Plug-in Battery

With all the latest knee jerk reactions, people are thinking the low installation costs options.  I have double checked my understanding, looking up available products.

First of all, the regulations called for their own disconnect, ie it should not be plugged in.

Then I did all the maths.  For the balcony solar, which I won't need, one would have to be very lucky to get a payback within 5 years, even with South facing balcony.  The only saving grace is that micro inverter and solar panel should be good for 25 years.

Not taking into the fact if electricity price is decoupled from gas, electricity price could be a lot lower, hence increasing the payback.

I am more interested in battery, but a small, AC coupled battery has a bad round trip loss, taking depth of discharge into account, it is hardly any buffer.  And in the best case scenario, I could get payback in 3 years, by then, the battery is half dead. I just generated another piece of rubbish...

Also not taking into account of the price is decoupled, that would easily make the payback longer than it's life.

Let's stick with my original plan, in 7-10 years time, when the string inverter packs in, get a hybrid inverter with a battery then.  Hopefully by then the sodium battery technology is matured and cheap.

Danby Vanished

I was just checking on Danby, and realised someone put a personalised plate on her.  I wouldn't able to check on her elderly health from now on.

First Brown Bin

 The first brown bin has been collected.  It took two hours to fill it up again!  Let's the Spring begin!

SNL London

I have watched a few sketches of the SNL London, they are quite funny.  Not funny enough to make me want to subscribe.  The American stuff are "free" online.

Disappearing Snoods

I thought I had a loads of snoods, the Suzuki one, the two Bike-it, my orange one.  Now I can only find the orange one.  I might have to break open the Harley Davidson one!  I check the most likely places including coat pockets! Where are you!!! 

Closing Down Sales II

I went to another Factory shop.  It is later in their closing down sale, so although some signs are still not right, they were all heavily marked down.  I did bag a few bargains.  I am looking forward to my chocolates!

Fiesta Maps Update

I finally got a big memory stick for updating the maps.  I read the instructions, it was going to take forever to update.  I was not going to leave the car running on idle just to update the computer.  So after a job, with a long drive home, I start the update.  It was supposed to have a break after 30 minutes, except it didn't come soon enough, so I skipped lunch and drove on.

It flashed at me a few times, I drove all the way back home, and it still wasn't done, do I use the drive-thru and got some lunch.  Just as I was finishing lunch, finally, it did it! 

I will check it every 6 months to see if there are any updates, meanwhile, it was hard work!