences of 20-30% for identical systems on the same house. That's not because one installer is ripping you off, it's because overheads, supply chains, and margins vary. Three quotes give you a realistic benchmark.
Ask about the inverter brand. The panels get all the attention, but the inverter matters just as much. SolarEdge and Enphase are the market leaders for good reason. If an installer is offering an inverter brand you've never heard of, ask why.
Check their workmanship warranty. MCS requires a minimum 2-year workmanship guarantee, but better installers offer 5-10 years. The panel manufacturer's warranty (usually 25 years) only covers the product, not the installation itself.
Look at their scaffolding arrangements. Do they use their own team or subcontract? Subcontracted scaffolding sometimes causes scheduling delays.
And a slightly tangential point: we've noticed that installers who also fit battery storage tend to have better electrical expertise overall, because battery installations require deeper knowledge of your home's electrical system. That's not a hard rule, just a pattern we've observed. Anyway.
Avoid anyone who cold-calls, knocks on your door, or pressures you into signing on the day. That's not how reputable installers operate.
So you've decided on solar. Should you add a battery at the same time?
Maybe. It depends on when you use electricity.
A battery stores surplus solar generation during the day so you can use it in the evening. This pushes your self-consumption rate from that 30-35% average up to 60-80%, which dramatically improves your payback figures. A typical 5kWh battery costs £2,500 to £4,000 installed, and a larger 10kWh unit runs £4,500 to £7,000.
The maths works best if you're out during the day and home in the evening, which describes most working households. Without a battery, all that midday solar generation gets exported at 12-15p per kWh. With a battery, you use it yourself and avoid buying from the grid at 24.5p. That 10-12p difference per kWh is where the value sits.
But here's what most guides won't tell you: batteries don't always make financial sense on their own. A £4,000 battery saving you £200-£300 per year takes 13-20 years to pay back, and most batteries have a warranty of only 10 years. The financial case is marginal.
This is always worth doing if you value energy independence or want backup power during outages. It's harder to justify purely on payback maths.
The strongest case for a battery is if you combine it with a time-of-use tariff like Octopus Intelligent Go or Agile. You charge the battery overnight at cheap rates (sometimes 7-10p per kWh) and use that stored electricity during peak hours when the grid rate is 24.5p or higher. That arbitrage stacks on top of your solar savings.
If you're getting solar installed, adding a battery at the same time is cheaper than retrofitting one later, because the electrician is already on site and the system design accounts for it from the start. Budget an extra £3,000 to £5,000 for a decent setup.
Open our eligibility checker. Two minutes. You'll see exactly which grants your home qualifies for and how much you could save on a solar panel installation.
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