seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Apr 3, 2023 18:27:01 GMT
The way which "solar electricity" is piped around the house is probably waiting for someone to come up with new standards for distributing DC power around the home... nearly everything "electronic" in the house works internally using low voltage (5, 12 maybe up to 20V) DC and yet it often draws it power from the 240 AC mains. Meanwhile, the solar panels produce and batteries store something like 12, 24 or 48V DC which is then converted to 240V AC by an inverter. There are significant loses every time you convert and I am curious about the quality of the "inverted 240 AC"
You have simiar choices with campervans etc... Where you can have several sources and flavours of electricity to choose from. Where possible, for low power devices, I favour either USB powered devices or things where the output of the power supply is 12V DC and so can be powered directly from the batteries.
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Apr 3, 2023 14:35:54 GMT
Historically, I believe that energy companies made a fair proportion of their profit by simply sitting on the balances of people in credit. I wouldn't mind if they viewed this as a fair way to offset people struggling and in debt... but oh, no! until the rules changed recently they would slap people on pre-payment meters at the drop of a hat to avoid any possibility of them being "Out of pocket".
I hear good things about Octopus, particularly their off-peak tariff (economy 7 for the pepsi generation).... People are using it with their own battery storage.... charge cheaply at night, use during the day... To the point where some people are doing "solar" backwards... in that initially, they get the battery storage and move over to electricity only with the actual solar bit coming later in phase II
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Apr 3, 2023 11:01:26 GMT
Back before my nomadic phase, (and before the price cap/relief) I used to change every year around the last week of the school summer holiday*. For 3 reasons:
1. Regardless of how good your current deal is, they all with always try and screw you by putting you are a terrible tariff at the end of the fixed bit... (anti-loyalty bonus!) 2. There was money to be saved by choosing the best tariff for your ACTUAL consumption pattern (I keep records) 3. There was often more money to be had from cashback (quidco)... often a few hundred... this is stoopid! but I play along
Ironically, the savings from 3 were always bigger than 2. So the act of just changing Energy/Insurance/breakdown saves more than the new lower price itself!!!
* I always paid by monthly direct debit on a budget plan. I chose this timing since it is before the bigger winter bills which means you go from zero, to negative and back to zero by the end of the year.... Many of the companies would fight tooth and nail to up the DD to prevent it going negative... I always fought back with facts and figures (which they hate) and often it ended up being reduced slightly!
It is making me smile as I write this.... my mum would have kittens reading this.... "Never a lender of a borrower be"... I was brought up to avoid debt. However, there is no reward for loyalty and they will shaft you at every opportunity and so I just play along.
In terms of smart meters... they are very disappointing the original idea was so much more than reducing costs and increasing their profits by saving on meter readers.... It was supposed to allow national grid load balancing by remote control of smart devices like fridges, freezers, washers and car charging etc.
Sean
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Feb 28, 2023 16:51:54 GMT
I have always been enthusiastic (obsessive?) with ideas of insulation, but I can see the potential problems with humidity levels and all the issues that causes. I can see a scenario where you trade energy from heating the house to running a dehumidifier. I have a relatively new and efficient boiler and so these are *hopefully* only thought exercises for the moment. The need for dehumidifying has recently caused me to ponder air to air heat pumps, or as I used to call them air conditioning units on backwards. I lived in Northern Cyprus 3-4 years ago, and during the short winter, in most apartments you used the air conditioning units switch to "heat". This appeared to be useless and ineffectual.... but actually, the problem is the style of building... Northern Cyprus has 320 days of sun and the evenings are cool at worst. However, it was an unpleasant few weeks each year since the building seemed to act like refrigerated sieves, most days from 07:30 in the morning it was warmer outside than in! However, the need for humidity control and the information from the couple on the youTube channel below has caused me to no longer dismiss this approach to heating. www.youtube.com/@timandkatsgreenwalkCheers Sean
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Feb 13, 2023 10:41:18 GMT
Paul,
Circa 1986, I was on industrial placement and played with an embryonic form of this. A "fast" ADC converted the IF (intermediate frequency) to digital and all the filtering and modulation / demodulation was done in software on one or more DSP chips. I was tasked with building the second generation ADC board.... the selected 10-bit chip from Sony was circa £1000 in 1986 money and employed ECL (emitter coupled logic) as opposed to TTL or CMOS. ECL ran hot, and the chip had my thumb print stuck on it from my "test" to see if it was running very hot (as expected from ECL). The chip was so state of the art, the sample arrived in the salesman's pocket when he flew over from the states.
I was always a bit crap at electronics compared to the software so and this was doubly true of the the low noise ground/power plan shenanigans required for ADC implementation. Techniques wise, the only thing from this board which still lives on is the differential signal nature of ECL. My board of discrete logic which tried to suck more bits of signal out from the noise probably lives inside the ADC today or would be done in SW anyway.
My colleague, was with me on placement and his task was to tidy up their "library" of applications they had written.... basically it was a gazzilion files with names like "test1" and "thisOneWorks". Ironically, at the end of the placement, when he had straightened it all out he was given an award for "making the greatest contribution to a department during a placement"
Upon reflection we both learnt a lot from this placement!!! i.e. I ran away from HW!
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Jan 5, 2023 11:07:51 GMT
Dear All, Firstly, *in theory* I think the wired broadband providers allowing themselves to to be trumped by mobile providers is just plain wrong. But it is what it is. Too little too late and too expensive. When I returned to the UK in the summer, there was no broadband at the house and it is a blackspot for my otherwise great mobile sim (smarty on three). I needed a solution for the next day. Moreover, since I now own a campervan, I was looking for something that could also bring internet to the van in the future. Hence I turned, to the van life community for inspiration. I settled on one of these which was a cheap way to test the waters. www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07TZ3BCVV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1It worked straight out of the box and can function either as a standalone primitive wifi router or it can plug in to the back of my existing Asus router. day to day I use it via my router. My previous home FTTC connection would never go faster than about 38Mbit since I am at the point from the cabinet where the bandwidth starts to drop rapidly. My primitive mobile solution always easily exceeds this which is nuts since I live in the middle of "silicon valley UK". in theory I wanted a smarty (three) unlimited SIM since they offer really, really good monthly deals. However, inside my house I have about 0.1% coverage for three since they built new houses where the the mast used to be. In fact, it is more annoying than that... I only need to go a few metres in any direction and get 5g from three. So I needed a different underlying network. I currently use an unlimited monthly SIM from lebara which resides on the Vodaphone network. It costs me £25 per month. Currently what I get is a solid 4g class of signal. Neither the local masts or the mobile router support anything better at this time. But that is fine since this is an interim solution and easily wired broadand. I have forgotten most of what I learnt in the summer, but the "CAT" supported by the kit effectively defines how many parallel channels to/from the mast are supported. Also from memory each connection to the mast needs more antenna. This youTube Channel (ExploreVanUK) has a whole playlist devoted to mobile internet HW including external antennas youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHOEQx7dQbeUmrE2GUZ7ZbDSHqK28DxwSThis guy seems to favour solutions from Teltonika who seem to offer a range of "industrial" solutions. There are a range of products available which start off at a reasonable price and increase as the "CAT" and hence potential throughput increases. Teltonika's New RUT241 4G Router is one such example. I found the videos in this playlist a great place to start and swiftly got me to the point where I was beginning to understand which questions to ask. My old ASUS router allows either a mobile dongle or a mobile phone to be plugged in via a USB socket. Potentially, this offered a neat cheap solution. Using your existing phone, assuming you have an unlimited plan would effectively be free. Similarly an old spare phone could do the same. I avoided this since I wanted a solution which could have an external aerial outside of the van when it is redeployed. Cheers Sean
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Dec 15, 2022 13:40:27 GMT
This guy in the video below has set about surveying his home and fixing leaks and cold spots.... His camera was circa £350 it seems
Cheers
Sean
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Dec 14, 2022 21:23:40 GMT
Dear All,
Firstly 3 caveats :
1. I have not tried this 2. This is a bit of a solution looking for a problem 3. This area seems to be something of a black art since I have a rather good el-cheapo Chinese mobile which *can* charge lightening fast (67W in turbo mode). However, exactly what is and what is not required from a cable/charger combo is beyond my rhyme and reason
Modern PD USB-C powerbanks and chargers can provide voltage and current combinations from 5V through 9, 12 and up to 20V at 5A. They can be used to power and recharge modern laptops etc.
I know that a number of people use battery power banks to power things like Raspberry Pi etc and I know that some people require voltages beyond 5V.
The youTube video below uses a tiny PCB which allows you to toggle (or preset) the output of a modern PD battery pack or charge to 5, 9, 12 or 20V all potentially up to 5A (assuming they are supported)
Cheers Sean
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Dec 5, 2022 15:26:37 GMT
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Nov 26, 2022 13:58:07 GMT
I now have this disturbing image of someone in the shower shouting to Alexa that we are out of baked beans! My work here is done!
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Nov 26, 2022 9:16:22 GMT
I am surprised how Alexa made itself useful. About 5-6 years ago I was back in the UK and a non-techy friend had an early "speaker" echo in her kitchen which she shouted at to play music. I thought this was fun, but didn't see the point/need. However, I was sufficiently curious to invest £10 in the most basic model during prime day. This echo dot was in daily use until last weekend when it was upgraded. I really expected to play with it and then for it to gather dust. I had never been one for shopping lists, I make up for this omission by generally having a spare of everything and exhaustively walking up and down every aisle in the supermarket. I really could not see that the echo had anything to offer over a pen and paper and/or more or less any app on a phone. However, I started using the Alexa shopping list, you shout at Alexa and it ends up in the app on any phone or tablet. What I had not considered, that for me, 90% of the time, I first notice that something is running low when I am either cooking, cleaning or in the shower. In all three scenarios, I am not in the position to write or type without stopping, which of course never happens. My shopping habits changed, I soon found that for the first time, my shopping trips were accurate enough to remove the safety blanket of having at least one spare of everything. The amount of stuff in the kitchen cupboards literally halved in a few weeks with few disasters and/or panic last minute shopping trips. I am still 100% convinced that *in theory* Alexa offers little that cannot already be done several other ways. BUT, this is not the whole picture. As Slinger says, the hands free aspect is not to be ignored.
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Nov 22, 2022 9:52:47 GMT
This is a bit of a blow, not least for those that have been laid off. Having returned to blighty in the summer, I set about buying just enough smart bits so that I knew enough to plan things properly in the future... For example : - Lights: Should they be controlled via smart bulbs, a smart mains plug adapter or a smart light switch?
- What about smart light switches and actual wall sockets rather than plug in adaptors?
- Multiway extensions: can you control each socket or only the whole thing?
This has been a success which I have enjoyed... Some highlights: The AV system hangs off of a smart multiway adaptor, but the subwoofer is on the other side of the lounge, they are now controlled as a single group Since we're effectively back in the 1970s and electric blankets are now back in vogue, It is really great being able to turn it on from downstairs 15mins before bed I particularly like the hierarchy of groups (for example rooms). This allows single commands to do a lot of things... for example "GoodNight" turns off all unnecessary things with a single command... monitors, lights, AV system etc All of this was hanging off of a single ancient echo dot (gen 2 I think).... I was waiting for black Friday or similar to buy a new echo. A 5th gen (with a clock) arrived at the weekend. I am frankly amazed at the sound quality from something under £30!! I rather like Alexa control of music when I am doing other things such as cooking. It's a shame that unlike spotify, there is no easy/cheap/acceptable way to plumb Alexa controlled Amazon music into the actual HiFi. I also took advantage of black Friday to get an Alexa Auto. I will experiment with this in the car and ancient camper van The 5th gen echo, is able to be a node in an Amazon Wifi router mesh set up (something which might become relevant in the future). It also has temperature and ultrasonic motion detectors One of the unexpected/hidden benefits is being able to build quite a sophisticated "security" system for little additional effort or cost. Rather than a simple timer controlled light or PIR controlled light on the drive way, you can control lights based upon sunset (+/- a desired offset) and you could program light sequences which simulate virtual occupants moving around the house. I like the idea of using a PIR sensor on the driveway to trigger a light in an unused bedroom... to simulate the occupants being awoken. All in all this has been a blast!
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Nov 9, 2022 18:34:28 GMT
I have been experimenting through "heating via direct thermal conduction" by wearing a USB powered heated body warmer www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08J3ZMZ8V?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_shareI first started experimenting with this kind of thing last year in China with a cheap/thin heated down style puffer jacket. I have previously thought that events like gigs are the worst case in terms of temperature range. You often start queuing outside in the cold and then find yourself bundled inside in the middle of a huge sweaty crowd. My idea was that a light jacket aided by power when required might be the best solution. My wife has the vest above and I have been using it around the house for the last few days and it's working well. The vest in the link above is not attractive, but it is cheap and works. It is one size and is fully adjustable via poppers and zips to release/close the extra dimensions as required. I do not particularly feel the cold, but I find it tricky when working at the computer.... I feel very bundled up before I feel warm. This seems to break this vicious circle. There are all manner of USB heated garments: All kinds of jackets, fleeces, vests, gillets, socks and even gloves
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Nov 7, 2022 10:43:59 GMT
You may have seen the raft of information recently, (possibly influencer hype) about turning down the boiler temperature* to ensure that boilers are working in condensing mode and hence at their best efficiency. The premise is that many UK condensing boilers are oversized and hence the water returning to the boiler is still too hot to allow condensing. Eventually the boiler will stop heating even though a simple on/off room thermostat** is still calling for heat. in the worse case, the boiler will constantly be cycling on and off either at the boiler or because the house is close to the set temperature
The set me thinking, for the sake of argument, if the cost of gas has doubled, using half as much as previous years should keep you inline with previous budgets, but, how best to use this reduced amount of gas to get the best effect? These are my current musings which assume that your current settings were as lean as possible
1. Heat losses increases significantly with the size of the temperature difference between inside and outside which is why turning down the thermostat works so well (i.e. 18 rather than 20) 2. Would "pulsing" the heating improve efficiency while maintaining some level of comfort? instead of having the heating on for say 4 hours from 18:00, maybe two one hour bursts or four 30 min bursts would maintain some comfort but improve efficiency since the boiler has more work to do since it is heating a colder house and not cycling 3. How you use this half-energy approach depends upon your personal circumstances... Is the house empty during the day etc. It would be a shame to have residual warmth in the house when you are asleep or out 4. Personally, while I find being wrapped up in a blanket fine on the sofa, late in the evening while watching telly, I find it very hard to work at my desk with a cold house and bundled clothing.
* the adjustment procedure differs for combi (no hot water tank) and system boilers
**Many thermostats, even modern "smart" ones are set up only to be binary on/off switches for below or at/above the desired room temp. This means that the boiler operation is also binary....100% or off. There is additional wiring and standards (opentherm) which allow the boiler output to be modulated.... when the room needs a lot of heat, the boiler is at 100% and as the room gets nearer the required temp, the boiler output is reduced. This improves efficiency and boiler lifetime. External sensors, (weather compensation) can also be used to help with this.
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Sept 5, 2022 9:11:12 GMT
Intelligent thermostats with "smart start"... (for example tado). Conventional heating controllers/timers/thermostats, even more recent ones with many programmes, have a fixed view of the world. They turn on the heating from say 05:30 to 07:00 regardless. With "smart start"... you basically say, I want to the house to be 19 degrees when the alarm goes off and the thermostat decides when to turn the heating on. Earlier when it is colder and vice vera. Some savings with little impact on comfort, since the house is the same temp when you get out of bed. Using this approach, I also realised that for the normal morning dash of alarm/shower/breakfast/dress/screech out of the house, I only needed to hold the house at the target temp for a tiny amount of time... i.e. the heating is already off by the time I reach the shower.... the house only cools slightly and you are moving anyway during the 30-40 mins of getting ready.
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Sept 5, 2022 8:54:18 GMT
I feel that sedentary desk based homeworking with high energy costs is a bit of a perfect storm. I have been thinking about "heating the people rather than the house". A couple of ideas 1. Electrically heated clothes.... USB powered fleeces, gillets and jackets. My idea here is you can be feel less bundled up and extremities remain warm since you are actively applying heat to areas of the body with good circulation. I also see these useful for dealing with the transition from say the cold outside to the hot London underground or similar. www.amazon.co.uk/Electric-Washable-Temperature-Charging-Motorcycle/dp/B09DQ6YWB7/ref=sr_1_22?keywords=electric+jacket+heated+men&qid=1662367414&refinements=p_72%3A419153031&rnid=419152031&sprefix=electric+jack%2Caps%2C105&sr=8-222. sporty thermal underwear layers.... very thin, like tights, quite effective without feeling too bundled up 3. Electrically heated throws and blankets.... circa 100-200W ideal for watching telly etc 4. Far infra-red Radiant heaters.... I have NOT tried this, but the idea came from how huge warehouses are heated.... the volume is too large to make much impact on the air or building, but radiant heaters at ground levels, warm the humans. Electrical but moderate power. Often they are panels designed to fit on walls or the ceiling and point directly at the people. You can get under desk variants as well www.amazon.co.uk/FIGHTING-Efficient-Radiators-Overheating-Protection/dp/B09QC93TY7/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=infrared+radiator&qid=1662367253&sr=8-55. I have previously used smart plugs to turn off/on whole 4 way adapter/extension leads on a schedule. e.g. off when the house is empty or asleep. Ideal for things like AV system or things on standby. Obviously, it is cheaper to do this manually, but I have found that this approach is a good combination of the majority of the savings to be had with the least impact on convenience 6. Honeycomb window blinds "duoshade" These window blinds open out into a diamond cross section which traps a lot of static air when they are deployed. They work well in summer as well keeping heat out. Ideally, fit inside the window recess and cover with heavy curtains www.blinds-2go.co.uk/energy-saving-thermal-blinds.htm NOTE the links are not recommendations, they are just the first I came across to illustrate the point
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Aug 5, 2022 10:41:06 GMT
Hi Martin,
Yes I returned a week ago (after 3 years). I am currently staying with my daughter in High Wycombe
How are you?
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Aug 5, 2022 8:31:26 GMT
Slinger, Well done with your purchase.... Having just returned from another nomadic phase, I have been reliant on powered bluetooth speakers for access to music. Initially the Ultimate ears wonderboom 2 which is basically, a self-powered, standalone coffee mug which will fill a room with not unpleasant sound. This gave way to a pair of Edifier R1700BT powered bluetooth speakers with both wired and BT inputs. These are made in China and only cost around £50 locally. They were on additional cheap stands and worked well in both TV and music duties. They have been handed on to colleague to fight another day. This video caught my eye a while ago Basically, taking a pair of ordinary bookshelf speakers and turning them into powered speakers with a suitable bluetooth class D amp module. I'm sure that many of us have pairs of such speakers sitting idle. I like BT very much from a convenience point of view, but it is a constantly moving target with both new versions of BT (currently v5.2 I think) and new improved codecs such as APTX.... annoyingly these "upgrades" are generally worth getting since realistically, the technology is still in its infancy. I apologise if you lose an evening watching the other videos from this guy
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Jul 12, 2022 9:41:10 GMT
Petea,
Yes I agree with this statement
"The benefits of a good diet and exercise extend way beyond"
Sean
|
|
seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
|
Post by seanm on Jul 12, 2022 2:45:30 GMT
Dear All,
I have been reading this thread with interest. Fortunately, I do NOT suffer with diabetes. However, much of my thinking about healthy eating and weight loss does centre around the same ideas and requirements.... mainly the problems with excess Sugar and carbs. For example, I like a lot of what DR Michael Mosley has to say on these topics.
I have sat on this post for a couple of weeks since I am concerned that I am just pedalling snake oil and quackery. However, I feel that there is enough interest/hype in this topic for people with high sugar levels to at least look into it since I had never even heard of it. I have seen lots written about the supplement Berberine. The hype suggests that is fixes everything including unemployment and high inflation . Specifically, it is the comments about "berberine vs metformin" for the control of blood sugar levels. There is a load on youTube and the web in general. Obviously, much of this information is biased and lacks peer review etc.
All the normal terms and conditions apply.... I have zero medical training, I am NOT affiliated to anyone flogging this or any other supplement. Do you own research and if you are on meditation etc talk to your healthcare professional.
Cheers
Sean
|
|