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Showing posts from April, 2011

Trio Kenwood KD-1033 turntable main bearing service

  One of my first posts in this blog was regarding the servicing of the Pioneer PL12D turntable, and that has proven to be the most popular by a significant margin. The Pioneer PL12D had its competitors, and probably the most popular alternative was the Trio Kenwood KD-1033 turntable. I use both names (Trio and Kenwood) as the company operated under different names in different markets. In the UK they were Trio, possibly because the brand Kenwood was most famous here for food blenders. 95% of a KD-1033 is similar to  Pioneer PL12D, and servicing them is very much the same process. Both are belt drive , have an AC synchronous motor,  mechanical speed change , a main bearing, sprung top deck and rubber motor mounts. the KD-1033 uses a different type of anti skate mechanism, employing a thread and weight. The plinth is shallower with an internal cross brace. One aspect that is different is the design of the main bearing, and servicing it is a little harder than a PL12D. The ...

trying to save energy : trying to make sense of the results

So in my previous blog I outlined how it's easy to log your consumption, how to convert everything to the same units (KwH) and a site - imeasure - which makes this a lot easier. If you do all of the above , or even some of it, you will see how much energy you use per week. Over time you may see trends, probably connected to the seasons. My household gas usage drops in the summer and rises in the winter - pretty predictable stuff. I'm going to park oil, as I don't have any experience of using heating oil, but much of what I describe will be similar for gas & oil. Separating the consumption of gas , in my case for central heating (CH) and hot water (HW), from electricty for a moment, it's worth thinking about what determines how much is used. for gas, it's used by a boiler. the boiler heats water in a heat exchanger which is pumped through the house, and diverted either through a coil in a how water tank (HW) or through radiators in the house. This is referred in...

Trying to save energy: measure first

A common theme across this blog is reducing my household energy consumption. You will see this in my threads on lighting, computers, gadgets etc. As I see it there are 3 reasons to do this : 1) to save money - lower bills 2) to reduce my impact on the environment - CO2 3) to reduce my impact on non-renewable energy sources (gas, oil, coal, nuclear - they all have to be mined in some form or other. While I have Green interests, I also use a lot of energy in my household, through gas & electricity consumption, and I sometimes feel I am the environmental equivalent of a Champagne Socialis t . I have computers, TV's and all the modern trappings which I'm reluctant to give up. My house is part old and part new. It's a long way from a super insulated eco-home, so I have to be pragmatic. I will never get my consumption down to super low levels, but I want to try and reduce it as much as possible. Measure it How much energy brings me to the first issue in saving energy which i...