Fitting, and an outdoor socket if you need one
You can plug it in yourself, and we arrange an electrician for the socket.
Read this pageWhat changed on 27 August 2026
The regulations drawn up in July took effect on 27 August 2026, making plug-in solar legal across Great Britain. Planning rules for solar equipment were rewritten that same day and now name plug-in solar specifically, so a good deal of the advice you'll find online still reflects the old position.
You can follow either version of the rules until 27 August 2027. From that date the new ones are the only set that counts.
Wood, balconies and cladding
The new rules do not cover a plug-in panel fixed to a wooden wall, a balcony or timber cladding. The Planning Portal sets that out twice, once for houses and once for blocks of flats.
If your balcony is timber, or your wall is clad in it, the planning rules will not cover the panel and you would have to apply for permission. The government expects the fees and the paperwork to cost more than the panel is worth, so we tell you before you order anything.
Stone, brick and render
Most houses in Yorkshire are masonry, which is the straightforward case. Coursed gritstone, brick, and render or pebbledash over masonry are all solid walls, and the wooden surfaces rule does not apply to them.
Two things are still worth a look on a stone house. A gable end is often the only big wall with no windows in it, and if it faces anywhere near south it is the best wall you have. Render can also hide what is behind it, so render over a timber outer leaf gives a different answer from render over stone. They look the same from the pavement, so we check rather than assume.
Conservation areas and listed houses
Three situations to watch for, and Yorkshire has plenty of all three.
- A wall facing a highway is off limits too, if your house sits inside a conservation area or a World Heritage Site.
- A house inside the grounds of a listed building, or standing on a scheduled monument, cannot rely on this permitted development right at all.
- Listed status is a separate matter. It needs both planning permission and listed building consent, so start that conversation with the council months before you order anything.
Checking the numbers before you ring us
Bring a tape measure and you can work out most of these limits on your own.
- On a wall that abuts a highway, the equipment can stand up to 200 mm proud of it. On other walls the limit is 400 mm.
- A pitched roof surface must stay below the ridge line, projecting no more than 200 mm.
- On a flat roof it can stand up to 600 mm above the roof.
What we can tell you about permission
We cannot tell you that no planning permission is needed. The rules come with conditions. If your house meets them there is no application to make, and if it does not meet them there is one. Our job is telling you which of the two you are.
What we send you
An email naming the condition your surface falls under, the projection your house is allowed, and what a panel would make in a year where you want to put it. If the rules do not cover you, we put that in the first line.
Questions about surfaces
Ours is pebbledash. Does that count as render?
The wooden surfaces rule looks at the structure underneath the finish. Pebbledash and render over masonry count as masonry. Render over a timber outer leaf gives a different answer, so we check which one you have.
Does the shed roof count?
The rules cover solar equipment on a building inside the curtilage of the house as well as on the house itself, with its own size limits. Tell us what the building is and what it is roofed with, and we will tell you where it falls.
I rent my house. Can I still do this?
Only with your landlord's agreement, and if you're a leaseholder the freeholder may need to sign off too. This point came up in the government's consultation without being settled, so raise it before you buy anything.
On this page
- What changed on 27 August 2026
- Wood, balconies and cladding
- Stone, brick and render
- Conservation areas and listed houses
- Checking the numbers before you ring us
- What we send you
- Questions about surfaces
Want to know what your house could take?
Give us the postcode and the wall, roof or yard.
Get our answer by email