Brilliant news!

[edent@mastodon.social]

@greem
You don't have to buy from a "big" retailer.
Plenty of manufacturers sell direct.

[fishidwardrobe@mastodon.me.uk]

@Edent excellent news if it turns out they don't screw it up.

but.

"plug it into your mains"? really? how does that work?

edit: even if it does work — how would i know it was doing anything?

edit^2: the relevant search term here is "G98". i'm still very confused what the hell this is, but it is a thing, in some areas.

[sinvega@mas.to]

@greem @Edent lidl specifically were very slow to raise prices when eg tesco jacked theirs up 40% overnight (and then again a few months later). Not that I think they're saints, but they seem to get that people plain don't have money.

Hopefully that means we'll start seeing them show up in lidl's aisle of shite

[khleedril@cyberplace.social]

@Edent That's great. We could do with plug-in battery packs too.

[renardboy@mastodon.social]

@Edent I *love* this. These ultra low-friction options are absolutely key to popular adoption in the early stages.

[walrus@toot.wales]

@OneInterestingFact @Edent

I look forward to the government ever making anything clear.

[edent@mastodon.social]

@Walrus What did your MP and Senedd member say when you complained to them about this?

[walrus@toot.wales]

@Edent

Oh, come on. I don't have to make sense when I take cheap shots, do I?

[po3mah@mastodon.social]

@sheddi @Edent OMG this things are cheaper every day. When I bough it 3 yrs ago, it was 700€ for 800Wp WITHOUT a battery, now you get it with 2kWh battery for the same price...

[ra@mstdn.social]

@Edent in case anyone missed it, here's a primer on the potential of solar.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9nt2ZeGM

Watch or listen to the end.

[edent@mastodon.social]

@Walrus Kinda, yeah.
I used to work for the UK Government. We spent a lot of time and energy publishing things as clearly as possible.

Then some cleverdick would complain that we hadn't done a good enough job when, in reality, they just hadn't bothered looking.

I think that press release is pretty clearly written. If you genuinely don't then, yes, you should write to your representatives and complain. That's the only way feedback gets heard.

[revk@toot.me.uk]

@Walrus @Edent Aren't the issues with unlimited / random feed back in to grid related to the infrastructure to handle it.

I may be wrong, but I assumed the hassle to get the limit on what we can feed in to to technical, not political.

If it is purely political, then hell yeh. Feed in that sunshine, and battery,

[edent@mastodon.social]

@revk
Yeah, the DNO can object if you're planning to put dozens of panels up and they think the grid can't handle it.

But balcony solar is likely to only be a couple of panels per household. Results from Germany are encouraging (albeit a different grid to ours).

[revk@toot.me.uk]

@Edent I thought 3.1kW was allowed or some similar amount, for feed in without approval, so that sort of already covers it, no?

[edent@mastodon.social]

@revk TBH, it seems to change regularly. When we had ours done 5ish years ago it required DNO sign off, I think.

But, yeah, with all the grid upgrades going on it looks like it is just a regulatory problem.

[inpc@go.mxtthxw.art]

@Edent I wonder why they were illegal in the first st place, are they notorious shoplifters or something?

[walrus@toot.wales]

@revk @Edent

I think you're right. Most meters presumably only measure what comes in. we have a separate export meter for our solar panels.

[edent@mastodon.social]

@Walrus @revk
All smart meters will measure export.
You probably have a separate "generation" meter. That was mostly useful when the FIT was still being paid out.

[edent@mastodon.social]

@inpc because the grid was originally designed to support electricity flowing in one direction.

It's a bit like asking why it's illegal to connect your sewage pipe back into the mains. It wasn't designed for that and it carries risks.

Thankfully, the grid is mostly upgraded and can now handle energy flowing in both directions.

[vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de]

@Edent @revk from the press release it seems the govt are working on making the process and regulations clearer to deal with (a consumer is going to have to tell the supplier to get the export enabled on the smart meter and the second MPAN allocated)

However DNO infrastructure isn't always the best (neighbour with 0 export, EV's or anything like that had a service cable failure, it took a month for UKPN to remove the temporary link from the next door house and rebuild the cable, which involved a week of having the road up and parking restrictions outside my house). There's also been at least one "make pumps 2" fire from an overloaded service cable on my street..