this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2026
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The original (very generic) title):

Government to go "further and faster" in becoming energy secure

The Energy Secretary outlines measures to protect consumers and make Britain energy secure.

They are speaking of panels in the 800W range which you can just buy , mount in front of your balcony or on top of your carport, and plug into a wall socket.

These things are wildly popular in Germany. The do not generate a lot of power, but armotize in about three years and save real money. (Depending on how old the metering technology is, they can also make the power meter spin backwards, which I think is only fair considering how much households pay for kWh, compared to energy-hungry companies, which get most of the the massive cost savings from renewables but don't pay for the necessary upgrade of the grid).

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[โ€“] InTheNameOfScheddi@lemmy.world 0 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Wouldn't it be easier to have several fuses at the breaker panel?

[โ€“] timwa@lemmy.snowgoons.ro 2 points 14 hours ago

Easier, but more expensive. The driver for the ringmain system was to save money (& copper) by using less & cheaper cable in the walls than an equivalent radial layout (as used everywhere else in the world.) It has half as many fuses and uses less wire than radials, with the only downsides being risk of fire and some horrible undetectable failure modes - what's not to love?

(e.g. Undetectable failure: if there is a break in the cable in the wall (bad DIY, say,) everything still works - because although you broke the ring, the other end of each half is still connected, and all your appliances still work. So now you have two 24A radials in your walls, connected to a 32A breaker, and nothing stopping one of those cables being overloaded (if the break is nearer one end than the middle, it's practically guaranteed that the longer half is overloaded.) Horrible design.)