I am trying to understand how to make a home use energy more intelligently. This is where I document experiments with solar, batteries, tariffs and energy monitoring, and what actually happens when I try things in the real world.
Smart Home
Our battery was full, solar was still generating, and we were exporting for nothing. So we built a Home Assistant automation to divert excess solar into heating our hot water tank instead.
Smart Home
We needed to stop Intelligent Octopus Go from draining our Powerwall during daytime EV charges — without interfering with Octopus's control. Here's how we built our first Home Assistant automation to solve it.
Smart Energy
We switched from E-On Next Drive to Octopus Energy in February 2026. What followed was weeks of missing readings, repeated calls, and a smart meter that refuses to communicate reliably. Here's the full timeline and what we've learned so far.
Smart Energy
How we installed 7.6kW of solar panels and a Tesla Powerwall 3 on our all-electric home — the full cost, what went wrong with our installer, and early performance data from Suffolk.