How have we managed to live 10 weeks off grid while high heat has meant our solar production has been a little lower in June than it was last year? Why would we want to do such a thing?

Should we have been braver doing this?

This draws on the figures shown in article Living off the Grid and a little more besides.

Carl Sagan used to teach his students that any intelligent civilisation on any planet will eventually have to harness the energy from its parent star exclusively.

Many people in the UK have made the move to solar, but it is interesting hearing why people don't. Their answers inspired me to build an app that in 20 seconds would give them the information it takes a professional several minutes to obtain.

If the building or structure you are looking to use doesn't exist yet, TechoSolara will take in the details you give it. All without needing an internet connection - you can be in the middle of the UK countryside, without a phone signal and it will still work. Hear all about it here.

Why is it called Driving off the Grid and what is it all about?

Here the answers here - btw, the series name is from a section of my blog called Driving off the Grid. It started off as talking about driving an electric car, but quickly evolved into something more... our journey from EPC C to EPC B and hopefully an A.

Of course, in this piece, I look at the world in 2013, when electricity in the UK was 14p a unit and LED bulbs were a small fortune. But that small step was the start of a bigger story and you can follow that here.