The garden is standing in for an apartment today.
Adrian Hiel, is coming to you from his garden. Not because the garden is the point – but because it stands in for something important: you do not need to own a house, have a roof, or be in the middle of a major renovation to start electrifying your life. You can do this anywhere. And you don’t have to do massive installations to make a real difference.
Two things on the agenda today:
- plug-and-play solar panels, and
- induction cooking.
Both affordable. Both renter-friendly. Both available online right now.
Plug-and-play solar: €349 and a spare plug socket
Behind Adrian in his garden: two plug-and-play solar panels from IKEA. Total cost: €349. No installer, no scaffolding, no planning permission (although you might want to get an electrician to look at it)
The way it works is exactly as simple as it sounds. The panels come with a plug. That plug goes into an inverter, which plugs straight into a socket on your wall. Alternatively, you can run it through a battery first (watch or read our episode on home batteries) which has an added benefit: while the inverter can handle only two panels, routing through a battery lets you connect up to four, increasing your return on investment considerably.
You might wonder why Adrian – who already has a full set of panels on his roof is bothering with plug-and-play. The answer is winter. His roof panels face east and west, which limits production when the sun is low. These garden panels are south-facing and near-vertical, meaning the low winter sun hits them almost perfectly. Every electron counts.
His expected payback on the €349 investment: just over four years, at close to a 25% return. For a setup you can order online and install yourself in an afternoon, that’s remarkable.
If you’re in an apartment with a balcony, a garden, or even a south-facing windowsill, this is worth looking at.
Induction cooking: this one isn’t about money
The second item in Adrian’s garden today is a €90 induction hob. Portable. Plugs in anywhere. You can sit it on top of your existing gas burner and use it right there in your kitchen without changing anything else.
Unlike solar panels, this one isn’t primarily about saving money. It’s about health – and the case is more alarming than most people realise.
Studies have shown that cooking with gas at home leads to around a 40% higher rate of childhood asthma. The particulate matter from burning gas gets into lungs and causes lasting damage. That alone should give any parent pause.
But there’s more. A recent study by the European Environmental Bureau audited domestic gas hobs across Europe and found that 40% of them are actively leaking methane into the home. And that methane was found to contain high levels of benzene, a compound strongly linked to leukaemia. It’s a risk you should eliminate from your home as quickly as possible.
The good news is that eliminating it costs €90 and two days of delivery time. You don’t need a new kitchen. You don’t need to move if you are a renter. You don’t need a plumber. You just need to order the hob, plug it in, and stop burning gas in an enclosed space where your family breathes.
The point: small steps, real impact
This episode makes a case that the series hasn’t made quite so explicitly before: electrification isn’t all-or-nothing. You don’t have to be a homeowner mid-renovation with a heat pump going in and scaffolding on the roof to start making meaningful changes.
A €349 set of plug-and-play panels and a €90 induction hob is under €450 total. Both pay back. Both improve your health. Both are available this week.
The faster you start, the faster they pay back. And there’s genuinely no reason to wait.
Got questions? Leave them in the comments on YouTube or get in touch with the Electrification Alliance directly.
We’ve got you covered.