Electrifying

This posting is nothing really, just a gap filler. I need to work out a better way of conserving power from our solar installation. At this time of year, unless we have total sunshine from dawn till dusk, we are finding a shortfall. I have to run the diesel generator for 3-4 hours per night when we are using most power. The other thing is that I need to be able to connect the generator via a charge regulator to the batteries whilst I am using it. At the moment the 5.5 KVA generator is giving us plenty of power whilst running but it could at the same time be charging the batteries. I also need to be able to disconnect TV, Sat box, Hi-Fi etc so that it is not on standby all the time and only switched on when in use. As daylight will gradually get longer now, things can only get better but it has been a learning experience and bad timing that we moved in at the time of shortest daylight.
There are compensations though, for instance instead of just slumping down in front of TV, we usually sit out on the porch on the rocking chairs and watch the sunset and listen to the owls call each other from either side of the valley, a big whisky in hand or a glass of wine of course.