Solar Together Review: Real Costs, Risks & Savings

Your council’s name is on the letter, but it’s a joint venture with a private company called Switch Together. It can still often save a bunch of cash.

Solar Together, now renamed Switch Together, can take a real chunk off a solar quote. Whether it’s a good deal for you comes down to three things the offer email doesn’t spell out: what the discount is measured against, how long you’ll wait, and who you’re actually signing with.

If your council has invited you to join a solar group-buy, you’re probably trying to work out whether it’s a bargain, a sales funnel, or something in between. The answer: registering is free and worth doing, but only accept the offer after you’ve checked it against two independent quotes. This review covers what the scheme costs in 2026, what went wrong in London and Hampshire, what the warranties really promise, and how to use the offer to get a better price whichever route you take.

Our verdict: Solar Together does lower prices, and council-published results prove it. The price advantage is smaller than the headline once you compare it with a sharp local quote, and you pay for it in waiting time and a narrow choice of kit. Accept when the offer beats two independent quotes for the same equipment by more than the wait costs you, and when the winning installer checks out on its own record.

What Solar Together is, and who’s behind it

Solar Together is a group-buying scheme for rooftop solar panels, home batteries and EV chargers, run by a private company called iChoosr in partnership with local councils. It isn’t a government grant and it isn’t free solar. It pools hundreds or thousands of households so installers bid lower to win the whole batch of work.

iChoosr was founded in the Netherlands in 2008 and started working in the UK in 2012. Its UK arm, iChoosr Limited, is registered in England and Wales. The scheme now trades as Switch Together, and the same brand runs group-buys for heat pumps and energy tariffs. If your council’s page still says Solar Together, it’s the same scheme.

How iChoosr makes its money

The scheme is free to join, but someone pays for it. According to Harborough District Council, iChoosr receives a referral fee from the installer for each completed installation. That fee sits inside the price you’re quoted. It’s a normal model for a lead-generation business, but it means iChoosr earns when installs complete, not when you walk away with a better deal elsewhere.

Where it runs and who can join

Schemes open council by council, usually once or twice a year for a two to three month registration window. Sunsave counted 217 of the 339 local authorities in England and Wales with a scheme as of December 2025. There are no rounds in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

You can register if you own your home, rent with your landlord’s permission, run a small or medium-sized business, or represent a commonhold association. If you already have panels, you can register for a battery only. Installs are roof-mounted only, and some rounds cap applications at 50 panels per property.

How the scheme works, from sign-up to switch-on

There are five stages, and you can leave without paying anything at any point before you accept an offer.

That’s roughly ten months from the day registration opened to the final install deadline. Early registrants get offers sooner, but the install queue runs to the round’s timetable, not yours.

What you’ll pay through Solar Together in 2026

You want a number before handing over your details, so here it is: expect a price roughly 10% to 30% below the national average for the same system, with the occasional round going deeper. Every price is at 0% VAT, which applies to residential solar panels and batteries until 31 March 2027.

Reported discounts by round

The spread isn’t noise. Each council measures against its own benchmark, and a 41% saving against a market average is not 41% off the best quote on your street. Worcestershire’s 10% and the West of England’s 41% could both be accurate descriptions of fair prices.

What the discount is really measured against

iChoosr compares auction results with the MCS average price, and that average is a soft target. It includes every certified install in the country, from sharp local firms to high-pressure doorstep sellers.

Take a 4kW system, which is about ten panels. The MCS average for January to May 2026 was around £1,686 per kW. That puts the benchmark at £6,744. Take 25% off, the middle of the GLA’s range, and the group-buy price lands at about £5,060.

Now compare it with a well-reviewed independent MCS installer quoting for a straightforward 4kW roof. Our estimate for 2026 is £5,500 to £6,500. Against that, the real saving is roughly £450 to £1,450. Worth having, but well short of the £1,700 the headline percentage implies.

Batteries, add-ons and finance

Offers usually include priced options for a battery, EV charger, bird mesh and solar diverter, all at auction rates. Two things aren’t standard. Backup power during a power cut (an emergency power supply) has to be requested from the installer, and there’s no option for ground-mounted panels. iChoosr doesn’t offer finance directly, though some councils point residents to local lenders such as Lendology CIC in the West of England.

For wider context on system pricing, see our solar panel cost guide and solar battery costs.

The wait can cost you more than you’d expect

If you’re ready to install now, the round’s timetable is the biggest cost nobody puts on the offer. A private install usually takes four to eight weeks from an accepted quote, as our guide to installation timescales explains. A group-buy round takes six to ten months from registration.

Here’s what that does to a 4kW system. At a typical UK yield of 850kWh per kW, it generates about 3,400kWh a year. Roughly two-thirds of that arrives between April and September, so about 2,270kWh. Say you use 40% of it at home. That’s 907kWh at the October 2026 price cap rate of 26.32p, worth about £239. The other 60% goes to the grid. At a 12p Smart Export Guarantee rate, that’s another £163. Miss the summer and you’ve given up around £400 in year one.

Set that against the £450 to £1,450 real saving above. Register in autumn with an install due in spring and you lose very little. Register in March and get your panels in December, and the wait can cancel out most of the discount. You can test your own numbers with our SEG calculator.

Equipment and warranties: what the scheme actually guarantees

The scheme sets minimum standards, and the minimums are modest. They’re a floor, and plenty of winning bids use better equipment, but your contract only promises what the datasheet and warranty terms in your offer say.

The gap that matters most is workmanship. Six years covers the period when roof leaks and wiring faults usually show up, but a fault traced to installation work in year eight is your bill. Some council pages quote a 10-year insurance-backed guarantee for their round, while iChoosr’s national FAQ says at least six. Your signed contract is the version that counts.

Equipment quality has been questioned before. The independent AECOM evaluation of Solar Together London found some of the kit iChoosr specified fell below what you’d normally expect on a home system, inverters in particular, and warned this could lead to more warranty claims later. Check the inverter and panel models in your offer before you accept, and see our guide to making warranty claims.

Track record: thousands of good installs, two costly failures

Most Solar Together installs have gone to plan. The failures were serious enough, though, that a council logo on the offer is not a guarantee of the installer behind it.

Where it has worked

Suffolk has had more than 2,100 installs since 2018, with the county council reporting an average saving of £2,000 on installation. The West of England’s three rounds delivered over 2,400 installs and 8.9MW of capacity. Essex’s 2023 round attracted 6,600 registrations.

GET UK: London, 2020 to 2023

iChoosr chose Green Energy Together (GET UK) as the only installer for phase four of Solar Together London and as one of three for phase five. AECOM’s evaluation found iChoosr went ahead despite warning signs raised by RECC. In early 2023, GET lost its MCS certification and HIES membership, then went into administration. Some households lost deposits, were left with half-finished systems, or had installs that couldn’t claim SEG payments. AECOM logged 996 complaints across the two phases. Everyone affected was eventually refunded or had their system certified, but many waited months. GET also installed for rounds outside London, including Devon.

Fusion8: Hampshire, 2024 to 2025

Fusion8 won Solar Together Hampshire’s 2024 round. It was removed from the scheme in May 2025 after losing an accreditation and went into liquidation a month later. Some customers had paid the installer deposits of up to £2,000, well above the scheme’s £150. According to BBC reporting, those deposits were returned by the end of July 2025. The AECOM report said iChoosr had already changed its vetting and auction process after London, which shows those changes didn’t close every gap.

Reviews: read the right ones

Switch Together UK scores 4.6 out of 5 on Trustpilot from more than 7,200 reviews as of September 2026. Look closer before relying on it. The profile merges solar, battery and energy tariff reviews, and most recent reviews are about tariff switches that take days, not solar installs that take months. About 7% are one-star. Filter to one and two stars, look for mentions of installation, then read the winning installer’s own reviews, because that’s where install problems end up.

Deposits and protection: the £150 isn’t the only money at risk

The scheme deposit is small and well protected. The larger risk comes later, once you’re dealing with the installer directly.

When you accept an offer you pay a £150 deposit, deducted from your final bill. You get it back if you cancel before the roof survey, or if the survey finds your roof unsuitable, too shaded, facing the wrong way, at risk of damage or containing asbestos. It’s also refunded if unforeseen extra costs come up and you decline them, or if planning permission or a loan you’d applied for falls through, provided you cancel at least five days before installation.

After the survey, your installation contract is with the installer, not with iChoosr and not with the council. Worcestershire County Council states that it doesn’t select the contractor or monitor installations. Installers can take their own deposits and stage payments, which is how some Hampshire customers ended up with four-figure sums at risk.

• Pay any deposit by credit card. Section 75 makes the card provider jointly liable for purchases priced between £100 and £30,000, even if only the deposit goes on the card.
• Check the installer’s RECC or HIES membership on the code’s own register, not the installer’s website. Both codes require members to protect deposits.
• Get the name of the insurance-backed guarantee provider before installation, and keep the certificate with your handover pack.
• Agree in writing when you’ll receive the MCS certificate. Without it you can’t register for Smart Export Guarantee payments.

If something does go wrong, our guides to your consumer rights and complaining about a solar installer cover the escalation route.

Solar Together pros and cons

For most people, two points decide it: the wait, and who wins your round. The price advantage is real but smaller than advertised, so it rarely outweighs either one.

Who Solar Together suits, and who should walk away

The scheme is built for standard homes with standard roofs. The further your situation sits from that, the less the auction price reflects your install.

How to use your offer to get a better deal, either way

The personal recommendation is one of the most useful free benchmarks in UK solar: a full equipment spec with a price set by a live auction. Use it whether or not you accept.