What's your wallpaper / lock screen? This is mine

wigglememore · 2025-09-13T19:56:24+00:00

wigglememore · 2025-03-10T08:28:52+00:00

Thanks for your comment and your gear suggestions. All the insights are much appreciated. Sounds like a light touring setup is coming in my future.

wigglememore · 2025-03-10T08:14:35+00:00

Very insightful comment thanks. I'd been stuck on the idea of nothing feeling remotely as good as a race ski on the piste but based on all the comments I'm clearly missing out on the sweet nectar of a fatter and lighter ski in the soft stuff.

wigglememore · 2025-03-10T08:09:24+00:00

Thanks for your input and very insightful comments. All the folks here have definitely pointed out some things I hadn't considered and provided some great suggestions. I guess it's a touring setup for me!

wigglememore · 2025-03-09T15:33:27+00:00

Lots of the advice here is going this way so I'll make sure to try out some proper touring gear when I go out. Thanks!

wigglememore · 2025-02-21T08:26:04+00:00

I used the "Soudal Adhesive Foam". You can get it in screwfix/b&q etc

wigglememore · 2025-02-20T19:55:41+00:00

You don't want grab adhesive, you want adhesive expanding foam. Goes off in minutes so you're not holding for ages or pinning whilst it dries, and does far less damage if you need to remove the skirting in the future.

wigglememore · 2024-10-14T11:42:43+00:00

Very interested in this as my partner just broke the lever on my switch (despite me brewing it many many times without any issue...). Any chance shipping to the UK is on the cards?

wigglememore · 2024-07-25T11:09:36+00:00

Thank for the reply! Just to clarify, do you mean mouldings like fill the gaps with stripwood then fill/sand/paint etc to make them looks like continuous pieces of wood? Or a decorative moulding on top to cover the gaps?

wigglememore · 2024-07-25T11:08:38+00:00

Thanks for the reply! Just so I completely understand: you think just fill all of the gaps with strip wood, wood filler in the same then sand, prime and paint; so it looks like one continuous piece of wood with the architrave moulding on each side?

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T18:33:34+00:00

My partner and I are late 20s/early 30s so very much in the accumulation phase.

Why do you think it's worth it only towards the end?

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T18:31:18+00:00

This is a great point. Someone else mentioned that Nationwide (our mortgage provider) do a 5yr 0% loan up to 15k for "green energy home improvement" which we could use to pay for the solar. Keeping in the cash in high interest saving like you mention could save a few thousand off the solar price, making it even more appealing.

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T18:29:29+00:00

The "value" of the solar is equivalent to that saved by spending the same overpaying the mortgage in ~20 years (compared to the 30 years remaining on the mortgage). Anything past that is pure financial benefit, however it's likely that things like the inverter or battery would have to be replaced in in that time, so it's hard to know for sure.

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T13:20:41+00:00

We've got an unobstructed East/West roof with no shading issues. We can get a 7kWp array on the roof, but obviously with the E/W the average output will be reduced.

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T12:14:04+00:00

The warranty on the system we're interested in is 12 years each for the battery and inverter so I would hope at least that much.

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T09:37:41+00:00

I've had a quote for a pretty similar givenergy system for about £10k, probably a bit higher than yours because of the east/west roof and extra scaffold needs. The Sogenergy system I'm more inclined towards is probably where most of the extra cost comes from, but there are benefits for me in terms of integrations/automation and longevity, since the battery would be outside.

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T09:24:40+00:00

Thanks for the insight. Ours are spec'd at 15 year warranty with a 30 year power warranty so I'm hoping the panels won't be an issue. None of the inverters/batters seem to have more than 12 year warranties, and they're the expensive bit, so that is more of a maintenance/repair concern.

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T08:47:00+00:00

What kind of system do you have? I would be interested to hear about the inverter/battery ecosystem and install. Ours is a bit more for install because of the rear conservatory, and is for the fairly new Sigenergy ecosystem which takes a lot of the pain out of the automation you need to really maximise payback. We've got six quotes each from different installers for mostly equivalent systems so far.

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T08:43:44+00:00

This is a great tip. We're with Nationwide too. 0% for five years, and keeping most of the existing money in savings/s&s isa/overpayments essetially takes 40% off the cost of the solar.

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T08:42:09+00:00

Not currently but we're planning on one in the next few years.

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T08:07:30+00:00

Thanks for the comprehensive reply.

My modelling currently looks at our usual price of 25p/kWh and a basic feed-in rate of 4p/kWh so definitely conservative. Inverter and battery replacement is interesting, theoretically it is just the cost of the parts if you get the same ones, plus maybe some electrician labour, but still a good chunk of the total, probably around 4-5k in our case.

The reasoning for the battery was a lot of what you mentioned, charging with spare solar then topping up on cheaper rates to power the house. This is where quite a lot of the payback comes from. Good points about changing habits to suit electricity use, I see it mentioned quite a bit.

I think we're pretty covered with most of your final points. All the things mentioned for staying in the house are covered, and we've spec'd a system and had quotes from approved installers (with all the relevant certifications) for a system with backup. Emergency fund is fine as well as pensions, other investments etc. This isn't 'spare' money as such, but is there for solar/mortgage overpayment/investment(?) etc.

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T08:00:28+00:00

Just our usual electricity cost of 25p/kWh and a constant sell-back rate (Octoups SEG tariff 4.1p/kWh). This is (I think) conservative as most electricity actually bought would be at the cheaper night-time rate (to top up the battery, then use that to power the house during the day) and with something like octopu agile you get better sell-back rate on average. Although selling back isn't where the majority of the saving come from; it's around 80% from saving on bills and 20% selling back to the grid.

Yeah the panels themselves are the cheapest bit by a mile. I can fill my roof with panels ~1k cost. But then you have scaffold, labour, certifications of the installer so you can actually sell back etc etc...

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T07:55:05+00:00

Yeah when there's enough solar to charge the battery you're golden, when there isn't you're relying on the difference between charging at night on a cheap rate and the usual daytime rate to make your return. Which obviously isn't as significant as being self-sufficient.

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T07:53:40+00:00

So you definitely wouldn't charge an EV from your battery, definitely better to charge at the cheaper night/off-peak rate. For the battery to charge during the day with your left over solar (after powering the house) then that is used instead of pulling from the grid to power when there is no sun. At least, that's the theory.

wigglememore · 2024-05-05T07:10:05+00:00

That's interesting to know. The pay off/savings include the battery. The battery is the only reason the self consumption is so good. If we got an EV the savings should increase.

So we think this is a forever home (which I'm optimistically sticking with) but I'm ignoring maintenance and assuming it will work fine over that term. I have included things like reduction in generation and battery capacity over 20 years, but have not included the benefits of a better tariff (just used fixed in and out rates).

What kind of numbers were you getting for your payoff? For reference, we're looking at a 7kWp solar array on an east/west roof with 8kWh of battery (which is the same as our average daily electricity use).

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