EVs and solar panels

I agree. Put as much wattage on the roof as you can. Install plenty of battery capacity as well at least to match your daily electric usage. If you’re worried about power outages then you could mitigate it somewhat by installing an isolator switch as well. Gary Does Solar is a good channel to get the ins and outs on installation and the various choices that can be made.

That's useful to know about it being coupled to gas prices.

Unlike a lot of people who are either rabidly pro electric car, electric heat pumps etc. or rabidly against, I don't care what source of energy I use, as long as it has plenty of competition and isn't subject to a future Irish/EU cartel, or poor infrastructure and ever increasing demand, that will shaft us all in prices down the road, and I couldn't care less about the politics nonsense. Others can knock themselves out on that. As a result it’s hard to get the unbiased truth from any source. Do I trust the excited hype or the excited anti-hype ?

Regarding the new house, I'm putting the primary effort into insulation.

I've a very well insulated house at the moment that is very cheap to heat on solid fuel and ordinary rads, with an oil as backup/boost, and it's cheaper to heat monthly than friends new A rated houses on heat pumps, who've spent an absolute fortune on M&E plant as well by comparison to the traditional M&E. I'm assuming they didn't do things right even though they have A2 certs etc. I don’t' understand spending all that money on M&E to end up with monthly bills much the same or in some cases more than, much cheaper oil and solid fuel installations would deliver on such well insulated houses.

I’m going to try out heat pump / underfloor on this house, but my understanding is once you go down that route it’s not going to be easy running it on anything else other than electricity long term should anything happen the electricity prices, which have been shooting up in recent years, and there is no sign of electricity demand reducing anytime soon. Supply and demand dictates price, and I’m weary of Ireland ever catching up in sufficient supply, because Ireland does not have a track record of good utility infrastructure, and I can’t see that changing. As for solar, I'm all for that, but I'm also not interested in a 30+ year payback investment in M&E equipment etc. just for bragging rights about being energy independent and cheaper monthly bills, it has to be much less than that overall to make it worth my while, closer to 10 - 15 years

I'm looking for the most cost effective balance overall, and I don't care what the fuel / energy source is. If long term it happens to be trusting all electric as being the most economical total overall cost for everything, car and all, for 10-15 year span, great I'm all in. It's all just a means to an end to me.

I just sold some 390W solar panels for €39

One of these panels south facing anywhere near the east coast of Ireland makes 390kWh per year. If you are with Pinergy, like I am, you get €0.25 per kWh, so €97.50 per year

If you can install the panel yourself with no further cost and you install on May 1st, the panel will have fully paid for itself before the end of July. Of that same year. Payback period less than 3 months.

Solar PV in Ireland is amongst the most profitable in the world