Solar for everyone. Just plug it in.

A plug-in kit is one to four solar panels, usually 400 to 1,200 watts in total, wired to a microinverterthat turns the panels' direct current into household alternating current in step with the grid. You plug it into an outdoor or balcony outlet. Its power flows into that circuit and is used first by whatever is running in your home: the fridge, router, TV and other appliances that are always on. You buy less from the utility while the sun is up.

The inverter is the safety-critical part. A listed one stops sending power within moments if the grid goes down, so the plug's pins are never live when unplugged and it cannot feed lines a utility worker is repairing. That also means a kit with no battery gives no backup power during an outage.

Germany has made these kits common, but in the US connecting any generator to your home's wiring has traditionally needed a utility interconnection agreement. The new state laws exempt small kits from that process.

Kits we found on US sellers' sites cost from $1.15 to $2.25 per watt of panels. Installed rooftop solar averages $2.60 per watt nationally (EnergySage Marketplace national average before incentives, a typical 12 kW system at $31,135), with no 30% federal credit for homeowners since the end of 2025. So per watt, plug-in solar is similar or cheaper, but it is a small system: it trims a bill rather than replacing it.

The catch is self-consumption.A kit only saves money on power you use while it is producing. Most homes draw a few hundred watts around the clock (fridge, freezer, router, standby loads), so a 400 W kit is mostly used at home, but at midday an 800 to 1,200 W kit can out-produce that base load. The surplus flows to the grid. Vermont's law says it is not paid for, Versant Power in Maine says the same, and in Connecticut it can even be billed as usage on meters that cannot net meter. A zero-export controller (some kits include one) or a battery fixes that by holding back or storing the surplus.

Rule of thumb: size the kit to your daytime base load. Check it on your smart meter or utility app at midday when nobody is cooking or running the dryer.

• Stay at or under 1,200 W (1,920 W in Colorado). A standard 15-amp, 120-volt circuit is rated for 1,800 W. Solar entering at an outlet can let appliances on that circuit draw more than the breaker sees, so the caps keep the wiring within its rating. Maine requires a dedicated circuit above 420 W.
• One kit, one wall outlet. Plug straight into a wall outlet, ideally a GFCI-protected outdoor one. No power strips, extension cords or adapters.
• A listed inverter with anti-islanding (it must shut off in a power cut). Look for the certifications below on the product, not just the website.
• Secure mounting.Panels on a balcony act like sails; use the maker's brackets and check your lease or HOA rules (several new laws limit bans but allow reasonable rules).

UL 3700

UL Solutions began certifying plug-in solar equipment to UL 3700 (an "outline of investigation" for interactive plug-in PV) on January 8, 2026. It tests overload protection, shock and ground-fault safety, and that the kit cannot push power into the house wiring during an outage. Maine and Vermont name it in law. Source

UL 1741 and IEEE 1547

The long-standing inverter standards. A listed microinverter shuts off within moments of losing grid power ("anti-islanding"), so it cannot energize lines a utility worker is repairing. Connecticut's law requires both. Source

National Electrical Code (NFPA 70)

According to UL Solutions, the 2026 NEC, like earlier editions, does not recognize solar that feeds a home through an ordinary receptacle. State laws exempt these kits from utility interconnection rules, but local building and electrical codes can still apply. Source

A battery stores midday surplus for the evening, which is where most of the extra savings come from. In Europe, all-in-one balcony batteries are common; in the US the choice is thin right now. EcoFlow's US store lists the STREAM microinverter, but its STREAM Ultra battery page was not available when we checked; Zendure's US SolarFlow kit was sold out; and CraftStrom's 2 kW + 3 kWh set ($8,199) has more panel power than any state's cap allows.

The option that is legal everywhere:a portable power station with its own solar panels. It doesn't feed your home's wiring, so no utility approval is needed. You plug the fridge or a home office into it, it charges from the sun, and unlike a grid-tied kit it keeps working in a blackout. Compare portable power stations or see whole-home battery options.