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The weather's been a little warm here in the UK, and by a little warm, I mean record-breaking temperatures, where the mercury hit 99.1°F/37.3°C. Not only is this the sort of temperature that's risky for the elderly, young children, or those doing heavy physical work, it's hard on physical infrastructure like power and phone lines. The cables above ground get hot, expand and sag, get caught on stuff or cross over, and bad things happen.

And that's exactly what I've been seeing -- a lot of power outages and downed phone lines. I've had my power station out and working more in the past few days than over winter. And I suspect that I'll need it more over the coming months and years.

Also: Years of living with solar power taught me these 12 myths are simply wrong