Possible but the expense ruined my plans in the end… I did consider collecting broken tungsten end mills and inserts from machine shops and throwing them in molten lead, like croutons in a lead soup.

I really wanted to use Tungsten as the base ballast for a custom narrowboat, for better headroom. Other than the cost you also have the problem of tungsten’s melting point being so high you can’t pour it into a boat hull without melting through.

That would be nice for iPhone, I’ve got a perfectly fine iPX that I’m only going to upgrade because my banking apps are going to drop support for iOS 16 soon

I may be completely wrong but don’t Samsung, Google etc. stop supporting OS updates on Android phones after 5-6 years? Apple have supported devices for 6-8 years AFAIK.

No problem, I remember researching the available panels at the time and selecting the most efficient and playing panel Tetris to get the most possible on the roof.

In the end the installer did a last minute switch, but although the panels were not the best available they were pretty close. The most annoying thing was that the panels were slightly different dimensions and the installer insisted in wider margins around the panels so I ended up with several fewer panels overall, ruining my carefully planned layout.

I have never felt so personally attacked by a SpongeBob meme.

In 2011 in my Region of the world (Europe) there were no commercially available panels to buy that could hit anywhere near 20%

I’ve not read this paper fully but I suspect it’s referring to lab testing, or panels produced in small numbers and 10x the cost of all other panels. Mine were REC240PE for reference.

Edit: that chart is titled “Best Research-Cell Efficiencies” so this is lab testing and it’s exactly the point of this thread… “35% Efficiency, Why is this not in stock at Costco!?!”

And I completely agree with you, it’s always going to take a while.

I just remember years ago when it was promising a 50% increase in efficiency, but then regular panels caught up and achieved that anyway. This game of cat and mouse has been running for Elon Musk’s Full Self Driving level timelines.

I believed the hype and in ~2020 decided to wait to add a 2nd array until perovskite panels were released “early next year”, and I’m still waiting 3 years later. I hear they will be produced early next year, so that’s something to look forward to.

I just looked it up and it’s actually rated at 14% peak, but no it’s just the 2010/2011 series of Polycrystalline cells, it was a premium panel when I bought them.

My panels are 12 years old and approx. 12% efficient, treble the power from the same roof space would be a very tempting upgrade, as long as the price does not go up too much.

To put it into perspective, perovskite solar cells have had multiple headlines a month as a “breakthrough“ and “just around the corner” for more than ten years. I think those that follow this tech are just getting a little disappointment fatigue. Awesome tech though - I just hope they can make it stable enough to last in real world conditions soon.

But there is an element of fun about being defenestrated

I really thought they would wait a little longer after the Adblock crackdown. Oh well, Grayjay to the rescue!