Free Solar Panels England Check Eligibility

Check your solar and energy funding eligibility

ECO4 — the scheme that funded genuinely free solar panels in England — closed on 31 March 2026. That doesn't mean there is nothing for you. It means the answer now depends on your tenure, your heating, your income band and your council. This check matches your answers against what is actually live in 2026.

Free solar and energy funding check

Answer six questions and we will email you the funded measures and discounts that match your home. No phone calls, no doorstep visits, no obligation.

By submitting you agree to our privacy policy. We pass your details to a maximum of one MCS-certified installer or retrofit assessor. We never sell data to call centres.

What the checker looks at

The questions are deliberately few, because four facts decide almost everything in the current funding landscape:

Tenure. Owner-occupiers can access the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and self-funded routes directly. Private tenants need landlord consent but may qualify for council-delivered Warm Homes measures. Social tenants are usually served through their landlord's retrofit programme rather than household-level applications — knowing that early saves you weeks.

Heating type. Oil, LPG and electrically heated homes get the strongest support in 2026. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant — £7,500, or £9,000 where a heat pump replaces an oil or LPG boiler in a home with no mains gas connection — was built for exactly these properties, and off-gas homes are prioritised in several council schemes.

Benefits and income. Means-tested benefits — Universal Credit, Pension Credit, income-based ESA and JSA, Housing Benefit and similar — remain the main gateway to fully funded retrofit measures under Warm Homes funding. If nobody in the household receives one, "free" is unlikely; discounted is still very achievable.

EPC band. Funding concentrates on the leakiest housing first. Homes rated D, E, F or G are far more likely to attract fully funded work than C-rated properties. You can check your current certificate free on the government EPC register.

What happens after you submit

We read your answers against the live schemes — national and, where we have visibility, your local authority's — and reply by email, normally within one working day. The reply tells you which routes are realistic, which are not worth your time, and why. If a survey or quote makes sense, we pass your enquiry to one MCS-certified installer or retrofit assessor — check any installer yourself on the MCS register (mcscertified.com). One. Not a panel of "up to four companies" who all buy the same lead.

No phone calls unless you ask for one. No doorstep visits. And if the honest answer is that nothing free exists for your situation, we say so — and point you at the 0% VAT window, Solar Together and the Smart Export Guarantee instead, which together still take a serious bite out of the cost of going solar.

Two minutes. Six questions. Nothing you'd need to dig out paperwork for.
Email only. Your number isn't requested, so it can't be sold.
One introduction. A single MCS-certified installer — never a lead auction.

Useful while you wait: current government schemes · what happened to ECO4 · scams to avoid