Techknow Ireland

Five kilowatt-hours of storage, room for twelve solar panels and a socket that can keep a heater going in a power cut. Anker's latest Solarbank has reviewers talking, but is it one for Irish homes? Solar panels and a battery sound like a natural pairing. Catch the power when the sun does show up, then use it later instead of buying it in. One kind of home battery tries to make that simpler. The battery and the electronics to connect your panels and your home all live in one b

A couple of solar panels on the balcony railing, a lead into an ordinary socket, and the house takes a little less from the grid while the sun's out. Germany allows it under set conditions, and the UK joined in at the end of August. So can you do it in Ireland? The answer comes in two halves. When going to press with this article, Irish officials still say plugging a solar kit into a socket yourself isn't compliant. The route they describe as compliant today is having it hard

Another big name has joined the home battery race. Jackery, which also makes portable power stations, now has the SolarVault 3 range. It's well reviewed in Germany, but whether it's good value depends on where, and when, you look, and there's no Irish price yet. A home battery does a simple job. It stores electricity, from solar panels or from the grid on a cheap rate, and hands it back when you need it. Many of the newer ones are all-in-one boxes: battery, inverter (the bit