Reducing the energy consumption of Sky+ HD recorder and Samsung LED TV

Common themes across most of my posts are energy conservation , its monitoring and technology. This post sort of combines all three in one. ...

Great Gadgets : Honeywell CM927 wireless programmable thermostat

My existing programmable thermostat , a Honeywell CM67 started failing. Rather odd actually, it would happily run the default programme but ...

LED Light bulbs

I have seperately blogged my experiences with LED replacements for halogen bulbs, where their size, low heat and beam characteristics work w...

Cleaning vinyl lp records

I grew up with vinyl LP's in the 60s and 70s but by the mid 80s I embraced the new CD revolution and sold my LP's. However recently ...

New type of GU10 LED bulb

  SimplyLED notified me that they now stock a new range of next generation LED GU10 and MR16 bulbs. I have purchased from them in the past,...

Reducing your electricity bills

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 f...

CurrentCost IAM device

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 I...

CurrentCost Bridge

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 curre...

trying to save energy : trying to make sense of the results

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 - ...

Trying to save energy: measure first

A common theme across this blog is reducing my household energy consumption. You will see this in my threads on lighting, computers, gadget...

Replacing MR16 Halogen bulbs with LED equivalents

If you have read my other blogs about GU10 mains voltage halogen lighting, you will know that I have mostly replaced these bulbs with LED eq...

GU10 halogen bulbs revisited

Things have moved on since my previous blog regarding GU10 halogen bulbs. To recap, 10 years ago we had our house extended and rewired. We h...

Pallets & Compost bins

Pallets are all around. I see them as I drive about. In yards, loading bays and car parks. I have collected some, with the approval of the ...

A slightly greener Dell

Well the trusty old Dell Dimension 2350 is still going strong. I decided to replace the power supply with a more efficient one. If you'v...

the curse of the GU10 halogen bulb

I know more than I want to about these light bulbs. While the UK Government is waging war on the 100 watt incandescent light bulb, they have...

Economy 7

I am on an Economy 7 electricity tariff. E7 , as it's abbreviated, offers lower cost electricity at night, but with slightly higher day...