The problem, as I understand it, is that the house supply needs to stay synchronised to the grid because if that were not so, when the mains comes back on, it would all end badly.

Problem is, if the mains is out, there's nothing for the home installation to synchronise against.

My guess (and it's only a guess) is that the island box isolates the house supply from the mains in the event of a power cut. Then, when the mains comes back, it performs a synchronisation of the house supply prior to reconnecting the mains from the grid. Probably all happens in milliseconds with minimal disturbance to the house supply.

@simonzerafa

Home solar around here is a $10,000+++ investment in whole-home inverters, kneeling and begging the power company to allow it, monitor it, and to pay the offset — or nothing at all.

Sincerely, I had no idea this incredibly obvious and superior approach was a thing at all.

Gods, this place is a shithole.

I am not quite the right person to be able to describe this in detail, but in essence, the mains feed, and the line out of our battery, both go into this "island" box, and, on the other side of the island is our consumer unit, and thus our home's electrical system.

If the mains stops, then as long as there is charge in the batteries, power goes through the island.

How does that work? Is it a separate power supply to some or all of the appliances?

I did do a web search for "island box" but the results seemed mostly to relate to food and holidays and I quickly lost the will to live.

@simonzerafa

> keep stuff running during a power cut.

This was a key criterion for our solar installation. It involved extra expense - an island box - but I reckon that it was worthwhile, even though, at the moment, we have few power cuts, and those we have are of short duration.

I have kept the UPSs on my servers, so this is in addition to those.

The most useful thing about batteries would be to keep stuff running during a power cut.

But as far as I know, none of the current, fixed or plug-in, installations allow this.

@neil

Well that's another problem. They should be held accountable for all the dangerous stuff they allow to enter peoples homes. Amazon, Temu and AliExpress have all been selling cadmium laced jewelry through their platforms.

"In some laboratory tests, individual jewelry items were found to consist of up to 70% cadmium."

https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/analyteguru/cheap-trendy-and-toxic-high-levels-of-cadmium-in-necklaces-have-been-reported-lately/

They claim 16 days for collection, 20 for delivery. Other cheaper sellers like https://www.electrical2go.co.uk (not a recommendation as I've never done business with them) are saying 2nd Oct.

At least this means a much lower barrier to entry for many people, as it’s relatively safe to self-install with the 800W cap.

Panels --> inverter --> plug inverter into a mains socket.

Quite incredible really, IMHO!

On the other hand, it’s the least stressful technology I’ve ever used. Screw in the fasteners, hang the panels, plug them in, and you’re done. Takes an hour, if that much.

From then on, you just get a bit of free power whenever there’s enough sun. No further effort needed.

Dumb question to more knowledgeable people: how does the "plug in" bit work?

Does it mean the solar panel has sockets that you plug your devices directly into (and your Xbox turns off if the sun goes in, assuming no battery), or that it plugs in to your domestic mains and reduces the power draw from the external grid?

The supermarket chain hardly matters; I expect these things all come from the same 3 factories in China, regardless of the label on the box.

> 2 panels + inverter for sale for 205€.

Nice!

Anyways, more solar is always good regardless.