IT·Science Talk

Power cuts turned me into an amateur solar battery expert

Living in Lagos means planning your day around electricity. After years of a noisy generator, my family finally put in a small solar setup with a battery: a few panels on the roof, an inverter, and a lithium battery bank.

It's not cheap, but it's paid off faster than I expected because we spend so much less on generator fuel. The fridge stays cold, the fan keeps going, the Wi-Fi survives the evening. The silence is honestly the best part.

Funny thing is, I now know more about inverters and battery depth of discharge than I ever wanted to. I'm an architect, I was meant to be designing buildings, not wiring them. Anyone else become an accidental energy nerd because the grid let them down?