because I know what I want 🙂 How cool is that?
Started wandering around looking for wind turbines after reading an article on the bbc about micropower. Actually, there was a pause between reading and searching, as I had to have some time to get over quotes like this:
One London woman spoke for all when she said: “Electricity, well it comes from that little meter… comes straight in here… I have no idea where it comes in from before that… I’ve never thought about it.”
and this:
An elderly widow in Kirklees, given a new air source heat pump, is experimenting with different settings on her heating control panel to see how she can enjoy warmth at minimum cost.
“I didn’t realise before that it was the immersion heater running away with the money,” she said. “It’s made me more aware of where power is being used in my house.”
Well, OK, maybe an elderly widow might not know which application in her house was most power hungry. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover I can’t list ours in order 😉 But the first quote blew me away completely. Do ppl have no curiosity at all??? Must try to remember to ask Big in the morning if she knews where electricity comes from. And that was what drove me to go looking for a variety of resources, and I found some good ones. I quite fancy this Weather Science Kit
Wish I understood more of this site. I’m sure it’s very interesting, but my head starts to hurt when I read the instructions 🙁
Anyway, I’m beginning to think about doing some sort of project on power and weather – Big can join in if she wants to 😉 I’m also plotting writing to the local council asking what their policy on microgeneration is, and when they are going to get around to offering recycling for plastic and tetrapaks. Oh, and we need another compost box. And I’m going to use all our cardboard as weed suppressant covering.
We can save the world you know, or we can at least hand it on to our children not so much worse than we inherited it. That’s my plan. What’s yours?
Comments
12 responses to “Oh, I wish it was Christmas!”
“An elderly widow in Kirklees”
I feel a limerick coming on 👿
Oh yeah, i like the DIY anenomter(sp?) I didn’t read it all, but I get the gist.
I want to amke one of these one day:
http://members.aol.com/sfsidewalk/cdobplans.htm
Um, Small’s birthday?!!
The Eco Power set looks fab, but expensive! We made an anenometer once from cardboard, straws and milk bottle tops (very Blue Peter!) – basic but gave a rough demo of changes in wind speed and more do-able for a weather project.
We looked into having our own wind turbine but they haven’t got as far as home user ones yet. Though maybe they have now….
We recycle everything we can and buy things with as little packaging as possible.
Did you hear the water butt shortage stories yesterday?
well, there is a good energy efficiency site, and you can get grants for various pieces of solar and wind power for your house. to get a grant though you do need to have done the basics in energy efficiency – loft, windows, condenser boiler.
Yeah we’ve looked and started to make changes.
we will gradually get there – money a bit tight! we do have 9 water buts though – rofl!
Ros I am sure they do make them, isn’t one of the high ranking politicians having trouble getting planning permission for his? I’m currently trying to talk DH into a more eco friendly boiler as ours does need replacing this year but the floor space the one I was edging towards (it generated electric as a by product) was huge and we’d probably need an extension to house it!
Also Jax have you considered a wormery? They eat a lot of stuff apparently including things you can’t put in a regular compost bin. Wiggly Wigglers keep sending me catalogues and I am considering how seriously my family will take me if I ask for one for my 30th LOL!
If you wanted to try out a wormery before committing the money Jax, you’d be welcome to borrow ours til the end of this year. We’ve got the “Can o worms” one. We decided not to lay out to buy more worms, matting, worm treat, lime etc at the moment (they’ve always died over the winter because it was too cold and we don’t have anywhere sheltered to keep them, and we had mice in the worm treat and threw it out before we moved)
I want a solar roof plus a row of the little wind turbines you can get for caravans on our house, would only cost about an arm and half a leg but I’m sure we’d recoup the money eventually (considering our electic/gas bill is £90 a month!)