Going off-grid is a dream for some people. Living off the land, powering your home with your own electricity, it’s all a bit Robinson Crusoe. We’re pretty sure he didn’t have solar panels though.
- Off-Grid Explained
- Is Going Off-Grid Worth It?
- Can You Actually Go Off-Grid in the UK?
- Do I Need Planning Permission for Solar Panels on an Off-Grid Home?
- How to Go Fully Off-Grid in the UK
- Where Is the Best Place To Go 100% Off-Grid in the UK?
- Can I Still Use the Smart Export Guarantee?
- What Behaviour Changes Should You Consider Before Going Off-Grid?
Speaking of solar, your best tool in going off-grid is going to be the right solar panel setup. The question is, can you actually create a 100% solar powered house in the UK?
We’ve answered that here, looking at whether a 100% solar powered house is possible, tips on how to go off-grid, what challenges you could face, and where in the UK is best for off-grid setups.
PS We offer MCS-certified solar panel installation nationwide. Simply answer these questions, get your fixed price and arrange your free design. You’ll need battery storage in an off-grid setup too, so it’s just as well we offer MCS-certified battery installation.
🔑 Key Points:
You’ll need solar panels and battery storage at minimum to go fully off-grid.
Changing your energy habits will make going off-grid easier.
Sunnier parts of the the UK make off-grid living more feasible with solar panels.
Wales is the best place to go off-grid in the UK, because of the One Planet law.
It costs over £1,000 to disconnect from the electrical grid – it’s free to disconnect from the gas grid.
Off-Grid Explained
Being off-grid means living in a home not connected to either the gas or electricity grids. If you live in an off-grid home, you’ll be generating all of your heat and electricity using alternative methods.
This could be from your own source of fossil fuels, or from renewable energy sources such as solar or wind power. Some off-grid setups have a mixture of solar panels and domestic wind turbines (much smaller than those you see in the countryside and off the coast).
Homes living off-grid are also typically disconnected from national water and sewage services, so if you do decide to go off-grid, you’ve got to be prepared with your own water source, and means to get rid of waste.
Is Going Off-Grid Worth It?
If you can manage the challenges of setting it up, living off-grid can be hugely rewarding from an environmental point of view, if not quite from a financial one.
You’ll be free from fluctuating electricity prices, and if you pair your system with a heat pump, gas prices too. Considering the average UK energy bill is £1,709.28, going off-grid could save you money.
However, you likely won’t see real savings for several years as the upfront cost of going off-grid is high. Factoring in the cost of solar panels and battery storage (£14,000 on average), plus £10,000 for a heat pump (potentially £2,500 if you qualify for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme), going off-grid will cost thousands.
We haven’t included the cost of other off-grid essentials, such as composting loos, a borehole for water (required if you can meet water needs with rainwater capture alone), and the price you’ll pay for actually disconnecting from the grid (yes, unfortunately you need to pay for this).
Can You Actually Go Off-Grid in the UK?
Yes, definitely, and there are as many as 150,000 off-grid homes in the UK, according to estimates (naturally, it’s a little tricky to calculate the exact number of off-grid homes). And, despite the fact the UK’s weather is quite cloudy, solar panels generate loads of electricity for off-grid setups. Solar panels will obviously work best when the sun is shining, but they’ll still help power an off-grid home even under cloud cover.
It’s perfectly legal too, but going off-grid isn’t without its challenges. Most UK homes don’t have solar panels and fewer still have access to off-grid essentials such as a personal source of water. Plus there’s the aforementioned cost barrier, which’ll deter many households from becoming 100% off-grid.
Space is a big factor, as you’ll need plenty for the large solar panel array needed to provide all of your electricity, and for the battery storage. If you’re also planning to install domestic wind power, you’ll need space if you opt for a free standing (or standalone) turbine.
If you don’t want to purchase land and build a home from scratch, you can always opt for a houseboat or a mobile home, both of which you can install solar panels on to meet electrical needs. Be aware that going the mobile home route can be difficult, as the rules vary throughout the UK and local residents might not want a mobile home in their surrounding area.
Read more:
Do I Need Planning Permission for Solar Panels on an Off-Grid Home?
No, unless you live in a listed building or conservation area, solar panels fall under permitted development and as such, you can install them with no restrictions on your roof. You might need permission if you can’t install solar panels on your roof and instead need a ground-mounted system
A ground-mounted solar panel system that is larger than nine square metres (approximately 4-5 solar panels) will need planning permission, so keep this in mind.
How to Go Fully Off-Grid in the UK
You can go fully off-grid in the UK, but you’ll need to prepare. Here’s our step-by-step guide on how:
1. Pick Your Location
If you’re committed to going 100% off-grid, you need to decide on where you’re going to do it. It could be the house you’re living in right now, though you’ll have to work out if that’s possible – if it’s not, it’s time to look elsewhere.
You might want to build an off-grid home from scratch, which would give you a lot more control over each off-grid element, though building a new home is complicated and expensive (if not as expensive as building a new home that’ll be connected to the grid).
If you take this route, consider what part of the UK you’ll want to build in – you’ll get more sun the further south you go and this’ll inevitably be better for solar panels, and some areas such as Wales have initiatives for off-grid developments.
You can also still create an off-grid setup even if you live in a city. We spoke to Nick Rosen, author, documentary maker, and founder of off-grid.net, who said:
“You can go off-grid in a city, providing your own power via solar and storing it for later with battery storage. Other things to consider are capturing rainwater for drinking and washing, and installing a compost loo in your garden.”
2. Sort Out Insulation
You’ve got your location sorted and you’re ready to start adding your solar panels and battery storage, right? Hold your horses, you need to make sure the energy your off-grid home produces goes as far as it can.
Otherwise, without proper insulation you’ll be wasting loads of energy and in an off-grid setup, you don’t want this.
Stats from the UK government suggest some 33% of UK households don’t have loft insulation. This means they’re losing around 25% of the heat they generate through the roof. And if you’re a homeowner with solid walls, chances are you don’t have insulation – only 9% do, with the rest losing an alarming 33% of heat through their walls.
So before you start thinking about solar panels this and heat pumps that, take a fabric-first approach and get your home insulated.
3. Work Out Your Energy Usage
Figure out how much energy you use (easily done by looking at your monthly bills), and think about how you can reduce it. Off-grid homes can sometimes be less reliable than those connected to the grid – you might not be able to always fully charge your storage battery for example.
Either way, changing energy habits is something you could argue is better to start sooner rather than later. As the world seeks to reduce emissions, playing your part and using less energy is going to help (even if it’s a small amount). And, whether you go fully off-grid or not, reducing your energy usage will help shrink your bills.
4. Calculate How Many Solar Panels You’ll Need
You can use your energy usage figure to get an idea of how many solar panels you’ll need to install. Here’s how:
Work out your daily electricity usage in kilowatt hours (kWh). Do this by finding your monthly electricity usage on your energy bill, and dividing this by 30 (for the days in a month).
Calculate your daily watt-hours. Multiply your daily kWh by 1,000 to get your daily watt hours.
Get the number of panels needed. Divide your watt-hours by the wattage of the solar panel, then divide by the number of hours of sunlight per day.
As an example:
10 kWh per day, divided by 400W, divided by 5 hours of sunlight = 5 panels needed (this is a rough guideline; most off-grid setups will require at least 8-10 panels).
You’ll want to work out if your roof is suitable for solar panels as well, by considering factors such as roof angle (the optimal angle is around 35 degrees), and what direction your roof faces. South-facing roofs are best, east and west-facing roofs are generally fine, but north-facing roofs are the least optimal.
Don’t worry too much if you have a flat roof, because solar panels can always be mounted on angled brackets.
5. Get Battery Storage
You’ll need battery storage so you can use the electricity your solar panels generate when the sun is shining at night. Realistically, this is where a 100% solar off-grid setup can be tricky, because there’ll be times when there isn’t enough sunshine to effectively charge your battery.
In this case, you’ll want another renewable energy source to supplement your setup, such as a small domestic wind turbine. You can get a 1.5 kW standalone turbine for between £7,000 and £10,000, which is high, but you’ll at least have another way to keep your battery charged when solar energy is low (such as during the winter).
6. Think About How You’ll Heat Your Home
You won’t be connected to the gas grid in a 100% off-grid setup, so you’ll need to figure out how you’ll heat your home. The most eco-friendly option is going to be a heat pump, which you can run with a powerful enough solar system.
Warmer parts of the UK will be best off picking an air source heat pump over a ground source heat pump, because the latter’s higher installation cost and greater disruption outweigh the benefits in warmer climates.
If you’re lucky enough to have access to a lake or a stream, a water heat pump is an option too.
The main downside is the high cost of heat pumps – air source heat pumps can cost up to £10,000, and ground source pumps around £29,000. You can get a grant of up £7,500 towards the cost of one with the Boiler Upgrade Scheme if you meet certain eligibility criteria.
You could consider heating your home with a biomass boiler, but a truly off-grid setup means you’ll need access to plenty of trees to use as fuel. As you can imagine, this solution is far from environmentally friendly, so unless you have no other option, we don’t recommend this route.
7. Disconnect from the Grid (Optional!)
You’ve got your solar panels and battery storage hooked up, your heat pump is raring to go, and you’ve even sorted out some alternative energy sources (wind turbines, hydro power, etc.). Time to disconnect from the grid right?
Well, it’s not quite as simple as pulling the plug, physically and metaphorically! You’ll need to spend £1,323 in England and £1,020 in Scotland for the privilege of disconnecting from grid electricity. The entire process can take four to six weeks too.
It’s thankfully free to disconnect from the gas grid, and you just need to contact your energy supplier, as it’s their responsibility. They’ll send a professional round to uninstall your gas meter and make sure gas is no longer fed into your home.
Choosing to stay connected to the grid will cost you around £300 per year (for electricity and gas standing charges), but it can sometimes be beneficial in the initial years of going off-grid. Things can sometimes break and it’s not a bad idea to have the grid as a backup just in case. As you get more experienced and more comfortable with off-grid living, then you can decide to disconnect from the grid with confidence.
Where Is the Best Place To Go 100% Off-Grid in the UK?
According to Nick Rosen, “Wales is currently the best part of the UK for fully off-grid setups, because of the One Planet Development (OPD) initiative which helps people get planning permission for sustainable developments.”
Under the OPD, you can buy agricultural land more easily in Wales as long as you meet certain requirements:
Your home should be carbon neutral
You’ll need to be able to deal with your own waste
Be able to generate your own power
You should be producing 60% of the food you eat within five years
This food should also help provide for your ‘basic needs’, which include council tax, running a car, phone bills, and any food you can’t produce on site.
Naturally this requires a fair amount of planning, as you have to report your development’s progress every year for five years. If you don’t meet the OPD requirements, you could potentially lose planning permission.
Can I Still Use the Smart Export Guarantee?
No, in a 100% off-grid setup, you won’t be able to sell any excess electricity back to the grid via the Smart Export Guarantee. This means potentially losing roughly £160 a year that you could be making with your solar panels. It’s not a huge amount to lose, but it will mean the payback period for your solar panels is longer.
Additionally, if you have an existing agreement with the Feed-in Tariff (which has since ended), you’ll stop benefitting from it when you go off-grid.
Read more:
What Behaviour Changes Should You Consider Before Going Off-Grid?
Before going off-grid, try to make some changes to your daily habits to make the transition a little smoother. Steps such as consciously using less energy, exercising more regularly (off-grid living is inherently more physical), and being aware of how much water you use are all behavioural changes to consider.
Also, going off-grid completely alone or only with your family is very, very difficult. It’s best to do it with likeminded friends, and finding a group of people committed to going off-grid can help moving away from the grid a lot easier.
Nick Rosen said of going off-grid alone:
“Get together with a group of friends instead and practise together – it's not something you really want to do with just yourself and your family. You need to spread the work and the skills.”
He’s not enamoured with communes however, saying:
“But DON'T live in a commune – they just rarely work over a long period. Form a community, not a commune, and collaborate on power, roads, water, waste – not lifestyle.”
Next Steps For Your Solar Journey:
When planning to install solar panels for your home, there are several important factors to consider. Make sure to refer to the following guides to help you make informed decisions:
To dive deeper into these topics, head over to our advice section, check out our YouTube channel for informative videos, or read a customer case study to see how others have benefited from their solar installation.
Get a Quote for Solar Today
Without boasting you should get your solar installed with us, here's why:
Thousands of Happy Customers: We boast an average score of 4.9 on Trustpilot, outperforming the market leader.
Which? Trusted Trader: Heatable is proudly recognised as a Which? Trusted Trader.
MCS Accredited: Our accreditation by the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) ensures high-quality standards.
Exclusive Panels: We offer REA Fusion solar panels, available only through Heatable.
Consumer Protection: As members of the HIES consumer code, we provide 2-year deposit protection.
Flexible Payment Options: Choose from multiple payment methods, including finance options.
Fixed Price Guarantee: Enjoy transparency with no hidden costs.
Save Your Quote: You can save your quote and decide later.
Bespoke Design Tool: Draw your own conclusion (literally) on whether solar is worth it for you, here.
