Working out home energy, one bit at a time.

Solar, batteries, EV chargers and heat pumps. Reference for the kit, the install and the rough numbers, all written for UK houses.

Topics

Where to start.

Panels, inverters, mounting and what the install day looks like.

Whether one is worth it, what size, rough costs.

Picking a home charger, smart tariffs, getting it fitted properly.

How they work, what a sensible install looks like, the BUS grant.

Calculators

Solar

Years to break even, given your roof and tariff.

Battery

Smallest battery that catches your spare solar.

Overnight smart-tariff charging vs standard rate.

Heat pump

Sanity-check a survey figure you have been quoted.

2026-05-08 · Battery · 14 min

A look at the meter data after twelve months. Payback came in earlier than the spreadsheet expected, mostly because of the tariff.

2026-05-01 · Solar · 9 min

South-east at the front, north-west at the back. The decision came down to one specific bit of hardware.

2026-04-23 · EV · 11 min

A few months on the tariff, with bills before and after. A couple of surprises.

2026-04-12 · Heat · 17 min

Survey, radiator changes, the BUS grant. The bit that took longest was not what we had expected.