Plug-in (or balcony) solar tech has been booming in Europe for a while now, but it seems as though the rest of the world is slowly catching on: these kits are now legal in the UK, while an increasing number of US states are approving them too.

The simplicity is the main appeal of these solar panels, which can be plugged straight into a standard outlet in your home, without any expensive roof mounting or time-consuming planning permission required. Any energy that you generate from free sunlight is used immediately for the appliances in your home, cutting down your electricity bill.

Now that the tech is legal in a growing number of places, we're seeing more and more certified kits and compatible batteries appear on sale. During our travels around the IFA 2026 tech expo in Berlin, the products below particularly caught our eye.

There's one big caveat here — in the UK and US, grid-tied plug-in batteries aren't currently a legal part of plug-in solar, so in those regions the products below will need professional installation (which slightly negates that 'plug-in' descriptor).

Still, there are hopes that plug-in batteries could soon be legalized in the UK and elsewhere, which means the bill-cutting products below could be a glimpse of our home energy future...

1. EcoFlow Stream 2 / Ocean 2

EcoFlow has been in the energy storage game for some time of course, and brings all of its expertise to bear on these two new products. Starting with the 3-5kWh Stream 2 home battery, we've got support for up to 5,000W of solar input and 3,000W of electricity output, so enough to power washing machines, dishwashers, and the like.

It's modular too, so you can stack these up like Lego bricks as your energy needs change, and the units offer four MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) inputs if you need to connect panels in different spots. There's also an AC version if you already have solar panels installed and just need somewhere to store the electricity.

As for the Ocean 2, this is a fitted home battery, replacing the PowerOcean line. It does up to 30 kWh with a single inverter, and can provide backup power if the grid goes down with an instant switchover so you'll never even notice. Both require professional installation, but you can take the Stream 2 with you when you move.

2. Anker Solix Solarbank Max

On to the Anker Solix Solarbank Max, and this impressive-looking home battery brings with it 7 kWh of storage capacity, which should be enough to keep an entire home going overnight (assuming it hits the average figure for usage).

Unlike the AC version that's already on the market, this can connect directly to your solar panels, and it can take on 10,000W of solar input across three MPPTs. You can also expand the capacity up to 42 kWh with extra batteries.

You do need to get an electrician to fit this to your home power network, just to avoid anything blowing up, but Anker reckons you'll have saved on up front costs and be getting pure profit within 2.5 years — though your mileage may vary.

3. Zendure SolarFlow 2400 Pro / 4000 Mix Pro

The Zendure SolarFlow 2400 Pro and 4000 Mix Pro aren't entirely new, but they were shown off at IFA, and we're including them here. Again the emphasis is on simple, easy to manage solar energy storage: the SolarFlow 2400 Pro can take on 4,800W of solar input across four MPPTs, and offers 2,400W bi-directional AC power (hence the name).

With the SolarFlow 4000 Mix Pro, we've got capacity for 13,000W of solar input across two MPPTs, and you get (you've guessed it) up to 4,000W of bi-directional power, so it's a more heavy duty operator and larger unit.

Both these batteries can be connected to plug-in solar panels as well as retrofitted to panels that are already on your roof, though obviously the SolarFlow 4000 Mix Pro can handle more of them.

4. DJI Power 2000 and solar bundle

We were very impressed with the DJI Power 2000 portable power station when it launched last year, and at IFA 2026 it told us that it's going to turn this into a fully fledged balcony solar system — complete with its own solar panels and a microinverter for connecting to a standard power network.

Details are a bit thin on the ground though, as we don't know how much it's going to cost or exactly how it's going to work. Apparently the bundled kit is going to be sold in Germany first, with no word yet on an international expansion.

What we do know is that DJI has the technical experience and nous to put together one of the most compelling plug-in solar packages out there — and one which you can pick up and take camping with you. We'll be keeping a close eye on this.

5. Bluetti Balco 260 / Balco 500

While the kits were unveiled shortly before IFA 2026, we've been able to get a good look at the Balco 260 and Balco 500 at the expo. They offer 2,400W (through four MPPTs) and 4,300W (through a single MPPT) of solar input, respectively.

As with the Zendure models, they're basically an entry level and more advanced version of the same pack: They can be hooked up to balcony solar or rooftop solar as needed, and connected to the mains electricity network in your home.

We were at the launch of these units back in May, and there was a big emphasis on simplicity throughout. The aim here is to reduce as many barriers to entry as possible, which is helped through the changes in regulations now happening in the US and UK.

• California lawmakers have approved a plug-in solar bill
• All that's required now is the Governor's signature
• These kits could save you up to $450 a year on electricity

Adding plug-in solar power to your home's energy mix is about to become legal in California: lawmakers in the state have now passed a bill approving the use of plug-in (or balcony) panels, so it's now ready to be signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom.

Senate Bill 868 (the Plug and Play Solar Act) was first proposed at the start of the year, and permits plug-in solar kits up to 1,200 watts to be connected to a standard outlet. A simple online registration form is all that's required in terms of paperwork.

If you're new to the tech, it enables residents to benefit from solar energy without the expensive installation costs or planning permission processes associated with rooftop solar. You just put these kits on a balcony, on a wall, or in a backyard, and plug them in.

Any electricity generated by the sunshine and your new plug-in kit gets offset against what your home is currently demanding in terms of electricity. Official figures suggest savings could be up to $450 per year.

More to come

Utah was the first US state to legalize plug-in solar, in 2025, and since then eight other states have followed. New York State, like California, is waiting for a Governor signature, while proposals are pending in another seven states.

The change in law is particularly helpful for those renting a property, as it means solar is an option without any permanent changes to the place of residence. When you move, you can just pack up the solar panel kit and take it with you.

Retailers are still playing catch up though. There's a scarcity of kits being sold at big stores, but dedicated start-ups are filling the gap: for example, Bright Saver is selling plug-in solar panels starting at under $300, though a $29 yearly subscription is also required.

Plug-in solar has already proved a huge success in Europe, especially in Germany, and the technology just became legal in the UK as well. Expect more states to follow Utah and California in the coming months and years.

Plug-in solar is no longer a grey area. Kits under 800VA are now legal to buy and connect to a standard socket; no installer required. The government has been promising this since March. Now it is finally here.

But legal does not mean simple. The market has split into three very different products, sold under one loose banner. Solar-only kits that plug straight into a socket — these are then ones that have just been made legal. Then there are battery-only power stations that store grid electricity for later, which still need professional installation. Lastly, there are solar-plus-battery systems that do both. Each behaves differently. Each saves a different amount. And, crucially, only the first one is actually covered by the new rules.

I started my solar journey about a year ago, initially with batteries and now branching into solar panels. But with the advent of new rules and new products, the market is opening up for those who want to turn a modest investment into a reduction in every electricity bill merely by deploying a few solar panels and connecting them to a wall socket.

To help you decide whether or not to buy a plug-in solar kit, or opt for one of the other two options, I've crunched the numbers below for all three scenarios — and thrown in my personal experiences over the past year.

How much can you save?

This question takes inspiration from the classic “how long is a piece of string?”, because there are many factors that impact the answer. These include where you live, the underlying cost of power in that region, the equipment you plan to deploy, and the tariffs you will use with the hardware.

If we consider three basic scenarios: solar only, solar with battery and battery-only, then the amount each requires in investment and the cost benefits vary significantly.

Let's look at each of these and see how much you can spend, how much the return might be, and how that influences the payback period.

Solar only: the numbers brands are quoting

On the solar-only pathway, EcoFlow says its standard kit, two 400W panels and a microinverter, can save you up to £115 a year. That fits the government's estimate that the newly-legalised plug-in solar can save you "up to £110 a year".

So what's the payback period? The EcoFlow panels cost around £299, and the microinverter is about £100, so the payback would be roughly four years. A retail provider, City Plumbing, puts a good 800W kit at £100 to £250 a year, with a four-to six-year payback on hardware costing £600 to £1,000.

Independent estimates land lower and more cautiously. One detailed breakdown puts realistic savings at £40 to £85 a year for an 800W kit, because without battery storage, you only self-consume between 25-40% of what the panels generate. The rest goes nowhere useful, since you have no battery to hold it and, without MCS certification, no export tariff to sell it into either.

That last point matters more than any brochure figure. A solar-only kit under the new rules cannot claim the Smart Export Guarantee. There is no MCS certification path for an 800VA socket device. So every kilowatt hour you don't use the moment it is generated is simply wasted. Real savings depend entirely on how much daytime electricity your home actually uses with the fridge, router, standby devices, the odd load of washing.

A sensible expectation for a solar-only kit is in the £70 to £110 a year ballpark, weighted toward the low end unless your daytime usage is unusually high. Most of that saving comes in the summer months, with much less in winter.

The answer to the solar-energy-you-can’t-use dilemma is a battery, because then you can use every part of the solar generation. If your standing demand is less than what you generate, then the excess can go into a battery that you then use when solar is below that threshold.

Plug-in batteries aren't currently legal in the UK, despite the likes of Octopus Energy telling us recently that they are "the real game-changer". That means that, right now, going this route requires some professional help — but it can also open up much bigger savings...

Battery only: a different game entirely

What do you do if you don’t have a good location for solar panels to be hung or mounted, or if you rent a property that doesn’t allow things to be hung on balconies?

What many people don’t realise is that the price of power varies over a typical day, being relatively cheap at low-demand times, like the middle of the day, and becoming more expensive between 4pm and 7pm, when lots of people start cooking.

There are tariffs, such as Octopus Agile, that break the day into 30-minute slices with different prices for each, and these amounts vary based on wholesale energy costs and how renewable resources are affected by the weather (for example, if it's windy).

With a battery, you can capture power from the grid when it's cheap, and then use it when the price is elevated. And, depending on how much battery capacity you have and how it's wired to the property, you could even make a profit by selling it back to the grid during peak demand.

A good example of this is offered by the Zendure Hyper 2000, an inverter designed to couple batteries (and solar) to the electrics of the home. It charges overnight on a tariff like Octopus Go, roughly 9p per kilowatt-hour, then discharges through the day when the standard rate sits around 24.67p. Do that consistently on an appropriately-sized battery and Zendure's own figures suggest £250 to £300 a year is realistic, once you count that alongside any solar contribution.

Solar and battery combined: the biggest savings, with the biggest asterisk

This is where the most eye-catching claims live. One comparison site quotes 90% self-consumption on an 860kWh annual generation figure, working out at roughly £191 a year. Another puts the jump plainly: without a battery, you self-consume 30 to 40 per cent of what you generate. With one, you jump to between 85 and 93 per cent. That is the difference between an £80-a-year system and a £180-a-year one, but getting that saving requires additional investment.

For example, Anker's Solix Solarbank E1600 is a 1.6kWh battery, rated for 6,000 cycles with still 80% capacity, which works out to over 16 years of daily use for roughly £910 up front. Similarly, the EcoFlow Stream series integrates the microinverter and battery management directly, which is more efficient than bolting a separate power station onto a standard microinverter. The Stream Ultra costs £900, offers 1.92kWh capacity, and can connect 2800W of solar input.

Realistic savings for a properly installed solar plus battery balcony system? About £150 to £300 a year, with the top end reserved for households that also actively manage a time-of-use tariff and have the battery capacity to exploit when prices are low.

A slight snag...

The new interim specification from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero covers solar generation only. It says plainly that these socket-connected devices must not be used with a battery storage system.

So the tidy, self-contained kits with a battery built in, the ones EcoFlow, Anker, and Bluetti are currently selling as balcony solar, do not qualify for the simple socket route at all. They still need a hardwired connection through a fused spur, fitted by a qualified electrician, notified to your network operator under G98 within 28 days.

This may change, but that’s where the regulations stand as of August 27 2026.

My own journey

My electricity bill alone in 2025 was £1,543.80, which was sufficient motivation to do something about it.

The approach I took was to buy an EcoFlow Stream Ultra X, a 3.84 kWh LFP battery, and have it professionally connected to my mains power through a fused spur. That only happened at the end of April, so I’ve only been running on battery support since then.

In those four months, I’ve used Octopus Agile and reviewed the power profile each day to optimise when I collect power at the cheapest rate. I’ve experimented with attaching some solar panels to see what that brings to the table, and I will probably add roof-mounted solar next year.

Running with a battery for four months, at the two-thirds point of the year, we’re at roughly £900 spent on power, meaning that this year should top out at about £1350, making for about a £200 advantage. But looking at the year breakdown, I’m consuming more power but paying less for it. I’m expecting that number to be closer to £350 by the time 2027 rolls around. But that doesn’t factor in the price rises that might have pushed my bill up.

To get that improvement, I’ve invested £1,250 in battery technology, and I’ve also had a new consumer unit fitted that cost almost as much. Therefore, my payback is closer to eight years, but only based on current power costs, not what they might be in 2034.

With this working as well as it seems, I’ve doubled down, bought a second Stream Ultra X, and I’m going to add solar to the mix soon.

New products I’ll be looking at in the coming months, like the EcoFlow Stream 5000 and EcoFlow Gateway, might further skew my plans, depending on what they bring to this power party.

Plug-in solar: the bottom line

Plug-in solar going legal on August 27 is genuinely useful news for renters and flat dwellers who have had no route into solar at all.

But the marketing gap between "up to £110 a year" and the more sober £40 to £85 a year some analysts are quoting is wide, and the reason is simple. Brochure figures assume ideal conditions and often quietly assume a battery, which the new simplified rules do not actually permit.

Treat solar-only kits as a modest, genuinely no-fuss saving in the £70 to £150 bracket. Treat battery-only setups as a tariff arbitrage tool worth £150 to £250 a year if you have the right rate. And treat combined systems as the strongest performer, £150 to £300 a year, but budget for an electrician and G98 paperwork rather than a Sunday afternoon plug-and-play job.

None of these numbers replaces a proper rooftop installation. But for a segment of the market that has had nothing available to it until now, even the conservative figures represent a real, if modest, win.

However, it’s also worth saying that there are at least two reasons you should be considering it even if the current savings seem modest. First, a simple solar-only deployment is the first rung on a ladder to power self-sufficiency; second, grid power isn’t getting any cheaper in the foreseeable future.

It’s about time we stopped accepting that utility services only go up in price, and now it's possible to actually do something about it.

Plug-in solar panels are now legal in the UK, and they could have a real impact on your energy bills, but before you install them, you should know what impact they're likely to have on your home insurance. The panels themselves are very easy to fit (see our complete guide to plug-in solar for more details), but it's worth taking the time to research all the effects on your home before buying your own.

To find out more, I spoke to Nathan Blackler, home insurance and utilities expert at Go.Compare. He explained that plug-in solar is new technology that insurers don't really have enough claims data on to price against, but says his main advice is to disclose any products and installations to your insurer, and check the policy documents to ensure there are no exclusions for your planned setup.

Will your insurance premium rise?

Blackler says that you might see a slight rise in your insurance premium after fitting plug-in solar panels, but it isn't guaranteed.

"Because plug-in solar panels add to the total value of your property’s assets, your coverage limits may need to be adjusted," he says. "However, some insurers may simply note the addition of the system on your file without charging you extra.

"The most important thing is keeping the insurer informed and ensuring there's nothing in your policy docs with your existing insurer excluding the use or installation of such systems."

Will your plug-in solar panels be covered?

Plug-in solar panels are a big investment (you can expect them to pay for themselves in three to five years), so you'll want to be sure that they're covered by your insurance.

"Yes, they are generally covered, but typically under your contents insurance rather than buildings insurance, as they are classified as portable equipment rather than permanent fixtures," says Blackler.

"However, coverage is strictly dependent on disclosure. Because plug-in panels feed energy directly into your home's electrical circuit, you are fundamentally adding a mini power station to your property. If you fail to tell your insurer about the installation and later suffer an electrical fire or fault, your policy could be invalidated."

How do they differ from traditional roof-mounted panels?

According to Blackler, from an insurer's perspective, the risk profiles for conventional roof-mounted solar panels and plug-in panels are completely different.

"Traditional roof-mounted solar panels are permanent structural fixtures (covered under buildings insurance) that require installation and sign-off by MCS-accredited electricians," he says. "These setups can also be complicated with different ownership models like leasing and subscriptions, meaning customers do not own the panels, but they may still create an additional structural risk that some insurers increase premiums for.

"Plug-in panels, on the other hand, are self-installed and exempt from mandatory electrician sign-offs. This introduces a new element of 'unmanaged electrical risk', especially in flats and leasehold properties where a poorly connected panel plugged into outdated wiring could push electrical fault and fire risks into communal parts of the building. Because installation quality is harder to verify with plug-and-play systems, insurers view them as a distinct and evolving category.

"All this becomes increasingly complex when you also start to consider a battery or power cell installation along with solar panels. This adds a high-value electrical item, and as most home batteries are lithium-ion, they carry a small but significant fire risk. Again, this technology is relatively new to the mass market, and insurers are still gathering the data necessary to effectively price against it."

Want to know more about plug-in solar panels and batteries? Find out why plug-in panels are now legal, but plug-in batteries are not — yet.

• Plug-in solar kits are now appearing for sale in the UK
• British Gas is also running a competition to win £500 kits
• You could save up to £110 a year with one of these kits

The plug-in solar revolution is now underway in the UK, after portable, mains-connecting solar kits became legal — and if you're keen to get involved quickly, British Gas is running a competition to give away 30 of these kits for free.

The competition is for a plug-in unit worth around £500. All you need to do is register your interest in buying a kit on the company's website before the September 16, and the winners will be picked out by the 30th.

"We want to help more people take that first step, which is why we're giving 30 households the chance to win a plug-in solar unit," says British Gas Commercial Director John Evans. "For us, it’s about giving people more choice and control over how they generate and use their energy."

If you're completely new to the tech, it allows you to set up solar panels on balconies and in back gardens, and plug them directly into the mains to offset some electricity costs. Official estimates suggest you could save up to £110 a year, depending on how much sunshine there is in your part of the country.

Now in stock

When it comes to products you can buy rather than win, Argos have been the quickest out of the blocks from what we've seen, and are already stocking options from UKSOL that will set you back from £599 for a 515W setup. Remember you can go up to 2000W with one kit under the UK regulations.

It looks as though other UK retailers won't be far behind. Amazon's UK & Ireland Country Manager John Boumphrey says "we're looking forward to helping customers benefit from this technology", while Currys director Michelle Gorringe-Smith says that the store is working "to make these products available to UK households as soon as possible".

David Wood, CEO at Wickes, says kits will be available online "in the coming weeks". "Making energy-saving technologies easier to access will be an important part of helping people reduce their energy bills and supporting the transition to a lower-carbon future."

If you like the idea of free electricity (minus the up-front cost, of course), there are a few rules and regulations to know about before you get started: our guide to everything you need to know answers the most important questions.

Plug-in solar panels became legal in the UK today, providing a quick and easy way to cut your electricity bill without any professional installation. Plug-in solar isn't right for every home (see my list of three places you can't install plug-in solar panels for details). Don't despair, though — you can still trim your bills by opting for clever solar-powered home tech, and as TechRadar's Homes Editor, I've put together a list of 12 top options to brighten your life.

Solar-powered lights are one of the most obvious options, and contain batteries that charge during the day then release the stored energy at night, when you need it. Smart home brands Nanoleaf and Govee both have some great solar smart lights, and if you're looking for something cheaper, IKEA sells excellent solar-powered string lights to add some whimsy to your garden.

You can also opt for solar video doorbells, security cameras, and motion-triggered floodlights to protect your home — without the need to clamber up ladders every month to replace or charge batteries. That's a bright idea for anyone. Read on for my full list of recommendations, and if you have any more solar-powered suggestions, feel free to share them in the comments.

Here comes the sun

Plug-in solar panels became legal in the UK today (August 27). These panels plug directly into an ordinary mains power socket, and could cut your electricity bill considerably; in fact, experts have told us that a plug-in solar system could effectively pay for itself in three to five years.

However, although plug-in solar panels are now legal, you can't yet connect a battery that stores electricity then discharges it back into the circuit later directly to a wall socket.

"Without a battery, solar energy generated during the day is either used immediately or exported to the grid, and consumers have to buy electricity at a higher price in the evening to meet their need," explains Anker Solix, which produces portable power stations and solar generators, and today launched the Solarbank 4 Pro solar battery.

The Solarbank 4 Pro is described as "plug-in ready", but can currently only be installed in your home via a hardwired connection, and must be fitted by a Part P registered electrician — for now.

Anker Solix is among many companies banking on plug-in batteries becoming legal in the UK soon, but we don't yet know when that might happen.

What's the problem with plug-in batteries?

The problem (as described by Regen, a not-for-profit organisation promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency), is that wiring in UK homes wasn't designed for energy to be discharged back into it.

Your home has circuit breakers, which protect against overloading and fires. They turn off the power to a circuit if the load gets too high, or there's a major system fault. Each circuit breaker has a lower rating than the physical limit of the circuit, which provides a buffer for safety.

"The problem with a discharging battery is known as load masking," explains Regen. "Circuit breakers only detect the current flowing past them from the consumer unit, and they cannot ‘see’ that a battery is plugged in. So when a battery discharges into a wall socket, the appliances on that circuit can draw power from the battery instead of the consumer unit — and the breaker continues to allow current up to its rating on top of what the battery is supplying.

"The wiring closest to the appliances can therefore carry more current than the circuit breaker is set to protect against. Exceeding the rated current could lead to the wire getting hot, increasing the risk of a fire."

Should you buy a 'future-ready' plug-in battery?

Choosing to buy a plug-in solar battery now is a calculated risk. Companies like Anker Solix can make well-informed predictions about the future requirements for plug-in batteries, and are keeping a close eye on developments. For example, capping the contribution from plug-in batteries at a low level could help avoid pushing wiring beyond its physical limits, even accounting for load masking.

However, although plug-in batteries seem like the logical next step in home solar, and big manufacturers are optimistic, there's no guarantee if, or when, they'll be given the green light.

If you're thinking about installing a plug-in solar system, take a look at our guide to three places you can't install plug-in solar panels first — the planning rules are very specific, and you'll need to think about where you're going to fit them carefully.

After proving popular across Europe, plug-in solar is now legally allowed in the UK. That means you can buy a solar panel for your balcony or shed roof, and plug it straight into the mains — no roof mounting or professional installation necessary, in theory at least.

It makes it simpler and quicker to start saving on your electricity bills, and of course it's a boon for renters who don't own their own home (or the roof on top of it). Plug-in solar packs are now going to start popping up in stores, and you're free to go and get one.

If you've got questions about the tech — what's legal and what isn't, where you can put these panels, or how much you can save, for example — we're here to answer them. Here's everything you need to know about plug-in solar tech in the UK from August 27, 2026.

1. The new regulations only cover complete plug-in solar kits

If you're heading out or going online to look for some new plug-in solar panels, note that you need to buy complete kits to stay on the right side of the law: panels, an inverter, a cable, a plug, and any relevant mounting hardware.

Look for kits that meet the Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification published by the government. These kits have to stick to limits of 800 volt-amps of output and 3.5 amps of current, while you're limited to up to 2,000 watts of overall solar energy capture.

These limits are all designed to protect your mains electricity and your home against damage and accidents. With that in mind, you're only allowed to connect one plug-in solar panel kit per property. You can also check to see which approved kits are available at the likes of the Plug-In Solar Register.

2. They could save you up to £110 a year

With so many variables at play — how big your fridge is, how sunny your back garden gets — it's difficult to be definitive about how much you're going to save with plug-in solar. Early estimates suggest you could get back about £110 a year, so with kits costing in the region of £700, it'll take you a few years to break even.

Some experts have estimated that around three-to-five years is a reasonable window to expect a return for your money. That's quicker than you might expect from a typical rooftop solar panel installation.

As more solar kits hit the market and we've got more data to work with, these estimates should get more precise. Based on average usage across the country, an 800W plug-in solar kit could take care of around a quarter of your electricity use.

3. You can buy them now — but there aren’t yet many to choose from

Plug-in solar is now legal in the UK, with the restrictions mentioned above, but the technology is going to take a while to get properly established. There aren't a host of kits available right now that you can go out and buy.

These ground mount kits from UKSOL are the first approved ones we've seen arrive on the market, and they're going to set you back from £699. More money gets you more overall wattage, and more flexible setup options.

Major chains including Lidl, Asda, and B&Q have certainly given indications that they're willing to start stocking plug-in solar kits once they become legal — so now we just need more supply.

They should also be available from Amazon in the near future. John Boumphrey, UK & Ireland Country Manager at, Amazon told us last month: "The Government's announcement on plug-in solar panels is a practical step that gives households a simple way to generate their own power, reduce bills, and contribute to the UK's net zero goals. We're looking forward to helping customers access this technology."

4. You can’t plug one into a battery (yet)

There is still a caveat when it comes to this type of solar technology becoming legal in the UK: while you're now allowed to plug certified kits into the mains, you can't attach them to a battery, or plug a battery into the mains without getting them professionally installed.

Any energy that your plug-in solar panels are using has to be used by your home appliances as it's being generated and fed in. There's no option to store up the energy for future use and deploy it on demand — power banks and solar panel accessories do exist of course, as do home batteries that link to your home's electricity system, but they're separate from plug-in solar.

The UK government is being somewhat vague when it comes to approving plug-in batteries as well as plug-in solar — it probably just wants to see how the solar part goes first — but there's lots more potential here when batteries are added too.

5. There are some restrictions on where you can put them

As well as sticking to the rules when it comes to the kind of kits you can buy, you also need to know what is and isn't allowed when it comes to placing these panels around your property — as there are restrictions here too.

Your panels need to steer clear of wood for example, because of the fire risk. They can't go on wooden balconies, fences, walls, or gates. They can't go more than 20cm (7.9 inches) above a sloped roof, or more than 60 m (23.6 inches) above a flat roof. What's more, they can't extend more than 40cm (15.7 inches) from a wall, which goes down to 20cm (7.9 inches) if you live next to any kind of thoroughfare.

Some of these restrictions can be got around, but only with planning permission from the local council. Those limitations are what you can get away with without permission — though if you're renting, it's always wise to check with your landlord anyway.

• China has tested an airborne blimp called the S4000
• It generates electricity from wind power at an altitude of 4,000 meters
• The airship can move to wherever it is needed most

If you thought the age of blimps was over, think again. China has just launched a successful test of a helium-filled airship that is used to generate electricity from the sky, and it could mean a return to the air of the skyfaring vehicles that went out of fashion almost 100 years ago.

According to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV (via South China Morning Post), the apparent world-first feat involved the airship ascending to 4,000 meters, generating power and returning to the ground. Measuring roughly the length of a Boeing 747 airplane, the craft is reportedly not far from being deployed on a wider scale.

The goal of the vehicle — named the S4000 after the height it climbs to — is to harness the strong winds that can be found high above the earth, which it does using turbines strapped to each side of its body. The winds at altitude are stronger and steadier than those closer to ground level, and any electricity generated is sent back to base using a long tether.

Returning to the skies

By operating in the sky, the S4000 has a few advantages over traditional static wind turbines. For one thing, it can move to windier areas as required, allowing it to adapt to changing conditions or transfer to where it is needed most. For another, it means less real estate is taken up on the ground, freeing up space for other uses and potentially reducing the complaints that are often directed at wind farms.

The S4000 was developed by Chinese firm Sawes Energy Technology alongside Tsinghua University and the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Previous models included the S1500 and the S2000, which drew a combined total of 500 million yuan (US$74.3 million) in orders, according to the SCMP.

The S4000 is far from the only recent effort to harness wind power. As we reported earlier this week, the Ventyra R1 portable wind turbine can be folded up into a backpack yet provides 50W of power output, taking around 35 minutes to fully charge a connected smartphone.

Combined with the S4000 — and the many other developments in the wind power industry — it’s clear that a lot is being done in the world of renewable energy. So don’t be surprised to one day see blimps make a return to the skies, this time in the service of generating electricity.

• Plug-in solar kits become legal in the UK from August 27
• These lower-cost solar panels are ideal for renters and flat owners
• We want to hear from you in our poll below — will you be buying one?

Plug-in solar kits become legal in the UK from August 27, which makes that date a pretty significant one in the UK's energy history.

That's because these kits are, in theory, a much more affordable and user-friendly way to bring the bill-cutting benefits of solar power to your home. The UK government estimates that plug-in panels could save households up to £70-£110 a year on their energy bills.

For renters and flat owners with little roof space, they represent a long-awaited new alternative to pricey rooftop installations. Instead, as their name suggests, you can theoretically plug them directly into your mains electricity, and place them outdoors in places like balcony railings, fences, garden sheds or patios.

However, despite their promised savings, early plug-in solar kits aren't exactly cheap. Early options that have gained regulatory approval, such as the UKSOL Plug-In Solar Pro Compact 460W Ground Mount Kit, will start at £699 from retailers, and it isn't yet clear when we'll be able to buy them directly from the likes of Lidl, Amazon and Currys.

Other potential drawbacks include limitations on where you can actually install plug-in solar (in some cases, you may need planning permission) and the fact that you can't currently connect your panels to a battery, without professional help. For many, plug-in batteries are the real game-changer, and some will be waiting for those to become legal before diving into plug-in solar.

But now we want to hear from you — are you planning to buy a plug-in solar kit when they become legal on August 27? Vote in our poll below and let us know your thoughts in the comments too.

Portable and DIY energy tech is having a moment: more and more of us are installing balcony solar, setting up home batteries, and generally finding alternatives to the regular power grid — and a new appliance being crowdfunded on Kickstarter extends the trend.

It's the Ventyra R1, a portable wind turbine that's compact enough to fold away and put in a backpack. Like portable power stations and solar panels, the idea is you can get your gadgets recharged anywhere your travels take you — provided there's a strong breeze.

Given that a lot of outdoor locations are pretty blustery, including coastal roads and hillside trails, it's an intriguing innovation with a lot of potential. It seems popular too: over 600 people have now backed it on Kickstarter (via New Atlas).

Meet the Ventyra R1

While this isn't quite the first portable wind turbine we've ever seen, they're a lot rarer than portable solar panels and chargers, and the Ventyra R1 seems to get a lot right — as far as we can tell without testing it. It's simple to assemble and set up, and gives you a decent amount of power on the go.

The core specs are 50W of power output, 75W peak load, and 12V DC support, so it would take you around 35 minutes to charge a phone if the turbine was running at top speed (based on Ventyra's own testing). There's an integrated power hub for plugging your gadgets into when they need recharging.

A start-up wind speed of just 6.7 mph (3 meters-per-second) is listed, so it doesn't take much of a breeze to get some power going. At those speeds you're unlikely to see much in the way of charging though, so it might be an idea to charge up a power bank with the turbine over an extended period, then use that for your other devices.

The wind turbine pack comes with its own tripod stand and carry bag, and you also get four ground stakes for fixing it in place (just like you would with a tent). While it's marketed for being suitable for remote adventures, you could also set it up on a balcony at home and use it as an alternative power source there.

There's room for expansion here as well: multiple R1s can be used with the same power hub, expanding the amount of power you can capture at once, and there are also bundles available that include solar panels — these can connect to the same system as well, increasing the capacity of your on-the-go clean energy setup.

In fact, the marketing blurb for the Ventyra R1 says it's "designed to complement solar" rather than replacing it. "When connected through a compatible power station or charging setup, the two energy sources can create a more flexible system for changing weather, overnight use, and longer off-grid stays," explains the Kickstarter page.

Wind and rain

Another useful-looking feature on this unit is the automatic wind alignment. The turbine comes with a tail vane that automatically adjusts the position of the rotor and its blades, saving you from having to make multiple manual adjustments. You can simply set it up then let it get to work.

The turbine itself is 52 centimeters (20.5 inches) long, with the individual rotors measuring 38 centimeters (15 inches). The product page doesn't say how tall the tripod is, but judging by the accompanying video, you'll be able to get your wind-powered generator up to somewhere near head height if needed.

What's not mentioned is any kind of weatherproofing. It's possible that this isn't designed to survive heavy rain, which somewhat reduces its usefulness as an outdoor device, so bear that in mind. It also doesn't look particularly sturdy, so there may be issues with it blowing over in strong winds.

That's about all we can say without taking a proper look at this, but it seems to be a clever idea, well executed. As always with Kickstarter products though, there's no guarantee that a product will make it to market in the same form shown here, or even at all — especially when it comes to companies making their first product, as is the case here.

The Kickstarter goal was a mere $1,500 (or £1,100 / AU$2,090), which seems rather low. In any case, $140,020 (£102,646 / AU$195,390) has been pledged at the time of writing, from 661 backers.

If you're a believer in what the Ventyra R1 is offering, then you can put your name down for one for an early bird starting price of $179 (about £130 / AU$250). Shipping is scheduled for December.

If you're looking for an alternative for home or the outdoors, the Shine Turbine is now on its second incarnation, and comes with an integrated power bank that changes when the wind blows. Preorders are available on Indiegogo now for an early bird price of $399 (that's about £290 / AU$555).

• EcoFlow has announced new home batteries in the UK
• The Stream units can hook up to a variety of solar configurations
• Early bird prices are now available if you preorder

Portable power specialist EcoFlow has launched its next-generation Stream Series of home batteries in the UK, meaning that users can keep more of the solar energy they're generating — though the battery still needs to be installed by a qualified electrician.

The 5kWh home battery is rated to support up to 5,000W of solar input, and 3,000W of electricity output. That's enough to run appliances like washing machines and dishwashers, and if you need more energy storage, you can add extra units in as needed.

Despite those power ratings, the Stream home batteries are compact: they weigh just 45 kilograms (under 100 pounds), and are the size of an airplane cabin bag. That makes them easy to position in garages, utility rooms, or anywhere else.

"The transition to smarter home energy shouldn't be reserved for early adopters," said EcoFlow's Justin Tilley. "Homeowners want to get more from their solar investment, but they also want technology that's simple to understand, easy to integrate into their home and built to grow with them."

Specs and pricing

With plug-in solar kits legally available in the UK from August 27, we're on the cusp of a home energy revolution in the country.

But the current downside of plug-in solar is that, without a battery installed, you'll lose any electricity you don't immediately use. The EcoFlow Stream series solves that problem, even if the installation isn't as plug-and-play as the panels are — although there are hopes that plug-in batteries could get the legal green light next.

Some specs of note from these batteries: they have a 15-year lifespan, are good for 10,000 charging cycles, offer an IP65 rating for dust and water resistance (so they're pretty weatherproof), and come with a 10-year warranty.

The batteries can be controlled by a companion app that gives you a full set of management and diagnostic tools, and they work as uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units as well, taking over if the power grid electricity gets cut.

You can preorder a EcoFlow Stream home battery today from the EcoFlow website, with early bird prices starting at £1,499. Those discounted prices will last until October 7, when the units are expected to start shipping.

I live in Scotland and just got my solar install up and running a few days ago. While it's obviously still very early days, I'm really happy with how it's all going so far — and with my decision to go for a full panel and battery system.

Was I tempted to wait for plug-in solar when the news filtered through earlier this year that this option was to become officially available with kits in the UK? No, because I wanted a full solar setup for a few reasons that I'll detail here — along with my initial thoughts on how my system is working (although I've already dropped a spoiler on that).

That's not to say plug-in solar isn't going to be a good choice for some, of course – it promises to provides a low-hassle route into electricity bill savings for renters and those with limited roof space. But it has distinct limitations compared to a full solar array.

So, here are the main reasons why I wanted that full setup — a bank of 15 roof-mounted panels, a battery, and a gateway — after which I'll come back to the merits of plug-in solutions.

1. Staying put with a south-facing roof

A full solar setup with an array of panels plus a beefy battery (in my case, a Tesla Powerwall 3 with a 13.5kWh capacity) is, of course, a considerable financial commitment for homeowners.

It's much easier to make that commitment if you know that you'll be living in the house for a long time, as in that case, year by year, you'll make your money back in electricity savings (eventually, or that's the hope).

I'm intending to stay put in my current house for 10 to 15 years, and towards the latter end of the scale, the solar should pay for itself, due to a combination of savings on my electric bill (which will effectively be hardly anything going forward, save for the standing charge for having a grid connection) and selling spare energy back to the grid (solar export).

I may be in the house for even longer, and at that point, it's just free electric, which is obviously a nice thought (especially if utility bills keep on increasing in the way they have been). My house is ideal for solar, having a near-south-facing roof and no shading issues — so given my plan to stay long-term, it seemed crazy not to get a solar array, really. The only issue was saving up to pay for it (which admittedly took quite some time).

As for the rough math of what I'm saving with solar, based on some very limited data thus far (just a few days), it's a saving of closing on £500 per year (around $680 / AU$950) in electric bill reductions, and approximately £400 (about $550 / AU$760) in export earnings. The latter is a rougher figure, but it should hopefully pan out or thereabouts — for a total of something like £900 (or $1,230 / AU$1,710) in terms of annual gain.

What's been interesting is that I'm really surprised how much solar generation I get when it's cloudy. I can still hit 1kWh or even closer to 2kWh of power from the panels on a normal kind of cloudy day.

Even with what I consider to be pretty thick cloud and rain (yes, the Scottish summer in the north of the country has been quite different to the English one), I'm still generating enough to power my baseline house needs (0.3kWh), meaning general operation when no larger appliances are switched on (especially the dreaded kettle).

Of course, I'd read up on modern panels and knew they performed better in cloudy conditions, but I wasn't expecting them to be this good.

2. Working from home factor

I work from home writing articles for TechRadar (alongside other freelance), and my wife works from home, too. So having a house with full off-grid capability was important to us as a result, and this is something you only get with a solar array combined with a battery, and a gateway is needed too.

The gateway allows for the solar to run independently off the grid (in 'island mode' with its own earthing rod), so if the mains power goes off completely, the house will keep running under its own steam.

This means if there's a power outage, the house is still running off solar (and the battery), and we both still have power for our computers and so on. We can keep on working without disruption (an additional financial gain in this event). Note that without a gateway, you won't be able to run off solar in a power cut — the solar inverter will shut itself off when it detects the grid has gone out (for safety reasons).

When the installing electrician tested the system, he had me switch on all the ceiling lights in the living room. It was a very cool moment when the mains switch was flipped off and our house carried on fully powered, just as normal, with the solar system kicking in so quickly that the lights didn't even flicker in the slightest.

My decision to go for the off-grid running capability was also influenced by a degree of looking to the future. Now, I admit this may sound a bit 'tinfoil hat', but I don't think it's inconceivable that there could be hiccups with the national grid in the UK (or elsewhere perhaps) as the years roll on. Whether that might be infrastructure related problems, geopolitical issues and wider energy security concerns, or the likes of hackers, I don't think it's unwise to have a degree of energy independence.

Granted, I don't believe that major-scale disruption is at all likely, but it doesn't hurt to have an insurance policy against the prospect of more regular power outages, especially when both our livelihoods depend on being able to work from home.

The gateway made my system about 10% more expensive roughly — maybe a bit less actually, I don't know for sure as the labor costs weren't broken down on my installation invoice — but I think that was a price worth paying.

3. Environmental benefits

This is likely true of everyone adopting solar — of any kind — but it feels good to be contributing to the drive for renewables and green energy.

More broadly on the eco-friendly front, I'm also planning to buy an electric car as my next vehicle (possibly even a campervan, although that might have to wait until further into the future), and using solar to charge the vehicle at home (which obviously requires a full solar system).

Plug-in solar has its place

I appreciate that a lot of what I've covered here is subjective and pertains to my specific situation, and of course your scenario or needs may be very different.

You may not have a home that's suitable for solar panels at all (due to the roof size, shape or orientation — or you might live in a flat), or you may be renting, or not have the desire to commit to the expense of a full-on setup.

This is where plug-in solar steps in as a great scaled-down alternative: it's a lot easier to find space for (in a garden, on a balcony), and it's a way more affordable solution that still offers some substantial savings. A typical payback time (when the setup has paid for itself) is expected to be three to five years, though that depends on the cost of the first plug-in solar kits. And if you're renting, you can take it with you should you decide to move.

One major drawback for now is not being allowed to hook up your plug-in panels to a battery for solar storage (without professional installation, at least), but that may well change in the future if plug-in batteries become legalized. Also, you can't receive payment for excess energy you can't use in the home being exported back to the grid, as you can with a full solar panel installation (and a smart meter).

Plug-in solar could still be a great alternative for you, though, and if you're in the UK like me, the systems become legal on August 27, and kits that comply with the regulations set out by the government will be appearing on shelves thereafter.

Plug-in solar is already legal in other countries, notably Germany and other places in Europe, as well as some states in the US, so the DIY alternative to my setup is very much gaining momentum. But each approach still has its own distinct advantages and drawbacks, and that will continue to be the case after August 27.

• UKSOL says it's the first in the UK to achieve regulatory compliance for plug-in solar products
• It's ground mount kits with one or two solar panels go on sale on August 27
• That's when solar is legal in the UK, and we can expect more of these kits to be available

UKSOL has announced that it's the first solar company in the UK to achieve regulatory compliance for plug-in solar kits, the first of which will be on sale in just a week.

Those products are the UKSOL Plug-In Solar Pro Compact 460W Ground Mount Kit (consisting of a single solar panel), and the Plug-In Solar Pro Duo 890W Ground Mount Kit (two panels). Both of these go on sale from August 27 in the UK — when plug-in kits become legal in this country — albeit in "limited stocks" to begin with.

A pair of hybrid mount kits — a single panel 515W offering, and a 920W two-panel product — have also been approved, and these should be available in October 2026 (or that's the current plan).

All of these have met the relevant regulatory standards, and are listed as 'compliant' in the ENA (Energy Network Association) Connect Direct plug-in solar device database.

The Plug-In Solar Pro products have been developed specifically for the British market, UKSOL informs us in a press release, and these are all-in-one kits that come with everything you need to be up and running.

With the kits out next week, alongside the UKSOL panel(s) you get an integrated (foldable) ground-mounting frame with a ballast tray, as well as the necessary 800W microinverter plus DC and AC cables. There's a smartphone app for monitoring the system, too.

Pricing for the Pro Compact (single panel) 460W Ground Mount Kit is £849 with VAT and two-man delivery included, with the Pro Duo 890W Ground Mount Kit running to £1,199 (also with VAT and delivery). The RRP at retailers is £699 and £1,089 respectively.

Andrew Moore, the CEO of UKSOL, commented: "We expect plug in solar to become an exciting new consumer category, but there is a real responsibility on manufacturers and retailers to get the introduction right. Consumers should be able to understand who manufactured or supplied their system, what testing has been undertaken, what warranty and technical support sits behind it and whether it meets the requirements for the UK market."

He added: "Price will obviously matter, but solar equipment is a long-term electrical product. Safety, provenance, quality and after-sales support need to matter too."

Analysis: An alternative to full solar is (almost) here

The ground mount kits are, of course, placed on the ground in your garden or other outside area (and weighed down using the ballast tray, to ensure that if it gets windy, you aren't going to end up with overturned panels).

The other option from UKSOL is to buy a hybrid mount kit in October, and these can be situated on the ground, or on a wall (or balcony). They'll arrive in a 515W compact (one panel) variant and an 890W dual panel setup, with other offerings too (up to a 1260W hybrid kit). No pricing is available for those yet.

Kits from other manufacturers should be going on sale soon enough as plug-in solar becomes legal on August 27, when UKSOL's first ground mount offerings become available. Manufacturers must ensure compliance with UK regulations, of course, as UKSOL has done, with the likes of Asda, Currys, B&Q, Wickes, and Screwfix potentially stocking these solutions.

Plug-in panels offer a good alternative as a scaled-down version of a full roof-mounted solar setup, as not every house can have the latter — flats certainly can't, and some roofs just aren't suitable. Plug-in solar is the obvious choice if you're renting, and don't own the property, too — and they're a lot less of a financial commitment than a full roof installation.

A typical payback period for plug-in (when the electricity saved roughly equals the cost of the panels) is three to five years, according to the experts, which is way quicker than a typical full solar install.

Note that there are certain requirements in terms of the rules for the location of plug-in solar panels — you can't put them on wooden balconies for example (due to the fire risk), and the same goes for fences.

• Another next-gen battery upgrade has been reported
• Zinc-iodine batteries are now more stable
• The tech promises a more sustainable lithium-ion replacement

Lithium-ion batteries had a good run, but the next generation of battery technologies are rapidly approaching for consumer devices and large-scale industry use. One of the leading candidates to become the new default are aqueous zinc-iodine batteries (AZIBs).

Researchers from Flinders University in Australia have published details of the latest steps forward in zinc-iodine technology. Prototype battery elements based on these materials can now manage more than 60,000 recharge and discharge cycles, with recharges in just three minutes — though that's for a small battery compartment, in a lab, not a full battery.

As they're aqueous (water-based), the batteries don't come with the same risk of explosion and fire as standard lithium-ion batteries do. However, there are challenges to overcome: these batteries tend to deteriorate as they're used because of the chemical reactions happening inside, which isn't ideal for something powering your next tablet.

In their latest paper, the researchers outline a molecular cage that's strong enough to prevent the battery's iodine from escaping, but not too restrictive that it prevents the necessary chemical reactions from working. It means batteries that are more stable in operation and which last longer.

A viable alternative

The tech specs shared by the researchers indicate the fast-charging, long-life potential of AZIBs. In addition to those benefits and the reduced fire risk, they could also be easier to resource and manufacture — reducing the pressure on lithium-ion materials.

There are a couple of caveats to bear in mind. The researchers acknowledge that this technology is best suited to "large-scale energy storage", at least to begin with, so we're talking more about storing the electricity generated by a solar plant than something you can slot into the back of a smartphone

The technology still has a long way to go before you'll see it appear, as encouraging as these recent steps forward are. The researchers aren't yet at the stage of building fully working, full-size prototype batteries yet — although each of these upgrades to the battery science gets us closer to that point.

"Rechargeable aqueous zinc-iodine batteries are shaping up as a viable alternative to lithium-ion batteries for large-scale energy storage and our group is now working with industry to establish a prototyping platform for this battery system," said chemistry professor Zhongfan Jia, from Flinders University.

• Researchers are developing a tent that could produce its own electricity
• It's made out of magnetoelastic material
• It's still in early stages, but scientists intent to use them in off-grid camps and disaster zones

There are plenty of high-tech camping accessories you can get your hands on to spruce up your outdoor vacations — but have you ever thought about a tent that can produce its own electricity? Well, it could be the future of camping.

Researchers have been developing a ‘magnetoelastic’ tent that could generate and harvest its own electricity, kind of like a wind turbine, but one that you sleep in and use to power small devices. I thought I’ve seen my fair share of whacky tech, but this discovery is truly something else.

The tent is made out of a special material with ‘magnetoelasticity’, a textile property that can produce electrical energy from bending and stretching motions, which was first coined by physicist Emilio Villari in 1865. But it relies on fabric layering to harness its electrical production powers.

As mentioned in the Cell Press journal, Matter, the tent’s design consists of a magnetomechanical coupling layer and a magnetic induction layer. This is fused together with weaving patterns, layer stacking, and conductive fiber, allowing the tent to respond to movement.

The tent consists of two different components, one for the flooring and another for the roof. While the tent floor integrates woven fabric embedded with magnetoelastic ribbons, its roof features a layered material made of conductive fibers and magnetoelastic film.

The interesting part is that the material can respond to more than just human movement happening inside the tent — it can absorb action from environmental surroundings, too. Even motions such as wind and movement during the setup can also help — but how?

Essentially, the material’s fabric state shifts when it bends and flexes, converting mechanical movement into electricity through induction. During the testing period, researchers found that hand-tapping a small sample of the material could charge a 0.22-μF capacitor to 5.80V in 1.5 seconds. While this is nowhere near enough to power a smartphone, for example, it shows that the material certainly has potential.

Despite the successful early-stage experiments, there’s still a long way to go before it becomes a fully realized product, but the researchers behind it have a vision.

For them, the tent isn’t intended for leisurely camping trips. Instead, they see it as the ideal opportunity to provide sanctuary in shelters, disaster zones, off-grid camps, and areas where electricity access is limited or relies solely on sunlight.

That’s one of the clever elements of the tent: it doesn’t need the sun to power itself as solar panels do. Motion alone is enough to give the tent the power it needs to create its own source of energy, meaning that it can function in the shade and after sunset.

On paper it’s a genius product, but there are many tests that are yet to come — so don’t expect to score one in time for Glastonbury 2027.

• Octopus Energy warns we could face a 1.3GW solar energy shortfall thanks to today's eclipse
• It advises we cut energy usage today and is offering free electricity as reward
• Experts say "the impact of the eclipse will be limited and is well planned for"

Ahead of today's solar eclipse — which is due to appear in the UK between 6pm and 8pm on Wednesday, August 12 — Octopus Energy is asking us to avoid using unnecessary electricity as much as possible during the natural blackout. In exchange, it’ll give customers who are signed up to its rewards program a free hour of electricity to use next weekend.

Octopus argues that the eclipse will greatly reduce Britain’s solar power generation. At the same time, because of an incoming heatwave, we’ll likely be using a lot more power running refrigerators, air conditioning and fans that put an increased strain on our power grid.

If Britons are more conservative with their power consumption — especially between 6pm and 8pm when the eclipse is scheduled — and better leverage the 13GW of “untapped” flexible capacity brought about by smart appliances, EVs and home batteries, Octopus says we could reduce the need for gas-powered generators.

But do we really need to watch our electricity use this evening — and if so, why? Here's what university professors and other experts say.

Should we cut our electricity use during the solar eclipse?

Energy experts are a divided on exactly how much the eclipse will hit the UK's solar energy supply — but they all agree that drastically changing your electricity habits this evening isn't necessary.

"The dip in supply from solar during the eclipse could be significant, and the electricity supply companies are right to be cautious," said Chris Sansom (Professor of Concentrating Solar Power at the University of Derby).

"They have a right to be concerned because quite a significant proportion of our energy comes from solar," he added, sharing the screenshot below from yesterday at 6pm showing that 17.4% of our electricity was coming from solar.

However, in the grand scheme, the amount of solar power lost to the eclipse won't enormous be due to the time of day.

Across Europe, grid operators expect a 9.7GW power generation reduction during the eclipse, while the UK’s National Energy System Operator (NESO), the body in charge of managing our electricity system, predicts we’ll lose around 0.7GW of power output that would have been generated, though it adds the loss could be as much as 1.3GW (via the Financial Times).

By 7pm, the darkest point of the eclipse, solar energy will be supplying less than 3% of our electricity demand, says Peter Connor (Associate Professor of Sustainable Energy Policy at the University of Exeter). "This drop off happens every night in the summer, and largely is met by turning on more gas power plants, which is what will happen on Wednesday night," he said.

So should we cut our electricity use? "There is no real need in terms of grid stability — if there was a possible problem it would be NESO, the system operator that would be trying to take action," added Peter Connor.

The trade association Solar Energy UK, which represents hundreds of solar photovoltaic and battery storage companies, largely agrees. "The impact of the eclipse will be limited and is well planned for — comparable to a gas or nuclear power station being shut down for regular maintenance," a spokesperson said. "As the eclipse will occur in the evening, only a limited amount of power will be lost — in the order of 0.5-0.8GW at peak," it added.

"We do not expect any undue effects on the grid from the eclipse, not least as it will happen close to sundown," Solar Energy UK CEO Chris Hewett said. “Battery energy storage will no doubt play an important role in managing the grid during the time, as it does every day,” he added.

What's behind Octopus Energy's offer?

Octopus Energy isn't trying to prevent a major grid outage with its 'Eclipse Power Down' offer to customers — instead, it's trying to avoid the firing up of extra gas power stations to cover any deficit.

"By requesting customers to reduce demand during the short period of the solar eclipse they are looking to reduce the possibility of having to meet any shortfall from increased gas consumption or from imports, which is an additional cost," said Professor Chris Sansom from the University of Derby.

But others think there's also an element of Octopus Energy using the solar eclipse as an experiment. "I think Octopus are interested in seeing how they can incentivise people to change their energy consumption behaviour and how big an impact they can have with the incentives they offer," said Peter Connor from the University of Exeter.

"About 50% of homes have smart meters, so you can then offer incentives for behaviour change around consumption — and if consumers like the incentives, then they can choose to use energy at different times and be rewarded for it," he added.

What is the Octopus Energy offer?

The Octopus Energy 'Eclipse Power Down session' is part of the company's 'Saving Sessions' campaign to help balance grid demand.

If you're an Octopus customer, you can get the offer by signing up for Octoplus (its loyalty scheme for smart meter customers) and opting into the 'Eclipse Power Down' on your dashboard.

Octopus says it'll monitor your usage on your smart meter — and if you’ve used less electricity than you usually would during "at least half an hour of the Power Down", you’ll get a free hour of power on Sunday August 16.

You can read the full FAQ on the official Eclipse Power Down page.

How can you cut your energy usage?

The worst-case scenario is that we'll need to generate an extra 1.3GW each hour of the two-hour-long eclipse, with all of that covered by gas-fired power plants. That'd mean we're looking at around 1.04 million tonnes of C02 being released into the atmosphere. Based on last year's emissions from energy production this is just a 0.2% increase.

So how should we cut our energy use, whether we're on Octopus or not? "Not running high power-consumption domestic appliances is a good way to reduce this demand," says Professor Chris Sansom from the University of Derby. "These include tumble-driers, air fryers, electric ovens, washing machines, and dishwashers. Fridge freezers also come into that category, but no one is suggesting they should be switched off," he added.

"Some demand is more ‘shiftable’," adds Peter Connor from the University of Exeter. "EVs are the most obvious one, but other ways people can save include putting their (clothes or dish) washing or drying on at cheap times, or using the oven at cheap times. It only matters for a consumer’s bill if they are on a tariff which lets them access cheap prices if they move their electricity consumption around," he adds.

Cutting our energy usage, or using Octopus’s methods to be more efficient with our electricity consumption — such as charging up home batteries and having smart appliances come on when renewable energy is abundant, and then discharging when we’d need fossil fuels — would certainly help on the day of the eclipse, but it’s a relative drop in the ocean of carbon we’re producing.

But if we managed to unlock even half of Octopuses’ flexible capacity to reduce our fossil fuel-created electricity demand every single day we could see a much bigger positive impact.

Gas-fuelled plants (the only fossil-fuel plants the UK relies on) produced around 30% energy production needs on average (8.5GW) in the past year, meanwhile just half of Octopus' flexible capacity would cover 6.5GW.

The answer is, of course, we should do both — cut our energy demands for the eclipse, and be more efficient going forward. Because the problem of fossil fuel emissions wrecking our climate is a solvable one, we just have to take action in the face of every problem — not just big dark celestial ones.

• Base Power raises funds to roll out a new Base Core model
• It protects against power outages and gives back to the grid
• The battery is available to purchase in Texas and Illinois initially

What with plug-in home solar becoming more widely available and household battery power storage increasingly common, there's growing momentum behind home energy solutions that help to lower electricity bills and reduce pressure on the grid.

There's more evidence with the news that Base Power just raised a cool $1 billion to scale its large Base Core home battery (via Interesting Engineering): the battery is available in 39.2 kWh and 78.4 kWh versions, and while it's capable of keeping your home running during power outages, it does a lot more besides too.

Base Power says the Core can be installed in under an hour, can be switched to seamlessly, and will handle extreme weather events too (it works in temperatures of -22 to 122°F or -30 to 50°C). If the standard power network goes out, the Base Core can keep your home running for 36-72 hours depending on capacity and configuration.

When the power's not out, the Base Core can still reduce your reliance on the grid and cut down on electricity bills. It's also designed to support the grid, feeding back electricity when additional capacity is needed (though there will always be some in reserve for you). That helps to keep up-front costs down.

Texas and beyond

The Base Core is now available in Texas and Illinois, with pricing dependent on your utility provider. A typical cost listed on the Base Power website is energy for 13.1¢ cents per kWh, a membership fee of $19 per month, and a $695 up-front cost for the battery.

As more of these batteries are installed, the better the system will work, in theory. Base Power says it's installed battery capacity has grown to more than 500 MWh over the past year, while more partnerships are being signed with electricity companies. After this latest funding round, the company is valued at $13 billion.

There certainly seems to be the demand for these money-saving, energy-storing batteries: last month Ars Technica reported that US home battery installations had hit a new high for the first quarter of 2026, with new units accounting for 673 megawatts of energy supply. For the same quarter, around 1,300 MWh was installed in terms of capacity.

Google has also invested in the idea of tapping into distributed household energy systems, via a deal with Voltus, in part to manage the growing demands of its AI data centers. For home users, the benefits are clear: protection against both rising electricity prices and an increasing number of power outages in vulnerable areas.

With plug-in batteries also on the road to legalization in some countries, it does feel like a home energy boom is coming – and that could help us all navigate the energy crisis and our soaring bills.

• Solar energy just had its best-ever month in the UK
• Rooftop panels and farms provided 14.4% of the country's electricity
• The record comes ahead of the legalisation of plug-in solar kits soon

Our gardens may be wilting in this exceptionally dry, sunny summer in the UK, but one thing that is benefitting from all the rays is solar panels. Solar energy just had its best-ever month for supplying power to the grid — and plug-in solar panels are aiming to keep that run going when they become legal later this month.

Alongside solar farms, rooftop panels — which are surging in popularity — helped provide an impressive 14.4% of the UK's electricity in July (via The Guardian). That's 50% more than this time last year, according to National Energy System Operator (Neso) data, and helped to power the fans and air con units we're all relying on to survive while working from home.

The record comes from a combination of two factors. The incredible amount of sunshine we saw in July helped — the UK bathed in around twice the amount of sunshine hours that it usually gets on average at this time of year.

But it was also powered by the popularity of solar panels, which many are installing to help cut their energy bills in the UK. The country saw more solar power installations in the first half of 2026 than in any similar period for 15 years, while last year saw the highest total number of solar installations (269,000) ever recorded in a calendar year, according to government data.

Those figures include ground-based solar farms, but a significant proportion (just under a third of the UK's total solar power) is provided by rooftop panels. However, with these panels still prohibitively expensive for many, eyes will now be turning to the legalisation of plug-in solar kits from August 27.

Can plug-in solar add some extra shine?

It's unfortunate that plug-in solar panels weren't legalised a few months ago, when they could have contributed to these record UK solar energy figures.

Still, the UK government made the welcome announcement last week that these plug-in solar kits — which can send electricity into your wall socket without needing professional installation — will become legal from August 27. That's good news if you've felt frozen out of solar due to its cost, a lack of roof access or the fact that you're renting.

The Statutory Instrument 2026/848 clears the blocks that previously prevented UK residents from buying self-installed, ‘plug-in’ solar systems. The August 27 date is more of a legal landmark, so it isn't clear exactly when these kits will go on sale. But you can expect to see them in the likes of Lidl, Currys and Amazon soon, when they'll apparently cost around £400 and could save households up to £70-£110 a year.

While many have argued that plug-in batteries could be the real home energy revolution (they were left out of the government's new legislation), the combination of this new solar energy record and the legalisation of plug-in solar kits later this month means that renewable energy is having a big moment.

"Fifteen years ago, solar energy was a footnote in the electricity mix," said Chris Hewett (Chief executive of Solar Energy UK). "Now it is a major player, delivering homegrown, cheap, clean and reliable energy."

“The UK is firmly in its second solar boom, joining the trend we’re seeing worldwide, as households and governments look to it as a low-cost and local alternative to oil and gas,” added Frankie Mayo, a senior analyst at Ember.

The UK is still well behind Germany when it comes to balcony solar (which is called 'Balkonkraftwerk'), as you can see in the graph above, but at least the country's sun-powered potential is now finally on the charge.

It's typical, you wait for ages for one home energy revolution and then two come along at once — or at least that's what appears to be happening in the UK.

You've probably heard about the first landmark moment. 'Plug-in solar' hit the headlines last week when the UK government announced that small, solar panel kits that feed electricity directly into your standard home socket can legally go on sale from August 27.

That's a big deal. Plug-in solar means that millions of people who have traditionally been locked out of generating their own clean electricity — renters and flat owners, for example — will be able to join the residential solar party, albeit on a more modest scale.

But not everyone was celebrating wildly with biodegradable confetti. Across the country, energy nerds bemoaned one glaring omission in the government's new legislation — a legal pathway for 'plug-in batteries'.

For many, these small home batteries — think a mini Tesla Powerwall that plugs into a standard wall socket — are the "real game-changer", as Octopus Energy and Anker both described them to me. That's because they promise to be even more accessible than plug-in solar and act as a money-saving brain that makes your home an active part of a smarter UK electricity grid.

Bold claims indeed, so I spoke to four of the biggest players in this burgeoning space — Anker, Octopus Energy, EcoFlow and Windfall Energy — along with the UK government to find out when plug-in batteries might be coming, what the drawbacks are and, most importantly, how much you can really expect to save...

When are they coming?

The main premise of plug-in home batteries, like the Windfall Battery above, is simple — they charge automatically using cheap-rate electricity (usually at night), then discharge that electricity around your home during more expensive peak-rate periods. "Even without solar panels, a plug-in battery delivers meaningful savings through grid arbitrage alone," Anker Solix's EU CEO, Kelvin Cao, tells me. Savings estimates range from between £100-£400 per year, depending on your battery, tariff and usage.

Great, so when exactly will they become legal in the UK? When I asked the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the official answer was predictably vague. "We are rolling out plug-in solar, which will be quickest to reach the market — helping to bring bills down for good," a DESNZ spokesperson said.

The DESNZ told me its main focus right now is plug-in solar kits and that plug-in batteries have their own technical and regulatory hurdles, which it's currently investigating. Still, there are hopes that grid-connected batteries that plug into your wall socket could be legalised within the next year.

Several big players are quietly preparing plug-in batteries — which are already available in countries like Germany — for a UK launch. Anker, for example, has built a page for its Solix Solarbank 4 that clearly explains the benefits of plug-in batteries, should they become legalised in the UK. "We are eager to support the rise of the plug-in era in the UK and become part of its evolving energy landscape," Anker Solix's EU CEO, Kelvin Cao, told me.

Octopus Energy also recently announced that its new plug-in Nook Cube battery will go on sale sometime in 2027. More confident on the timescale is Windfall Energy, a London startup that's designed the best-looking piece of home energy kit I've seen for a while, the Windfall Battery.

"I was at a roundtable with a Minister of Parliament about a month ago, and everyone there was pretty much calling for batteries to come hot on the heels of plug-in solar," Windfall Energy's co-founder Rob Hallifax told me.

So when is Windfall expecting to start selling its 2.5 kWh home battery, which has an RRP of £1,200 and had previously been slated to ship in autumn? "Winter is more likely now. We want to time it with the plug-in regulations. It’s looking like the end of this year, early next," he added.

Why now?

You'll probably have noticed that the UK has been on an energy rollercoaster that can technically be described as 'not fun'.

Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, inflation-adjusted gas and electricity prices were actually stable or even falling. But there was a huge spike for both in early 2022 and they've never returned to pre-energy crisis levels. Electricity prices are still 13% higher than in January 2020, according to the UK government, and they continue to move in the wrong direction.

Plug-in batteries promise to be, if not a cure, then at least a much-needed pain killer for our energy bills headache. They're emerging now because of three things — falling prices for lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, the easing of electrical regulations in some regions (Germany created the world's first dedicated plug-in solar product standard in late 2025), and soaring wholesale gas prices that are reflected in the graph above.

As Anker's Kelvin Cao tells me, this has "reshaped how European households think about electricity". Unfortunately, that double-digit increase in energy prices is also "unlikely to come down any time soon". That's why Germany started the trend, and the UK is (hopefully) about to follow.

So how exactly do plug-in batteries save you money? "There’s two parts to the price saving," Windfall Energy's co-founder Rob Hallifax tells me. "The simple one is just the price arbitrage. So if you're paying 10p at night and 30p in the day for electricity per kilowatt hour, then you buy it at 10p, use it when it's 30p, you're saving 20p per kilowatt hour," he says.

That part's pretty simple — with the Windfall Battery, this 'buy low, use when prices skyrocket' approach makes up about £168 of its promised £250 per year savings. But there are also extra savings from getting your plug-in battery really singing in tune with the electricity network.

The UK grid acts a bit like a giant smart thermostat, signaling when the system needs more or less electricity, and the idea is that energy suppliers could follow by telling plug-in home batteries when to charge and discharge. Smaller plug-in batteries would likely be capped at an 800W output (without professional installation), so wouldn't be exporting power to the grid. But they could still play a role in balancing demand.

This makes tariffs the second big factor in the money-saving potential of plug-in batteries — and that's something Octopus Energy has been a UK leader in.

"The energy sector overall has not really embraced the fact that you can just offer different types of products to different types of consumer customer groups," Alex Schoch, Group Director for Flexibility at Octopus Energy, tells me. "Of our eight million customers, 1.2 million are on some kind of smart tariff," he adds.

Octopus Energy told me there could potentially be dedicated plug-in battery tariffs or bolt-ons for existing ones. If you've ever been baffled by choosing the right energy tariff, this could also get simpler thanks to plug-in batteries.

"I equate it to the evolution of mobile phone plans," Octopus Energy's Alex Schoch tells me. "First, they were incredibly generic. Then they got so complicated that Carphone Warehouse came into being just to explain the complexity. And now we’re at a stage where we create hyper-personalised plans based on your needs as a consumer. We’re on that same journey when it comes to energy".

But doesn't this also demand a lot of trust in energy companies? Windfall Energy's Rob Hallifax agrees, but thinks falling bills will ultimately convince consumers. "It's their (consumers'] battery, they're in control of it, but the energy company is controlling it a bit to help them maximize the savings," he says. "The consumer has to trust that the energy company is doing this to save them money, and I think that will come when they see their bills go down," he adds.

What's the catch?

Clearly, plug-in batteries won't be a magic wand for everyone's bills, even if the batteries could be subsidised or even given away for free by the UK government to lower-income households, as the i Paper reported recently (the DESNZ declined to comment on this when I asked).

For most plug-in batteries, the payback period (the time it takes for savings to cover the cost of the battery) is expected to be around 3-4 for years, so not exactly a financial quick fix. The Windfall Battery promises annual savings of £250 (with an RRP of £1,200), while Anker tells me that the larger Solix Solarbank 4 on a dynamic tariff like Octopus Agile could save you just under £400 per year. That battery has no UK price yet, but retails for €1,999 in Europe (around £1,700).

The other concern raised by skeptics is safety. Is allowing potentially millions of households to connect batteries to their electricity networks without professional installation really a good idea? Windfall Energy's Rob Hallifax acknowledges that it's an understandable concern. "People see a battery, and they think of scooters and fires, and there some valid concerns. Obviously, safety is critically important, and just one battery fire would be one too many," he says.

"But modern batteries are generally extremely safe,' he adds. "There are some studies out of Germany now where they compare batteries to EVs and other home appliances. One headline is that they’re typically about as safe as a washing machine," he adds. The other common comparison is with fan heaters, which are legal in the UK but carry a higher risk of 'user error' incidents than plug-in batteries.

Still, the added complexities of grid-charging batteries mean some agree with the UK government's top-dipping approach. EcoFlow, one of the biggest global players in home batteries, is among them. "We're aware and completely understand that these things take time," Lorna Wallace-Smith (EcoFlow's Head of UK PR) told me. "The fact that they were able to move forward with at least one step is is great" she added.

But hasn't Germany's rapid adoption of both plug-in solar and home batteries shown it's safe? "I think that's something we should learn from, as well as not fast-track into something without knowing it's absolutely built for UK homes," she added.

Could they outshine solar?

Despite these concerns, it seems clear that plug-in batteries have the potential to eclipse the more complex plug-in solar kits in the UK — and most of the experts I spoke to agreed.

"They are the fundamental great equalizer," says Octopus' Alex Schoch on plug-in batteries. "It’s such an important thing for renters because you can then take it with you to your next place," he adds.

"I think in the next couple of years we will see plug-in batteries really be the transformational scale deployment. I think it has the potential of being a mass market thing even faster than solar," he predicts.

Windfall Energy's Rob Hallifax naturally agrees when comparing plug-in batteries to their solar equivalent. "There are 28 million homes in the UK and about half of them are either rented or flats and small homes. So more people could get them, millions, and there’s also the benefit to the grid and to the system," he says.

There is one other obvious comparison with an accessory that's cheap, easy to use and promises to save you money. "We use air fryers as quite a good example. Four or five years ago they just came from nowhere and suddenly half the country has one," he says.

But wouldn't an 'air fryer' level of popularity also cause a problem for plug-in batteries? After all, a lot of their money-saving potential comes from tapping into today's so-called 'delta' between cheap-rate and peak-rate electricity. If plug-in batteries help to solve the imbalance of today's grid demand — and tariffs are adjusted to reflect that — could that start to diminish their savings potential?

"I think yes and no," says Windfall Energy's Rob Hallifax. "So maybe in 50 years the whole grid will be sort of perfect. I think the fundamental thing is that if you have renewable generation, that's always going to be variable. That's just the nature of the world. And so somewhere in the system, storage has to be part of it," he adds.

Octopus Energy's Alex Schoch agrees that such a change would be a long way off. "In theory, yes." he says in response to my pessimistic scenario. "But I would actually say the length of time here is measured in decades, not in a sub-decade quantum," he adds.

However, he does note that a similar process is already happening. "We've had such an explosion of solar in the UK over the last few years that now during Spring and Summer, a lot of the cheapest wholesale price electricity times are actually late morning, early afternoon, mid afternoon, and no longer overnight," he notes.

Charging ahead

The legalisation of plug-in batteries in the UK appears to be a matter of 'when' not 'if'. As a flat owner in south west London with no roof and only a limited appetite for plug-in solar, I'm right in the target market — and will certainly be interested when that moment comes.

But it also won't be an impulse buy where I snap up the first thing I see Amazon. "The biggest pitfall to avoid is making decision on price alone," says Anker's Kelvin Cao. "Now that plug-in solar has regulatory approval, the UK market will attract a wave of low-cost imports, some of which will be excellent and some of which will not. This will be a similar problem once the plug-in batteries are legalised," he warns.

"A battery that cuts corners on cell quality, protective engineering and compliance with applicable safety standards might look more attractive on its price tag, but it will not deliver the same reliability over the 10 to 15 years that a household should reasonably expect," he adds. In other words, buying cheap could backfire when it comes to savings.

So what exactly should you look for when plug-in batteries are legalised? "As a baseline, consumers should look for durable LFP battery cells, a high cycle life, robust protection against weather and corrosion, and integrated safeguards against electrical and thermal risks," Kelvin Cao says.

"They'll probably also say that the product must be listed on the Energy Networks Association (ENA) Type Test Register to demonstrate that its protection settings meet G98 requirements," adds Windfall Energy's Rob Hallifax.

A real-world view

A large number of early adopters are already getting a taste of the benefits of a battery-only setup. One of those is TechRadar contributor Mark Pickavance, who wrote our EcoFlow Stream Ultra X review (which is well worth a read).

I caught up with him to see how it's going and he continues to be impressed. He told me that his monthly energy costs are down by about £40 a month with his setup (which was installed with the help of an electrician), and you could get most of that from a single Ultra X.

The only problem is that this stuff can get addictive. "I started with the premise of using just a battery, but once you have one the logical progression is solar. However, for people renting, it's the ideal solution, and if you use an Economy 7-like tariff (Octopus Go), you can take a chunk out of your costs," he said.

The arrival of plug-in solar from August could, then, be a good dry run of what to expect when plug-in batteries arrive. The big differences between residential buildings between Germany and the UK could mean plug-in solar doesn't quite take off in the same way in the UK, but Anker's Kelvin Cao remains bullish.

"This is no longer a niche movement. Germany passed one million officially registered plug-in solar systems in 2025, with around 430,000 new systems registered during that year alone," he notes. If plug-in batteries follow a similar pattern in the UK, that could have big consequences for energy bills — and the UK's grid as a whole.

There's no mistaking the growing momentum behind small-scale, low-cost solar panel installations: panels you can plug into a standard wall outlet, without the expense, time, or paperwork of a full rooftop installation.

Now widely established in Europe (where the tech is best known as 'balcony solar'), we're starting to see a wave of American states move towards legalizing these plug-in panels as well. Utah was the first in 2025, and there are now proposals in 30 other states to make the devices available to buy.

They're perfect for renters as well as homeowners. You can take them with you if and when you move. Additionally, they offer some respite from the energy price crisis, and they're becoming increasingly widely available.

At the same time, we're seeing a record number of homes in the US installing battery energy systems, hooked up to rooftop solar or the grid — another way to reduce electricity costs and provide a backup for a creaking national power system. Here's what's happening with home energy tech right now, and where it's going next.

Plug-in solar: the state of play

Utah set the ball rolling for plug-in solar in the US by passing House Bill 340 in March 2025. It means that portable solar panels or rooftop panels — up to a total capacity of 1,200 watts (typically four roof panels) can be plugged into a regular outlet. These panel systems use an integrated microinverter to convert the panels' DC output into household AC, ready for use.

In the default setup, this means the energy produced by plugged-in 'balcony' panels will be taken up by your home appliances first, before they try to access the grid. While battery connectivity is possible, the general idea is that the energy isn't stored anywhere — it's just pushed into your home for use as needed.

Estimates suggest you can shave around 10% off your electricity bill, though this will vary a lot depending on factors like electricity prices and how much sunshine you get. You can think of it as a way of getting a sizable chunk off your bill, rather than something that's going to replace the power grid entirely. The kits themselves start at around $500 and go up from there.

Now other states are following Utah's lead. According to The Cool Down, more than 30 states have drafted some form of bill, while six states have already enacted related laws. You can keep track of what's happening via the Bright Saver tracker, which provides updates for each state and a handy interactive graphic showing the overall picture.

You'll notice quite a few states are at the 'deferred' stage, which means the decision on legislation has been put off to a later date. A lot of these deferrals are on safety grounds: the argument from utility companies is that feeding power into household wiring (rather than just taking it out) comes with risks, and that more needs to be done to protect both consumers and the power grid.

The UL 3700 safety certification, freshly put into place this year, should help here. Plug-and-play solar panels with this certification attached will have built-in safeguards to prevent systems from being overloaded and to stop power flowing back into lines. It's a badge to look for if you're buying this kind of equipment.

Home battery installations

Home battery tech is separate but related, and as Ars Technica reports, records are being broken for battery installations: 673 megawatts of energy storage were brought online in the first quarter of 2026, the highest that figure has ever been.

The key driver here matches up with plug-in solar: rapidly rising electricity costs. The batteries can either store energy from rooftop solar panels, or bank electricity at off-peak times ready to be used during on-peak times. Plus, these appliances offer protection against power outages and help save money.

Unlike plug-in solar panels, home batteries do require a professional installation, the cost of which can be added on top of a typical $10,000-and-up price of the battery itself. It'll take years to pay that back in savings, but it will be paid back — it depends largely on whether you're using solar panels, how many panels you're using, and your home's electricity demand.

There are even moves to tap into this stored energy to help meet the huge energy demands of AI. Companies including Tesla will pay you on an ongoing basis if you allow them to control when your battery charges up and releases power — helping to manage stress on the overall power grid, especially during peak times.

While today's plug-in solar systems aren't designed to connect to big home batteries directly — though they can certainly operate alongside each other in the same home — a selection of them now come with their own portable batteries. As both technologies get more common and issues like safety certifications get sorted out, it's certainly plausible that future plug-in solar kits will be able to feed home batteries.

With the potential cost savings, worries over power grid reliability, and the increasingly convenient (and legal) ways to get all of this set up, it's no wonder that plug-in solar and battery energy technology is growing in popularity — and all the signs are that these devices are likely to become much more widely used in the near future.

Jonathan Scott, the handy half of The Property Brothers, is not just a friendly face on untold HGTV shows about renovating, building, and improving homes; he’s a hands-on sort of guy with an eye for technology and, especially, the intersection of smart home tech and sustainability.

I’ve known the Scott brothers for well over a decade, and I've always been impressed with Jonathan’s worldview. A licensed contractor, he sees a home as more than just a dwelling; it’s an ecosystem, and in his renovations and builds he likes to think from the ground up, and about where and when the best opportunity to include sustainable smarts present themselves.

A few years back we talked about his interest in promoting access to solar technology for homes, and given the ongoing changes in both technology and our climate, I thought it was high time to check back in.

Despite his busy schedule, which includes managing a media empire of TV shows, video content, a magazine, books, making guest appearances and enjoying family life, Scott agreed to speak with me about the importance of planning when it comes to finding the right mix of smart-home gear and eco-friendly (and sometimes disaster-avoiding) technology.

After catching up a bit, we dove into the core subject and talked about intelligent home solutions, big and small, and how they impact cost, energy, sustainability, and more. Our conversation has been edited for space and clarity.

TechRadar: You've helped in building and renovating hundreds of homes over the years, and I'm assuming – and you can tell me if I'm wrong – that some smart home technology is factored in. And I'm kind of curious about that, and how maybe it changes a project as you're going into it.

Jonathan Scott: It all depends. A lot of people, when they think about smart technology, they're thinking, 'Surround sound or cameras so I can creep on my friends and family and make sure they're not sneaking midnight snacks in the middle of the night' or whatever it might be. That's not what I think of when I think of true smart-home technology. I'm thinking of what is going to make your life easier, what is going to make the home safer, what is going to save you money. Those are the things that are all important.

One of the greatest pieces of technology right now is a water-saving piece of technology and catastrophic flood-averting technology. It is an AI-driven leak-detection technology with shut-off. Insurance companies are now starting to require them because they've realized they all but eliminate the possibility of having a catastrophic flood.

In my circumstance, it's not even just about the flooding. It's my kids leaving the taps on and then we get a big water bill because, in the guest house, the tap was running for a week and we didn't know. The technology will tell me within minutes that somebody's left the tap on, even if it's a dribble, it can find leaks in the wall.

That's one of the technologies that I think is incredible… because it's actually going to save you headaches and money at the end of the day.

TechRadar: And you have it on an app, right? You would get the notifications on an app, I'm assuming.

Jonathan Scott: I use Phyn and there's a bunch of different technologies out there. What I have discovered in my research is that Phyn is an ultrasonic technology, and it is hands down the best technology and price point on the market. There are other ones as well that don't use ultrasonic.

They have a little cog wheel inside. That's how they measure the flow and everything. The problem is if you have any hard water or mineralization over time, it gunks that up, and it stops working.

You want to always go with something that's going to last so that you don't have to worry about it. And when there is an emergency, it handles the job. That's why I like that. But it's one of those things where most people don't think about something like that until it's too late. And that's a problem. So, that is a type of smart home technology on the water side that I think is amazing. And you have to have the auto shut-off. There are some devices that just monitor flow, but then in an emergency, that's not going to help you, especially if you're not at home.

I've actually averted several floods, not only in our house but in our parents' house, where something happened and immediately [the technology] caught it, no water damage at all.

Same on the power side. There are tons of technologies where you can read the smart panels, for example, where it communicates with all your appliances and it says 'This appliance is using excess energy,' which usually means that the motor's about to go out on a fridge or something like that.

Jonathan Scott: You can also, if you went away on vacation and you're like, "Oh my gosh, did I leave the curling iron on?", you can shut off any individual circuit within the house using these power apps as well. You got to be kind of technically inclined, probably, to dig into that.

The real reason I love putting in a smart panel, like a SPAN panel, I think you and I have talked about SPAN before as well. They do smart panels, EV charging, all kinds of stuff. It's actually the future-proofing of the home that I'm excited about, because in the future, if there was a situation where you're out of power, your power's gone out in your neighborhood, you don't have solar storage backup, you could go and charge your EV, come back, plug it into your house and power your house off your EV.

In the future, there will be that two-way flow of technology, but then also the data from everything is really valuable. I think these technologies allow you to really get a big picture of the cost of your home, the power consumption, and where you can improve.

TechRadar: It really does sound like these things are married: smart home technology and sustainability. I guess what I'm curious about is how much planning in advance do you have to do to integrate these things?

When we're dealing with some smart home technology that we review here, it's so piecemeal, and some things don't talk to each other. So, these systems that you're talking about, are they requiring sort of one decision about a platform, or are they kind of platform-agnostic, and you can just pop them in?

Jonathan Scott: No matter what, the easiest time to incorporate any of this is when you're renovating or building or replacing an appliance that has broken down; that's the time when you should consider [for instance] induction for cooking.

Which, by the way, every single chef I know, every cook I know who has said "I don't want induction. I want to cook with real fire and real flame" – every single one of them has changed their mind. Everyone I've known has changed their mind after they got over the initial learning curve of induction, and now they're obsessed with it and they love it. The nice thing is that you don't have to deal with the benzene pumping into your house, the exhaust issues, the gas challenges.

So, the one good thing with these technologies is they're not only a lot more efficient to run because you're not running power and gas, they're just cleaner and safer, and healthier as well.

When you look at that leak-detection device, Phyn, that's something you can put in at any time because it just goes on your main water line coming into the house. It's a $550 device, and it will prevent you from ever having a leak or wasted water.

When it comes to something like a smart panel, you need to be doing a full panel rewire. That can cost several thousand dollars to put in, and the devices as well. You want to do that usually when you're doing a renovation.

Otherwise, if you have a hot water heater that's about to die, if you have a range or a fridge or something like that that's going to die, that's when you want to look at the energy-efficient options or the smart options.

I always say you don't need to break the bank going out of your way to replace an appliance that you just bought five years ago. If it's working perfectly fine, don't worry about it. But as these things come up, that's when you want to make sure you're getting the smartest, latest technology.

Lance Ulanoff: And it seems like the smartest latest technology is also usually the most energy efficient…

Jonathan Scott: Exactly. They're finding new ways all the time. I attend all of the conferences where the latest technologies are coming down. I know I've seen you at CES, but also ARPA-E [Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, a US government agency that funds the research and development of advanced energy technologies] has this conference all around power and everything like that. There’s some really cool ideas floating around.

One of the ones that we're seeing is appliances that have battery backup within them. For example, ranges. You're cooking and the power goes out. A lot of people don't realize that if you have a battery backup, that only usually covers about four circuits. The batteries aren't covering your entire house; it's covering four circuits. You have to decide what you want to back up.

There are some appliances now where even if the power goes out, you trickle charge. Normally, a range, if it's electric or induction, it'll have a 220-volt plug, and so that's a lot of power, and it's also more expensive when you're running to it.

They have some new ones now that are only a 110-volt plug. So, just a regular outlet... it trickle-charges over time. Throughout the night, it fills up its battery. Then, when you're actually cooking, it's drawing from the battery and not from your power source. If most people are cooking at dinner time, that's when most utilities charge the most money for their power because that's when everybody's using it.

Lance Ulanoff: That's really smart because in my house right now, we're having some discussions about doing laundry and things, and dishwashing at what time. Because we just got this note, "Don't do it in peak time." There's a problem with that. You're going to, maybe, incur higher costs, and I hadn't actually heard about that [new technology]. Basically, what they sound like is hybrid devices. It's like hybrid cars, right?

Jonathan Scott: Yeah. And it's early. These technologies will improve. And even on the laundry side, GE has their Profile, which is this all-in-one washer-dryer. And in the past, a lot of these all-in-one units, they never dried very well. This system is incredible. So, first of all, you don't have to vent it. It's a heat pump system. It takes all the moisture out of the clothes. You don't have to have a vent going anywhere. It also only plugs in with 110 volts, so you don't have to run 220 volts.

You can essentially put laundry in a place where you would never have been able to put laundry before because wouldn't have been very easy. And it automatically puts your load over from wash to dry. If you have everything in there and you don't need to go and change it over, you don't have to do anything. I think it does the full [wash and dry] cycle in two hours, or an hour and a half.

All of these technologies, when they first come out, they're a little awkward. It's kind of the awkward teen years of technology. And then once it actually takes root, things will be totally different.

To be totally honest, my opinion of where the future is going to be in not only heating but also powering your home. Right now all of the appliances, so whether it's induction cooking, VRF [variable refrigerant flow, a type of HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system], or heat pump for heating and cooling. You do not need gas for your heating and cooling anymore. Even in cold climates, they've proven that the new heat pump technology is incredibly efficient.

The only place where right now, all-electric technology is not great is in instant hot water heating. If you want tankless hot water heating, if you go all electric, it just draws so much power that it ends up being expensive, and it also means you have to upgrade your service, usually. If you have room for a hot water tank, then a hot water system is the way to go. That's no problem. You just have to size it appropriately.

But give it another five, 10 years. I think the future is going to be every room where you need hot water – kitchen, bathroom – underneath the baseboard, there's that wasted space there. There's going to be a small unit in each of those that heats on demand as you need it. And that way, you're not traveling it all through your house in pipes, letting it heat up and cool down instantly.

TechRadar: And you're wasting the water in that distance. First, you turn it on, all the cold water comes, and then you get the hot water.

Jonathan Scott: Exactly. The other thing that I think is going to be in the further future, I think we're going to have some source of power that we bring into our home like a battery that powers the entire house for a period of time – a year, who knows what it would be. But at some point, I don't think it's going to be necessarily this interconnected grid system. I think it's going to be an independent power source, and that will transform our ability to build in areas that don't have a grid system set up.

TechRadar: Right. I was going to say, especially in far-flung areas where they don't have all that infrastructure set up already, it makes some sense. So that kind of segues into where we are right now in sort of the solar space.

I get people coming to my door once a month pitching me on it, and we've talked about it. We just haven't, because of the investment, the cost of it, and subsidies coming and going. But you were very invested in that the last time we talked [Jonathan produced a 2019 documentary on the subject]. I'm kind of curious where you see solar energy for homes right now.

Jonathan Scott: There are a lot of utilities that still fight homeowners being in charge of their own power and producing their own power because that takes money away from them. I've never agreed with that because it's sort of distributing the power so that you don't have the blackouts like Texas had or the surges and whatnot that California suffers from in the summer.

I do think distributed energy is a good idea. Depending on where you live, the payback period is a lot shorter or a lot longer because again, some jurisdictions, strangely enough, it seems to be the sunniest places, tend to have the worst solar policies. Shouldn't be the case; but you're right, it's a cost-prohibitive factor, and then the costs have come down a lot, but that tends to be when people decide, “Do I really want to do this? Do I want to do something that's good for the environment but I don't have to put the cash up, so I'll lease the system.”

There are companies that still lease it, like SunRun. They've also switched to a sales platform, too, because most people, I say, if you can afford to buy your system, you're better off doing that because then you reap the benefits once you pay back the system, and that cash goes into your pocket. If you lease it, you're doing something good for the environment. You might see a little bit of a reduction in your monthly costs, but you're not really going to benefit in a big way, you're just doing something good for the environment.

My thought on it is, be real cautious. There are some technologies like the Tesla Solar System, which is what I have on my roof here. They don't produce as much as your newer PV panels, but this is a historic home that we're in, so we wanted to make sure it architecturally looked like slate tile, which it does. We couldn't do PV panels on it.

Know where you are. Know what you're producing. If you have the ability to have the standard PV panels, it's a better way to go. You're going to get more efficiency out of it. But, just make sure as well that you're aware certain times of the year, you don't get the same production. If you have trees blocking the sun from hitting your roof, which I do have a section of my roof here that doesn't get sun, that affects your production. But overall, even from when I put my first system on in Vegas, I instantly saw my power bills drop to about 10% of what they were before. It really does have a positive effect.

TechRadar: I want to switch gears a little bit because I just have a couple more questions, and I'm curious about sort of sticking more with a little bit of the smart home idea. Do you run into a lot of people who are really very interested in the idea of the centralized control, and being able to talk to their house and have things happen? And is that something that's easy to do or hard to do?

Jonathan Scott: That's kind of a trick question. Yes, I do believe simplifying the consumer experience is important. Having a centralized control – my house here I use Control 4, Drew uses Apple's Home setup. In fact, Drew, my brother, is very connected. He's got the ability, he can talk to it.

Every room, when he walks in the room, he's got motion sensors, so it turns the light on, and none of that's monitored by another company. He does it all himself.

Mine, I have a company that comes in and does it. These days, and I think there are going to be a lot more jobs in home automation and AI integration as well, because it's the future of where the home is going to be.

It is getting a little bit complicated, especially when it comes to the security side of things. The big thing for me is making sure that no one could ever hack your network or create some vulnerability where all of a sudden somebody can get in and access your devices. So that's the scariest thing. You have to know what you're doing to make sure you don't have that.

TechRadar: Last question, because I know we're running short on time. Have you heard about this dumb home trend where people are like, I don't want any technology in my home. And have you encountered that with any of your renovations?

Jonathan Scott: I mean, there's never a shortage of dumb people in the world, that's for sure, but as far as dumb homes, the only time I've ever had clients who have said they don't want to put any smart technology is usually a cost factor. They want to put [the money] into the flooring or the cabinets. They want to put their budget towards something that they can see. And sometimes they don't think of the smart-tech aspect of it.

The suggestion I usually make is, if nothing else, wire your home so that inside the walls, you already have everything you need. If you want to run an access point, expand your Wi-Fi, you can do that. The biggest problem I have in a lot of newer homes is that there's bad Wi-Fi throughout.

People need Wi-Fi today. They want strong Wi-Fi. So, no matter what, I usually say, at least when you're running all of your electrical, run your Cat 6 [Ethernet cabling] to anywhere where you may want to have a Wi-Fi hub, and you will thank yourself later for it.

TechRadar: The one smart thing I did with my house when I did my big upgrade, I ran Cat 6 to every room in the house.

Jonathan Scott: Yeah, smart.

TechRadar: And believe me, yeah, we needed the mesh network.

Jonathan Scott: I take it to the next level at my house here. Not only do I have a mesh network everywhere, I also have my own cell repeaters on the property. So, where we are, there is no cell service in and around the properties, but I'm the one place where we have solid cell service here, and it's because I ran my own repeaters.

TechRadar: Then the last question. Do you think that it's fair to say that a smart home is generally going to be a more sustainable home?

Jonathan Scott: Yes, because it's two-factor: One, if you have something like a smart thermostat, it's turning down your demand at times when you don't need it, which is actually saving you money, saving you energy in your home. That's a good thing. But also, these technologies remind us of what our use is.

When you see in an app it says, “Hey, you've got excessive water usage happening here,” and you discover that your friend who's staying in the guest room is taking four-hour showers. These are all things that are also going to save you money.

What I like is a lot of the data from these technologies, it's just reminding us and almost gamifying the fact that we're like, "What can I turn that off. I don't need that running. Why is this still plugged in?"

TechRadar: Right. That makes sense.

Deep sleep, or slow-wave sleep, has a restorative effect on our bodies - helping us to fight viruses and feel refreshed the next day.

But what is deep sleep? As we sleep our body cycles through four different stages of sleep, and after two stages of light sleep our bodies finally fall into a deep sleep. We need up to 2 hours a night of deep sleep to feel ourselves the next day, but some factors can stop us from reaching that state. 

Tracy Hannigan, a qualified sleep coach, explains what deep sleep is, and why it's so important for our bodies, plus we also look at the latest research on why not getting enough deep sleep can harm your short term and long term health.

What is deep sleep?

To understand deep sleep it's first important to know about sleep cycles and how they can affect our health. As we fall asleep we cycle through four different stages of sleep - light, medium, deep, and then REM sleep. Each stage prepares our bodies for the next stage of sleep, and the more sleep we get the longer we stay in each stage during the sleep cycle.

So, what effect does deep sleep have on our bodies? "Stage 3, or deep sleep is our most restorative sleep, and is when our bodies do a tremendous amount of healing and rejuvenation through the activity of our immune system," explains Hannigan.

What happens during deep sleep?

By this point, our bodies have already relaxed - meaning our heart rate and breathing has slowed down to the lowest possible rate in the sleep cycle. This happens as your brain switches from a waking state to a sleep state. 

Our muscles also start to relax, meaning we are exerting less energy - therefore fewer calories are being burned. It's not until we reach REM sleep that we start to burn more calories.

But, what are the other benefits of deep sleep? This study, from the University of Chicago, shows that during this stage of sleep, a growth hormone is also produced - allowing the body to grow and develop. Our immune system is also strengthened, while our energy levels are also restored.

• Can naps help you sleep better? We asked a sleep expert

How much deep sleep do you need?

We tend to get more light sleep as we cycle through the stages of sleep, but deep and REM sleep is important, as they allow our bodies to recover.

Studies show, to feel restored and focused the next day, that getting 13 - 23 per cent of deep sleep, so around 1 - 2 hours (depending on how long you are sleeping for) is a good average to aim for. Most of us fall into a deep sleep quite quickly in our sleeping patterns and we then spend more time in lighter and REM periods later on as we cycle through the various stages. 

If you're not sure how much deep sleep you are getting, invest in one of the best sleep trackers or best smartwatches. The sleep tracking will vary depending on what tracker you have, but most have apps they pair with which can accurately tell you how much deep sleep you've had every night.

What causes lack of deep sleep?

We all need around 7 - 9 hours of sleep a night - so if you find yourself tired and getting sick then chances are you may not be getting enough sleep, and probably deep sleep too.

Getting enough sleep, but still feel tired? It could be down to a few factors such as too much alcohol or other stimulants like caffeine, stress or even a sleep disorder. 

Even just a couple of alcoholic drinks can affect our sleep, says the sleep expert: "Alcohol significantly disrupts deep sleep and at even moderate quantities can cause our brain to ‘skip’ it altogether. This effect can last for longer than the night after drinking."

While stress can also have an impact on our deep sleep state: "Stress and anxiety promote arousal, which can cause us to spend more time in lighter sleep. This is a normal response, as our brains want us to be alert when we feel we are in ‘danger’ (aka feeling stressed) - but it can mean we spend less time in a deeper sleep than we could."

Sleep disorders such as insomnia or sleep apnea, or even exploding head syndrome, could also mean you wake up in the night or you don't get the amount of deep or REM sleep you need. 

• How to stop snoring

What are the dangers of not getting enough deep sleep?

Stress, exercise and lack of the right vitamins and minerals can cause our immune system to weaken, while sleep, especially deep sleep allows our immune system to strengthen. Not getting enough sleep can then mean we get ill more or our health starts to deteriorate - with lack of deep and REM sleep associated with heart attacks, dementia and other chronic diseases.

While other dangers of not getting enough sleep mean we find it hard to mentally concentrate or feel alert, explains Hannigan.

"People with insufficient restorative sleep can have difficulty concentrating, especially later in the day, and can be more emotionally fragile. They could also have fuzzy memories from lack of memory formation, we will feel fatigued from lack of opportunity for our bodies to heal, and feel sleepy from having unrestorative sleep." 

How to get more deep sleep

Hannigan says that sleeping as deeply as possible is affected by two things:  "Our tendency to be interrupted in sleep and the amount of sleep pressure we have built up during the day. 

She goes on to advise: "Build as much sleep pressure as possible by being awake as long as possible (avoiding going to bed too early) and being physically active during the day. Sleep pressure is responsible for how deeply we sleep and is built by wakefulness and physical activity."

Unless you've missed a considerable amount of sleep the night before try and avoid naps, and if you do keep them to a minimum of 20 - 30 minutes. While cutting out or down on stimulants such as coffee and alcohol can help you get more deep sleep.

"Avoiding alcohol consumption, or stopping alcohol intake many hours before bedtime, can preserve the integrity of our deepest stage of sleep by allowing enough time for the ethanol to be metabolised," explains Hannigan. 

Getting the right sleep window for you and improving your sleep hygiene will also mean you're less likely to be disturbed while you sleep. Try and keep your bedroom cool and dark, while choosing the best mattress and the best pillow will mean you'll sleep comfortably all night.

Like you, I've become somewhat more conscious about my energy use. It's not to the point where I'm running around the house switching plugs off if they haven't been used for half a second, but I'm taking steps to be smarter about the amount of energy we use to save cash. And that's why I'm considering some support from some smart home tech, such as this four-pack of TP-Link Tapo Smart Plugs down to £27.99 in the Amazon Spring Sale.

I've finally decided to get involved as this set is excellent value for money, effectively giving you four plugs for the price of three at £22 less than the usual price. It's a cheap, easy, and convenient way to take better control of essential devices around the home by simply connecting them to existing sockets. 

Or, for £2 more, there's a version of the TP-Link Tapo Smart Plugs that come with energy monitoring that can give you a clear idea of the energy usage of devices over a specific period.

I'm not too concerned about the claims around so-called 'vampire devices' that suck up considerable amounts of energy even when on standby, as they can be disputed, according to The Guardian. However, I'm up for limiting the potential impact elsewhere and the added convenience of this cheap but handy smart home tech.

So, for me, it's the other energy-saving features that stand out - such as the option to set timers so sockets are switched off after a period of use. This will be good to put some sockets on a schedule so they only activate during specific times of the day. Good for lights in the living room at night or the coffee machine in the kitchen that I only need to be switched on in the morning. I'll learn to live with the clock flashing double zeroes constantly.

These functions are all accessed through a smartphone app, which offers remote control and voice control functions through Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices such as the Echo Dot and Nest Hub.

It's a purchase that's also been spurred on by some recent advice here at TechRadar that suggests there's never been a better time to invest in smart plugs. Even more so this set from TP-Link is available for such a low price. 

There are other more expensive options out there that offer even more advanced features, but this is a more reasonable price to pay for a simple set to get started. The manufacturer also features highly on our list of the best smart plugs available to buy right now, so I'm happy to get them for such a low price.

If you're not a morning person, then getting up early can feel like your world is crashing around you. First comes denial: if you shut your eyes and hit snooze, maybe it'll all turn out to be a bad dream. Then, when you face reality, comes misery as you slump out of bed, fix yourself a coffee and try to shake yourself out of your slumber.

Finally, as the caffeine kicks in and fights with your sluggishness, comes anger, as you curse the world and everyone in it. But it doesn't have to be like this.

Whatever age you are, if you need to wake up early on a regular basis, then a few simple adjustments to your lifestyle and habits will help you do so without feeling tired. And that means that even if you're lying in comfort on the best mattress and best pillow, you'll still be happy to get out of bed.

Read on to find out how you can wake up early and still feel energized, motivated, and ready to face the world.

1. Establish a regular sleep schedule

The cornerstone of how to wake up early without feeling tired is establishing a regular sleep schedule. In plain English, that means going to bed and waking up at the same time, every single day. Yes, even on weekends. (Okay, we know that last bit sucks, but ultimately, the overall benefits will outweigh the joys of the Saturday morning lie-in.)

"A regular sleep pattern is very important, because the entire body is synchronized by its circadian rhythm and sleep wake is an important rhythm," explains Dr. Abhinav Singh, medical director of the Indiana Sleep Center, contributor to SleepFoundation.org and author of Sleep to Heal: 7 Simple Steps to Better Sleep.

Of course, getting in bed doesn't always mean sleep. "So routines are key," he adds. "That means: have a wind-down ritual prior to bedtime. Shower. Journal. Read. Breathe. It's just as important as your morning routine. Remember, tomorrow starts tonight!"

2. Get enough sleep

Having a routine won't work, of course, if you don't allow yourself enough sleep in total. Many adults think that five to six hours a night is sufficient: it isn't. The consensus among sleep experts is that you should aim for between seven and nine hours of sleep each night.

This means that if you need to get up early, you may have to start going to bed earlier than you'd like. And as a grown-up, that may bristle.

If you're young, free and single, you may want to stay up and party. If you've got kids, you may relish the "free time" you get after you've put them to bed. Or maybe you're just enjoying a Netflix boxset, and can't resist "just one more episode".

In such cases, there's no magic solution: if you want to get enough sleep, you're just going to have to compromise on your preferred lifestyle. As Dr. Singh says, you basically need to give yourself a good talking to. "Tell yourself, Better Sleep = Better Health =  Better Life," he says.

"And the converse is true as well: Poor Sleep = Poor Health= Poor Life."

Soon enough, you'll have established your new routine, and be feeling the benefits of feeling more refreshed, energized and happier every morning. And if it takes a few extra days to get through that Netflix series… is that really so bad?

3. Avoid caffeine and alcohol before bed

A glass of wine, a cup of coffee or a cigarette can be a lovely treat before bed. But as stimulants, all of these substances will disrupt your natural sleep patterns, and make it harder to wake up in the morning.

One study, for instance, found that 400mg of caffeine (about four or five cups of coffee) taken 0, 3, or even 6 hours prior to bedtime significantly disrupts sleep. So if you want to wake up feeling refreshed, it's best to avoid them for at least a few hours before bedtime.

This advice often falls on deaf ears, of course. Because many people say they can't sleep without caffeine, alcohol, and/or nicotine. And in the short term, they may – in one sense – be right, says Dr. Singh. "It probably has become a conditioned part of their evening sleep routine; like a pacifier," he explains.

Indeed, Dr. Singh is no fundamentalist on the issue. "In small amounts, if it is not bothering your ability to fall or stay asleep and you feel fine the next day without noticeable consequences, then you're probably okay doing it," he points out. "But in general, all of these stimulants have anti-sleep properties, such as lowering the ability to go to deep sleep, increasing snoring, increasing time to fall asleep and fragmenting sleep once initiated."

• how to stop snoring

4. Create a relaxing sleep environment

Another key element in achieving a good sleep routine is to create the right bedroom environment. That means blocking out any noise distractions that could disrupt your sleep. It also means making your room as dark as possible, because as studies show, the modern world's use of electric light has significantly disrupted the circadian rhythms that help us sleep.

"Your bedroom should be cool, dark, quiet and light-free," says Dr. Singh. "Eye masks can be a good idea. Ambient sounds from a white noise machine can help in certain cases." Or, if you prefer, the best sleep earplugs are another way to block out unwanted sounds.

5. Limit your screen time

Spending all evening on your phone, tablet or laptop can be irritating to people you live with. But even if you live alone, it's good to put down these devices long before bedtime.

The blue-green portion of the light emitted by electronic screens is particularly damaging, explains Dr. Singh. "That's because it can reduce your body's natural melatonin production, and delay and deplete the quality of sleep. It's like driving a car with low tire pressure: you feel the drag and the bumps more.

"So I'd recommend turning off your screens at least an hour before going to bed," he adds. "Also, put on your 'do not disturb' mode much earlier: two to three hours before bed."

6. Take a bath

Do you feel so groggy in the morning that you need a shower to wake you up? Then maybe you should reverse your routine, and have one before going to bed instead.

"A bath or a warm shower can help with sleep in the following ways," explains Dr. Singh. "Firstly, it lowers your core body temperature, which facilitates melatonin release and helps sleep. It also relaxes your muscles and skin and helps you feel calmed and ready for sleep.

"There's also a small amount of research that suggests it may increase the time you spend in the deeper states of sleep," he adds. "In my opinion, 20 minutes or less in the bath is enough, and the water should be warm but not hot."

7. Use natural light to your advantage

Our bodies evolved to respond to the natural rhythms of daytime and night time. So if we experience light in the morning it helps us wake much more naturally than if we're lying in darkness. This helps regulate your circadian rhythm and make it easier to wake up feeling refreshed.

For this reason, it's a good idea to open your curtains or blinds as soon as you wake up. Alternatively, if you need to wake during the dark hours, consider investing in a wake up light, which gradually lights up in a way that mimics the rising of the sun.

8. Avoid the snooze button

When you don't want to get up in the morning, it's tempting to hit the snooze button on your alarm clock. However, doing so on a regular basis can actually be detrimental to your sleep health.

When you hit snooze and go back to sleep, you're interrupting your sleep cycle and potentially causing sleep fragmentation. This can make you feel even more tired and groggy when you finally do wake up, as your body hasn't had the chance to complete a full sleep cycle.

For this reason, Dr. Singh suggests you limit your use of the snooze button. "Only snooze once, and for less than 10 minutes," he recommends. "Excessive snoozing is like wasting jet fuel while circling a runway and not landing! If you feel the need for excessive snoozing, then you are not getting enough sleep, so you may need to talk to your doctor about this."

We won't lie: some of these tips may involve a lot of adjustment to your life, and you may struggle to break the bad sleep habits that you've built up over a lifetime. But once you've successfully incorporated all of this advice into your daily routine, you'll find it is possible to wake up early without feeling tired, and start your day off on the right foot.

As Dr. Singh says: "Muscles are not built with one visit to the gym, are they? So you need to train the sleep muscles before you feel the benefits." Be patient, be consistent, and you'll soon find that early mornings is a time you look forward to, rather than dread.

This article is part of TechRadar's Sleep Week 2023 celebration (running until Saturday 19 March), a week-long look at all things slumber. We'll be bringing you proven techniques and tips to help you sleep better, and have rounded-up all the top-rated tech to transform your sleep.

Fujitsu has announced the next chip to follow the A64FX, the ARM processor that is used in one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, the Fugaku.

The new chip from the Japanese tech giant was announced in a presentation as part of the Fujitsu ActivateNow: Technology Summit, held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Fujitsu CTO Vivek Mahajan said that it will be an "Arm-based CPU for Next-gen DC" set for release sometime in 2028.

With the working title of 'MONAKA', Fujitsu told The Register that its focus was on making a high performance chip with better energy efficiency, saying that it wanted to contribute to "the realization of a carbon-neutral and sustainable society."

Energy savings

The new processor is said to be able to increase HPC workloads, as well as deliver optimal performance for AI and data analysis applications, all whilst providing "overwhelming energy efficiency" over coterminous rivals. Fujitsu claims it will have 1.7 times the application performance with double the performance per watt. 

MONAKA is part of the program run by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) research agency in Japan. It's goal is to increase energy savings by 40% within the nation's data centers come 2030.

Fujitsu is also contributing to this with other developments besides MONAKA, such as low power consumption accelerators, smart network interface cards (NIC) that use photonics, and disaggregation technology.

It is speculated that the new chip will therefore be more akin to those used in servers catering to cloud storage, cloud hosting and colocation providers. However, these chips are less concerned with saving energy as such rather than achieving full utilization. 

"The next-generation DC CPU (MONAKA) that we're developing will have a wider range of features and will prove more energy efficient," a Fujitsu spokesperson told The Register. "The range of potential applications is wider than that of the A64FX, which has special characteristics (e.g., interconnects) specific to Fugaku."

Details are scarce at this point, it seems likely that MONAKA will have the same standout features as the A64FX, such as 28Gbps Tofu-D interconnect, high-speed HBM2 stacked memory, and 512-bit Scalable Vector Extensions.

• Here are the best small business servers to power your firm

For over 10 years, BLUETTI has been serving up capable power solutions for both inside and outside the home. At CES 2023, it’s showing off its latest kit with the monstrous EP900 and B500 combo, providing enough juice for the whole home.

The new EP900 is an all-in-one unit that can take in electricity, store it, and output it. You can connect it to your home’s AC wiring to fill its built-in battery or integrate it into a solar system. It can soak up power from up to a 9kW solar array. Its hybrid inverter lets it provide 120V or 240V AC power with pure sine wave output or take it directly from mains power, making it a simple option to integrate into your home’s electrical. 

The EP900 has a sizable LiFePo4 battery built in with an advanced battery management system to maximize performance and longevity. That’s just scratching at the surface of the system’s maximum capacity, though. With a B500 battery, you can increase the capacity to about 9kWh. The EP900 and B500 units stack conveniently to make arraignment a sinch. With the option to combine up to 8 batteries together, you can max out capacity at 39.6kWh. For some perspective, that’s enough juice to keep a whole home running for several days.

Having all that backup power can certainly come in handy during a blackout, as it can keep critical electronics running. At the full 39.6kWh, it’d cost you less than $20 to fully charge, which is likely a lot less expensive than the cost of replacing spoiled food in the fridge. With the system’s ability to serve as a UPS and kick in automatically within 10ms of the power going out, it can keep you out of all sorts of sticky situations that can arise from complete power outages and momentary blips. While the EP900 and B500 are there to have your back, BLUETTI also has your back with a 10-year warranty and 24/7 customer service on the pair. Meanwhile, BLUETTI’s app allows for convenient, real-time management of the system and over-the-air firmware updates.

The EP900 and B500 join the rest of BLUETTI’s product lineup, which also saw the recent addition of the AC500+B300S. Those units were developed with the support of $11 million in funding from over 4,000 Indiegogo backers. While the EP900 combo is built to serve you inside the home, the AC500 combo is built for more flexibility inside and outside the home. 

The AC500 is a 16-outlet solar generator capable of outputting 5kW of pure sine wave power. It’s even possible to pair two AC500 units in series for 240V and 10,000W output. The unit can take 5,000W of AC power and 3,000W solar input simultaneously to charge a pair of connected B300 or B300S batteries at up to 8,000W, making it possible to charge up in just a couple hours. Paired with one B300 battery, you’ll be looking at 3,072Wh of capacity (roughly a day’s worth), but you can stack up to six batteries for 18,432Wh total.

With the capacity and portable design, the AC500 and B300 combo lets you keep select electronics running at home, stay powered at a campsite, or give an RV extra power.

Whether you want the option to have electronics running off the grid or want to keep your home powered even when the grid lets you down, BLUETTI’s latest options have you covered. You can find them and the rest of BLUETTI’s lineup here. 

Want to ensure a cosy bedroom when the temperature drops outside? It can be tempting to just pop the heating on, but there are some simple things you should do first. These tips will help trap the warm air in and keep draughts out, keeping your room at a comfortable temperature even when it's wintry outside. Here's your guide to what to do…

How warm should my bedroom be for sleep?

"The optimal temperature for sleeping is around 16-19C, says Theresa Schnorbach, a sleep scientist who works with bed brand Emma (one of our best mattress picks). Hotter or colder than that, and it'll probably affect your sleep quality, making you more likely to wake up in the night feeling uncomfortably chilly or too warm.

• Now's a great time to buy a new mattress – browse the cheapest mattress sales live today

4 things to do to trap warm air in your bedroom

1. Swap in thick curtains

"As well as improving sleep by keeping out light, thick curtains can have the added benefit of keeping your room warm and preventing colder air by your window from circulating around the room," says Theresa. Our recommendation is to go for a blackout blind or pair of blackout curtains – these are designed to completely block distracting ambient light, and most come with insulating properties too. 

2. Close your door

This is a simple one. If you leave your door open, you'll be letting the cold air from unoccupied rooms and corridors make its way into your bedroom. You might also want to consider adding a draught excluder, if you've got a big gap at the base of your bedroom door.

3. Add a rug

Carpeted rooms are often warmer than floorboards, but you can mimic the benefits by adding a thick rug to your bedroom floor during the winter months. 

4. Seal up cracks and crevices

"Even hairline cracks in walls or doors can have a big impact on how much cold air is able to enter your bedroom," says Theresa. If you have the necessary DIY skills, get these blocked up. Alternatively, call in a professional to do the job for you.

What tog should my duvet be in the winter?

Another important thing to do to ensure you stay cosy during winter nights is to make sure you're using the right bedding. A 13.5 tog duvet is designed for winter nights (or 10.5 tog, at a minimum (check out our best duvet guide for our recommendations). "Alternatively, you could use multiple blankets or an additional duvet to trap in more of your body heat, meaning it's less likely you’ll need to turn up your central heating," adds Theresa. 

Due to the conflict in Ukraine and disruptions in the flow of natural gas across Europe, energy prices are increasing around the world. While some governments are taking steps to cap the increase, the likelihood that there will still be an increase over the coming months is high.

Companies that run their own on-premise servers and data centers have been facing never-seen-before challenges in 2022. Electricity bills rose 4-5 fold over the last three years with uncertain times ahead due to the reworking of Ofgem price caps and a revisiting of fixed-price energy deals. 

A recent report commissioned by Aggreko found that 60% of data center professionals in the UK and Ireland alone said their electricity bills had increased by up to 40% over the past three years, while 3% of the UK respondents reported price increases in excess of 50%. 

While data centers are not immune to rising costs, Rusty King, CTO of the European Division of Thrive, tells TechRadar Pro that they often provide greater energy efficiency, superior backup systems, and around-the-clock support, while sharing just how the energy crisis will affect businesses that manage their own infrastructure. 

How will the energy crisis affect businesses that manage their own infrastructure?

There are several potential implications for organizations that manage their own infrastructure. Firstly, increases and instability in power costs for standalone businesses are more likely to be greater than data center providers that should have a greater buying power. 

Secondly, should there be a requirement for power to be turned off for extended periods of time by the energy providers, organizations managing their own infrastructure will need to have a backup capability or be subject to downtime for all equipment. 

Data center facilities will have both UPS battery and generator capabilities to mitigate any outages to co-location or private cloud customers. 

What are some of the never-seen-before challenges companies are facing in 2022, in regards to their own on-premise servers and data centers?

Apart from the power pricing and potential power cuts mentioned above one other issue is extended lead times on equipment as a result of the world wide component shortage. These can affect companies looking to replace equipment, subject to failures or requiring expansion and should be factored into these projects. 

How can organizations make the move to the colocation and why should they?

The move to colocation can be very straightforward, by engaging with organizations such as Thrive who have data center space available. A consultation engagement will help determine what equipment can be colocated as well as all requirements for user connectivity. 

The service will include a project to move equipment into the data center as well as remote hands and eyes available to limit visits for the customer to the data center. Options are available for rack capacity and power included or just the rack cost with power paid monthly as used. 

With the energy crisis currently affecting the data center sector, how will the cost trickle down to end users? 

Unfortunately, no-one is exempt from the current power price increases, data centre providers are also affected. Power increases will be passed on to customers in line with contractual agreements. 

This is also likely to affect increases to cloud services that are typically delivered as a monthly consumption model to end users. Whilst power is only one component of cloud services, it will still have an impact on the end user price. 

What should end users do to avoid the financial impact the energy crisis will have on them?

There are limited options available to completely mitigate the current situation, if possible users should try to find fixed term contract pricing for services, although these are becoming more difficult to find given the volatility of energy prices. The other advice is don’t be afraid to shop around although movement may be restricted by contractual terms. 

What is the future of data centers?

There is still a very clear future for data centers, whilst many organizations and users are migrating to Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms for many applications, there are still a number of services that require dedicated hardware that needs to be hosted somewhere. 

The current power crisis has meant that more organizations want to absolve the responsibility for hosting equipment themselves to a data center facility with resilience and backup capabilities. This situation is likely to remain at least for the foreseeable future. 

• Want to trim down your reliance on third-party data centers? Check out our guide to the best small business servers

It's the worst time of the year for anyone who appreciates lovely, crisp, line-dried bedding. If you manage to dry your washing outside for most of the year and don't have a tumble dryer (or if you do have a tumble dryer but can't bear the escalating expense of running it right now), how are you supposed to dry your bedding naturally at the moment?

Bed sheets and duvet covers have a lot of surface area, making them hard to hang on a clothes horse, and if they're not dried properly they can go moldy. There's no point in having the best mattress, best duvet and best pillows if they're encased in damp, musty bedding, so what's the best way to dry it without a tumble dryer?

Step forward James Higgins, eucalyptus bedding expert and CEO of Ethical Bedding. He's come up with some useful tips for drying your bed sheets naturally and efficiently, without having to fall back on an energy-guzzling tumble dryer. Read on to learn how to get that bedding washed, dried and back on the bed before bedtime.

• How to clean a mattress topper

1. Wash your bedding first thing in the morning

For the best chance to get your sheets dry, says James, get an early start. If you do your wash first thing in the morning, by the time it's done the house will be warming up, improving the odds of your sheets air-drying quickly.

"Temperatures in the home drop considerably overnight as this is when the house is at its coldest, so avoid drying your sheets overnight by giving them the best chances possible in the day,” he adds.

2. Dry your sheets in the kitchen

If there's room, the best place in the house to dry your sheets is the kitchen. "The kitchen space tends to be the warmest part of the house," says James, "as it’s where we cook and there is plenty of footfall traffic."

You can speed things up, too, if you're cooking with the oven; simply put your drying rack next to the oven door. "Although," notes James, "if you are cooking smellier food then I wouldn’t recommend this option as it will cling to the sheets." Turning on your cooker's extractor fan can help, too, as the increased airflow will make moisture evaporate faster.

3. Hang your sheets near the airing cupboard

Another reliably warm place for drying your sheets is near your airing cupboard. James points out that it gives off plenty of heat throughout the day, so you can make the most of it without using any extra electricity. And once your sheets are nearly dry, we'd suggest folding and putting them in the airing cupboard to finish them off.

4. Iron your sheets under a dry towel

If you enjoy nicely-ironed sheets, you can dry and flatten them in one go with this trick. "We wouldn’t recommend putting direct heat from the iron on damp bedding," says James, "but add a towel into the mix and your problems are solved.

"When you have your ironing board set up, place your damp bed sheets on the board and lay an old dry towel over the top. Then put your iron on a medium to high setting and apply the heat of the iron onto the towel. This will transfer the heat through the towel onto the bed sheets and dry and iron them in one go – cutting out the drying time!"

5. Finish them off with a hairdryer

Inevitably you'll get to a point where everything's mostly dry, except for a few annoying bits of your bedding that are slightly thicker and take longer to dry, such as the corner of a duvet cover. But James has an easy fix for that: "In this case," he says, "use a hairdryer for a couple of minutes to dry off those final patches." Sorted!

Read more:

• 8 ways to make your mattress last longer
• How to wash pillows in a washing machine without ruining them

If you’re a bill-paying adult living in the UK, the chances are you’re familiar with money-saving supremo Martin Lewis, whose cost-cutting advice has truly come to the fore in 2022 amid rising energy prices and general inflation-related badness. 

For his latest trick, Lewis, founder of the Money Saving Expert website, has turned his attention to the kitchen in a bid to help you save money on everyday cooking and laundry tasks. Speaking on the latest episode of The Martin Lewis Podcast, he revealed a simple equation that should take the guesswork out of deciding which household appliances are the most efficient to use this winter, and help you work out whether appliances such as the best air fryers are saving you money.

“We know a kilowatt (kw) is 1,000w, which is how electricity tends to be priced [...] and you pay roughly 34p per kw per hour,” Lewis explained. “[So] the general equation is: find the wattage of an item, then work out how many kilowatts or what fraction of a kilowatt it’s using, then multiply that by 34p per hour of use.”

Lewis proved the value of the maths by using dehumidifiers as an example. Drying your clothes with a 200w dehumidifier – instead of a large standing dryer – could cost you as little as 7p an hour, he said, because 200w is a fifth of a kw (1,000w) and a fifth of 34p is 7p.

Lewis noted that the 7p figure doesn't take into account the initial cost of buying a dehumidifier, which can cost anywhere between £50 and £400, but the equation also applies to other household appliances like air fryers and heated airers (which should offer an answer to the question: do air fryers use a lot of electricity?). 

You can find the best deals on a selection of air fryers, dehumidifiers and heated airers below. 

For more appliance-related advice this winter, check out our explainer articles on the 6 common air fryer mistakes to avoid and the 9 things you need to know about air fryers. 

Fully makes some of the world's best standing desks, and its Black Friday deals have launched early so you can transform your home office on a budget. Right now, it's offering some of the best Black Friday standing desk deals around, including offers on the highly regarded Jarvis line of electric and crank-operated standing desks.

The Jarvis range is not only tough and dependable but they're also made with sustainability in mind. The Fully Jarvis Bamboo ranks highly in our guide to the best standing desks thanks to its adjustable height for people up to 6'7" and use of bamboo grown without pesticides or fertilizers. Right now, it's down from £699 to £559 – a saving of £140.

(Not in the UK? Scroll down for deals in your region.)

Today's best standing desk Black Friday deals

Fully's standing desks are top quality, but if they're a little too expensive for your Black Friday budget, Amazon also has a couple of good discounts available.

More standing desk deals

No matter where you live, you'll find all the lowest prices for standing desks from around the web right here, with offers available in your region. 

• We've also found the best Black Friday laptop deals

Whether you're taking home comforts on the road or making sure your actual home is as secure as can be, BLUETTI's inverter and power cell combos offer a simple, seamless route to energy independence. 

Solar Panels are great. We all love solar panels. But spare a thought for the unsung heroes of the home energy renaissance.

Without a way to convert all that lovely solar energy into something your home appliances can digest and a battery to save up the power for rainy days, all those solar panels are basically expensive, roof-mounted surfboards.

But that's not the only reason to invest in an inverter/battery combo. Even if your roof is panel-free, BLUETTI's range of ruggedly handsome products can protect you against blackouts, keep your devices fully powered on the road and generally keep you connected wherever and whoever you are.

Here are the best deals on home power this shopping season.

Power for home protection 

The most recent and powerful addition to the range is BLUETTI's AC500 5000W inverter and the B300S power cell. This popular pairing managed to raise over 11 million dollars on Indiegogo in just two months. And this Black Friday, the AC500 plus a single B300S will cost you just $4,499 (a saving of $600).

Equally happy gobbling up energy from solar panels or the mains, at its fastest, the AC500 can take its B300S brother from empty to 80% in just one hour, ready to go on the road or sit patiently waiting for the next blackout or power surge (add up to six B300S batteries for a staggering 18,432Wh of backup power).

Savings continue across the whole range. The AC300 inverter and B300 battery combo can see you through hours of blackouts for just $2,999 (down from $3,699). Slightly smaller cousins, the AC200MAX inverter and B230 battery offer plentiful power for your mobile home or garage, and this Black Friday you can pick up the combo for $2,799, a $499 saving. Ease of portability peaks with the AC200P, a 2000W inverter and 2000Wh battery in one unit for just $1,199 (down from $1,699) in the lead up to Black Friday (November 21-26). And from November 27 to November 28, you can snap up the AC200P for a bargainous $1,119.

Finally, the EP500 and its bigger brother the EP500 Pro both combine a 5100Wh battery with a 2000W or 3000W inverter respectively, in a single unit. Wheeled for effortless mobility, these sleek units can power 90% of common devices and protect against everything from brownouts to data loss.

This Black Friday you can grab the EP500 for $4,399 (down from $4,999) and the EP500 Pro for just $4,799 (down from $5,999, an incredible $1,200 saving).

Power in the wild 

Whether it's art, wildlife or simple exploration that takes you on the road, BLUETTI builds a range of handheld devices perfect for everything from beach parties to wilderness photo sessions. And this Black Friday they won't weigh down your wallet either.

The lightweight EB3A comes in at just 10 pounds for 600W (268Wh) of power and will cost a mere $209 (down from $299). Next up, the EB55 outputs 700W (537Wh) for $399 (was $499) while the EB70S runs at 800W (716Wh), and starting November 11 you can pick it up for just $499 (down from $599).

Remember those solar panels? Well now you can carry them with you, too.

BLUETTI batteries and power banks are happy accepting a wide variety of power sources, but the ecological frontrunner will always be BLUETTI's own solar panels. All models are portable and feature monocrystalline power cells for up to 23.4% efficiency, producing from 120W (with the PV120, $299) to 200W (with the PV200, $499) all the way up to 350W (with the PV350, $849).

Whichever you choose you'll have a free, unlimited, environmentally friendly source of energy wherever you go.

Bonuses, boxes and more 

In the spirit of Black Friday and the shopping season, anyone spending more than $1,000 at bluettipower.com between 00:00 on Nov 11 and 23:59 PST on November 29 will be entered into a drawing, with prizes including an EB3A Portable Power Bank, $50-$100 coupons and other BLUETTI gifts.

Look out for other spending thresholds too. For example, a $5,000 spend gets you a mini fridge.

Lastly, there are mystery boxes not to be missed at the BLUETTI store this shopping season. Basic boxes cost $99, Pro boxes $199 and Premium boxes $299, and they all contain surprise gifts commensurate with the cost. Fancy a $900 Solar Generator for $199? That's absolutely possible with the Mystery Box Pro.

Click here to explore BLUETTI’s Black Friday deals.

With all of us more conscious about our energy use right now, we're all looking for ways to be smarter about the amount we use to save cash. While claims about certain 'vampire devices' that suck up considerable amounts of energy even when on standby can be disputed, you can go some way to limit their potential impact with some cheap but extremely useful smart home tech. That's exactly what this pair of TP-Link Tapo Smart Plugs with Energy Monitoring can do for just £18.99 from Amazon.

This discounted set comes with two smart plugs and is currently £9 less than the usual price. They offer a cheap, easy and convenient way to check the energy usage of devices over a specific period of time and also take better control of important devices around the home by simply connecting to your existing sockets.

For example, the energy-saving features include the option to set timers so sockets are switched off after a period of use, such as after fully charging a phone. Or you can put sockets on a schedule, so they only activate during specific times of day - good for lights in the living room or the coffee machine in the kitchen you only need to be switched on in the morning.

These functions are all accessed through an app on your smartphone, which also offers remote control and voice control functions through Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices such as the Echo Dot and Nest Hub. These smart plugs are handy, easy-to-use and they could genuinely give you a better understanding of your energy use to save money - all for less than £20.

Today's best smart plug deal

We think there's never been a better time to invest in smart plugs here at TechRadar. Even more so this pair from TP-Link is available for such a low price. There are other more expensive options out there that offer even more advanced features, but this is a more reasonable price to pay for a simple set to get you started. The manufacturer also features highly on our list of the best smart plugs available to buy right now.

If you find them useful then do check in for more reductions during this year's Black Friday deals, which are bound to feature other popular energy-saving products. We'll bring you the best of these, too, including all the top Black Friday Air Fryer deals.

Sometimes it's easy to forget that we have the greatest power source in the universe merrily burning away a mere 150 million kilometers above us.

With blackouts, increasing energy bills and controversy over fossil fuels becoming more and more widespread, why did just 5% of global electricity come from solar power in 2021?

On a domestic level, cost and complexity are the twin barriers to powering our homes with sunlight. But they're no longer as insurmountable as you might think.

The heart of the system is Bluetti tech's EP600 power station, with form as simple and striking as its function. Traditionally this kind of kit comes encased in the same sort of injection molded, ruggedly masculine plastic as power tools, but the Bluetti model resembles nothing so much as a handcrafted piece of designer luggage. No terminals or wires, just nice rounded corners and a subtly stenciled logo.

Just plug a solar panel (either one of Bluetti's own or your model of choice) into one end and your home appliances into the other. That's it. The EP600's 6000W bi-directional inverter takes care of the rest and is powerful enough for pretty much any domestic use.

So that's power. Now let's talk storage. As a wise man once said, the sun can't shine all the time, so the second part of the puzzle is the Bluetti B500.  

No mysteries here either. It's just a battery. A massively capacious battery with 99.9% MPPT for the highest charge efficiency. It stacks seamlessly under the EP600 and can hold almost 50kWh worth of juice.

There's more. Fifteen more to be exact. You can stack a total of sixteen B500 batteries under the EP600 power station, storing up to 79.3kWh, or enough energy to run a standard home for around three days.

That's a lot of episodes of 'The Walking Dead'. But you don't need to be preparing for disaster to make the most of your very own fully expandable solar powered power grid.

Protection against blackouts and brownouts, reducing your energy bills and cutting a few toes off your carbon footprint are just a few of the other reasons to take the step towards energy independence.

And, if you're more of a rolling stone, the EP600 weighs in at just 40kg. Not exactly pocket-sized but it'll fit nicely into your campervan for the ultimate mobile home experience.

Drive electric? A B500 in the boot can extend your range considerably, adding around an extra 150 miles depending on your make and model.

Wherever you are, you can manage everything from your smartphone via Bluetti's bespoke app (available on Google Play and the App Store).

And the sticker price for the power of the sun?

The latest price for an EP600 power station and a pair of B500 stackable batteries is only £8,100, €8,999 or $8,650, available to pre-order from here soon (included is an impressive ten year warranty).

With solar power now within the economic reach and technical grasp of domestic users, we think things are about to change.  

I can't blame Jackery for positioning the promotion of its flagship solar generator at IFA 2022 in Berlin next to a giant RV camper mock-up. That's the pitch: Buy a solar generator and take it camping.

Enough with the camping song and dance. We all know what these environmentally-friendly power-source devices are increasingly becoming about: They're tools for survival.

Think I'm kidding? Look at the headlines. Floods, fires and hurricanes. Power outages are constantly with us. We need reliable power and not to rely on fossil fuel-powered systems.

These were the thoughts racing through my mind as I watched Jackery's European head of marketing Ricky Ma explain the explosion in camping and other outward-bound activities during the pandemic and his 10-year-old company's development of an array of solar-powered generators, panels, and other earth-friendly technologies (including an adorable, electricity-generating personal windmill).

But the star of this show (and it was a show, with break dancers and a German chanteuse expertly singing popular American tunes) was the new Jackery Solar Generator 1000 Pro.

I've seen my share of portable solar panels, though I will say Jackery's are lighter and more stylish than most, but not many solar-powered generators. This one certainly has some impressive specs:

• 1002 wh capacity
• 230V, Dual Power Delivery of 100W
• Quick Charge
• USB-C ports
• AC-charging option

More importantly, though, the portable box can charge in under two hours using four of Jackery's solar charging panels. Jackery told us that this works even on a cloudy day.

Is it also heavy? Yes. I grabbed the 25-lb (11.3 kg) box and was surprised by its heft. I would not want to carry it up into the mountains. However, putting it outside my home after losing power during a blackout, brownout, or hurricane? Absolutely.

Is it bulky? At 13-in. x 10-in. x 10-in., yep. Though, I was tickled by the image Jackery showed of someone using the bread-box-sized generator on their nightstand. I think I might prefer to connect the generator to an extension cord.

At 46 decibels, the Jackery Solar Generator 1000 Pro is about half as loud as a diesel generator, but it's not silent.

At $1,299 (£1,120, $1,900 AU), it's also at least double the price of a fossil-fuel-powered generator and that doesn't include the cost of the solar panels, which will probably run you a few hundred dollars each.

On the other hand, fuel prices are still sky high and in a disaster, diesel and gas can be hard to come by. Sunlight? Usually, it's in plentiful supply.

As I walk the halls of IFA in Berlin and companies talk about sustainable and earth friendly-gadgets, I see the subtext. The earth is a mess and we need to protect not just our pocketbooks from pricy energy costs, but ourselves from an unpredictable world.

You won't hear companies like Jackery pitching their products with tag lines like "Prepare for the worst!" or "At least you'll still have power!" but they have to know what we're thinking. I know what I am and I might just prepare by buying a solar-powered generator.

IFA 2022 is Europe's biggest tech show, and TechRadar is in Berlin to bring you all the breaking news and announcements, plus our hands-on first impressions of the new TVs, wearables, audio devices, and other gadgets on show.

Life is full of surprise and adventure. Some seek it out by hitting the road and getting away from it all; others take it as it comes when storms hit and the power goes out and life gets interesting. Either way, it’s important to make sure you’ve got everything you need to keep going wherever you are. 

Growatt is the world’s leading expert in new energy and for the past 11 years has developed, manufactured, sold and provided after-sales services for its wide range of PV inverters, batteries, EV chargers and smart energy platform products, all backed by industry-leading customer service. Growatt has been building powerful, high-quality residential and commercial energy solutions for over a decade and is now bringing that expertise to the company’s first ever portable power station: the Infinity 1500. 

As the name suggests, the Infinity 1500 has a 1512Wh capacity with 2000W of output power so there’s plenty of juice to power whatever you might need. It can fast charge most any consumer tech device, whether a laptop, tablet, smartphone or most any other portable gadget. And the embedded AC inverter allows for super fast AC wall charging to completely recharge the power station from 0-80% in 1 hour. 

With up to 12 outlets, customers can charge as many devices as needed simultaneously. It also supports UPS features with <20ms transition time, which supports most home appliances, so there’s no worry about keeping things powered up at home. The smartphone app allows for remote monitoring, control, and easy access to customer support. 

Best of all, the Infinity 1500 offers leading solar charging speeds and can be charged with solar panels in under two and a half hours. Typically with batteries this large it can take up to 10 hours of direct sunlight to fully charge, which could easily take several days. The best-in-class inverters from Growatt, and the unit’s capacity to handle a 800W of solar input allows the Infinity 1500 to charge so quickly.  

The compact size, massive power capacity, multiple outlets, and solar charging capabilities make the Infinity 1500 a perfect adventure companion. The need to explore and see the world shouldn’t mean having to leave technology behind. Life back home doesn’t stop while out on the road. Make sure you can stay connected with enough power for all your charging needs.

It’s also a great way to prepare for the worst while at home. As many around the world continue to experience unpredictable weather, it’s more important than ever to make sure there’s enough power at home to keep everything running if the power goes out. The Infinity 1500 can power everything from a floor lamp to most in-home refrigerators, so there’s no need to worry about losing power to essential appliances ever again. And even if you’re without power for a few days, the solar charging features means you can charge up during the day to get ready for night time. 

Growatt has more than a decade of experience building efficient and industry-leading charging, power, and battery solutions so buyers can rest assured knowing that the Infinity 1500 is backed by a company with wide ranging industry experience and a strong track record of success. Plus, you’ll know you’re getting a solution that can contribute to the clean and renewable energy future. 

The Growatt Infinity 1500 will be available for pre-order September 1, 2022. Order before September 10, 2022 and receive $200 your purchase! 

Last week, the UK’s energy price cap rose by a whopping 54%. Although experts had previously predicted that energy bills would rise again in October this year, many believed that they would start to fall again in early 2023, when wholesale gas prices had stabilised. Sadly, it appears as though this will no longer be the case.

Price rises continue for longer than expected

Wholesale gas prices began to soar around the world last year as global economies started to recover from coronavirus-related lockdowns. However, despite challenges in the sector, forecasters said that wholesale prices would begin to dip again later this year and would then stabilise in 2023.

But, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused the price of oil and gas to soar once again. As a result, leading analysts are predicting that not only will prices rise again in October of this year, but they will likely rise once more in early 2023.

This is certainly a break from expectations. Speaking in September 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the energy market would soon “sort itself out”. He added that “this is really a function of the world economy waking up after Covid… This will get better as the market starts to sort itself out, as the world economy gets back on its feet.”

However, now the crisis is expected to carry on for at least another 12 months, if not longer. Currently, the UK only depends on Russia for a very small amount of its energy supply. But, if Russia cuts off supplies to continental Europe, then wholesale prices will spike rapidly.

New price cap will be announced in August

Ofgem is due to announce the next adjustment to the price cap in August. The change will then come into effect in October.

However, although the announcement is several months away, analysts are united in their prediction that the price cap will rise once again. Some analysts even believe that it will take energy bills over the £3,000 threshold.

Ofgem has attributed these high costs to “the unprecedented increase in global gas prices”, which is characterised as a “once in every 30-year event”.

Sadly, even though the price cap is due to rise again later this year, customers are still advised against running an energy comparison. This is because the best energy deals from the UK’s best energy suppliers cannot beat the price cap.

However, Martin Lewis has suggested that you can consider switching supplier if you can find a deal that’s no more than 18% to 20% higher than the current price cap. That said, these deals currently aren’t available.

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has now outlined the UK’s new ‘Energy Security Strategy’. It was announced on the afternoon of April 7 and has given more detail about what the government plans to do to combat the ongoing energy crisis.

From soaring household bills to the new record high price cap and the fact we currently aren’t advised to run any energy comparison services as there aren’t any better tariffs to switch to – not even with the best energy deals from the best energy suppliers – many of us are hoping the strategy will ultimately help the nation to reduce and resolve the issues we’re facing with the ongoing energy crisis.

Here, we’ve recapped some of the main points and what the government has said about the potential results and developments that will come from the new strategy.

‘Great British Nuclear’ to be set up immediately

One of the big talking points was that a new government body called ‘Great British Nuclear’ is to be set up ‘immediately’ and that there will be a significant acceleration of nuclear energy production.

The strategy claims that by 2050 up to 25GW of energy will come from UK nuclear, accounting for as much as 25% of our total electricity demand. This could subsequently mean 'delivering up to eight reactors, equivalent to one reactor a year instead of one a decade’.

Up to 50GW of offshore wind

The government will aim to now produce up to 50GW of offshore wind by 2030, which will be ‘more than enough to power every home in the UK’. To make this happen the government will be cutting the approval time for new offshore wind farms from four years down to just one.

New North Sea oil and gas projects to launch in Autumn

A new round of licensing for North Sea projects will happen. This follows the idea that it will be more carbon friendly to produce gas closer to the UK than it would be from doing so overseas.

£30m for more British heat pumps

A ‘Heat Pump Investment Accelerator Competition’ will be run in 2022. It will cost around £30m to make and install more heat pumps in Britain and reduce our nationwide gas demand.

Increases to the UK’s current solar capacity

The government is considering making reforms to how and where we can install solar panels to potential increase the UK’s capacity by upwards of five times by 2035.

The doubling of hydrogen energy production

The strategy also says it will ‘aim to double our ambition to up to 10GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030, with at least half coming from green hydrogen and utilising excess offshore wind power to bring down costs’. This could also apply for use within transport and heating.

How will we benefit from all this?

The ambitious plans ultimately show that the government wants to make more energy closer to home and reduce our dependence on other nations. More importantly though, the government has stated that ‘consumer bills will be lower this decade than they otherwise would be as a result of the measures’ – which will be welcome news for millions of homeowners.

The strategy also explains how employment will be boosted with ‘over 40,000 more jobs in clean industries to be supported thanks to measures, totalling 480,000 jobs by 2030’.

All of these supposed benefits were echoed by Business and Energy Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, who said:

"We have seen record high gas prices around the world. We need to protect ourselves from price spikes in the future by accelerating our move towards cleaner, cheaper, home-grown energy.

"The simple truth is that the more cheap, clean power we generate within our borders, the less exposed we will be to eye watering fossil fuel prices set by global markets we can’t control.

"Scaling up cheap renewables and new nuclear, while maximising North Sea production, is the best and only way to ensure our energy independence over the coming years."

Does the strategy go far enough?

Some critics have argued that the strategy doesn’t do enough to help households in the short term and some expect there to be a backlash against the drive for more nuclear energy.

The government is expected to give more updates on this in the coming weeks, so it might be we get a clearer idea then of timelines on the strategy and whether we will see any further immediate support with our energy bills.

Ofgem’s energy price cap has risen by 54%, meaning millions of UK households on standard variable tariffs (SVTs) are now paying hundreds of pounds more each year for their energy.

This, combined with the fact that running an energy comparison to switch to a cheaper tariff is out of the question – due to the fact that not even the best energy deals from the best energy suppliers can better the SVT – also means that more and more consumers will be looking for ways to help bring down these costs.

One response to this arguably quite significant part of the current cost of living crisis, is the UK government's ‘Council Tax Rebate’ scheme, which will see those of us living in properties in council tax bands A to D getting £150 off our April bills.

However, we’re also meant to be getting further support from an ‘Energy Bill Rebate’ scheme, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, has also previously announced - but this has yet to come into action.

Here, we’ve explained more about what this scheme is set to involve.

A £200 rebate for all UK households

To summarise, the government will be giving every UK household a £200 rebate on their energy bills. This will be in the form of a discount that will be automatically applied and credited to every home’s domestic electricity bills. 

Properties with prepayment meters will instead get their rebate through a voucher, a cheque or directly through their meter.

When will we get this rebate?

It’s believed this rebate will happen in October this year. This may coincide with the next energy price cap, which some forecasters are saying will rise once again.

We will have to pay it back

However, unlike the council tax rebate, we will have to pay this £200 rebate back. The repayment terms are believed to be in the form of an additional £40 on our annual energy bills over the next five years, starting in 2023.

However, some critics have condemned the fact that households don’t have the option to opt out of the rebate. Many also believe this is ultimately going to mean we end up paying more for our energy than we would without the rebate in the long term.

Those supporting the rebate in its current form argue that it will mean energy companies will be able to recoup money over a longer period, instead of continuing to hit consumers with sharp cost increases.

Is any more help on the way?

At the moment there’s speculation that the government will be looking at other ways to support those who are struggling the most with their energy bills. According to reports, a government spokesperson has said:

"We recognise people are facing pressures with the cost of living, which is why we are providing support worth around £12bn this financial year and next.

"We are supporting vulnerable households through initiatives such as the £500mn Household Support Fund and Warm Home Discount and will continue to listen to consumers and businesses on how to manage the costs of energy.

"We will provide an update in due course on further help for households across the UK to meet their energy costs in the face of rising global gas prices."

What else can be done to bring down costs?

Unfortunately, there currently isn’t a great deal that can be done to make this situation easier. Beyond sticking with the price cap SVT and taking measures to cut down on your consumption, you can also try speaking to your energy supplier about changing to a more manageable payment plan.

You may also wish to look into these support options, however, some schemes offering help over the winter have now closed. 

Ahead of tomorrow’s energy price hike (1 April), Martin Lewis has outlined three tips for people who pay for their energy bills by monthly direct debit.

Tomorrow, the energy price cap is due to rise by an average of 54%. If you have never switched supplier or you were on a cheap fix that has now ended, your energy bills are governed by the price cap. You’re also on the price cap if your previous supplier went bust and you have moved supplier as a result.

If any of those scenarios apply to you, then make sure you read the following tips before the price hike takes effect.

1. Take a meter reading

On 31 March (today), you should take a meter reading and submit it to your energy supplier. This way, you can make sure that all the energy you’ve used is charged at the cheaper rate.

Some people have asked Martin Lewis whether they should slightly inflate their readings to take advantage of cheaper rates. However, he has correctly pointed out that this would be considered fraud.

2. Think carefully before ditching direct debit

With the colossal price hike coming tomorrow, some people are considering cancelling their direct debit. But, as Martin Lewis points out, although this will provide you with greater control over your bills in the short term, this move will cost you more money in the longer term.

If you’re on typical usage and pay by direct debit, the price cap from 1 April is £1,971 per year. If you pay by pre-payment, it’s £2,017 per year. Of course, you’d need a pre-payment meter to pay this way.

If you decide you want to cancel your direct debit and pay your bills quarterly, then the price cap is £2,100. That means you’ll pay around 6% more for your energy than if you stuck with a direct debit.

So, if you’re thinking about ditching direct debit, keep in mind that it’s cheaper to pay this way than it is to pay quarterly.

3. Avoid switching for now

From 1 April until the end of September, you’ll pay £1,971 per year for your energy if your bills are governed by the price cap. However, based on what we’ve seen so far, the current prediction is that the price cap will rise to around £2,500 on 1 October.

Of course, estimates can change and we’re only two months into the six-month assessment period. However, Martin Lewis believes it’s “very unlikely” that October’s price cap will be lower than the April price cap because wholesale prices are currently so high.

Based on these figures, Martin Lewis believes it’s only worth considering switching if you can find a deal that’s no more than 18% to 20% higher than April’s price cap. However, he says this is a “best guess”.

Sadly, for new customers, the best energy deals from the country’s best energy suppliers are around 40% higher than April’s cap. As a result, as things stand at the moment, it is not worth running an energy comparison and switching supplier. Instead, you’re better off staying on the April price cap and seeing how things change in the coming months.

Those living in close proximity to onshore wind farms could see subsequent lower energy bills. This is according to the UK government who recently told the BBC that this scheme would be similar to a model currently being rolled out by Octopus Energy in parts of Yorkshire and South Wales.

The government is said to want to expand this concept across the rest of the country, however, this would ‘only apply to new developments’. The Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is also believed to be in favour ‘of loosening regulations to make it easier to approve plans for more onshore wind’, because current ruling means there are strict limitations on where onshore farms can be built in England.

More information on this is expected to be revealed in the government’s upcoming ‘energy supply strategy’, but in the face of April’s 54% energy price hike with Ofgem’s new price cap, many will be hoping these cost cutting measures will come to fruition.

In addition to Mr Kwarteng’s backing, it’s understood that Michael Gove – who heads up planning in England - is also ‘supportive’ of the idea. However, there are rumours that other cabinet ministers ‘strongly oppose the plans’.

Some Octopus Energy customers can get 50% off electricity bills

According to reports, Octopus Energy’s new ‘Fan Club’ tariff will see customers near wind turbines in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire and Caerphilly, South Wales getting a 20 percent discount on their electricity simply for being close to the farms. However, during windy periods of high renewable energy production, Octopus claims the discount could be as high as 50 percent.

This green imitative comes shortly after Octopus Energy’s other positive announcements. The first being that its existing customers on its standard variable tariff will pay £50 below the new price cap from April 2. The other, is that it is to double its ‘Octo Assist’ financial hardship fund from £2.5m to £5m, to give more support to its struggling members.

An opportunity to grow the UK’s green energy sector

While the government is said to be ‘very interested’ in using this model, it also sees the long-term benefits of providing more incentives to build onshore wind farms closer to the local areas of UK homes.

This was backed up by a government source who said: “Ministers would want to ensure communities are able to directly benefit from hosting renewable energy infrastructure. There are a range of different options under discussion”.

More ways to cut costs ahead of April’s price hikes

The timeframe of this new scheme is still to be determined, so households looking to make more immediate savings will need to pursue other options.

Unfortunately, it’s still the case that there aren’t any cheaper deals out there beyond the price cap, even from the best energy deals currently on offer from the UK’s best energy suppliers. As a result, the advice remains to avoid running an energy comparison and to stick with your provider’s standard variable tariff.

Instead, you may wish to use some of these tips for lowering your energy consumption that we’ve previously explained to help save on your bills. 

If you’re really struggling you should also contact your supplier to discuss a new repayment plan, and if you’ve yet to do so, see if you qualify for the £150 council tax rebate you can get in April.

As of next month, it’s estimated that the use of so-called vampire devices will cost £3.3 billion a year.

Many items in our home use huge amounts of energy, including washing machines, dryers and fridges. However, most households are aware of these costs and only use the items when necessary. But, many of us neglect to pay attention to the small devices that are continually plugged in, such as phone chargers, televisions and microwaves.

Although these devices are often left on standby mode and appear to be switched off, they actually continue to use energy. For this reason, they’re known as ‘vampire devices’.

Why do these devices cost money?

Anything that remains plugged into a socket will use energy even if it is placed in standby mode. Common vampire devices include:

• Desktop computers
• Displays
• Printers
• Satellite boxes
• Stereos
• Televisions
• Microwaves
• Video game consoles
• Phone and tablet chargers

In truth, these devices only use a very small amount of energy while plugged in. However, when numerous devices are left plugged in overnight, they can add vast amounts of money to your energy bills.

According to British Gas, the energy consumption of these devices adds up to 23% of our electricity bills. Across the UK, it’s believed that powering these devices costs a combined £2.2 billion. When the price cap rises in April, this figure will rise to £3.3 billion.

At a time when electricity bills are skyrocketing, taking steps to lower your energy consumption is vital. By October 2022, it’s predicted that the electrical element of a household’s energy bill could reach £800. If this proves to be the case, vampire devices alone could cost the average household more than £200 annually.

How can I stop these devices costing me money?

Thankfully, the steps you can take to stop these devices from costing you money are simple and straightforward. By flicking a switch, you could save hundreds of pounds a year. So,

• When you turn off your television, make sure you unplug it at the wall
• Install a smart meter so you can see exactly how much electricity you’re using at each time of the day and how much that electricity is costing you. Using this information, you can make changes to your consumption
• Use extension leads for devices you usually leave plugged in overnight. By plugging your games console, TV and satellite box into the same extension lead, you can turn all three off by flicking one switch

Taking the above steps could save you a significant sum. After all, a Sky box that is left on standby all the time can cost you £73 annually, and each phone charger and TV that’s left plugged in can cost £10. As a result, the cost of vampire devices quickly adds up.

How else can I save money on my energy bills?

On 1 April, the new price cap will take effect. It will cause energy bills to rise by 54%. To help with this, the government recently announced a raft of measures that will ease the pressure on struggling households.

Sadly, besides the government help and following the recent advice from Martin Lewis, there’s very little that you can do at the moment to reduce your energy bills. At present, it’s still advised that you should avoid running an energy comparison and switching supplier. This is because the best energy deals from the country’s best energy suppliers cannot beat the current price cap.

If you’re struggling with your energy bills, then you should speak to your supplier in the first instance. If you’re still struggling, several support options are available.

According to new analysis, energy bills for UK households could double following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Collectively, this means that UK households will face a £38bn hit to their budgets. The research, which was conducted by Aurora Energy Research, has confirmed that such an increase in the cost of heating and lighting homes in 2022-23 will be the equivalent of a 6p rise in the basic rate of income tax.

According to Dan Monzani, UK managing director at Aurora Energy Research, rising wholesale gas and electricity prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are “baking in” a higher cap for next winter.

Monzani estimated that for the households connected to the power grid, such an increase in the cap would push the likely cost of aggregate electricity and gas consumption to £74bn in 2022-23, some £38bn more than in 2021-22.

"That’s the equivalent of 6p on the basic rate of income tax, but with the money never getting to the Treasury," Monzani told the Financial Times. "It’s a hugely substantial impact, especially on lower-income households."

Will the government provide further help?

Earlier this year, rising wholesale energy prices prompted energy regulator Ofgem to raise the average price cap from £1,277 to £1,971. However, it’s now clear that even this sharp rise in the energy price cap will be insufficient and that a further price cap hike in the autumn is “almost inevitable”.

Due to the fact that the government announced a raft of measures to help struggling households last time the energy price cap increased, some industry experts believe that the chancellor will use his spring statement to set out further measures.

Recently, Downing Street has sought opinions from the business department on how further pressure could be alleviated. They recommended doubling the £200 loan and delaying the point at which households start repaying the money.

However, although the government continues to look at ways to help those suffering, the government is currently playing down the idea that further relief could be offered. This is because the energy markets remain turbulent and the next change in the price cap will not be announced until August and will not take effect until October.

What can I do right now?

Although the energy price cap is due to rise by 54% in a couple of weeks, experts still recommend that you stick with your current supplier rather than running an energy comparison and switching supplier. This is because the best energy deals available from the UK’s best energy suppliers cannot currently beat the energy price cap.

However, within the next month, the government’s £9.1 billion support package will start to kick in. From April, around 20 million households in council tax bands A-D (which includes 95% of rented properties) will benefit from a £150 council tax rebate to help with their energy bills. Then, in October, every household in the country will receive a further £200 rebate in the form of a loan.

If you’re still struggling with your energy bills and you believe you’ll be unable to make payments, then it’s recommended that you speak with your energy supplier. We also recommend that you follow these three great tips from Martin Lewis.

In a recent YouTube video, Martin Lewis has revealed three ‘urgent’ tips that UK consumers can use to help reduce their energy bills, before April’s new price cap.

The current energy crisis and the conflict in Ukraine have continued to push up energy prices, and in only a few weeks’ time, millions of UK households on standard variable tariffs will see their bills rising by 54%. What’s more, many experts are also predicting that our energy bills will rise even further with October’s price cap, to upwards of £3,000 a year.

This is also made more difficult by the fact that running an energy comparison service right now isn’t an option. This is because the price cap tariff currently can’t be bettered, even by the best energy deals from the UK’s best energy suppliers.

As such, any means of keeping costs down will be welcome news for many. Martin Lewis himself summed up the dire situation we are facing in his video, stating:

"There are lots of people out there that can afford the increase and won't like it, but there are also millions of people who will be thrown into fuel poverty, who will get close to having that choice between heating and eating."

So ahead of April 1, here are three approaches that Martin Lewis believes could help:

Try and ‘stockpile’ your energy if you’re on a prepayment meter

Those on older prepayment meters may be able to ‘stockpile’ energy on the current cheaper rates, by topping them up now before the price hike. However, this won’t work for households with smart prepayment meters.

He said: "For those of you on prepayment meters, specifically non-smart prepay meters – if you're on a smart prepay, this won't help. The regulator Ofgem has confirmed to me that you get the rate on the day you top up, not when you use energy.

"Now, that means if you max out your top-up in March before the rate goes up, that's what you'll get, even if you then use that energy in April. 

"So you can extend the cheap rate we have now for longer by maxing your top-up if you can afford it – and I know not everybody on prepay can." 

He also confirmed that this should work with all leading energy suppliers, apart from Scottish Power.

Submit your meter readings now if you pay by direct debit

Martin Lewis recommends that those who pay for their energy by direct debit should submit a meter reading now and another on March 31. This will ensure households have an accurate bill ahead of the April price increase, but moreover, it'll make sure the energy that's used before this date is on the cheaper rate.

He said: "If you're on direct debit, I'm afraid there's no similar system for you. If you artificially inflate your direct debit in March, that's fraud, you can't do it.

"But I would suggest you do a meter reading today and diarise to do a meter reading on 31 March, so you draw a line and tell the energy company all this energy I've used should be at the cheap rate."

If you’re eligible, claim your council tax rebate

The government’s £150 council tax rebate for every property in bands A, B, C or D in England, Scotland and Wales, will be available for consumers to claim from April.

Martin Lewis’ advice here is to apply for this as soon as possible to help soften the blow of the rising energy costs.

He added: "If you don't set the direct debits up, then keep an eye out for a letter from the council, because each council will tell you its claim system and you need to watch for that.

"If you're not eligible for the £150, say, because you're in a higher band, then there is a discretionary £140 million fund being set up to help those who are struggling.

"It will be up to each council to decide how it distributes it, but be ready to claim that. I hope this helps."

Other considerations

Any homeowners who are looking for other ways to cut their energy costs may also want to consider these support options we’ve previously detailed here. These include a number of discount schemes, as well as advice on how to reduce your consumption and deal with your energy supplier.

The boss of energy regulator Ofgem has said that households across the UK are heading for an “almost inevitable” rise in energy bills this autumn.

Although the UK government has previously said that Ofgem’s energy price cap would ‘insulate’ customers from gas price rises, Ofgem’s chief executive now believes that the spike in wholesale gas prices will be passed on to customers when the price cap is next reviewed later this year.

In a speech at the Future of Utilities event, Jonathan Brearley said that the gas price volatility caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would lead to higher costs being passed on to consumers. While discussing the future of the industry in the near term, Mr Brearley said that: "while it is too early to predict what the price cap will be in October, a price increase is almost inevitable."

What is the price cap and why is it changing again?

The energy price cap is the maximum amount that an energy supplier in England, Wales and Scotland can charge a customer for a unit of energy. The price cap changes every six months and it’s governed by multiple factors, such as wholesale prices.

On April 1, the energy price cap is set to rise by almost £700 for millions of households up and down the country. However, it’s due to be reset again in October. Although many had hoped that the price cap would decrease and the cost of living crisis would ease, it now looks like the reverse will be the case and the energy price cap will rise again, based on Mr Brearley’s comments.

Due to this, some industry experts now believe that when the new price cap is unveiled, average bills could reach £3,000 a year.

Although the price cap is currently rising and is expected to rise further again later this year, it’s still advised that you stick with the price cap rather than running an energy comparison and switching supplier. This is because, due to uncertainties in the market, even the best energy deals from the country’s best energy suppliers cannot beat the current price cap. At present, many customers are being quoted up to £3,500 per year for a fixed rate.

What can be done to ease pressures?

Within his speech, Mr Brearley said it was Ofgem's priority to manage and mitigate the “inevitable consequences” of rising energy prices on British consumers. However, he also added that “as an industry, we cannot pretend that our actions can mitigate the full impact of future price rises”.

Over the coming days, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out an ‘energy supply strategy’ amid concern over western reliance on Russian gas and oil.

He said the government was looking at using more UK energy resources: “One of the things we're looking at is the possibility of using more of our own hydrocarbons.” However, he also added “That doesn't mean that we are in any way abandoning our commitment to reducing carbon dioxide [emissions].”

On top of this, the government has also recently unveiled a raft of measures that aim to help those struggling with their energy bills. These include a £150 council tax rebate and a £200 loan, which is repayable over five years.

If you’re currently struggling to pay your energy bills, then you should contact your energy supplier and ask them what help is available. These suppliers are also being urged to ‘reach out’ to their most vulnerable customers.

Millions of households could face annual energy bills of around £3,000 in October when Ofgem announces its price cap update.

This substantial rise is according to the latest forecasts from sector specialists Energy UK, and if this turns out to be the case, it would mean our bills will be more than double what we are paying on the current price cap.

What’s more, this will also be around £1,000 more than the looming April price cap, which has already confirmed rises on standard variable tariffs from £1,277 per year to £1,971.

A ‘worrying time’ for consumers and the energy sector

The continuing energy crisis, soaring wholesale prices and the conflict in Ukraine have been the key drivers for these predictions, but such steep rises could be catastrophic for UK households, seeing millions pushed into fuel poverty.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Energy UK’s chief executive Emma Pinchbeck offered these comments on the situation:

"It’s a really worrying time for both customers and industry, and we’ve been saying since the autumn that we expect bills to go up again in October.

"I think, with what we’re seeing in Ukraine and in the oil and gas markets, we’re now expecting those to go up further.

"We’ve seen public figures quoting bills at around £3,000 in October. We know they’ll be around £2,000 from April when the price cap goes up.

"If this turns out to be an enduring situation in the market, you can expect bills to be anywhere between £2,500 and £3,000 in October, depending on the tariffs that people have, and what happens in the market."

Ms Pinchbeck added: "The important thing to anyone listening to this on their bills is that there is help available, particularly for vulnerable customers, and we are going to be working with Government to try to get extra support in place."

Ofgem warns against early price cap predictions

Ms Pinchbeck also warned of continuing market volatility and more suppliers going bust alongside the price rises. However, Ofgem has emphasised that such predictions shouldn’t be taken as gospel as the situation is likely to change by the autumn.

Despite this, there have been similar forecasts from other industry experts. Cornwall Insight recently tweeted that the attack on Ukraine has added another £400 to their estimates for the October price cap, bringing their forecasts to £2,900.

Dr. Craig Lowrey, a senior consultant at CI, subsequently commented on how the government may need to offer further help to UK homes:

"The UK Government will need to be ready with ways to mitigate the impact on consumers, with an increase in financial support to households likely to be a necessity, in addition to renewed considerations on support to business customers."

Is now the time to switch to a fixed energy tariff?

The advice for consumers right now is to still avoid running an energy comparison as it’s still the case that not even the best energy deals available from the UK’s best energy suppliers can beat the current price cap.

However, following Cornwall Insight’s update, Martin Lewis from MoneySavingExpert recently posted a blog explaining that if the October price cap forecasts are accurate, there might be better value in some fixed deals in the long term. He said:

"So the big question, of course bearing all that in mind, is at what rate is it worth getting a cheap fix? The rule of thumb is this: I would not switch to a fixed deal unless it was less than 75% more than the current price cap, or if you want to base it on the April price cap, no more than 15% more than the April price cap.

"So if you can find a fix within that price range then it is worth getting. But you will not find those prices on a comparison site. There are no open market options close to that price – they're all 40% more than the April price cap at the very cheapest."

This is all of course subject to change, and as Ofgem has warned, there’s no guarantees these predicted increases will reflect what actually happens in the coming months.

What to do if you’re struggling with your energy bills

For those of you looking for immediate help with your energy bills, you should contact your supplier to see if they can help you. There’s also a number of new government schemes now available that have been designed to help UK households who are struggling.

Households across the UK are beginning to discover how much they will need to pay for their energy this year. This is because suppliers have started to send emails and letters to customers that clearly show how much they will need to pay for their energy from April.

Energy suppliers are legally required to send notices to their customers about price increases. These notices must state in clear financial terms how much more the customer will need to pay. 

Some households are being told that projections show their energy bills will rise by more than £1,000.

26 million households affected

At present, around 26 million households around the country are on variable energy tariffs or pre-payment meters that are governed by Ofgem’s price cap. In April, the level of the price cap is due to rise by almost £700 per year, to around £2,000.

However, the £2,000 a year figure is indicative of what you might pay. The actual amount that each household will pay for their energy will depend on two factors: the actual amount of energy the household uses and where the house is located geographically.

Current regulations state that energy suppliers must notify all of their customers about any upcoming price rises, and must do this a “reasonable” amount of time in advance.

The information the supplier must give the customer includes the price rise increase, what it will mean for the customer financially, and when it will take effect. The supplier cannot include any marketing information.

Messages to arrive this week

As the price rise is due to take effect next month, many suppliers are now beginning to send messages out. In fact, millions of homes across the country are due to receive them this week.

Those who use the most energy will find out that they’re set to pay much more for their energy than they do now. However, the highest level of ‘bill shock’ will be experienced by those who were previously on much cheaper fixed deals with energy suppliers that went bust last year. That is because these customers have since been moved onto variable deals with their new supplier.

At present, about 70% of energy bill payers are charged for their energy via direct debit. Due to this, payments are smoothed out across the year. This means rising bills are not delayed until the winter. Instead, new, higher direct debit demands will feed through in the coming months. Prepayment meter customers will also see an immediate impact.

Sadly, you cannot currently run an energy comparison to save money on your energy bills. This is because the best energy deals available from the UK’s best energy suppliers cannot beat the current price cap.

However, if you’re struggling with your energy bills, then you should contact your supplier immediately to see how they can help you. In addition, keep an eye out for government schemes that have also been designed to help struggling households to see if you qualify for help.

The government is urging households across England to set up a direct debit with their local council so they can receive a £150 council tax rebate that can be used to help with rising energy costs. 

Who will receive the £150 rebate?

It’s expected that around 20 million households in council tax bands A-D (which includes 95% of rented properties) will benefit from the council tax rebate, which is costing the government £3 billion. The rebate will come in the form of a one-off payment that doesn’t have to be repaid.

In addition to this, an extra £144 million is also being given directly to councils. This money will be used to provide discretionary support to vulnerable households who do not qualify for the rebate. It’s expected most of this money will be provided to families on low incomes who live in properties in council tax bands E to H.

How will the rebate be received?

People who pay their council tax via direct debit will see the £150 rebate go directly into their bank account from April. Anyone who does not pay via direct debit will be contacted by their local council and will be asked to make a claim.

As a result, those who set up a direct debit will receive their rebate far quicker than those who do not. They will also benefit from receiving the payment directly, rather than having to make a claim. 

Is any other support available?

The council tax rebate is a central part of the government’s £9.1 billion support package.

From October, every household in the country will also receive a further £200 rebate on their energy bills. However, this rebate actually comes in the form of a loan. From April 2023, households will pay £40 per year in repayments for a period of five years. It’s expected that global wholesale gas prices will have started to come down by this stage, so repayments will become more affordable.

Finally, the government is also expanding the Warm Home Discount Scheme. This will mean that nearly 3 million low-income households will benefit from a £150 discount.

Why is all this help needed?

The government is stepping in to help vulnerable households because energy bills have risen sharply over the past 12 months.

On top of this, earlier this month, energy regulator Ofgem announced that it is increasing the energy price cap (which restricts how much a supplier can charge) by almost £700 from 1 April. This means the price cap will rise from £1,277 to £1,971 per year, on average.

This sharp rise in energy bills has been caused by a number of factors, including huge spikes in wholesale prices, supply issues and rising demand for gas following the pandemic.

But, even though the price cap is rising, customers are being urged to ‘do nothing’ instead of running an online energy comparison. This is because the best energy deals on the market from the UK’s best energy suppliers are still unable to beat the price cap.

Instead, it’s hoped that the government’s package of reforms will help prevent households from being plunged into fuel poverty.

The government has announced it will make a new £6.7m fund available to 24 UK projects that are working on developing new green energy storage technologies.

Each project will be able to enjoy a share of the fund, which comes as part of the government’s continuing commitment to help reach the nation’s net zero targets.

This is also claimed to be only the first phase funding through the ‘Longer Duration Energy Storage competition’, which in total will see upwards of £68m being awarded to similar projects in the long term. In addition, any successful projects from this first round could be eligible for further financial support in phase two.

Helping to store ‘intermittent’ green energy

One of the current issues with our production of renewables is the intermittent nature of when it is created. 

We can often see increased creation of green energy when it isn’t needed – such as extended periods of sunshine or stronger than expected winds. But with more effective storage, we’ll be able to hold on to this energy for longer periods to then better manage changes in supply and demand.

The additional benefits from this would be that more energy would be available for households, which in turn would bring down wholesale costs and our energy bills. This would also significantly help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and would make the transition to a cleaner energy infrastructure much easier.

Furthermore, creation of the new energy storage technologies would boost employment in this sector and see our levels of domestically produced energy notably increased.

Speaking about the potential of the fund, Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Hands said:

"Driving forward, energy storage technologies will be vital in our transition towards cheap, clean and secure renewable energy.

"It will allow us to extract the full benefit from our home-grown renewable energy sources, drive down costs and end our reliance on volatile and expensive fossil fuels. Through this competition we are making sure the country’s most innovative scientists and thinkers have our backing to make this ambition a reality."

A variety of innovative new projects

Some of the new creations from the 24 projects includes ‘new energy storage technologies that can utilise stored energy as heat, electricity or as a low-carbon energy carrier like hydrogen’.

A few specific examples include:

• Sunamp’s EXTEND project, East Lothian, Scotland – which is developing the storage duration of their thermal batteries.
  
• Cheesecake Energy’s FlexiTanker project, Nottingham, England – which is developing their thermal and compressed air energy storage technology to integrate more renewables into the grid.
  
• B9 Energy Storage’s Ballylumford Power-to-X project, Larne, Northern Ireland – which is looking at storing green hydrogen in underground salt caverns.

How soon will we see the effects of these projects?

With the current energy crisis, record high prices and the fact that it’s not advised right now to run an energy comparison to switch to a better deal – as the best energy deals from the UK’s best energy suppliers can’t beat Ofgem’s price cap – consumers all over the country will be eager for such projects to come to fruition and bring down our bills.

The current timeline for net zero means we should expect to see developments in green energy within the next decade, but if the first phase proves successful it may well be sooner.