We moved house nearly 18 months ago now, and the whole affair has been anything but banal and May has been no exception. We purposely extended our mortgage so we could afford to install solar panels, to try and future proof our home. Quite why it shouldn’t be law to install solar panels on new builds is criminal in its elf and I imagine it all boils down to profit and greed not to mention poorly thought out government policy somewhere along the way. I fully realise that we are very fortunate to be able to afford such things but we are where we are, and i’d rather not pay extortionate lekkie bills if I can possibly afford it. We also have put enough money aside to install a log burner in the sitting room, as a way to try to mitigate the spiralling energy bills coming this way later on this year, when government policy until recently, was a kind of every man or woman for themselves idea, which surely would lead to fuel poverty deaths this winter. So we’ll see where we are going forward.

So May feels like we’ve won the lottery, solar panels were fitted, a log burner fitted and I was given a new electric car from work, its an interesting feeling to suddenly have life changing stuff tumble into our laps like lilac petals in June. So last week we had the solar chaps activating the system and the log burning man fitting the burner. I was really hoping them to come on the same day so I could encourage them to have a fight about who is right, in truth I think they’re both different sides of the same coin.

So now I have an app for the solar panels and I can see exactly how much or how little we are spending on daily power, our clothes have never been washed so much, the dishwasher is working overtime and the car is plugged in for several hours at the end of my work, and this is all free from the sun. Which makes me happy, if slightly dull with the amount of time I’m spending analysing KWH in and out. Solar Bore. On the log situation I buy from a really  piquant bloke called Goat, who lives in a yurt in the larch forest he manages, a flat bed truck “load” cost £90 which i’m sure is the cheapest i’ve found around here. Anyway, I thought I should tell you all how bloody great the sun and trees are.

Isn’t nature wonderful? Yeah yeah yeah.