Solar panels and home insurance.

Installing solar panels can help you to cut energy costs and lower your carbon footprint. But it can also affect your home insurance.

Here, we explain about insuring solar panels, what is and isn’t covered, and how Tesco Home Insurance can help.

Yes, most home insurance policies - including Tesco Home Insurance - cover solar panels as part of the building.

They’re usually treated as permanent fixtures, like the roof or walls. So cover’s included with standard buildings insurance.

Most fixed, roof mounted solar panels are covered by standard buildings insurance.

Policies normally cover:

Because ground mounted panels aren’t attached to the building, they’re more likely to be covered by your contents insurance. But it’s best to check with your provider.

Yes. Adding solar panels can change the way your home is assessed for insurance. It could affect your premium, your policy requirements and the risks your insurer needs to know about.

Here’s why:

Understanding solar panels insurance coverage can help you to stay protected and avoid problems if you ever need to make a claim.

Yes. You must tell us - or your provider, if it’s not us - before adding solar panels to your roof.

Solar panels can change the rebuild cost of your home and the risk of damage to it. So we’ll need to update your cover if you’re going to get them installed.

With home insurance, it’s important to tell us about any home improvements you’re planning. You can learn more in our guide - Home Insurance during renovations - what to tell your insurer.

Tesco Buildings Insurance covers ‘permanently fixed solar panels used for domestic purposes’. And the panels are generally treated in the same way as the rest of your roof.

Cover includes:

Storm damage is defined as:

‘A single violent weather event with wind speeds exceeding 55 mph and/or snowfall exceeding 30 cm depth in 48 hours, and/or torrential rainfall exceeding 25 mm per hour, and/or hail causing damage to hard surfaces.’

You’ll find full details of our Buildings cover in the policy booklet.

To learn about the importance of looking after your roof, see our guide - Roof maintenance tips: keep your home protected.

Tesco Buildings Insurance comes with liability cover of up to £2m for the owner of the property.

This can help to protect you if your solar panels cause damage to another property or injury to another person. For example, if they fall from your roof during high winds or get dislodged in a storm.

You’ll find full details of our liability cover in the policy booklet.

If your solar panels aren’t permanently attached to your home, we may be able to provide Contents cover for them, depending on where they are. Tesco Contents Insurance covers the things you own in the garden, but limits may apply.

Not all home insurance policies are the same, but most have the same types of exclusions.

Tesco Home Insurance won’t cover the following for your solar panels:

A professional installation and regular maintenance can help to avoid many of these problems.

To learn more about things that aren’t covered by home insurance, see our guide - What’s not covered by your home insurance?

You’ll find full details of what is and isn’t covered in the policy booklet.

Solar panels are becoming more common on UK homes. In part, driven by strict building regulations for new homes and the government’s Net Zero targets.

Before installing them, it can help to know how they work and what types are available. And there are a few things you need to think about when arranging home insurance with solar panels.

In simple terms, solar panels turn sunlight into energy for your home. Most UK homes use solar photovoltaic (PV) panels to generate electricity. They’re usually fixed to your roof, but they can be ground mounted on your property as well.

An inverter converts the energy into usable electricity. And some homes store extra power in a battery.

If you have solar PV panels, you can sell spare energy back to the grid. You can apply to do that through the government-backed Smart Export Guarantee scheme.

Solar panels help to lower your energy bills and reduce carbon emissions. You might also feel more in control of your energy, because you can generate what you need and sell what you don’t.

Going solar can also add value to your home and make it more appealing to potential buyers.

There are a few common types of solar PV panels. Most are suitable for homes of different ages and roof types. And they should all be acceptable for the insurance of solar panels, as long as they’re properly installed.

Common types of solar photovoltaic (PV) panel include:

For insurance purposes, these systems all count as fixed parts of your home once they’ve been installed.

Tesco Home Insurance offers both Buildings and Combined cover that include protection for solar panels fixed to your home. And they both come with unlimited rebuild cover as standard.

For Buildings cover, you can choose one of the following options and save money with your Clubcard:

We're a Which? Recommended Provider for Home Insurance. Highly rated for affordability. With 5 stars for customer service.

Tesco Home Insurance is arranged and administered by Tesco Insurance and is underwritten by Tesco Underwriting Ltd.

You'll find complete details of the cover, monetary limits, exclusions, excesses and terms in our policy documents.