Manic trip up North

After spending a good Christmas day at Jane's I felt a bit out of sorts for not trying to get up North to see the relatives.

I decided on Christmas Day to travel up on the 27th Dec. Didn't want to go on the 26th due to the expected amount of traffic and also the fact that I'd had a bit to drink that evening. Also, the immediate family would be at Tracey-Anne's for the evening.

Early on the 27th I set off North. The weather wasn't too bad and I only had to deal with a little bit of traffic.

I finally got to Tracey-Anne's about 1630hrs. Emma's mob was all there as well as Mum, Dad, and Tracey-Anne's crowd. I handed out the large sack of gifts in rather a haphazard way which might not have been the best. As per usual I got rather a lot of good gifts this year. I had actually made the effort NOT to buy everything I wanted so that I could receive it as a gift. Most pleased with all of it.

I think my gifts went down well. I hope so as I had spent a bit of time thinking about them. Trying to get away from just handing out cash!

Despite being tired I didn't get to bed too early.

The next morning we badgered Emma into coming further North to see my Nanan. We set off quite late but still got there about 1430hrs. We all decamped to the living room and were about to settle down when somebody suggested lunch at the Trent Port pub carvery.

The food was good but the temperature was far too hot! We couldn't have stayed for puddings even if we wanted to.

Emma and Tracey-Anne's crowd who had come up only stayed a couple more hours before heading back in the dark. Everybody got home safely. I spent the night in Gainsborough to head off early the next morning.

This morning I woke up about 0630hrs but didn't set off straight away so that Morrison's would be open for the diesel etc.. I also spent a bit of Nanan's money on a couple of Blu-rays.

The trip down was a bit round off track than usual as I decided to ignore the Tom-tom for a bit as it appeared to be taking me further North. Shouldn't have panicked really as I probably went further and slower than if I had just gone with the flow. Eventually I got on track and set off.

The weather was predicted to be foggy and so it was. There were quite a few banks of fog but it didn't slow me down too much. It wasn't quite as bad as it could've been. Only once on the A38 did it start to rain a little bit. Again it wasn't too bad.

I finally arrived home about 1530hrs. I stopped off at Otter Nursery to try and get a present for Jane's which turned out to be a H4H meerkat for the garden and a set of gardening gloves.

Sunny Beam installed

I have received the Sunny Beam equipment for my PV inverter. It came in two bits.

The first piece is a bluetooth transmitter which fits into the inverter. The second piece is the Sunny Beam display unit.

Although the units work perfectly well together they haven't yet got the ability to post my data to a website.

After talking to my fitter I will be able to return the display unit and see how much a more expensive unit called a Sunny Web Box which is supposed to be able to do what I want.

Stuck at home over Christmas!

Feeling a bit of a weed at the moment.

I was supposed to go North over the Christmas period to see all the rels.

The weather lately hasn't been too good though.

First of all there was lots of snow and ice around the Exeter area making the notorious Haldon Hill impassible.

Although the landrover would probably have made it okay, it was the prospect of getting stuck behind jack-knifed lorries or other cars not able to get past.

Although that only lasted a day or so, the bad weather headed North to the midlands, meaning that travel would've been slow and very tiring.

Eventually it came to today, but the problem today are the reports from the news about the excessive traffic already on the road with freezing conditions making it slow.

I have talked to the relatives up North and explained that I'll have to come up during the next leave period. Might actually receive the items I ordered on the internet by then. I have a large stack of presents on the living room floor waiting to be delivered. If I was heading to work a bit later in the new year I might've tried to send them up in a large parcel.

Luckily I have an invite from Jane and Maison to go visit them for dinner etc.

ShelterBox delivered to Indonesia

Some months ago I bought a Shelter Box, after seeing another advert for the good work they do.

I like the whole idea of supplying tangible, usable items not just food. It is not syphoned off by people in country to line their own pockets.

The box contains a wide variety of items. These can also be tailored to fit the location it will be used in. To see a full list go to the website at http://www.shelterbox.org/about.php?page=9

The box number I bought was 55264 which has now been shipped to Indonesia - 'To aid those made homeless after the eruption of Mount Merapi.' http://www.shelterbox.org/deployment_details.php?id=142

FIT plan accepted by E.ON

E.ON have now received the FIT paperwork for my PV system.

This means that they will now be paying me for generating power at The Swamp. This also means that I can pay the fitter the final 5% of the installation fee.

Solar generation numbers so far ......

Well I have finally returned to The Swamp to a very cold snap.

The generation meter showed 198kWh since the installation was completed. This equates to 42 days (appropriate). So far this means we have an average daily production of 4.71 kWh.

The current rate is 41.3p per unit generated, whether I use it or not. Eon have agreed that they will pay me an extra 3p/unit for 50% of what I generate as part of the FIT.

The equation is 41.3p x units generated + 3p x 50% units generated. 41.3 x 1 x units + 3 x 0.5 x units = 42.8p x units

In money terms, given 41.3p/kWh, and that 50% will get an extra 3p per unit, I have generated approximately £84.74 since connection.

If I use this average generation over a period of 365 days this equates to an annual influx of £735.80. This DOES NOT take into account the amount I save by not buying in this energy.

The weather is obviously not the best, as the days are short and the sun is low in the sky.

I have ordered a meter which should hopefully let me post my daily generation levels on the web LIVE!