Smart Home Blog

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This kind of complex shading is why we used Enphase microinverters on our extension solar. They maximise the solar energy generation throughout the year.

A pretty good start to January and 2026! 🌞 26.2kWh generated today.

Woke up to clear, sunny skies and snow on ground. Even in this state, the solar panels are generating 1.8kW. Just 20 minutes later the snow had mostly melted and it was up to 3.4kW. The extension solar panels are still covered in snow, are in shade and generating zero.

January continues to be a good month for solar generation 🌞

The Tesla Powerwall is working flat out this month to keep our electricity usage to the cheapest rate. Our overall usage is much higher in winter and our generation obviously lower, so the 'reserve limit' is turned down to 5% to give us more usable storage each day.

There are still occasionally times where we run out of battery energy before the Intelligent Octopus Go tariff cheap rate period starts at 11:30pm. I did look at adding more battery storage capacity to cover this but, it just doesn't make financial sense, given that it would save such small amounts of money.

This screneshot is from the Octo-Aid app.

First trip of the year to London in the CUPRA Born. The range has held up well over winter, despite the cold. We get about 220 miles in summer and 190 in winter. That means >99.9% of our trips are done on a single home charge at 7p/kWh. It costs less than £3.80 to drive the 175 miles (depending on route) to London (Westfield, Stratford) and back

With my previous family cars, I bought bought a set of spare alloys and some proper winter tyres but, I've not felt the need to do this yet.

Best solar generation of 2026 with 27.3kWh.

January is looking pretty good so far 🌞

A delivery from Rapid Metals yesterday meant I could complete my 'lifetime' clothes prop project 🙂

I can tell the sun is getting higher and stronger. Today is the first one of 2026 where the solar generation is above 6kW. The solar zenith reached 72° today. This means the sun rose 18° above the horizon and this is significant with a 40° South facing roof. A higher sun also means our extension solar spends less time in the shade.

Six days skiing out in Austria 😎 Being away is a good test of how well my smart home works for my family left behind. Everything worked seamlessly for them and whilst away I only get the notifications I need to know that all is well.

Our second CUPRA Born V3 has now done 14515 miles and I noticed this bulge in the front left tyre whilst cleaning it and checking the tyre pressures. It is going to have to be replaced at a cost of £200. It is not safe to leave as it could cause a blow out at speed.

These EV tyres don't seem to be any more expensive than quality, branded tyres I have fitted to my other cars, especially since they are going on 20" rims.

We generated a total of 332kWh in January, with 20kWh of that from our E facing panels and 53kWh from our West facing panels. The worst day was 0.8kWh, the best 27.3kWh and the average 10.7kWh.

The new extension solar has generated an additional 28% to our South facing roof. The worst day was 0.4kWh, the best 5.1kWh and the average 2.5kWh.

We imported 729kWh. This includes EV charging and >99% of it was at the 7p/kWh cheap rate. We exported 200kWh at 15p/kWh, earning us £30.

Our home usage averaged 17.7kWh (high 24.9kWh, low 11.4kWh). Using appliances like the washing machine and tumble dryer cause the large variants and we try to do clothes washing on sunny days, to minimise tumble dryer use.

Of the 729kWh imported, 260kWh was put into our CUPRA Born.