Batteries
Depth of discharge is a dial rather than a setting
How deeply a battery is emptied trades usable energy per cycle against how many cycles it will deliver, and…
· 4 min read
Kabir Anand
Consumer editor, Power Your Roof
Kabir covers solar basics, batteries, bills & tariffs and the questions readers actually send in and is happiest when a piece answers the question completely.
17 articles
Batteries
A battery pays back through the tariff, not through the hardware
The value of a stored unit is the difference between what it would have earned leaving the house and what…
· 4 min read
Bills & Tariffs
Standing charges mean cutting usage does not cut the bill proportionally
Part of an energy bill is a fixed daily fee that does not move when consumption does, which changes what a…
· 3 min read
Bills & Tariffs
Reading a half-hourly consumption profile before buying anything
The data a smart meter already collects will tell you more about which energy measure suits your house than…
· 3 min read
Installation
What actually goes wrong on installation day
Most defects in a domestic solar installation are ordinary workmanship failures, and nearly all of them are…
· 4 min read
Efficiency
Insulation usually beats generation on cost per unit saved
A unit of energy never needed is worth more than a unit generated, and the measures that avoid needing it…
· 4 min read
Solar Basics
Cleaning panels repays in some climates and almost none of them
Rain does the job free above a certain tilt, so paid cleaning only makes sense where soiling is chronic…
· 4 min read
Batteries
Most solar systems go dead in a power cut, and that is deliberate
A grid-tied inverter is required to disconnect when the network fails, so keeping the lights on needs…
· 4 min read
Bills & Tariffs
A smart meter enables things, and it does not save anything
The device measures and communicates, which is a precondition for several useful arrangements and is not…
· 4 min read
Solar Basics
What a performance warranty on a panel actually promises
The product warranty and the performance warranty cover entirely different failures, and the longer of the…
· 4 min read
Bills & Tariffs
Comparing this year against last needs the weather taken out
A year-on-year change in energy use is mostly a change in the weather, and until that is removed the…
· 4 min read
Installation
What an electrician is working out when they look at the consumer unit
Adding generation, storage or a car charger is an electrical question before it is a solar one, and the…
· 4 min read
Installation
Lightning rarely strikes the array, and surges reach it anyway
Storm damage to a solar installation is usually a voltage induced in the wiring by a strike some distance…
· 4 min read
Installation
The distance between the roof and the consumer unit is not free
Every metre of cable costs a little energy and a little voltage, and when a system is exporting it is the…
· 4 min read
Efficiency
A heat pump asks the radiators to do more with less
Output from a heating surface collapses faster than the water temperature falls, which is why the emitters…
· 4 min read
Installation
Connectors and cable routing cause more roof faults than modules do
The plugs joining panels together are the smallest components in the system and the most frequently…
· 4 min read
Installation
A mounting system has to let the array move without letting it go
Aluminium rails carrying glass modules expand measurably between a winter night and a summer afternoon, and…
· 4 min read