A shed doesn't need a buried armoured cable and a call to an electrician to get power. One panel, one battery, and a couple of small parts in between will run lights, chargers, and hand tools straight off the roof — completely off-grid, with no G98 notification and no mains connection required.
Because a shed system typically runs its own standalone circuit rather than connecting to your home's mains supply, it falls outside G98/G99 entirely. See our G98 notification guide if you're ever unsure whether a specific setup counts as grid-connected.
How the system works
Every off-grid shed system follows the same wiring order: panel, charge controller, battery, inverter, then whatever you're plugging in. Click a block below to see what each part does and what to look for when buying one.
Solar panel
The energy source. A rigid monocrystalline panel is the standard choice for a shed roof — 20–25% efficient and compact. A 100W panel runs roughly £40–£70, a 200W panel £70–£120. If the roof has no usable angle or space, a ground-mounted panel on a folding stand works just as well.
Charge controller
Sits between panel and battery, regulating voltage so the battery charges correctly and never gets overcharged. Two types exist: PWM (cheaper, roughly 75–80% efficient) and MPPT (roughly 96–99% efficient). On a small system the price difference is minor — MPPT is worth it.
Battery
Stores energy for use after dark. Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO₄) is now the standard: 3,000–6,000+ charge cycles and roughly 80% usable capacity. Older AGM lead-acid batteries cost less upfront but only last 500–800 cycles and should only be run to about 50% capacity — meaning you need a bigger, heavier battery for the same usable power.
Inverter
Converts the battery's stored DC power into the 230V AC that mains-plug tools and chargers expect. Size it to the highest single load you'll ever run at once, not your total daily use, and add roughly 25% headroom. A 300–600W inverter covers lighting and electronics; 1,000–1,500W covers power tools.
Loads
Whatever you're plugging in — LED lights, a phone or laptop charger, a radio, a cordless-tool charger, or (on a bigger system) corded power tools. Everything downstream of the inverter draws from the battery, so this is where sizing starts.
Size your system
Tick what you'll actually run out there. These are rough daily-use estimates, not exact device ratings — a phone charger and a table saw don't need the same math, so treat this as a starting point before buying.
| Tier | Panel | Battery | Inverter | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lighting only | 50–100W | 50–100Ah LiFePO₄ | Optional, 150–300W | LED lighting, phone charging, small radio |
| Weekend workshop | 200W | 100Ah LiFePO₄ | 500–1,000W pure sine | Lighting, laptop/phone charging, radio, occasional 230V hand tools |
| Power-tool workshop | 400W+ (array) | 200Ah+ LiFePO₄ | 1,000–1,500W+ pure sine | Everything above, plus regular corded tools and short heavy-draw bursts |
Continuous heavy-draw tools like angle grinders and large table saws still drain a battery quickly — size for how long you use them, not just their wattage.
Shed solar panel kits, with battery and inverter
One representative shed solar kit per tier, so you can see actual specs and price before you commit. The lighting kit is panel and battery only; the two larger kits add an inverter so you can run mains-voltage tools and chargers from the shed.
100W Panel + 20Ah LiFePO₄ Battery Kit
100W panel · PWM controller · 20Ah lithium battery. Covers LED lighting, phone charging, and a small radio.
amazon Check Price on Amazon →200W Panel Kit + 100Ah Lithium + 1000W Inverter
2×100W panels · 20A MPPT controller · 100Ah lithium battery · 1000W pure sine inverter. Covers lighting, charging, radio and occasional 230V hand tools.
amazon Check Price on Amazon →400W Panel Array + 100Ah+ Lithium + 1100W Inverter
4×100W panels · 40A MPPT controller · 100Ah+ lithium battery · 1100W pure sine inverter. Covers everything above, plus regular corded tools and short heavy-draw bursts.
amazon Check Price on Amazon →LiFePO₄ vs. AGM lead-acid
This is the one component worth spending a little more on. Depth of discharge matters as much as the Ah rating printed on the box.
| LiFePO₄ (lithium) | AGM (lead-acid) | |
|---|---|---|
| Cycle life | 3,000–6,000+ cycles | 500–800 cycles |
| Usable capacity | ~80% of rated Ah | ~50% of rated Ah (draining further shortens life) |
| Upfront cost | Higher | Lower |
| Weight | Roughly half, for the same usable power | Heavier for equivalent usable capacity |
A 100Ah AGM battery gives you about 50Ah of usable power before it's unhealthy to drain further. A 100Ah LiFePO₄ gives you about 80Ah — so it does the job of a much larger, heavier lead-acid bank. Browse LiFePO₄ batteries on Amazon →
Garages and detached workshops
A detached garage is the most common version of this problem and the one people search for most, usually in the form how do I get power into a garage with no mains feed. It is a shed with three differences that matter.
The roof is often wrong. Garages tend to sit alongside a house or at the end of a drive, which means the good south-facing pitch frequently belongs to the house and the garage gets whatever is left. A free-standing frame beside the building, angled properly, will often beat a panel bolted to a north-facing garage roof.
The loads are bigger. A shed is lighting and a phone charger. A garage is lighting, a battery charger for the car, a compressor, and whatever tool the job needs - and those are a different class of draw entirely.
Metal doors and damp. An up-and-over metal door radiates cold, and an unheated garage in January sits below freezing for weeks. That matters because charging a lithium battery below zero damages it permanently, so a battery with low-temperature charge protection is not optional here - it is the thing that stops you replacing it next spring.
Space and security. There is room for a proper battery and a decent inverter without losing half the floor, and it locks. That means you can sensibly run a much larger system than would ever make sense in a garden shed - which is the difference between charging a drill and running a bench saw.
Running power tools, honestly
This is the question that decides the whole system, and the answer is more encouraging than most people expect - with one firm exception.
Power tools are used in short bursts. A circular saw pulls 1,200W, but you run it for perhaps five minutes across an afternoon, which is only about 100Wh. The energy is trivial. What is not trivial is the instantaneous demand, and that is an inverter problem rather than a battery problem.
| Tool | Draw | Energy for 10 min | Inverter needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| LED work light | 20W | 3Wh | Any |
| Charging drill batteries | 60W | 10Wh | Any |
| Jigsaw | 500W | 83Wh | 600W |
| Angle grinder | 900W | 150Wh | 1000W |
| Circular saw | 1,200W | 200Wh | 2000W |
| Mitre or table saw | 1,500-2,000W | 250-330Wh | 2000W+ |
| Air compressor | 1,500W, 3x on start | 250Wh | 2000W+ surge |
| MIG or arc welder | 3,000-5,000W | 500-830Wh | Not viable |
Two rules come out of that table. Size the inverter for the biggest single tool, and the battery for the day's total. Most workshops need a far bigger inverter than their energy use suggests, which is why people who size by watt-hours alone end up with a system that trips out the moment a saw starts.
Watch anything with an induction motor. Compressors, bench grinders and older table saws draw roughly three times their rated wattage for the first half-second. A 1,500W compressor can ask for 4,500W on startup, which will stop a 2000W inverter dead even though it runs the tool happily once spinning.
A MIG or arc welder draws three to five kilowatts and sustains it, which is a different order of problem to a saw. Running one off-grid needs an inverter and battery bank costing well over a thousand pounds, and it will still struggle. If you weld regularly, run a mains supply. Everything else in a workshop is achievable.
If your tool list pushes past what a packaged kit offers, assembling your own power station is markedly cheaper above about two kilowatt-hours - the inverter and controller cost the same whatever battery you put behind them.
Solar vs. running mains power
Trenching a cable
Buried armoured cable typically runs £10–£25 per metre, before a consumer unit, RCD protection, and either a confident DIYer or a qualified electrician to sign it off.
Panel + battery kit
No trench, no consumer unit, no electrician for a basic off-grid setup. A single panel, a battery, and a few connectors get lighting and charging running the same afternoon.
Check local rules first
In the UK, panels on an outbuilding are normally permitted development if they don't protrude more than 200mm and the building isn't listed or in a conservation area. Confirm with your local planning authority if in doubt.
Three things not to compromise on
MPPT, not PWM
The efficiency gap (96–99% vs 75–80%) pays for the price difference within the first year on most small systems.
Pure sine wave inverter
Cheaper modified-sine inverters can damage sensitive electronics and some chargers — pure sine wave is the safer default for anything with a motor or a microchip.
Matched components
A kit sold as one system, with panel, controller, battery, and inverter rated to work together, is worth more than the cheapest box of parts that technically add up.
A shed setup like this is off-grid by design. If you're after grid-connected solar for your home, see our guide on current UK rules for plug-in solar, or our battery storage comparison for balcony and grid-tied systems. Powering a beach hut instead? See our beach hut solar guide for the coastal-specific considerations.
A shed on an allotment is a different problem again: no mains anywhere on the site, a plot left unattended most of the week, and a tenancy agreement that may restrict what you can fix to a structure. Our allotment solar guide covers the sizing, the tenancy rules and the theft question together.
If the building is an office rather than a workshop, the arithmetic changes - you are powering equipment for a full working day, and heating becomes the question that decides everything. Our garden office and summerhouse guide works through that separately.
Summary — the key facts
- A basic shed system needs just four parts: panel, charge controller, battery, inverter
- Off-grid shed setups are exempt from G98 since they don't connect to the mains grid
- LiFePO₄ batteries outlast AGM lead-acid by 4–8x in cycle life and use more of their rated capacity
- MPPT controllers and pure sine wave inverters are worth the small extra cost over PWM and modified-sine alternatives
- A lighting-only kit starts around £60–£120; a full power-tool workshop setup runs into the several-hundred-pound range
- Most sheds fall under permitted development for solar panels in the UK — always confirm locally if the building is listed or in a conservation area
Once it's wired up, there's no ongoing paperwork, no notification, and no bill — just free power for lighting, charging, and tools, straight off the roof.
If your shed bakes in summer, a small solar extractor fan is a cheap add-on that needs no battery or wiring.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need permission to put solar panels on a shed in the UK?
Solar panels on an outbuilding such as a shed are normally permitted development in the UK, provided they don't protrude more than 200mm from the roof or wall and the building isn't listed or in a conservation area. Always confirm with your local planning authority if you're unsure.
Do I need G98 notification for a shed solar system?
No, an off-grid shed solar system that isn't connected to the mains grid doesn't require G98 notification, since G98 only applies to generators connected to the public electricity network. A standalone panel-battery-inverter setup powering only the shed's own sockets is off-grid and exempt.
Is LiFePO4 or lead-acid better for a shed battery bank?
LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) is generally the better choice for shed use: it lasts 3,000 to 6,000+ charge cycles versus 500 to 800 for AGM lead-acid, and safely uses around 80% of its rated capacity versus roughly 50% for lead-acid, meaning a smaller, lighter lithium battery does the same job as a much larger lead-acid bank.