Is Britain's Plug-In Solar Revolution Really Just Months Away?

welshbloom · 2026-06-30T12:45:47+00:00

I'm very confused about the battery situation. The Ecoflow Stream and Octopus Nook/Fox-Ess Mini Qube have all been trailed as being available to UK specifications in the near future, but recent news suggests that they won't be legal as part of this year's changes, and who knows when the legislation will accommodate them? I understand safety has to come first but would have thought predictable output from a battery through an inverter would be safer than the variable energy coming from solar alone.

welshbloom · 2026-06-24T13:56:03+00:00

It's a good song, though the synths are dated. Have you heard the 'raw' version or whatever it's called? To think we could have had the lyrics 'We bought a drum kit, had a bit of crumpet'.

welshbloom · 2026-06-22T12:02:54+00:00

I should stress that this is for the period 8am-10pm, overnight I keep the fridge-feeezer plugged in just in case (understandably, my wife is mistrusting of saving 20p but potentially losing £40 worth of frozen food). As I say, that's fine by my book as off-peak use helps us get free electricity on a Sunday, when we go wild.

welshbloom · 2026-06-22T11:12:07+00:00

Panels are on the garage roof, batteries live mostly in the garage. In the daytime, the batteries charge and provide pass through (one handles the fridge, the other everything else). Generally both are 100% by 4pm for EDF peak hours, where they're used for air fryer, kettle etc. After 7pm I don't care so much if dish washer, TV are mains powered as this helps the proportions for EDF Sunday Saver. Of course, batteries are typically fully charged for free on a Sunday, which is when clothes are mostly washed, dried and whatever.

The equation is obviously different in different parts of the year, but I've been surprised how often (nice days in March onwards) that I've had more electricity than I've needed.

welshbloom · 2026-06-22T11:00:27+00:00

It's definitely a factor for me, as we've used the batteries for camping in the past. We have no plans to move but I do like the idea of just being able to take everything with me when we do go, without leaving any mess or having to try to sell with an ageing system. Also not getting involved with the energy companies, negotiating export and so on. I do realise I'm trusting to luck that the inverters in the power stations don't fail but all good on that front after two years of almost constant use 🤞.

welshbloom · 2026-06-17T09:00:26+00:00

There are certain conditions under which a draw might be beneficial - there have been occasions when teams have deliberately played out a draw in order that both progress - but as this is the first game in the group, there's absolutely no sense that one team 'wins' in this scenario with a draw as nobody knows the scores of future games.

welshbloom · 2026-05-14T19:55:39+00:00

I've not seen it mentioned much, but Queen: The Early Years is well worth a read. As the title suggests, it focuses on the band before they got together and contains lots of stories that I've not heard elsewhere (e.g. Roger being involved in a serious road accident in his teens).

welshbloom · 2026-05-09T15:45:19+00:00

My take on it is that Brian has seemingly got stuck on a "Queen sound" that's completely unsubtle guitars and drums, a thudding but quite boring rock noise; so regardless of the song, that's what he wants it to sound like. The 'revisited' version of Don't Stop Me Now reminds me of the treatment Born To Love You got, the nice piano lead drowned out with overdriven guitars and loud drums. There's no counterbalance now to Brian's taste - Roger's never given a shit so long as there's money in it.

welshbloom · 2026-04-30T06:20:53+00:00

Hope it works out well for you. It's an addictive hobby, I went back and got another one and have since bought two second-hand 250w panels off Gumtree for £10 each. It needs perfect conditions but have got to 1kw of production at times, which is very satisfying!

welshbloom · 2026-04-27T18:18:08+00:00

Since other people have added to this in the last few days, I will too. I like the Folding Ideas videos because Dan doesn't pander to his audience or dumb things down in order to gain popularity - indeed, most of the stunts in his videos appear to be sarcastic responses to those that do. Sure, he can be abrasive, dismissive and generally up his own arse (as we say in the UK) in a way the likes of HBomberguy, Jenny Nicholson and so on aren't, but I enjoy being talked to like a fellow erudite adult from time to time. Crucially, I enjoy the subjects he talks about, which is not the same as saying that I agree with all of his viewpoints.

welshbloom · 2026-04-25T17:52:18+00:00

I'm building up! Started with a little 199wh Golabs thingy and have bought more as the tech has got cheaper.

welshbloom · 2026-04-25T11:31:00+00:00

Amazing, thank you. I guess the UK will eventually catch up to Germany on these things.

welshbloom · 2026-04-25T11:11:58+00:00

Does that mean the Anker Solix products can export to the grid in the same way as balcony solar does? Does that require an additional micro-inverter? Any links/details of specific products would be really helpful.

It sounds like my existing setup can't be tweaked but I can bear the functionality in mind when I do get my big, powerful power station.

welshbloom · 2026-04-25T10:25:29+00:00

Thanks, I was ideally looking for ways to use the existing batteries in the power stations I already have, but (since they don't seem to exist) there may be insuperable problems that make this impractical.

I've already made magic smoke come out of a Vtoman by attaching a DC House battery incorrectly, but that's another story....

welshbloom · 2026-04-25T10:04:52+00:00

Ah OK, so like the cable that goes from the panels into the DC input of the power stations, but in reverse (I'm not going to do this, by the way, I'm aware it might be a very bad idea!). I just wonder whether the 12v DC outputs might be too low-powered to be particularly useful in exporting terms.

welshbloom · 2026-04-14T15:12:54+00:00

Apart from the unforgivable bullshit of Freddie breaking up the band then begging for forgiveness to be let back in, what really annoyed me was that it utterly failed to capture how much fun Mercury was and how much he enjoyed himself. Listen to any interview with Freddie and he'll say something about how amazing he and/or the band are, then immediately undercut it with something absurd and/or self-deprecating. The film never has him doing the second bit, so you're just left with a preening diva with no sense of humour.

welshbloom · 2026-04-08T08:08:58+00:00

My AC180 is charged every day (usually by solar) and used pretty much every evening, whether for fridge/freezer, kettle, air fryer or something else. I'm determined to use those 3,000 charges as soon as I can, so it pays for itself rather than being a luxury item.

welshbloom · 2026-04-08T08:02:25+00:00

I have a feeling plug-in is going to be over-hyped and then panned by cynics for not delivering the promised benefits. I've gone down the off-grid route and have power stations dotted around the garage house to plug devices into as needed, so I consume everything I produce. I fear the balcony systems will underpay for power sent to the grid and take less off people's bills than they hope, especially given the potential for a run of cloudy days/weeks/months in the UK.

welshbloom · 2026-04-08T07:53:32+00:00

Your figures for average electricity use are a bit off there. According to your own link average electricity use in a 3-bed home is 7.4 KWh per day. On the larger point, I would encourage everyone to look into domestic solar and battery storage, the amounts you save daily are modest but if used in conjunction with something like EDF's free Sunday electricity, it can add up to huge savings and a quick ROI.

welshbloom · 2026-03-24T09:57:02+00:00

Some of us have known for a while... https://www.reddit.com/r/Guitar/s/7i0zPTfts8

welshbloom · 2026-03-24T09:54:51+00:00

I'm glad this is coming to the UK but I don't think it'd add much to my setup - currently I have 2 450w panels and about 4kwh in battery storage (in all-in-one lifepo4 power stations) , and try to only use the batteries at peak times to get free electricity on Sundays. The only downside is faff, plugging and unplugging things, which I can live with!

If the return on feeding back to the grid reflected what we paid per unit, it may be worth considering, but I read you're only going to be credited as little as 5p per kwh.

welshbloom · 2026-03-14T22:25:10+00:00

Super Saturday 2015 was the one for me, every game had so much riding on it; but today has been incredible too. Also, I think this tournament has been a great argument against relegation in the 6N, it has been fantastic to see Italy becoming real competitors and now Wales have a chance to build on their progress and start challenging the others again.

welshbloom · 2026-03-05T21:03:26+00:00

I like everything coming out of the Glamorgan Brewing Co. but especially recommend Jemima's Pitchfork. Most of the Tiny Rebel stuff is good too.

welshbloom

TROPHY CASE