Making the news today....

[Stubby]

Just now, Mark Bolam said:

Why aren’t panels compulsory on new builds?

Dunno . I saw on program , " click " I think it was where each roof tile and each flag stone on the path was actually a solar panel .

[Mark Bolam]

There is no genuine reason for it not to be law.

[openspaceman]

3 hours ago, Squaredy said:

Yes that is my situation; I am on a fixed price until the end of next year so I have just over a year to put up solar panels to charge my car.  And I can’t afford a fancy array with a feed in to the grid, I am going for about a 3kw off grid array on a garden room with no battery storage, so it should cost less than £4000, diy fitting of course.

Will you just go for charging off the 13A supply then? Should work out a lot cheaper than that, 6 panels for £1600 the inverter will be the interesting one because it will have to run off grid?? to avoid an application to the DNO.

 

The obvious cheap way would be to stay DC but I wouldn't know how to charge an EV that way.

[Stubby]

1 minute ago, Mark Bolam said:

There is no genuine reason for it not to be law.

I suppose not Mark . 👍

[openspaceman]

2 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

There is no genuine reason for it not to be law.

It's down to freedom of choice.

 

I'm a bit perturbed by the amount of agricultural land that is being taken for solar pv arrays.

 

Given that also our farmers are not being given  a nod to get on and produce food in the face of similarly increased fertiliser prices I think government is failing in its prime purpose to steer industry.

 

We have already seen a large reduction in grain protein this year because farmers did not risk spending on fertiliser and in my view we should maximise agricultural output for human consumption because food on the global market will be needed for the poorer countries where people are going to starve. For us to exacerbate that problem by out bidding them is going to be tragic.

[Johnsond]

Time to face up to the catastrophic legacy of lockdown

WWW.TELEGRAPH.CO.UK

---

The NHS is on the verge of collapse, but this time due to a tsunami of non-Covid patients...

For all those who supported the madness it’s worth a read, for those whom saw it coming there’s nothing to gloat about at all when you look at the state of things. 

[Mark Bolam]

The choice not to have free, renewable energy?

[Woodworks]

21 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

Why aren’t panels compulsory on new builds?

It's bonkers. To fair not every house will have a suitable elevation but most will

[GarethM]

I'm sure it was something to do with insulation, allowing you to offset the need for panels if you desired.

 

However the new building regs have probably ended those shenanigans and making it mandatory, new regs were the other month I think.

 

There are also limits on the amount you can install if it's grid tie as the DNO is having trouble with the network. Transformer upgrades and cable sizes etc, the 16A per phase is in places far too high.

Edited August 27, 2022 by GarethM

[Big J]

55 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

Why aren’t panels compulsory on new builds?

 

52 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

There is no genuine reason for it not to be law.

 

33 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

It's bonkers. To fair not every house will have a suitable elevation but most will

 

It all comes down to cost and profit for the building companies.

 

90% plus of all houses built in the UK are built are constructed to the absolute lowest possible standard. Building companies have historically heavily lobbied successive governments to keep building regs to the lowest possible standard. Not only is it ridiculous that all new houses don't have solar panels, but the fact that we're still building homes with only double glazing defies logic. The average garage here in Sweden is better insulated. 

 

What we're seeing in the UK now is the consequence of decades of inadequate regulation of the house building industry. We've had the technology for years to build houses that require virtually no heating and yet we still accept the little shitty rabbit hutches that Persimmon and the like throw up and expect us to get excited about.

 

If summers of 40c plus become common place, a great many people are going to suffer horrendously, especially if electricity is so expensive that AC is uneconomical.