mending things

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...

Some while ago we got a 4 slot Dualit toaster. They look great with their 1950's Italian styling but actually are made in East London. They are also substantial and the hope was that, while they are more expensive they would last. Other toasters have not faired so well. Well they are very well made, but eventually one of the heating elements failed. Toast was getting heated on one side. Time to replace the element. I went to the Dualit website and ordered a new element. You need to know the model of toaster that you have. You also need to choose the right element. Within a toaster you have single sided heating elements for the two end positions and do uble sided for the positions between. My toaster has 4 slots meaning that I have 3double sided elements and 2 single sided. It was one of the double sided elements that had failed. I searched on google and found this   brilliant illustrated   site  By Peter Eland, on how to change the element. The only differenc...

If you have seen my other blogs regarding GU10 & MR16 bulbs , you will know that I now favour LED replacements where possible. It's becoming something of an obsession. I retain a few halogen bulbs in my kitchen where total brightness and light quality (i.e orange/yellow warmth) are important. I noticed that the online retailer simplyLED were offering a 6watt(55watt equivalent) LED bulb . I've purchased from simplyLED before and found their service very good, with a no quibble returns policy. I ordered one to try, which arrived the next day The flash from the camera is being reflected back by the bulbs rear reflector, so looks like it's on ! As you can see this bulb is longer than a halogen, so suitable for open-backed fittings or where the bulb is only secured at the base. Other types of fittings may not have enough clearance. In the picture above , the closest light is the 6watt LED , while the other lights are halogens. I would say the new bulb is brighter, hard to g...

One of my sons friends asked me if I could take a look at his speakers which had stopped working. he and my son had been mixing some songs using a pair of M-AUDIO BX5a monitors. These are bi-amped active speakers, with Pro audio style inputs (XLR and 1/4" mono jack). They each have two integral amplifiers so only need a line or balanced input. Each speaker also has a mains power input and a volume control, and a blue LED on the front to indicate power. The speakers have two drivers, a small domed tweeter and a small 5" Kevlar woofer. One had developed a loud buzz, coupled with a very loud 'thump' sound when powered off. The other had completely lost all bass output.The speakers were only 13 months old, which seemed a very short life for a pair of speakers - I have speakers made in the 60's that are still going strong. However with additional electronics in these BX5a's I'm not really comparing like with like.These speakers are self contained audio system...

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...