CONSIDERED HOME ENERGY TOOLKIT
Check whether your solar panels and microinverter appear electrically compatible before connecting them. Pick a known product or enter your own specifications, choose how the panels are wired, and see voltage, current, power and start-up checked against the inverter's published limits — including a cold-weather voltage check.
This tool checks published electrical specifications only. It does not certify an installation as safe, compliant, DNO-approved, or approved for UK Plug-In Solar. Already have a kit and just want to know if it's worth it? Try the Plug-In Solar Payback Calculator instead.
Electrical compatibility is not Plug-In Solar compliance. The UK rules apply to a qualifying complete plug-in solar device/package, not simply to an inverter. The government specification covers the PV module(s), microinverter, supplied connection lead and UK plug, DC cables/connectors and the specified mounting system. An inverter appearing in ENA Connect Direct therefore does not mean you can pair it with arbitrary electrically compatible panels or mounting hardware and assume the resulting system qualifies.
1. MICROINVERTER
Pick a known product, or enter your own from its datasheet.
2. SOLAR PANEL
Pick a known product, or enter your own from its datasheet.
3. CONNECTION
Version 1 assumes the same wiring on every MPPT you use — different panel models per MPPT is a planned future feature.
Heard the terms but not sure what they actually mean? Here's the short version:
Panels chained end-to-end, like batteries stacked in a torch: the same current flows through every panel, but each one adds its own voltage. Wire 3 panels in series and the inverter sees roughly 3× the voltage of one panel, while the current stays about the same as a single panel.
Panels wired side-by-side onto the same two rails, like several taps feeding into one pipe: voltage stays about the same as a single panel, but the current from every panel combines into a bigger total flowing into the inverter.
Either way, an MPPT input has its own voltage and current limits — which is exactly what the checks below are testing.
4. MINIMUM DESIGN TEMPERATURE
Solar panel voltage rises in cold weather. This checks whether the array could exceed the inverter's maximum input voltage on a cold, bright day.
UK PLUG-IN SOLAR STATUS — SEPARATE FROM COMPATIBILITY
This is a separate regulatory result and is never derived from the electrical calculation above. A compatible panel-and-microinverter pairing is not automatically a compliant UK Plug-In Solar product. The plug-in route applies to the complete manufacturer-specified package. Use ENA Connect Direct's Plug-in Solar category to check the registered device, then confirm that the complete product/configuration you are buying complies with the government's Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification.
Checks are also flagged as a warning (not just pass/fail) when a calculated value sits within 5% of an inverter's published limit — for example, a cold-weather Voc of 63.8V against a 65V maximum shows as "Limited voltage margin" rather than a plain pass, since real-world conditions and component tolerances can push a tight margin over the line.
Not every 5%-margin warning carries the same real-world weight, and each check's own explanation now says so. A tight margin on cold-weather Voc is worth taking seriously, since it's a hard safety limit on DC input voltage. A tight margin on Isc is generally low-stakes by comparison — Isc is a fault-condition rating (the current if a panel's output were short-circuited), not a value it produces during normal generation, so plenty of real systems run fine with a tight-but-under-limit Isc margin. Read the specific check's text rather than treating every warning icon as equally urgent.
EDUCATIONAL HELP
Short explanations for anyone who isn't already familiar with panel and inverter datasheets.
The highest voltage a panel produces when no current is flowing (nothing connected). It matters because Voc rises as panel temperature falls — a panel's cold-morning Voc can be meaningfully higher than its datasheet figure, which is measured at 25°C.
The voltage a panel actually operates at while producing its rated power under normal load — always lower than Voc. This is the figure that needs to sit inside the inverter's MPPT operating window.
The maximum current a panel can produce if its output is shorted. Inverters publish a maximum short-circuit current per MPPT as a safety limit, since a fault condition could otherwise expose the input to this current.
The current a panel actually produces while operating at its rated power — the figure to compare against an inverter's maximum operating current per MPPT.
The circuit inside an inverter that continuously adjusts to draw the most power available from whatever's connected to it. Each MPPT input has its own published voltage, current and power limits, and (on multi-MPPT inverters) usually operates independently of the others.
Wiring panels in series adds their voltages together (Vmp and Voc multiply by panel count) while current stays roughly the same as a single panel. Wiring in parallel adds their currents together (Imp and Isc multiply by panel count) while voltage stays roughly the same. Which one an MPPT input can accept depends on its voltage and current limits.
Panel voltage isn't fixed — it rises as temperature drops, following the manufacturer's published temperature coefficient. A panel sized correctly on a mild day can push an inverter's input voltage over its maximum on a cold, bright morning, which is why this tool asks for your coldest expected panel temperature.
The minimum DC voltage an inverter needs to see before it begins operating at all. An array that never reaches this (in low light, or because too few panels are wired in series) simply won't switch on, even if every other limit is comfortably satisfied.
For a single panel per MPPT, the array's Vmp, Voc, Imp and Isc are simply the panel's own published values, and PV power is the panel's rated power. For panels wired in series, Vmp and Voc multiply by the number of series-connected panels while Imp and Isc stay approximately the same; PV power multiplies by panel count. For panels wired in parallel, Imp and Isc multiply by the number of parallel panels while Vmp and Voc stay approximately the same; PV power again multiplies by panel count.
The cold-weather open-circuit voltage starts from the panel's Voc at standard test conditions (25°C) and applies the manufacturer's published Voc temperature coefficient across the difference between your minimum design temperature and 25°C. For series strings, the adjusted single-panel Voc is then multiplied by the number of series-connected panels. If a panel's temperature coefficient isn't entered, this check is shown as unavailable rather than guessed.
Each check compares a calculated array value against the microinverter's published limit for that MPPT input: MPPT operating voltage range, maximum DC input voltage (using cold-weather Voc), maximum input current, maximum short-circuit current, maximum recommended PV input power, and start-up voltage. A check fails only when a value exceeds a hard limit (voltage or current); PV power above a recommended maximum is shown as a warning rather than a fail, since manufacturers don't always treat modest oversizing as unsafe. Any check that's within 5% of its limit is shown as a warning rather than a plain pass, and any check that can't be evaluated because a figure isn't published or entered is shown as "information not available" rather than silently skipped or assumed safe.
The overall result is Red if any check fails, Amber if none fail but at least one shows a warning or is unavailable, and Green only if every check passes comfortably. The UK Plug-In Solar status shown separately is never derived from these electrical checks — it defaults to "Not Verified" for every combination, since Considered doesn't maintain a database of officially approved plug-in kits, and electrical compatibility is explicitly not the same thing as plug-in approval.
Fixed the explainer modal styling so the regulatory source is contained in a deliberate card rather than appearing as orphaned footer text. Also corrected the release-note markup and cache-busted the updated stylesheet.
Replaced legacy ENA Type Test Register references with ENA Connect Direct and linked directly to its Plug-in Solar category. Clarified throughout that electrical compatibility does not establish UK Plug-In Solar compliance: the plug-in route applies to the complete manufacturer-specified product/package, not simply an ENA-listed inverter paired with arbitrary compatible panels or mounting hardware. Added the Plug-In Solar explainer and updated the separate regulatory status result.
Added Astronergy Astro N7 2.0 460W and DMEGC 455W N-Type Bifacial (both stocked by ITS Technologies) and Trina Vertex S+ 505W (stocked by Midsummer Energy) — nine solar panels in total now, against the same four microinverters (36 combinations). Astronergy and Trina are new brands in the database. Every figure cross-checked against at least two independent sources; the Trina figures needed a second check after an early automated read of the datasheet PDF mislabelled which value was Imp versus Isc and which temperature coefficient belonged to Voc versus Pmax — corrected against the datasheet's own labelled sections before being used here.
Every "limited margin" warning previously used the same generic sentence, regardless of which check triggered it — so a tight margin on Isc (a fault-condition rating, low real-world stakes) read exactly as alarming as a tight margin on cold-weather Voc (a hard safety limit on DC input voltage). Prompted by a real user question about why their working EcoFlow STREAM + 2× DMEGC 515W system showed an Isc warning despite running fine, each check's warning text is now tailored to what that check actually measures and how much it matters in practice — MPPT voltage window, operating current (Imp), Isc, PV power headroom, and start-up voltage each get their own explanation. The "About the safety margin" note and the overall Amber summary now flag this too.
Added the Enphase IQ8HC microinverter (a single-module design, unlike the shared 2-channel bodies of the other three) plus three more solar panels — DMEGC 515W All Black, JA Solar 460W All Black and LONGi Hi-MO X10 480W — all chosen because they're genuinely stocked by UK solar merchants (City Plumbing, ITS Technologies), not arbitrary picks. Ten real products in total now (4 microinverters × 6 panels). Every figure is independently sourced and cross-checked; where an exact SKU's datasheet wasn't accessible, the README says so explicitly rather than presenting a platform-typical figure as SKU-verified.
Added two more microinverters (Hoymiles HMS-800-2T, APsystems EZ1-M) and two more solar panels (Jinko Tiger Neo N-type 440W, REC Alpha Pure-R 430W) to the dropdown database, each with verified manufacturer specifications, source link and last-checked date — six real products in total rather than a single EcoFlow pairing. Also added a plain-English explainer with simple diagrams to the Connection step itself, since "series" and "parallel" are terms people often recognise without knowing what they actually do to voltage and current — previously this was only covered in the glossary further down the page.
Checks a solar panel or panel array against a microinverter's published electrical limits: MPPT operating voltage, maximum DC input voltage (using a cold-weather Voc calculation), operating current, short-circuit current, recommended PV input power, and start-up voltage. Supports one panel per MPPT, series or parallel wiring, with a predefined EcoFlow STREAM Microinverter and EcoFlow 400W Rigid Solar Panel plus full manual entry for any product. Includes a lightweight comparison of how the other two wiring options would fare with the same panel count, a separate UK Plug-In Solar status section that's never inferred from the electrical result, and an educational glossary.
WIRING COMPARISON
Illustrative compatibility comparison only — not wiring or installation instructions.
UK PLUG-IN SOLAR
The government's Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification applies to the complete plug-in solar device, not just the microinverter.
That means an ENA-listed inverter cannot simply be combined with any electrically compatible panel and treated as a compliant Plug-In Solar kit. Check the exact manufacturer-specified product/package and its permitted configuration.
Open ENA Connect Direct — Plug-in Solar
If a result looks wrong, something is unclear, or you have a suggestion for improving this tool, please let me know.