“For me it’s partly fun, and also an attempt at doing my bit to save the planet”

I often write about how I use automation to switch things on and off automatically to reduce fuel costs and save energy. I’ve had quite a few requests asking to provide more detail of the setup that I use, so that’s what I’m going to do over the next couple of months. Not just what works well, but also the mistakes I’ve made along the way. Oh, and before I start I should probably admit that I’ve spent far more on the kit to save energy than I’m likely to actually save in the short to medium term. For me it’s partly fun, and also an attempt at doing my bit to save the planet.

Let’s start with a descriptive picture of my setup. My house has mains gas and electricity, with a smart meter on each – more about that in a moment. I have solar panels on the roof with microinverters on the panels. This means that the feed from the roof is 240V AC, and I can just connect it into my house wiring.

My house has conventional gas central heating from a combi boiler. The boiler also delivers instantaneous hot water. I chose to fit a boiler from the Dutch company Intergas for two reasons: firstly, it’s a clever design that has far fewer moving parts than a conventional combi, so there’s less to go wrong. None of that diverter valve nonsense that you get with a traditional