Bad Weather Drivers

I have this theory about why driving when it's raining is more dangerous than usual.

Sure, there's no denying that the rain makes driving conditions much worse, increasing stopping distances and reducing visibility. But I think there's a contributing factor that's often overlooked that really impacts driving conditions.

Bad weather drivers.

These are the people who normally walk, cycle or get the bus to work. And kudos to them for doing so. But when the weather turns bad and it's raining heavily they suddenly decide that they will dust of their driving gloves and get on the roads. This impacts the driving conditions in two ways:

1. It increases the amount traffic congestion, which naturally impacts driving conditions.


2. As these bad weather drivers don't normally drive, even in light rain, they're less experienced at dealing with the rain and the congestion, so they're less able to react appropriately in conditions that demand more ability.

Of course this could all be just my imagination - it could just be that bad weather makes us all worse drivers. But I'm not so sure...

Green Toys

I want one of these. It'll charge my phone, my PDA, my wife's phone, several things around the house, and all for free. Well, apart from the initial cost.

In fact, I'd like to shove some solar panels on the roof... not for electricity, but for heating our water. And probably also a geothermal heat pump. But, since the exterior of our property is listed, there's no way I can do that. Ah well, I'll have to stick with charging appliances from the sun.

Car Insurance... what a pain!

It's time to renew the car insurance. Why do companies make it so hard to get quotes?

First thing is, when we got our second car (I know, I know, two car family... I'm hoping that either we move at some point or one of our jobs moves at some point such that we can get rid of it again) our existing insurance people wanted to know if we'd made any claims on our other car's insurance in order for them to give us a quote. Why couldn't they just look it up? I gave them our existing policy details and they used that to get all our personal details. But oh no, they can't go that extra little bit and pull up the record of any past claims to save me the hassle of having to figure out what and when I've claimed in the past. And of course I forgot something... and they pulled me up on it... Gits.

Next thing is, trying to get a quote from another company. My wife had someone go into the back of one of our cars last year. Not her fault - she was stopped at a red traffic light with the handbrake on when it happened. One of the questions they insisted on getting the answer to was how much total damage was done to both cars involved in the accident. Now one of the reasons we pay the insurers lots of money is so that we don't have to worry about that sort of thing. We paid the excess & the insurance company paid the rest for having our car repaired & all this was subsequently reclaimed from the other driver's insurance company. Neither we nor our insurers knew how much damage was done to the other car, so how on earth are we supposed to give a total damage to both cars? In the end I managed to get our insurers to tell me how much they paid for our car... but no way to find out the other car's damage...

Box-not-very-Clever-at-all

For some dumb reason I've been renting the same TV & video for quite a while. Like over 10 years. I wanted to return it to the company & cancel the rental agreement. So I phoned them up, canceled the agreement and arranged collection.

A few days later they ring me up and ask if I'd like to buy the kit for a nominal amount. I say no, I've no need for it. They offer me the video for free. Again I say no, just come and pick it up as arranged.

A week after that I receive a letter from them telling me they've closed the account & that I can keep the kit for free.

Now, I don't want the kit. I don't need it. That's why I asked them to pick it up. So I phone them up again. It takes ages to explain to the "customer services" rep on the end of the phone that I don't want the TV. "Oh," she says, "well, can't you give it to someone?" Well, I've already checked & no-one I know needs one. So I say no, come and pick it up like we arranged. "Well," she says, "we've already closed the account so we won't be collecting it. We could open the account again and re-arrange collection, but I don't know when that will be." In other words, they've cancelled a pre-arranged pickup without consulting their customer and in order for me to get the stuff removed by them they'll have to re-open the account, re-arrange the collection for a few months hence and charge me for renting the kit in the meantime.

And then when collection time's coming near I'd bet they'd tell me I can keep it for free again.

I just can't be bothered with that.

A quick search shows that I'm not the only one whose had fun with these guys. Based upon some of the search results, I think I'll hold onto the kit until after the next payment would be due to come off, just in case they "lose" the records saying I can keep the kit & they try to charge me with selling on their kit... After that it'll be a trip to the local recycle/re-use plant.

Timely Results

Thanks to Frank at work, I was able to save myself the cost of buying a power meter that I'd use once or twice then stick in a cupboard to gather dust for eternity. Just as well I didn't invest in one (at least the one I was looking at, which is what I borrowed) as it's not really accurate enough to get real data about the power consumption of the electronic timers I'm trying to check...

According to the power meter, a TS-EE8 7-day electronic timer requires ~0.01 amps, ~1 watt. However, as these are the lowest values the power meter can record, I guess these figures are probably +/- 50%.

There are two appliances that I want to use these timers with. Both look like they consume fairly low power themselves. The manuals for both give power consumption at ~30 watts. I guess this is the peak consumption, as measuring them with the power meter gives normal consumption of 5 watts and 9 watts.

If the consumption was ~30 watts, and if I assume that the timer actually consumes 1.5 watts, then I'd need to ensure the timer turned the appliances off for more than 1 hour 12 minutes per day to save energy. Not long really. With the normal power consumption figures these times go up... More than 4 hours per day and for the 5 watt appliance and more than 7 hours 12 minutes per day for the 9 watt one.

I can do both of these quite easily, but it's just not going to give quite the saving I was hoping for.

Ah well. I guess I'll just have to go rip out the central heating and replace it with something more efficient instead. Say a geothermal heating system. Now that would save some energy.

Trying to save the planet...

Ah, the initial burst of enthusiasm... second post within hours!

Anyway...

I'm not quite at the tree-hugging stage yet but, like most people I'm sure, I'm becoming more aware of how much energy I use and how much I could save. I've been replacing bulbs with more energy efficient ones as and when I can find equivalents. I found a great selection here, but I'm still struggling to find some bulbs, like striplight and MR16 halogen replacements that have equivalent wattages to those currently in the flat. I'm switching off appliances like the oven & microwave at the wall when they're not in use - I really don't need 5 digital clocks in every room! And I'm already noticing the difference in the electricity bill - so it's worth it for anyone, even if you're not worried about the planet.

My latest idea was to install timer switches for some of the appliances that have regular usage patterns. Like the broadband router - we don't need it on when we're asleep, and we don't need it if we're at work. So I paid a visit to that temple of gross consumerism, Argos, to invest in some timer switches. Problem is, the type of timer switches I want (electronic, 7-day schedule) don't specify anywhere what the power consumption is for the unit when it's in normal operation. There's no use in plugging an appliance into it in order to save energy if the timer itself consumes more watts than the appliance itself!

I guess I'm going to have to invest in one of these to find out.

So, manufacturers, please let us know what the power consumption of your devices are. And everyone else... before I go get a power meter, any idea how much power a TS-EE8 7-day electronic timer consumes?

Obligatory First Post

I've been putting off starting a blog for ages, mainly because I know fine well that I'll never get time (or remember) to put new posts up, thus joining the mass of people who claim to be bloggers just because they put up that one post 5 years ago. Still, here I am.

I'm hoping to post on technical stuff I've found out at work that others might find interesting or useful, some stuff on being a dad and other random ramblings.