Home insurance

[March]

Just wondered what anyone has done in terms of insuring their solar/battery setups under home insurance? Obviously a battery is an expensive item and if it's in an outbuilding, or outside, there are risks involved. Plus insurers regularly make you register individual high price items like jewellery. Luckily my insurer tells me solar panels are fine, and make no difference to my building or contents insurance, as long as I own them outright.

My battery is on an external wall, and my insurers have told me that it is covered as contents, but I need to register it as an individual high price item, as it is over their limit of £1,500 for one item (I appreciate this will vary by insurer). I was asked to give the purchase price of the battery as paid to my installer (roughly £2k), and when they log this as an individual high value item, my premium for the next year has gone up by roughly 8%. I tried to explain to them the inverter was out there too, but frankly, they barely understood what a battery was, let alone an inverter, so I couldn't get that through to them and will have to hope it's below the £1,500 and would be covered in general contents.

What have other people experienced in terms of insurance? Have other people declared the batteries as an individual item and how much did it change the insurance by? Has anyone successfully declared the entire setup as one item? Or are people just leaving the insurance as is and hoping if there are any issues, that it's included under the general contents? Thanks

[Will]

I just told my insurance company that I had solar and batteries fitted and they added it to my notes with no increase in premium. I assume as it's part of the house would be part of the rebuild cost. It's not an individual item that needs listing.
Always worth calling and explaining with your insurance company of course.

[March]

Yes I called and explained the situation, that's how I ended up with them telling me that solar panels are part of the buildings cover, but the battery was an item over the price that meant it needed specific cover. Not once did it come up (or cross my mind, to be fair) that the battery could also be under buildings cover as part of the fixtures and fittings. Just assumed it was an 'item' of contents. I will consider removing it as an individual item covered when I renew. Thanks.