. . . and again!

iPad - it had to happen!!

Yes, Yes I know - not waiting 'till second generation, no camera, etc etc - but I DON'T CARE.

It's flippin' gorgeous and I don't want a camera (being a rare non-Facebook member and social hermit type). I think this little baby will take over the World in the next year or so (after the camera is added in G2 for the rest of the World).

Apparently it's outsold the iPhone on its debut in spite of early critics prophesying a low take-up.

I invested in the 32Gb model and it swallowed all my music (9.7 days) without a gulp.

The web browsing experience is worth the purchase alone along with keeping a family tree of nearly 3500 with the lovely Reunion software.

New apps are appearing all the time and the Commercial sector is showing a lot of interest to replace laptops.

Gizmo Time Again!

My anniversary of birth has just past by again and amongst the usual (mostly rude) cards I received a present from my only son. He obviously knows of my weakness for all things Gizmo and, much to my delight, presented me with a HELICOPTER!!.

Flying indoor micro IR Heli's (y'see I'm already into the jargon) is an acquired art which you have to learn - and it takes a little time - more than 5 minutes. SO after repeatedly crashing and crushing the poor thing I finished up with a poorly heli with a loose sprocket that won't stay attached.

I'm now well fired-up on micro heli flying so, of course had to supplement my collection and am the proud owner of a X-Heli Thunder jobby. These micro Helicopters are controlled not by radio but infra-red operating on several channels to guide the flight in both forward, back and sideways directions. The practice is now more controlled and careful and, so far, without terminal mechanical injury.

Thank you, my son, for introducing me to yet another of my many Gizmo hobbies!

. . . . sorry dear!

A cult classic from 1992

By way of celebration of my Grandson (below) I've added what is now considered a cult movie from 1992, filmed entirely by Frank Vincent's mum (formerly known as my daughter) whilst visiting her parents.

I'm a Grandad - It's official

My only daughter has presented the world with a new inhabitant, a boy (I resisted the "little" description as all babies are diminutive) with a pair of very noble Christian names - Frank and Vincent. They originate from the Great Grandfathers of said infant and a very good choice.

The scan (above) was, of course, taken somewhat earlier in the proceedings but I'm sure it will not be the last image of Frank Vincent to grace these portals. Congratulations to Mum & Dad!!!

We're a Microgenerator!

Illustration courtesy of Homepower Magazine

The Solar PV installation is now up and running. The system was tested for a week or so by A Shade Greener then the scaffolding removed.

On a bright, sunny day we can knock out about 2.5-3.2 KW in the middle of the day and even in cloudy conditions it covers our normal consumption of 500-700 Watts.

We're getting used to operating power-hungry equipment like the washing machine and dishwasher in the middle of the day instead of overnight on timers - years of Economy 7 training!

The output from the panels is displayed on an OWL energy monitor - it can become addictive if the weather is variable, watching the KW being pumped into the house. Gloomy days now are low in our popularity stakes but a bit of sunshine brings the joy only known to Microgeneration households!

See Wikipedia for enlightenment.

The monitor clips to the roof panels AC feed to the house consumer unit, and transmits a wireless signal to the display unit. We have another similar display that shows total power taken by the house, so we can tell if the solar panels are producing enough at any one time and also if we are exporting to the national grid if an excess is generated.

Solar Update

Well we're back on track for the installation - 13th July, although they've already amended that from an earlier date due to the shipment of panels being delayed by a typhoon in the Indian Ocean!

My neighbour already has his scaffolding up and we've both had isolating switches fitted yesterday.

Rain, Rain, Rain - but we need it!

It's been raining for what seems days!, but after a very dry Spring the garden's gulping it down.

The Satellite radar shows the rain queuing up to the west so it looks like lasting most of today.

When I say we need it, it's not just for the garden -
Most of the human body is made up of water, H2O, with cells consisting of 65-90% water by weight. Therefore, it isn't surprising that most of a human body's mass is oxygen. Carbon, the basic unit for organic molecules, comes in second. 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of just six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus.
Oxygen (65%)
Carbon (18%)
Hydrogen (10%)
Nitrogen (3%)
Calcium (1.5%)
Phosphorus (1.0%)
Potassium (0.35%)
Sulphur (0.25%)
Sodium (0.15%)
Magnesium (0.05%)
Copper, Zinc, Selenium, Molybdenum, Fluorine, Chlorine, Iodine, Manganese, Cobalt, Iron (0.70%)
Lithium, Strontium, Aluminum, Silicon, Lead, Vanadium, Arsenic, Bromine (trace amounts)

Not many people know that!

Scrap That!

My estimate of solar panels being installed in a couple of weeks was a tad optimistic.
It seem that we are not on the Land Registry and A Shade Greener won't install without a LR reference. I'm now up to the armpits in the necessary forms, deeds and phone calls required to satisfy the LR enough to provide the goods.
The reason we aren't registered is because, having lived in this house for about 27 years, the need hasn't arisen, as in the case of a house sale, since the LR became compulsory in Bassetlaw in 1986.
It'll probably be mid-Winter when we're finally generating from gloomy skies :-(


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

We're Going Solar!

In about 2 weeks we should have a roof full of PV solar panels. They are being provided FREE by a local company called A Shade Greener. The Governments new Feed In Tariffs (FITS) are at the heart of A Shade Greener's existence.

http://www.fitariffs.co.uk/FITs/quick/

They use your roof space for their solar panels and claim the tariffs (presently about 41.3p per KWh). The power generated is free to us for the 25 year agreement period and after that they become our property. It should be said that A Shade Greener only operate around Yorkshire and parts of Notts/Lincs and Humberside.
They have had a huge response but say that a large proportion of submissions dont meet all the criteria - the main one being a large South facing roof.

http://www.ashadegreener.co.uk/
Watch this space for further developments!
As a spinoff and another Gizmo application, I run an energy meter kindly provided free by Eon and below is a readout of the power consumption - which will be interesting once the panels are fitted. It should also be noted that we use a tad more than the average consumer as I have to power all my electric gadgets and gizmos!

Lovely Day!

After the dullest, coldest, longest Winter I can remember, today was magic!
Spent the morning in the garden tidying the paths and patio. The sky was a cloudless blue and everything was still and quiet. About 1100 hrs 3 Buzzards drifted over high in the sky, calling and playing.
I enjoyed a beer in the sun . . ah!! retirement :-)

Local PWX's

Personal weather stations local to me (and a few commercial ones too) using the Weather Underground site (Wunderground) - that's me centre right.

The uploaded data can be found here for station INOTTING18

I also use the Citizens Weather Observer Program (CWOP) site here station desig.DW4509. This is mainly based in the USA but has a number of stations around the World.

Weather Alert!

It's new Gizmo time again!, doesn't seem long since the last one :-(

I have an interest in all things Weather, I think it's part of the English psyche.

My kids bought me a weather station about 5 years ago and, whilst it works fine and I use it daily, it doesn't give me the full weather picture. To monitor wind and rainfall requires a somewhat more substantial unit - hence me new Gizmo!

The La Crosse WS2350 Weather Station fits the bill, it includes all the outdoor bits for wind and rain measurement AND the ability to talk to my iMac computer and transfer data, a gizmo freak's dream!

Naturally, I have to invest in some new software to gather all this interesting data.

Running an iMac computer, whilst it's the undisputed Roll-Royce of desktops, it does limit the choice of software for niche applications such as this.

I looked at the three main contenders - the most popular was a cobbled-up version of the Windows edition :-( , but I settled on Lightsoft Weather Centre (LWC).

The communication from weather station unit to computer can be tricky as these units output a serial signal which has to be transposed into USB for all modern computers. A serial/USB (Heath Robinson brand) lead was supplied and, after finding a suitable driver to download, it worked fine!

The screen display is shown below:

It naturally follows that I'm now seriously happy in heavy rain or dangerous gusts of wind knowing that my charts will be enhanced by the peaks and troughs of our lovely British weather!

See Weather data from my station at the foot of this page!

I'm Tanked Up!

I've had an interest in Tropical fish since teenage years and have owned at least one tank ever since, I reached my piscatorial peak when a spare bedroom was turned into a fish room and 6 large tanks occupied one complete wallspace. A leak whilst away finally saw the room return to it's original use.

Since then I've dabbled with Discus - a difficult but beautiful Amazonian species, run a marine reef tank for a year or two before my conscience regarding the plundering of scarce natural resources lead me to convert the reef tank into a 40 gallon freshwater job.That one tank is still here after about 15 years - but now I have another:

A Fluval Edge!!

A very modern and controversial design - being a small glass cube filled entirely with 5 gallons of water except for a small opening in the top to allow filtered water to be circulated.

The size of this tank - Nano in fishkeeping jargon - only allows a few small fish to be kept as the golden rule is 1cm of fish per litre of water.

I have six White Cloud Mountain Minnows (Tanichthys albonubes) flashing around in it at present.

The very good filter system (an Aquaclear 100) was cycled for 17 days using ammonia before the introduction of the fish. This builds up the bacteria colonies necessary to deal with the natural waste products produced by the fish and plants.

So far everything is running well and the fish are lively and eating everything.

Thanks to my dear wife for a very nice Christmas Gift!