Government to hand out free plug-in batteries

"Read the specification and the boundary is unmistakable. The first legal wave is panels and a microinverter. No storage. A kit that includes a battery, or an inverter with a battery bolted to it, falls outside the specification and cannot claim compliance."

"The pattern is clear. Buy generation on its own and you are inside the rules from 27 August. Buy anything that stores what those panels make, and you are waiting for the next round."

"Our best reading is a legal route for battery-integrated plug-in solar around early 2027, assuming DESNZ starts the battery safety study promptly once solar goes live this August."

So storage is only out until the rules are set for it - by their reading of the tea leaves it's coming about 6 months later.

Theo

It's almost as though they're goading people into installing pseudo-legal kit that's "near enough" to what will be allowed in future ...

Who's going to know whether your inverter is greater than 800W, who's going to know whether you have two inverters on different circuits (or even the same circuit), who's going to know if you have battery storage ... especially if you have an inverter that can be set for zero exports?

I suspect even the Germans flout their balcony solar regulations?

My Jazz battery lasted just over 9 years. It would probably have been longer but I left the lights on and it ran right down. As it was so old I replaced it, but have succeeded in recharging it. I don't know whether or not it would restart the car. By the way, it was a battery designed for autostarting. Perhaps they have a more long-term reliability built-in.

I suspect that's because they wanted to get the basic rules out asap. They could have waited a year and released everything at the same time, but it's better to let people get started sooner.

Most of these regulations are as regards the sale of the kit, ie manufacturers can't sell kit with a plug for export until the rules are approved.

You can still install other equipment subject to BS7671 and the usual regulations (G98/G99 and Part P). These rules just streamline it for kit which has been pre-approved to not need a system design according to BS7671. You can still do a non-plugin installation as a DIY, even without notifiable work under Part P, if you are competent to design it to meet BS7671. Such an install can even use the plugin components as long as they meet the existing G98 requirements (which they do). I don't think you are even stopped from using a plug, although it would be better to hardwire with a FCU.

Theo

The interesting thought lying behind this idea is the prospect of cheap renewables never becoming cheap. The cheaper the electricity, the less the incentive to install one of these devices; and even less so for the storage-battery version when that becomes allowable. But it does give the government a reason to say how they are helping those regarded as being poor, and saving the environment, and the rest of the claptrap.

Standby to continue to pay through the nose for electricity.

My reading suggests the German plug-in solar is also limited to 800W and no battery. Anyone know what the reality is ?

As soon as they start handing them out, keep an eye on eBay.

Cheers

Dave R

Money may be the be all and end all for you. However there are other considerations.

Both It's a complex mix of how they are stored, charged, and discharged.

In a nutshell.

Not for people promoting renewables there aren't.

If they were seriously worried about CO2 emissions we would have had a carbon tax, not a renewable obligation, and nuclear power, not windmills and solar panels

Their limit is 800W, batteries are allowed, and I'm sure what's on the shelf in LidAldi complies. However higher powered inverters seem to be advertised widely online (still as DIY plugin).

The considerations I have in mind centre around the fact that I’m fed up with the 30-year stream of lies about cheap reliable renewable energy, together with the expensive sticking-plaster attempts to ameliorate its shortcomings largely based on relying on the public to make up for its all-too-obvious failings.

What considerations do you have in mind?

Who said it was all about CO2 either ?

I'll leave you pair to see if you can work it out. Use your imagination.

No, no clues.

The EU, the government, the people doing the studies to show how f****ng great windmills are.

What other possible justification is there for these monstrosities?

Sorry. No amount of imagination can justify 'renewables'

It's just a way of leaving an argument with the impression that you know something the people who have destroyed your argument do not...

There is no valid reason for renewables *at all*.

If you like. I am looking for a specific word around a topic which no one has yet used in dismissal.

Ah, I take it you are someone who thinks there is no value whatsoever in astrology then. I.e. not very imaginative.

I refer you to my comment about astrology passim.