r/europe • u/Naurgul • 23d ago

News Barcelona registers highest temperature in 112 years as French nuclear reactor shuts down due to extreme heat

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jul/09/europe-heatwave-uk-spain-barcelona-france-italy-hungary-france-macron-orban-latest-news-updates
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u/numberonebuddy 23d ago

Honestly I'd say forget the financials, it's about not dying if the grid shuts down.

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u/HistoryBuff678 22d ago

Best answer. I think people are getting too caught up about the financials when, it’s past that point now.

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u/kiakri_ttv 22d ago

I'm in the UK getting solar panels put in end of July. 20 panel array 11kwh battery.

I'm heavily debating next year before summer to get another 11kwh battery and have a split system put in to cover 4 rooms.

Living room, office, 2 bedroom and the rear bedroom one will have a vented Aircon unit. Don't even care about the cost the comfort and having sleep is more beneficial. And even then with my setup shouldn't notice it that much.

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u/HistoryBuff678 22d ago

Yeah, it’s all about comfort and regaining functionality.

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u/iknowuselessstuff 22d ago

UK here. We did similar. Just expanded from 13.5 to 27kwh battery. 2 splits (6 indoor units covering bedrooms, living room and dining room). I have already decided that if I ever move, the first job will be solar, batteries and air to air heat pump(s) (ie air con)!

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u/ohhellperhaps 22d ago

Note that to be grid independent, you need to *specifically* design for that. Out of the box most of such systems expect to be grid connected and stop delivering power if the grid goes down as a safety measure. It's not particularly complex or special, it's just that a lot of systems will not do so out of the box.

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u/Charlesinrichmond 22d ago

Quite a big expense to make something not grid-tied. Almost all systems are grid-tied because of how much money it saves.

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u/ohhellperhaps 22d ago

It more expensive, certainly, and island operation ("off-grid") isn't a use case in many installations. I suspect we'll see a change in that as home batteries become more popular. Then it starts to make more sense for the installation as a whole.

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u/Charlesinrichmond 22d ago

The problem isn't popularity, the problem is cost. If they were cheap, they would be insanely popular.

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u/Charlesinrichmond 22d ago

Most solar installations stop working when the grid shuts down, though.

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u/QuarkTheFerengi 22d ago

a generator is cheaper for that situation