Owning your own home

Has anyone had solar and more importantly associated batteries installed recently?

We are converting an outbuilding, and one issue we are running into is getting electric to it could be an expensive job, so pondering the alternative of solar panels and batteries. There is not going to be anything pulling a lot of electric in there, so wondering if I can do it "off grid".

I need to get angry at something to feel validated.

Why are there so many giant clocks in people houses?

I will never understand this. Presumably lots of time poor short sighted folk.

In the process of buying and I've lost the will to live with my solicitor's... the first one I couldn't contact for 6 weeks then suddenly I get an email that she has left the company !!! Now my replacement her phone lines aren't working and has 'lost' the enquiry responses but also says she can't open them... her assistant says otherwise..

Also this is a cash only buy with searches already done so should have been quick but Im now on week 8 🙃

Painful.

Interesting... I'm currently considering a garden room/log cabin thing and hadn't thought about solar. I assumed I'd run a cable in but that will be a pain to get a suitable trench dug.

https://www.selectsolar.co.uk/cat/194/solar-power-kits-for-buildings-and-projects has a bunch of kits at various sizes. No idea how good they are. I suppose it depends what kind of load you want. If it is just run a PC and access point then something small is probably fine. They include an inverter but probably more efficient to run things off DC (eg 12V car adaptor to USB-C for a laptop rather than going to 240V and back down).

Because clocks are awesome. I love clocks and want more.

Apart from electronic clocks that don't set themselves. They should be illegal.

But give me something with an MSF receiver or many hand made gear wheels and I go all gooey.

Yes, to be honest I figured I would just run some armoured until my electrician pointed out that I have a house, log cabin and workshop already on my single phase cable, so running another building may take beyond the limits of what is possible.

From the bit of googling I did I got the impression other apps could be streamed with AirPlay. That not the case?

Does single phase matter? I'd love a 3-phase lathe but that isn't happening...

I currently have a 60A main fuse but apparently getting that uprated to 100A is simple. I doubt we use much more than 30A peak at the moment though as we don't have many high loads. Would probably be different if I put heaters in sheds.

What do you actually use?

I don't have experience but I believe Tesla power walls still rule the roost here in terms of capabilities, storage capacity (per £) and just looking really cool.

Apparently they're really struggling to keep up with demand at the moment though so you might want to start that conversation now if that's the direction you're going...

Quite possibly, I’ve actually never used Airplay for anything, and then we got the vinyl set up going so I just do the same thing with that and never use the Sonos 😂

Converting to what? Workshop? Accommodation? Year round use?

The biggest problem with off-grid solar is you get orders of magnitude less energy during winter and even bright summer overcast days, so you either need massive batteries, massive panels or an alternative way to charge them.

Anyone have a contact for a kitchen fitter in SE London. Have a friend who needs one urgently and they are getting quite anxious.

Henry vacuum ...so I think I'd find chucking him traumatic.

Bit late, but did you know almost everything on them is fixable? There's a great parts website which also has tutorials on how to replace whatever is broken. Quite often it's the bushes(?) that wear and need to be replaced.

Basically want a speaker to listen to audiobooks in our bedroom (the google home doesn't play ball with audible) so only need one for now but once we're doing the reno then I wanted to use an ecosystem that can work throughout the house

can still use some sonos equipment to stream through airplay (e.g beam and newer ones)

We bought a load of Ruark things. But then we don't have any specific technical requirements other than 'play this shit from Spotify/Radio/Podcast app in the room that I'm in'.

Eventually will want speakers in multiple rooms but for now just in our bedroom. I got given some of the Google home pods and have used these in 3 rooms but the bluetooth is a bit glitchy and they dont play ball with audible so want something different.

Cheers, I'll have a play around later. I'll be pleased if I've been fussing about nothing

I've had nothing but positive experiences with Sonos.

I actually have a Sonos one which is spare at the moment if you want it. Mint / boxed. £120.

Amazon Echo will do multi-room and, obviously, plays nicely with Audible.

Do you have space or a suitable place for as stereo Play Ones? They sound great as a stereo pair. If not a single Play 5 is great, although when they finally update the Play 3 that would probably suit a bedroom perfectly.

What I do like about Sonos is that we started with a Play:1 about seven years ago and it's moved with us and we've added it to slowly, and now we are in our house we're able to easily experiment and see what works well in each room.

I have a karcher K2, is it worth getting the patio cleaner? I keep reading that they save water, its for once a year patio/drive clean.

is it worth getting the patio cleaner?

Yes - it stops you from fucking the cement with the wand attachment.

Perfect, bought.