Graham Butcher

Yes, we know you paid for your car, but you aren't a company, which is what we are discussing here, following your statement of "Apparently over 80% of company cars ordered in the UK are EVs !!!" So you've moved the goal posts again.

Yes, it is still largely companies that are spearheading the EV adoption. The real question here is, of course, if there was no financial incentive for them to go the EV route, would they?

@Lee01 So far as recorded incidents go. Much the same claims have been made about Tesla's self-drive system for a long time. There were no reports of any issues, but that is no longer the case, is it?

Thank you for the endorsement. I have been in the electrical industry all my life, having left school and gone straight into an electrical apprenticeship and spending almost 8 years in college acquiring 3 City and Guilds certificates at a pretty high level, alongside other qualifications to enable me to become a college lecturer in electrical engineering and an instructor for the apprentices in my control. This was because my employer at that time was planning to open up their internal college to train future engineers. This was when I was employed by Eastern National Omnibus Company (ENOC). This was part of the National Bus Company when there was a joined-up transport system consisting of buses, road haulage (British Road Services, known as BRS) and, of course, British Rail. I chose that route to enter the profession because of my love for electricity and also motor vehicles, so that combined 2 passions for me. I have continued within the profession until I retired in 2016, during which time I was approached by many electrical consulting companies to join them but preferred to remain more on the hands-on side of the industry. I just hope and pray that the possible failures never happen, but judging by the sheer number of reports about modern safety systems on cars failing, such as ghost emergency braking, etc., I cannot accept that it's not going to happen, which, as you correctly pointed out, could all be prevented by the addition of a shielded interface system like the IEC type.

And your qualifications are what, precisely? You may be willing to take a risk; I'm not. I'm all for solar panels; I have 13 of them on my roof, and yes, I could, if I wanted to, make contact with live connections, BUT I would have to use a tool to do it, and by definition, I would be deemed to know what I was doing. But a lead connected to a 13A BS1363 plug lying around on the floor, etc., is something that we have become accustomed to, safe in the knowledge that it is 100% safe to pick up because it was wired to a load, NOT a generator.

No, its not BS, it's 100% true unless something happens to derail it. The system apparently relies heavily on software and electronics which detects the steady frequency of grid-supplied power to keep the mini inverter operational. I and the rest of the UK electrical industry fear that it is a matter of time before that system will fail with someone potentially being electrocuted. Its a shame that someone did not design a dedicated interface that does not use a 13A plug top with its always-exposed pins, which would completely remove its current weak link. But I fear that once again, people with little real knowledge are making knee-jerk decisions in order to keep their political goals on course. In the meantime all we can do is keep our fingers crossed that the feared event never actually happens.

Well 800w and 3.5a are virtually the same thing anyway. Using 230V as a norm, 230 x 3.5 = 805W and as things stand currently, you are only allowed 1 system per house.

Has the world gone completely crazy in the big push for net zero? It would appear that the UK government has now given the green light for the proposed plug-in solar system as of the 27th of August 2026. using a factory-installed and connected 13A BS1363 plugtop but still subject to certain stipulations. A maximum of 800W power out from the inverter must be supplied as an approved kit. You cannot assemble your own kit of parts, i.e., source your own solar panels and a microinverter and connect them together. You also cannot use storage batteries and currently only a single kit per household. So it seems the whole system has been rushed through after just a 2-week consultation period. Unless there is a serious strong backlash from the electrical industry, it will now be a matter of sitting back and waiting for the first failure of the system, and it will happen.

@lol-lol I think you're mistaking real concern for safety as something else. Isn't the system reccomended to be installed by a qualified electrical engineer? So how can you interpret that as protectionism? The other points you raise about location of the micro controller / inverter are perfectly valid. All that is required to make the system perfectly safe in the event of a failure of the shut down system is specially designed plug and socket interface to be installed in each house and on each kit. Designed in such a way that if the balcony kit is unplugged, the connection pins are still fully shrouded to prevent accidental contact being made. The fixed portion of the interconnection system just needs to be similary protected and then I think you may be surprised by the removal of the safety concerns. Not everything is as anti as you seem to think it is. Just because the Germans already use it, does not invalidate the opposition to it from the experts in the UK electrical industry. Think back to when Volvo invented the seat belt, was that protectionism or was it a genuine concern over safety?? The Swedes never tried to capitalise from that invention, they gave it away free to others and that is what will happen with balcony system once tge safety concerns have been resolved.

Yeah, I know that it has been tested with the UK 13A plug; I posted the video of it being tested by that eFIXX channel. On that test, the inverter shut down, and so the exposed pins were dead. Why did it happen? It happened because the system requires the mains supply to be present to activate the inverter. This was done by electronics watching for the telltale signal of the grid being almost spot on 50 Hz, as opposed to the inverter being very slightly unstable in its frequency and not consistent. enough to fool the detector circuit into keeping the inverter running. Failure of the critical detector circuit could happen and, in turn, keep the inverter running as long as the solar panel was producing enough power to allow it to happen. That means that should there be enough actual light hitting the panels, then the plug pins could, under that situation, have 230V still connected to them, even if the plug were withdrawn from the 13A socket. That is the problem. We all know that a diesel engine does not require electrical power to keep the engine running. Whereas a petrol engine requires electricity to power the ignition system and keep the spark plugs firing in order to keep the engine running. Well, it is possible to actually start the engine and then disconnect the battery and replace it without the engine stopping, because the dynamo or the alternator is producing power and will keep the ignition system energised. The video below demonstrates this being done. Yes, I know that the panels will only produce a small power of 800W or 3A and a limit of 2 panels per ring circuit, etc., but the low power does not mean that should the safety circuit fail, the person or animal touching those exposed pins would not be electrocuted. We all know that electronics can and do often fail; TVs, etc., fail often and force us to either try and get them repaired or toss them in the bin and buy a new one. How many people will have to be killed or, at the very best, receive a shock before these will be banned? There is a reason why the IEEE and the IET and also the BSI and the whole electrical trade (electrical contractors) are fighting the government forcing these onto the UK market; it is purely on the grounds of safety. They are NOT tin foil hat brigades; there is NO conspiracy here, only facts.

Not trying to be a killjoy here, but from a purely professional point of view, I really hope that this system, in its current form, fails to get the green light. Logic alone must surely be shouting out and clear that having a potentially live supply with exposed live connections, which in this case is a standard 13A plugtop, is a recipe for disaster.

@lol-lol yes, I have gas central heating and gas hob. I also worked from home and my energy bills were well under £200 a month in winter and around the £100 a month during summer and is for a large 4 bed house semi with a garage attached at either end of the house. Based on that, I would certainly say that your brothers £400 a month is excessive. My research shows that heat pumps are not as good as they claim to be.

Thanks for the figures; I'm quite happy to keep on paying that taxation to keep the services that are reliant on that £25B pot of money being there to continue to operate. But, seriously, it does actually make us ICE drivers/owners wonder. What if there were no actual financial advantages in owning an electric car? If they cost the same as the ICE equivalent to buy, insure, tax, and fuel and operate. They provided the same power output, miles per battery full. In other words, the EVs matched the overall costs and performance exactly as an ICE car. Charging at home was banned, so you had no option but to go to a charging hub, just as ICE cars have to go to a filling station. Just how many there would be on the roads when the above have been negated and there was no instant torque available and thus no instant acceleration to be the first to pull away and get to the next set of traffic lights, etc. All the other advantages of being able to preheat the cabin on a cold day and defrost the windows, etc., were taken away. The only current characteristic that EVs would be able to carry over is the actual charging time; that is to say, it would be available from a 100 kW charger that would necessitate spending approx. 1 hour each time to recharge the battery as opposed to the 5 minutes for an ICE car to refill its fuel tank. Then it really would be purely down to personal choice; I would expect the number of them on the road would drop dramaticly and make them a rare sight indeed. One thing you can be certain of is as the number of EVs on the road increases as a result of government policies and the revenue from ICE cars drops, the government is going to make sure that the shortfall is going to be forced onto the shoulders of EV owners/drivers to replace.

Wow, I don't have any fixed tarrif and my cost per KWH is 23.75p.

Personally I don't see petrol, diesel or gas going anywhere anytime soon. It is / was demonised for an agenda by those that will cash in big time by those with their vested interests. But like I have said before, I don't hate electric cars, I just hate the fact that they are trying to remove people's choice, end of.

A bit if a faff though.

What is the name of this village where it is either electric or oil then? Why on earth does your brother not switch over to storage heaters and get considerably lower monthly running costs?

Yeah, the VAT cut is just window dressing.

This weeks eFIXX video highlights the real dangers of Chinese-made 13A sockets with a warning that using a particular one could result in death. Even the country's premier brand, MK, has, I think, contracted their manufacturing to China and they are also advising not to use one of their own sockets because of safety issues. There is also a dedicated section on home EV chargers that may interest some of you.

I see that we are finally going to get the 5% VAT on domestic electric removed; however, that is still only pocket money a year for most people. What I found interesting, however, was the irony; this was something the leave brigade promised would be able to happen once we left the EU. I seem to recall it later becoming a promise to make it happen if we left, as they were unable to do while we remained. It only took 6 years to deliver and will help a bit; but sadly nothing is planned for doing something similar with public charging systems, though.

It is alleged that on June 23rd 2026 with temperatures hitting 34°C, the UK grid came close to shutting down as it fell out of safe operating parameters several times with zero backup supplies, whistleblowers reveal. This is something that I have raised before when there were calls for more HGVs to be made BEVs, which thankfully at the moment has not happened yet. If this problem was caused through the addition of fans being used in attempts to get some cooling across the country, then it does, in my view, raise serious questions about the future being electric.

Yes, I've had those bouts of phantom braking as well, and I've had the ACC fail to understand, without a fairly lengthy pause, that the vehicle in front has either turned off or has pulled into a layby before understanding that has happened and resetting itself back to the original setting. It makes you wonder if things wouldn't be better without all of these modern driver aids.

@lol-lol Yes, I think one of the issues with Tesla Vision is sunlight; fog is going to be another.

This is a very interesting video; it's an interview of a couple who were driving their Tesla with FSD active at 140kmh when it was involved in a head-on crash and lived to tell the tale.

Boy racer mode, just wanting the go-faster stripes to complete the impression. Personally, if it was speed I wanted, I'd much prefer the wolf in sheep's clothing look.