You can legally install solar panels yourself in the UK without planning permission in most cases, but you won't qualify for the MCS certification needed for government grants or Smart Export Guarantee payments.
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You can legally install solar panels yourself in the UK without planning permission in most cases, but you won't qualify for the MCS certification needed for government grants or Smart Export Guarantee payments. A DIY setup could save you £2,000 to £4,000 on labour costs, but you'll lose access to feed-in revenue and warranty protection. For most homeowners, the trade-off isn't worth it. Here's exactly why, and the situations where DIY might actually make sense.
Yes. See our guide on whether solar panels make financial sense for more detail. There's no law stopping you from putting solar panels on your own roof.
But "legal" and "a good idea" are different things, and this is where most online guides gloss over the details. Under permitted development rights, you can install solar panels on your home without planning permission as long as you meet a few conditions: the panels don't protrude more than 200mm from the roof surface, they don't sit higher than the highest part of the roof (excluding the chimney), and your home isn't in a conservation area, national park, or World Heritage Site. Listed buildings need separate consent from your local planning authority.
So far, so good.
The catch is electrical regulations. Under Part P of the Building Regulations (England and Wales), any work on fixed electrical installations in a dwelling must either be done by a registered competent person or inspected and certified by Building Control. Solar panel wiring connects to your home's consumer unit, which means it falls squarely under Part P. You can do the physical mounting yourself, but the electrical connection to your home's grid needs a qualified electrician to sign off, and in practice that means paying for one anyway. See our guide on how solar panel systems work for more detail.
Scotland has slightly different rules under Section 7 of the Building Standards, but the electrical certification requirement is essentially the same.
And here's the bit that really matters: without MCS certification, your installation doesn't qualify for the Smart Export Guarantee. That's the scheme that pays you for surplus electricity you send back to the grid. Octopus Energy currently pays around 15p per kWh exported, British Gas around 12p. See our guide on storing surplus electricity from your panels for more detail. Over 25 years, that income adds up to thousands of pounds you'd be walking away from with a DIY install.
£2,000 to £4,000. That's the labour portion of a typical professional solar installation on a 3-4 bedroom house.
A professionally installed 4kW system currently costs between £5,500 and £8,000 including VAT, equipment, scaffolding, and MCS certification. If you buy the panels, inverter, and mounting hardware yourself and do the roof work, you're looking at roughly £2,500 to £4,000 in equipment costs alone. We've broken down current professional installation costs if you want the full picture.
Sounds like a significant saving. But let's put the actual numbers side by side.
With a professional MCS-certified installation, you get 0% VAT on the equipment and labour (that's a saving of roughly £1,000 to £1,500 right there), eligibility for the Smart Export Guarantee, full manufacturer warranties on panels and inverter, workmanship guarantees from the installer, and Building Regulations compliance without you having to think about it. A DIY installation gets you none of those things except the panels on your roof.
The 0% VAT point catches people out. That relief applies to installations by VAT-registered businesses on residential properties. Buy the same panels yourself from a trade supplier, and you'll pay 20% VAT on the equipment. So your "saving" shrinks immediately.
Let's say the professional route costs £6,500 after 0% VAT. The DIY route costs £3,500 including 20% VAT on equipment, plus £300 to £500 for an electrician to do the Part P sign-off, plus scaffolding hire at £500 to £800 for a week. That's £4,300 to £4,800 all in. Your actual saving is closer to £1,500 to £2,200, not the £4,000 figure you'll see thrown around online.
And you've given up the Smart Export Guarantee income, which at current rates could be £100 to £200 per year.
Honestly, for most people the maths just doesn't work.
Right, so you've weighed the costs and you still want to go ahead. Fair enough. Here's what you're actually buying.
Solar panels. The panels themselves are the easy bit. A 4kW system needs around 10 panels rated at 400W each. Budget brands start at about £100 per panel, quality manufacturers like JA Solar, Trina, or Canadian Solar sit around £150 to £200 each. We've reviewed the best panels available in the UK if you want specific recommendations.
Inverter. This converts the DC electricity your panels generate into AC electricity your home can use. A string inverter for a 4kW system costs £500 to £1,000. Microinverters (one per panel) cost more but perform better if your roof has partial shading.
Mounting system. Roof hooks, rails, and clamps designed for your roof type. Budget £300 to £500. Get this wrong and you'll have leaks. Slate roofs are particularly tricky.
Cabling, isolators, and connectors. DC cabling from panels to inverter, AC cabling from inverter to consumer unit, DC isolator, AC isolator. Around £150 to £250 for the lot.
Scaffolding. You need it. Working at height on a pitched roof without scaffolding is dangerous and probably invalidates your home insurance. Hire costs £500 to £800 for a week depending on your area. London and the South East, predictably, charge more.
You don't technically need a battery, but if you're interested in storage, we've covered solar battery options and costs separately.
One thing I'd flag: sourcing all this individually is more expensive than the trade prices professional installers pay. They buy in bulk. You don't. That erodes your saving further.
This section matters more than the cost comparison.
Roof damage is the big one. Solar panels are mounted using hooks that slot under your tiles or slates, and the mounting points need to align with your roof rafters, not just the battens. Get the fixing points wrong and you'll crack tiles, create water ingress paths, and potentially compromise the structural integrity of your roof. We see questions about this constantly, and the repair costs for a badly mounted system can easily exceed what you saved on labour.
Void your roof warranty. If your roof is under guarantee from a roofer or developer, installing solar panels yourself will almost certainly void that guarantee. Same goes for your home insurance in some cases, so check your policy wording before you start.
Electrical safety is non-negotiable. A 4kW solar array generates enough voltage to kill you. DC electricity from solar panels is particularly dangerous because, unlike your mains supply, you can't just switch it off at a breaker. As long as light hits the panels, they're generating current. Professional installers train specifically for this.
Here's what most guides won't tell you: even if your DIY installation works perfectly on day one, you'll struggle to get anyone to service or repair it later. Most solar maintenance companies and professional installers won't touch a system they didn't install, especially one without MCS certification. You're on your own for the next 25 years.
So when does DIY actually make sense?
Ground-mounted systems in gardens are genuinely easier and safer than roof installations. No height work, no roof penetrations, simpler mounting. If you've got a south-facing garden with decent space and no shading, a ground-mounted DIY array for a shed, workshop, or outbuilding is a reasonable project for someone with solid electrical knowledge.
Small off-grid setups for sheds, caravans, or boats are another sensible DIY application. A 1kW system with a charge controller and leisure battery doesn't interact with your home's mains supply and doesn't need Part P certification.
But for a full rooftop system powering your house? Call a professional.
None of them work with DIY installations. That's the short answer.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme offers £7,500 towards heat pumps and doesn't cover solar panels at all, though if you're considering a heat pump alongside solar, our heat pump cost guide explains what's available. ECO4 can fully fund certain energy efficiency measures for eligible households, but solar panels aren't typically included, and the scheme requires MCS-certified installations for any renewable technology it does cover.
The one financial incentive that does apply to solar is the Smart Export Guarantee, and it requires MCS certification. No MCS, no payments.
0% VAT is available on professionally installed domestic solar systems until at least 31 March 2027, according to GOV.UK. Buy panels yourself from a supplier and you pay the full 20%.
We've put together a full guide to every solar panel grant available in 2026. The consistent theme across all of them is that MCS certification is the gatekeeper. DIY locks you out.
For a full rooftop system on your home, no.
The labour saving sounds attractive until you factor in the 20% VAT you'll pay on equipment, the loss of Smart Export Guarantee income, the scaffolding hire, the electrician fees for Part P compliance, and the risk of roof damage. Your actual saving shrinks to maybe £1,500, and you've taken on all the risk with none of the warranty protection.
The professional solar market has also become more competitive than it was even two years ago. Installer margins have tightened, panel prices have dropped, and the 0% VAT relief means a professionally installed 4kW system now costs less than £6,500 in many parts of the country. The gap between DIY and professional has never been smaller.
If you're price-sensitive, the better approach is getting multiple quotes from MCS-certified installers and negotiating. Three quotes minimum. The price difference between the cheapest and most expensive quote for the same system can easily be £2,000, which is roughly what you'd save going DIY anyway.
There's a niche where DIY makes genuine sense: small off-grid setups, ground-mounted garden systems for outbuildings, and situations where you specifically don't need grid connection or MCS certification. For those projects, buying panels and a charge controller yourself is practical and cost-effective.
But for your main home? Get it installed properly. The solar panel installation process is quicker than most people expect, usually one to two days on the roof, and you'll sleep better knowing the electrics are safe, the roof is watertight, and you're earning money from every kilowatt you export.
Open the eligibility checker. Two minutes. You'll see exactly which grants and incentives apply to your home.
Common questions