mending things

Common themes across most of my posts are energy conservation , its monitoring and technology. This post sort of combines all three in one. We have a Sky+ satellite unit with integral hard disk recorder. In the UK this is known as a Sky+ box. The unit can be programmed to easily record programmes 24 hours per day and record complete series at a repeating time. It has lots of features, including OnDemand  services where a wide range of channels are recorded on the off chance you might want to watch them. My specific Model Sky + HD unit is made by Amstrad We also have a 46" Samsung LED TV which is hooked up to the Sky+ unit . I use a CurrentCost household energy monitor, which is hooked up to the internet via a unit called a netsmart, also from CurrentCost (see my other post on currentcost). I can see on a web page a graph of my household energy consumption in close to real time. A 3rd type of device from CurrentCost is the Individual Alliance Monitor (IAM) which is a unit whi...

My existing programmable thermostat , a Honeywell CM67 started failing. Rather odd actually, it would happily run the default programme but would not let me reprogramme. Every time I put the unit into programme mode, it would let me make a few changes then freeze completely. I tried changing the battery, but no help. Oh well its lasted me 10 years and done good service. I was trying to decide what to replace it with. I looked at the heatmiser range, which have some interesting models including some that can be controlled over wifi i.e from your computer or externally from a phone. Turning up the stat while travelling home on the bus seems a nice idea. However the heatmiser range have to be counter-sunk into the wall , whereas my honeywell unit sits on the wall. I also have been in contact with the UK operation of Nest, the American Smart stat. It has many interesting features, and possibly I'll get on a trial, but that is some way off. I had a pressing need for a new stat, espe...

I have seperately blogged my experiences with LED replacements for halogen bulbs, where their size, low heat and beam characteristics work well, but what about normal light bulbs i.e the kind you have in ceiling lights, reading lights and elsewhere ? While on holiday in the USA I picked up a couple of small golf ball LED bulbs with ES fittings. These were to replace the two conventional light bulbs in my fridge freezer. They work well in this setting, and while a bit dimmer the light quality works well. While only on for a few minutes while the door was open, using conventional bulbs in a fridge bugged me, as it seemed they would introduce some heat into the fridge. Recenetly i purchased a 60 watt equivalent LED bulb from my usual supplier, simplyLED, to see how far these have come. This one was advertised as a true 60 watt bulb replacement in terms of brightness and colour temperature. As you can see the bulb has a semi opaque cover and some yellow sections are visible in...

I grew up with vinyl LP's in the 60s and 70s but by the mid 80s I embraced the new CD revolution and sold my LP's. However recently my teenage son started buying vinyl LP's even before we had a turntable. I got him a NAD 5120 for Christmas, which needed a little work but now plays very well with a modest Audio Technica AT95 cartridge. Our vinyl collection has grown and grown, some new but mostly old copies from charity shops, record stores and eBay. Often with purchases from charity shops ( thrift stores in the US) the records might be in poor condition. Always worth inspecting the disc out of its sleeve to see if it has any serious scratches. If it does its probably worth giving it a miss, but if its just dirt or grease these clean up very well. Its fun browsing boxes of old LP’s again, and if the charity makes some money then even better. However even apparently clean records sometimes "skip". This can be due to scratches but if the skip is a single one off i....

  SimplyLED notified me that they now stock a new range of next generation LED GU10 and MR16 bulbs. I have purchased from them in the past, and they offer a money back refund, so I thought I'd try one. In my kitchen I still retain 6 50 watts  halogen GU10 bulbs as downlighters over hob, sink and work surfaces. The light quality was more critical here than in bathrooms where the bulk of LED bulbs have been used?   I replaced one of them with one of the new type bulbs. While described as next generation they are actually closer to the surface mount type, but with each WMD element with a small domed diffuser on it. In other respects they look the same. However the light quality is very good indeed.  The light is slightly whiter than halogen which has a warm faint orange tint to my eyes, but the brightness is superior to halogen. They use multi light sources but project it in a tighter beam. Anyway here is a picture :  In the picture the light closest to the camera...

I have been monitoring my electricity consumptions for a number of years on the basis that, in order to reduce it, i need to understand it first, i.e. where does it all go ? Initially I took a reading from the meter once a week , then subtracted the past reading from the current reading to get the weekly usage. I did this in a spreadsheet. Now I use The imeasure which is a web site run by Oxford University. It does this and many more things, including gas consumption and factoring in weather conditions. I also monitor my real  time using a current cost device, monitoring the whole house, plus a couple of individual appliance monitors (IAM) which provide me data about individual appliances. I can publish this data to the Internet via the current cost NetSmart unit. All these methods give me a better idea of what I'm using and where it's going. I should explain that my household uses gas central heating as the primary source of heat and hot water. My weekly electricity usage...

Inspired by the success of my bridged energy monitor which enables me to publish to and access data from the web, I decided to also get an IAM. CurrentCost is a household energy monitor, which uses wireless technology to communicate with an inductive 'clamp' installed around the mains electricity cable in my meter box (see other currentCost post). Recently the bridge enables the display to post data to the web. The IAM is a small unit resembling an electrical plug with a socket on the back. Basically you unplug a piece of equipment in your house, plug it into the IAM and plug the IAM into the wall socket. What it does is enable you to monitor individual appliances in your household using the CurrentCost display, in addition to the whole household. My Display supports up to 9 IAMs in addition to the primary function of displaying the total household consumption. I've always been a bit mystified as to why my background usage never falls much below 300 watts. Even while...

I just got a 'bridge' for my current Cost CC128 device enabling me to publish data to dashboard etc. Early days but here is my currentusage Works well, and meant that I could monitor my household energy use from abroad while on holiday ! The currentcost dashboard at my.currentcost.com has a mobile browser version which worked on my Android phone.

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...

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...

If you have read my other blogs about GU10 mains voltage halogen lighting, you will know that I have mostly replaced these bulbs with LED equivalents. they cost more, but last longer, are cooler and use a fraction of the energy. a halogen bulb is typically either 35 or 50 watts. most LED bulbs are 3 watts. While the bulbs in my house are predominantly GU10 mains halogens, I do have a couple of MR16 bulbs. These are a different type of halogen that operate from a 12volt supply. I should mention at this point that I don't have any dimmer switches in my house. Now some mains voltage GU10 LED bulbs are dimable (always check first). MR16 bulbs have two pin connectors rather than the lugs found on GU10 bulbs. GU10's use a push and twist method of connecting to the socket. the MR16 simply push in place with metal clips also gripping the edge of the bin base. They use a separate power supply , either a transformer (old type ) or a switch mode power supply(newer) to convert 250v ...

Things have moved on since my previous blog regarding GU10 halogen bulbs. To recap, 10 years ago we had our house extended and rewired. We had 40 recessed halogen light fittings installed, the type which runs from 240V main voltage (GU10) not the 12v system (MR16). While the light is good, and the reliability of the bulbs has improved, they still use a lot of electricity (50 or 35 watt types) and get very hot. In my previous blog I explored the options which were available including first generation LED bulbs and Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) in the GU10 size. That was two years ago , and at that time LED bulbs were not up to the job and CFL's , typically Megaman variety seemed the best alternative. These consumed only 11 watts and give pretty good light from a few minutes after turn on. I posted a few follow-ups as I tried a few next generation LED bulbs and this post picks up at that point. In my utility room I had 4 of the Megaman brand CFL GU10 bulbs and these seemed to be t...

Pallets are all around. I see them as I drive about. In yards, loading bays and car parks. I have collected some, with the approval of the site owners, nay, with the enthusiastic approval of the site owners. There is a lot you can do with pallets. You can build compost enclosures. Here is one from my garden - 6 pallets and 12 cable ties and you have a really good compost bin. You can cut up pallets for firewood. Breaking them apart is hard, a circular saw is the best way I have found. Only use untreated or unpainted pallets for firewood as burning the other sort will give off various toxic substances . Pallets range in size and construction but most have rectangular blocks in the corners , middle and centre positions to take the weight. These burn especially well, though on some they are made from compressed wood chips and unsuitable for burning. the pallet plank wood is soft wood and burns very well but rather quickly. Sometimes it's worth taking 4 or 5 pieces and nailing the...

Well the trusty old Dell Dimension 2350 is still going strong. I decided to replace the power supply with a more efficient one. If you've read my earlier Dell post you will know that the original Dell PSU started to fail some years ago and was replaced with a gold Sweex Brand 400 watt supply, which has worked well. I decided to replace the Sweex with a 400Watt AKASA AK-P040FG8 which is 80plus rated . This means it is more energy efficient. The Sweex was fine, but I didn't really do much research when I bought it, and I had another project in need of the Sweex , so it seemed like a good idea to upgrade the one in the Dell to a more energy efficient design. My Son had also seen the occasional lock up of the PC while running games and iTunes simultaneously, and I thought this might be due to PSU demand. However before replacing it I wanted to do some tests of standing and peak power consumption of the PC with both the Sweex and Akasa power supplies. I plugged the PC into an en...

I know more than I want to about these light bulbs. While the UK Government is waging war on the 100 watt incandescent light bulb, they have, typically, ignored the growing trend of using these bulbs. I guess they pay people to change bulbs for them. We had our house gutted and rebuilt in 2000, and as a consequence had around 40 recessed lights fitted, each of which take the GU10 mains voltage (240v) GU10 light bulbs. At first, the main issue was that the halogen bulbs had a very short life span and cost a lot to buy, around £5. I seemed to be changing a couple a week. Things have improved and now the bulbs are relatively cheap ( £1-£2) and have a fairly long life expectancy. So what is my gripe ? Well these bulbs are rated at a hefty 35 or 50 watts. The packaging even implies that they are energy saving in some way, but of course watts are watts. i If you have 5 * 50 watts halogen bulbs in your kitchen, then you are using a unit every 4 hours they are on. If I turn on all th...