Having recently moved home and being the environmentally conscience chap I am, I looked into solar panels.

What I think a lot of people don’t realise is the fact that you can now get them very cheaply or even free.

For instance, E.ON will install them for £99 (if you’re a customer – £199 if you’re not).

How is this possible? The government introduced a scheme last year named Feed In Tariffs (FITs) which provides the following…

• A payment for every unit of electricity generated by your system. This is paid regardless of whether your home is using the electricity or not, and this year the payment is 43.3 pence per unit
• An additional payment for any electricity that isn’t used (e.g. when you’re on holiday). This is exported to the national grid, and the payment this year is 3p per unit

The payments are guaranteed by law for 25 years and will rise with inflation.

The nub of this is that it pays to install solar panels – hence many companies can fit them for free and take the money from FITs. Of course you still get free electricity from it and can typical save at least a third of your bills.

Of course, you can pay the full amount and take the FIT amount yourself.

I looked at a company named HomeSun who will fit and maintain them for free. There are a number of conditions – such as your house facing the right way, living south of Hull (sorry Hull) and being able to provide enough roof space – and, sadly, my home wasn’t suitable. In this case they have a 2nd option where you pay up to £500 towards the installation (when it’s free they need to make sure they can make the money back).

If you’re interested in the service from HomeSun – and there certainly seems to be lots of positive feedback (in their interest – they only make their money back if it’s a decent installation!) – then visit their website. If you use the referall code of HOMESUN_11604B522 then you’ll also earn yourself £50 in M&S vouchers.

I happy to announce the following winners of the EaseUS competition, each of whom win a licence to an EaseUS software product…

• Irene Hunter
• Tracy Hanson
• Graham Snow
• Steve Western
• Diane Duggan
• Gwyneth Sharps
• Darren Newman
• Alex Nash
• Darren Edgell
• Emma Speers

Congratulations to them all!

This review is part of the 1 Pound Challenge – can you find a decent gadget in a pound shop?

First up in the 1 Pound Challenge is the iTech Stylus Pen, available at Pound World.

This is a 4 inch metal pen designed for use on capacitive touch-screens. Such pens can be bought for quite a lot, so to see one for one pound is a potentially amazing bargain.

When I say it’s metal, it looks and feels it. It could be plastic of course. However, it is hollow and at one end is a plastic clip and at the other is a rubbery bulbous tip.

Trying it on my Galaxy S2 it actually works quite well. You have to put quite a bit of pressure on it, however, to get the touch sensitive keys at the bottom to work. But otherwise, not bad. Because it has a fat rubber nib it’s not very accurate – other such (and more expensive) pens have finer tips.

Unfortunately, trying this on an iPad and an HTC Desire it didn’t work as well, requiring quite a lot more pressure to get a response.

And that’s a shame, because up until that point I was excited by it. If it didn’t have a dodgy response on some screens then this would have been an excellent product. However, for a pound it’s one of those things you can buy just to try it out – if it doesn’t work, it’s no big deal.

It claims to reduce fingerprints which is true. However, it also boasts a “smooth glide action” which is not so true.

The product is made by PMS International.

Summary of iTech Stylus Pen

Inconsistent results but when it does work it’s a bargain.

Reviewed by David Artiss on 13th October 2011.