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Environmentally friendly electric toothbrush
Are these really much better for the environment they still have electrics? Any recommendations? How long do they last? I find some electric toothbrushes only last a few months and I only use them twice a day.
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Plug in solar (only solar) legal from 27th August
As of 27th of August it will become law that you can plug in an 800w micro inverter with attached solar of up to 2000w into a standard UK power socket. This law change only applies to plug in devices that generate from solar only and does not extend to any device which stores electricity for later use (aka plug in battery)…
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Should I go off-grid?
I live in quite a modern house down a road with lots of other houses on the outskirts of town. I believe the house has been supplied with electricity and gas ever since it was built. Until about five years ago, I used ebico to supply my energy. It was great because there was no standing charge. By not heating my house and…
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Train travelcards and ticketing sites ('discount' deleted)
This may be useful to know for the ethnical consumer. A colleague last year mentioned various travel websites they use to buy cheaper train tickets. When I looked into them I found almost all are owned by Chinese entities and/or with HQs based in China/HK
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Octopus Intelligent Flux - charging my car via my Zappi
This discussion was created from comments split from: Is solar battery storage worth it?.
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Is solar battery storage worth it?
Hi everyone We've just published a new guide on solar batteries and we'd love to hear your feedback. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. Thanks for your help, MSE Clare
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Home Assistant and Solax AC Inverter
I have 4.4 kWh solar array and Solis inverter, I have Solax AC inverter and triple 5.8 kWh battery, I would like to change from the standard Octopus Go to Inteligent, unfortunately despite requesting the Solax battery is not blinded from the new OHME Pro EV charger. I am considering a Home Assistant Green which apparently…
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Tesla Powerwall - App problem, Tesla not responding
My Powerwall 3 was installed in October 2024 and, until last May, has been brilliant. I'm on IOG and, apart from a Christmas, we've only been buying electricity at the cheap rate (Currently 8p per kWh). Last May, although I really didn't need to, I decided to update the app with the current Octopus pricing. The app had…
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Biting the Bullet
We are thinking of biting the bullet and getting solar panels installed, plus battery/batteries. We have one EV, will be getting a second when my wife changes car next year. We have a relatively new boiler, so thinking about a heat pump further down the line. A picture of the house is above - we're in South East Scotland…
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Solar PV 2 engineers gave conflicting diagnosis (SMA sunny boy)
I have an 8-panel solar PV system installed in 2012 with an SMA Sunny Boy inverter. The system has apparently not generated since around 2018. Engineer 1: Inspected the system around the inverter/loft area. Measured approximately 2.4V on the PV strings. Said the inverter was probably not the fault. Suspected a fault…
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Views on Solar Quote please
We are just starting to go down the road to Solar and have had this quote which I would welcome comments and opinions on please. At the momemnt we are on a standard tariff but would explore alternative options to complement solar. No EVs at present and no immediate plans in that regard. Main use of the electricity is a…
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Battery without solar panels
Thinking of getting a battery to help with energy bills but not having solar panels. Has anyone else considered this?
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Our quest for Net Zero one year on
Hi all, It's been (almost) a year since we upgraded our solar install and added the Powerwall 3 battery, and the numbers are in for June so I thought I'd take a look at our numbers for the first year. The PW3 was actually commissioned on the 11th July 2025, so we are not quite a full year and the full 365 day numbers can…
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Solar panels from Wickes?
This discussion was created from comments split from: Official MSE Free Solar Panel guide discussion.
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Green and Ethical Food
I started this thread so we can discuss green and ethical food and how it can save money as well as providing better nutrition and regenerating our soil and ecosystems. Meat:- Food animals that are "fed naturally" as in grass fed cattle offer better nutrition than grain fed, steroid enhanced animals pumped full of…
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Solar Quote views
Hi everyone, I’m considering getting solar and have a quote through the Solar Together scheme — where installers bid in a reverse auction for the work. I’d really appreciate your views on the quote! Background We’re in our late 40s and plan to stay here long‑term. South‑facing front roof (see image below). Annual…
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Solar panel quote
I am new in the solar world and if you folks could give opinions on this quote from https://electrifusionsolutions.com - both value for money and quality of proposed components? EcoFlow Ocean Pro - generation from the system 5011 kWh 14 x 485w Longi X10 Himo Artist Black N Type Mono Panels ( 25 years product warranty/ 30…
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Octopus Energy Streams: An add on to Intelligent Go
https://octopus.energy/blog/streams/ Seems like a way to get more than 6 hours of low EV charging rates. No way to predict when the additional cheap rate hours will occur but the whole household's import benefits from the lower EV rates. I expect this is designed to take advantage of the negative pricing that is taking…
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Nearly caught with a different Solar scam
We had a phone call last Friday from an unknown caller wanting to arrange to read our solar ev energy meter. He wanted to come on Monday but we told him that today was the first available date. I felt somewhat patronised by the tone of the call! He arrived at the arrange time this morning and just had a perfuctory glance…
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New Solar and Battery installation
Hi all, I've been a lurker for a while but signed up to the forum today as we are in final throes of purchasing a new house. As part of choice of house, we wanted to install a solar and battery system on the property. We will also be looking at if it is a suitable property for replacing the gas boiler with an air source…
