The build

You see, exactly what I said, but more confusing 

........but not boring.
I've been looking at Kinetic switches. Fascinating. Could use some of those to turn the bedroom light off instead of the dangling pullcord thing that has a habit of snapping.

I assume your fridge/freezer will be on the same ring mains as your battery, if full, should be able to keep modern fridge going for at least a week probably 2. We have a 1 kilowatt caravan kettle we can use to draw less power from a battery.

You assume incorrectly.  The fridges and freezers will just have to take care of them selves.  Generally if not opened during power cuts they don't defrost or warm up too much.  As long as power cuts don't last days.  Luckily those sorts of power cuts are few and far between.  If we do have a long one we still have generators

P says it's fascinating and Bob can you please keep up the commentary.

Paul asks, will you have an IHD (in home display) to monitor generation export etc. remotely?

SC you've got him going again, he's looking into batteries once more. 

I assume your fridge/freezer will be on the same ring mains as your battery, if full, should be able to keep modern fridge going for at least a week probably 2. We have a 1 kilowatt caravan kettle we can use to draw less power from a battery.

You assume incorrectly.  The fridges and freezers will just have to take care of them selves.  Generally if not opened during power cuts they don't defrost or warm up too much.  As long as power cuts don't last days.  Luckily those sorts of power cuts are few and far between.  If we do have a long one we still have generators

We have had some solar panels for a while and added some battery backup a couple of years ago specifically for the freezers in a prolonged power cut. So in winter they are kept fully charged. The whole house is switched on (manual switch) if there is a power cut and we would just have to not use any major power users - the kettle, oven/hobs ... and turn off anything not needed - dehumidifier, anything on standby (shouldn't be anything but probably the microwave) .

For Scotland, it is a pity you didn't gain independence before North Sea oil was developed - and the government used it for the benefit of the Country not the corporations. With wind as well now you cold be like Norway. You might need to rebuild Hadrian's wall to keep the hordes out.

I assume your fridge/freezer will be on the same ring mains as your battery, if full, should be able to keep modern fridge going for at least a week probably 2. We have a 1 kilowatt caravan kettle we can use to draw less power from a battery.

They won't be on that circuit, we had to compromise somewhere and decided with the electrician that we can always run an extension lead to the fridge or freezer if required

Paul asks, will you have an IHD (in home display) to monitor generation export etc. remotely?

It's all on an app rather than a display, that way I can be a solar nerd from anywhere in the world rather than only when I'm in the house ?

Paul asks, will you have an IHD (in home display) to monitor generation export etc. remotely?

It's all on an app rather than a display, that way I can be a solar nerd from anywhere in the world rather than only when I'm in the house ?

Paul says (being a solar nerd) we're with Scottish Power and he finds a lot more useful info on the IHD than the app. He had a two year long battle with SP regarding a usable IHD  involving the ombudsman and finally quoting government requirements to SP before they gave him a working IHD. He won in the end  but it took ages. It was well worth the battle. There's been no solar today so he's grumpy.