Before you buy a plug-in solar kit: a California checklist

The short answer: before you pay, check your daytime use, the certification mark, your lease or HOA, the outlet, your insurance and where the panels will go. Then register the kit if your utility asks. This checklist follows pv magazine's guide for California homeowners, written by Oren Tamir, chief executive of the solar installer NRG Clean Power.^[source]

Not legal, electrical or financial advice.

The checklist

1. Look at 12 months of usage. Download a year of usage from your utility account and see how much you use during the day. SB 868 doesn't guarantee any payment for power you send to the grid, so size the kit to what you use while the sun is out.^[source] Our calculator assumes exported power earns nothing.
2. Check the certification mark, and look it up. The law covers systems certified as a plug-in photovoltaic system by UL or an equivalent nationally recognized testing laboratory.^[source] Look up the listing in the lab's own directory (how UL 3700 certification works), or run through our four-question kit checker.
3. Get permission in writing. SB 868 doesn't override your lease, your HOA's rules or building rules about what can go on a railing.^[source] Renters can use the letter in our renters guide.
4. Check the outlet. Use a dedicated or lightly loaded outlet, never an extension cord or a power strip, and in an older home have a licensed electrician check the circuit first.^[source] A kit's plug can stay live for a short time after you unplug it, and some shock-protection (GFCI) outlets may not work as expected with a kit, so ask what outlet the kit needs.^[source] More in Do I need an electrician?
5. Tell your insurance company.^[source]
6. Plan a safe spot for the panels. Secure them against wind, and keep panels and cables out of exit paths and off anything that can burn. A loose panel can fall and hurt someone below.^[source]
7. Register if your utility asks. Your utility, including a city utility such as LADWP, may ask for the system's address, make, model and size through a simple online form.^[source] It can't make you wait for permission.^[source]

Red flags

The same guide lists warning signs to walk away from:^[source]

• "Eliminate your bill" claims. A small kit offsets part of your daytime use, not your whole bill.
• Kits over the limit. The limit is 1,200 W AC per home, for all plug-in devices together. Be wary of a seller who suggests combining kits to get past it.
• "Backup power" claims for a kit without proper built-in storage and certification. A plug-in kit switches off when the grid goes down (more on batteries and outages).
• A missing or vague certification mark, or no California compliance documents.
• Pressure to buy before you've checked your lease, HOA or circuit.
• Advice to skip your utility's registration.

Where to start

• Renters and condo owners: a certified kit on a safe, lightly loaded circuit is a low-risk first step.^[source]
• Homeowners with a usable roof: the guide suggests getting a rooftop-plus-storage assessment first, then deciding whether a plug-in kit fills a gap.^[source] Its author runs a company that installs rooftop solar and batteries. Compare the two in plug-in vs rooftop solar.

From 2030, a rule on sales too

SB 868's exemptions run until Jan 1, 2030. The Legislative Counsel's digest of the law as signed says that from that date, it also bans the sale of plug-in solar devices that don't meet the law's definition.^[source] We haven't yet read this in the full enacted text.