by Karl Dyson | Oct 19, 2026 | DIY Solar News, Getting Started
A plug-in solar panel is a large, flat, angled object fixed in an outdoor location — often in a garden, on a roof, or against a fence. In still conditions it sits quietly generating electricity. In a storm, it becomes a sail. Wind is the most commonly underestimated...
by Karl Dyson | Oct 18, 2026 | DIY Solar News, Getting Started
If you live in Germany, you can pick up a plug-in solar kit at Lidl. In France and the Netherlands, they are in mainstream electrical retailers. In the UK, you can order one online and wait a few days for delivery — but you cannot walk into a physical shop and buy one...
by Karl Dyson | Oct 18, 2026 | DIY Solar News
The clocks went back last weekend. The sun is setting before five o’clock. And if you have plug-in solar panels on your house, you are probably watching your generation numbers fall off a cliff compared to what they were doing in July. That is entirely normal....
by Karl Dyson | Oct 18, 2026 | Buying Guide, DIY Solar News
One question that comes up regularly from people who have recently installed plug-in solar panels is whether they should add a solar diverter — a device that routes excess solar generation to their hot water cylinder rather than letting it flow back into the grid...
by Karl Dyson | Oct 1, 2026 | DIY Solar News
On 27 August plug-in solar became legal in the UK. On 28 August Octopus Energy announced their kit. By the end of September the market already looked very different from the grey area it had occupied for the previous two years. Here is what happened, what landed, what...
by Karl Dyson | Sep 30, 2026 | DIY Solar News
This is one of the more practical questions from people who want to keep a powerbank topped up from their garden panels or run devices from solar without going through the house circuits. The answer depends on how you connect things. Via the house socket (standard...
