Next small step in making the house sustainable

Two years ago, I had solar panels put on the roof, and a few infrared panels put in some rooms. Solar panels were a no-brainer. Infrared panels seemed a good idea too, but I wanted to try it out first before I would deck out the entire house with them. If I would have still have had money left after that exercise, I would have bought myself a battery to go with it. But I didn't.

It is now two years later, and my finances have recovered. I figured it might be time to have the rest of the rooms also festooned with infrared panels. So I phoned the company that had done the previous work. And a man came over to talk about it.

We went from room to room to see what the requirements were, and whether there would be any challenges in installing. In the living room and landing, I am quite specific about the looks of the room. I don't want them to look too modern. In the kitchen it doesn't matter too much that there are big modern panels on the ceiling, and that there is cabling associated with them. But in the living room I want it to be discreet! And one thing I really wanted was panels that fit between the Victorian ceiling beams. Neil, the representative of the company, said that that wouldn't be a problem.

Living room ceiling beams already compromised by modern technology 

We also discussed batteries. He said that the Tesla Powerwall 3 was about to come out. He just said that that was unquestionably the best thing out there. Hopefully, they would become available in autumn. And we discussed where it would go.

Neil said he’d price up the lot for me and send the information through. And he did. And then I realised that altogether, this was a bit more expensive than I could afford in one go. And even though my initial thought was to have the infrared panels installed, and the battery had been an afterthought, it would actually make sense to do the battery first. If you do that, you can use a lot more of the energy you generate for yourself, and that brings down your energy costs. That then makes you recover financially a bit quicker, which means you can get the infrared panels sooner than otherwise. So I phoned him.

Long story short: I have now told Neil to put my name down for a Tesla Powerwall 3. I haven't yet sorted out the paperwork or the deposit, but that should not be that much work, and then I can wait for this next step in trying to make my house more sustainable. And the infrared panels can wait for a bit. My trusted old boiler is still functioning. I know it is burning fossil fuels, but well, one can’t magic money to solve all that sort of problems in one go…