2025 was confirmed as the UK’s sunniest year on record, with the Met Office recording more hours of sunshine than in any year since records began in 1910.
2026 has continued the trend, with July confirmed as the UK’s sunniest month on record so far this year. That run of record-breaking sunshine has translated into real money for solar households, according to new research from Uswitch.com, the comparison and switching service, with the average home solar system generating 5,226kWh of electricity in 2025 alone.
That energy was worth almost £758 in combined bill savings and export income, £170 from power used directly in the home, and £588 earned by selling surplus electricity back to the grid. Collectively, that puts almost £1.21 billion into the pockets of the UK’s 1.6 million solar homes. Households who are out all day mid-week currently self-consume just one in eight units (12.5%) of what their panels generate, with the remainder exported.
The picture looks noticeably better for households who are home during the day. Uswitch’s modelling shows a home-all-day household self-consuming closer to a quarter (24.7%) of what the same system generates, worth an estimated £842 in combined savings and export income over the year, £336 from self-use and £506 from export. The gap between the two profiles underlines how much of solar’s value depends on when power is used, not just how much of it is generated.
Read more: Installer Online
