Still not sure how I am on the 5p one.
It was sold as not being fixed, just their standing tariff that everyone has, and would remain until they put it up.
They are 12 month fixed price contracts. You can leave at any time though. On top of this they’ve had billing screw ups where come renewal time, they’ve renewed people on the old version of the tariff rather than the new one.
I’ve been on that years now.
It’s never changed.
Last time I got an email saying it was going up they told me it was a mistake.
It’s not changed since day one.
50p+ for electricity, Jesus!
There are fucking millions of people who just won’t be paying this as they can’t afford it. What happens then?
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Looks like that is what has happened for us, down as fixed until Jan 23.
They’ll borrow a load of money in the name of taxpayers and give it to the energy companies
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Not specifically about the current crisis but a bit of a worry for the future
Calling all solar panel users ( @MrKettle @browellm and any others) - I’m considering getting solar for my house. Having spent some time wading through articles on Which, it seems like there are a lot of different variables, places to start, things to consider, etc.
Just wondering if you can give any advice on things like the key things to consider getting started / best panel manufacturers or type / recommended firms to use, etc. It’d be helpful to hear from people that have been through it, rather than abstract articles on the topic.
All thoughts greatly appreciated!
I’m currently on the flex tariff which is not too bad, their fixed tariffs are a joke though, especially with the 60% increase in Oct 
We essentially have the setup as per
A parallel inverter is a must, especially if you have any shading on your roof.
Part of getting a solar system to be most effective is to match generation to demand. Excess energy can be stored either through battery storage or, if you have a hot water tank or a car that can be plugged in, diverters for those (which takes less capital outlay). The other thing to do is to have energy hungry appliances which can run off timers so you can run them when most energy is available.
That time of energy being available will depend on where your roof points. The further west, the later your peak will be.
Yup. This has actually been a well-recognised problem for a long time. The way China has manipulated market prices for rare earths to force the opening and closing of Mountain Pass (each time with the loss of a good deal of investors’ money, in an effort to dissuade investors supporting non-Chinese enterprises in this field) is telling. It’s easy for them to do this because Chinese labour is cheap, the government can subsidise RE exports when it wants to and the environmental restrictions are, er, not exactly burdensome.
Thanks. I presume a battery removes the need to match generation to demand?
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I fixed for two years last September.
It’s great and all but I imagine I’ll have to sell my son come Sep '23…
To a certain extent, although they will have maximum discharge rates and running stuff as solar is generated avoids the (fairly small) round trip losses.
I’ve found the battery to be invaluable. Not only does it hoover up excess solar to offset use later on, it really takes advantage of ToU (Time of Use) tariffs so you can force-fill the battery with off-peak rates in poor weather/winter and use that at peak times.
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The only general advice I would give at the moment is take your time choosing a supplier. They are price-gouging for fun because demand is so high.
Thanks. There seems to be quite a lot of variation in the price of batteries (from about £2k - £6k+) and it doesn’t seem purely linked to capacity. Is there anything to consider other than reputability of the brand and capacity? I can’t tell from the comparison charts I’ve seen.
There’s a wide range of approaches available, from fit-and-forget to more sophisticated home integration, modular expansion and so on. It’s a rabbit hole like everything else on here 
Lots of info on YouTube that’s worth looking at.
Your installer will probably want to recommend one over another but if you find what suits your needs best, seek out an installer of that brand.
Other things are the amount of power it can take in and put out and whether it can isolate the house in a powercut (solar panels are required to cut out if there is a cut so they don’tzap anyone working on a substation). A Powerwall can chuck out 5kW which covers most cooking with a bit of care, some max out at 2.5kW which doesn’t cover a kettle.
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Thanks both. It’s good to have some direction as to where to start. I naively went into this thinking it was a simple case of picking some panels and connecting them to the mains supply!