4KW Solar installation

I had a 4 kiloWatt/hr solar system installed. 16 x 250W cells. The front of the house faces NE, so I had the panels split across the NE and NW face to optimise the day's collection. I got as many as I could on the NW face which was 7 cells. The remaining 9 are installed on the larger NE face. The strings are independently isolated, plugged into a 5kW inverter on the SE face of the house (always out of the sun). The inverter accommodates 2 strings. I didn't have the cash for microInverters, or tilt-kits. Given that I'm not facing ENE or WNW, it should be fine anyhow. Our roofs tilt is ~30' which is a nice average between a steep winter angle, and a really shallow summer angle. Here are some shots.

Installer guys...

9 panels on the NE front face of the house. Plenty of room for more.

7 panels on the NW face.

Inverter installed close to the mains power meter box on the SE face of the house.

System has been up for ~2.5hrs since the install was completed. Nice day, lots of patchy clouds, maybe 70% clear sky. Generated 8kW in a couple hours, many daylight hours left. (you can see it's 1pm in the shot). Really nice. Sitting on 4.3kW in full sun with two strings at non-optimal angles. Really pleased.

Invisible wallet killer

I had a great result and achieved my lowest average kwH electricity use in my last bill. 5.3 is way, way below the average for 2 adults, even for conscientious users. We're in the range of 3-4 times less power used.

You'll notice the big dip after summer. Skev moved out at the end of December, and Jana moved in. We had a really hot summer so I did run the air-con pretty hard. However after that, lifestyles show a big result.

Back when Skev was working, we were averaging ~6+ kwH, however during this bill snapshot Skev was taking an extended break from work. Between 14-18hrs / day he used his PC. He's an online machine. The problem is, he's got an older monitor, and slightly older power supply. His system draws ~450 watts when fairly idle, and 550+ when gaming. For those not in the know, that's fairly normal for 3-5yr old computer devices, and on a par with running a small washing machine. By comparison, my 1+yr old monitor (LCD vs LED) draws 1/10th that of his monitor at only ~22watts, and I've paid extra for 80plus certified power supplies for some time now.

Given what I'd learned in 2008, his use is not really abnormal for any household. If anything, all he really did was offset on-demand-but-off-devices two fold which I'd worked out as ~200 watts back then.

So Jana's daily routine closely mimics mine. Work most days. Heavy online user at home. Mostly efficient, or portable devices.

The story here is that not Trav was bad. It's that lifestyle itself plays a DRAMATIC role in your participation in Global Climate control and the cost of your power bill. The options against Trav's use were abundant. Use the PC less (poor solution), or swap out older electronics. Of course, there are issues with simply dumping working electronics, and driving various levels of consumerism simply by upgrading, however the components could have been relegated to a lesser-used service in our house such as a secondary monitor or to one of my ...uhh...several old test machines which aren't used that often etc.

Moral of the story: Make some effort. Review your habits occasionally. Lower your bills. Learn Kung Fu.

Measure the effects of gaming.

Jane McGonigal has participated in another presentation regarding real world impacts as a result of gaming, and goes further to show its innate positive effects are actually measurable in terms of scientific measure. (Including plenty of tongue in cheek stuff!!

I've linked Jane's previous TED talk here. Well worth your time.

I hear some really ugly opinions from people about gaming which Jane outlines at ~12:30, and then she continues with an example of some of the most commonly stated life-regrets from terminal-near-death, or elderly patients. The latter being the ones who are in a position of knowledge to be able to make observations of a much broader measure. In either case, both make the same observations which do not match the comments of the afore mentioned ugly-opinions.

Put some science in your brain, and mix it with a pep-talk and an amusing mental exercise.



Some really interesting stuff at ~38:00 of mental activity measurements while actually playing games, vs an observer (ie: watching TV). The disparity is so immense that you'd have to be watching Farmer-wants-a-wife not to notice that you're missing out on something awesome.

Join me in a game.

FoldIt claims another success

Looks like FoldIt managed another minor breakthrough.




http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/games/online-gamers-crack-aids-enzyme-puzzle-20110919-1kgq2.html

Journal Link here: http://fold.it/portal/node/990358

Keep at it gamers :)

Gaming: about time we applied it

There have been years and years of studies and research links to indicate HUGE global reduction in various types of crime ever since the release of Doom-1. It's sickening to still hear weak fanatical media trying to blame individual and isolated events on game violence, when in fact the very opposite is true.

So this video goes a step further, to hypothesize and implement systems to utilise gaming as a means of super-collaboration for real world problems. It really outlines the mindset needed to turn around the "gamers are wasting their time" chant, into something nobody can deny as truly powerful. 20mins, but not boring by any measure.


http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html




This pretty much vindicates points of view I've been trying to explain to peers since I started at Post. My "spare time" is actually time I spend doing awesome stuff for my kids and peers via my skill set. Electronics fix it jobs, computer fix it jobs, handyman junk, toys and furniture for myself and my kids etc. You've seen some of it in this blog throughout the years. As much as I may sound like I'm miserable and ranting, I'm actually trying to get friends to enjoy what they're missing out on. Actual real world productivity that forms many seeds of growth within the circle of friends, which seeds a larger circle. Not just "busy work" in the form of achieving pretend housework goals.

Another example of real world gaming for global interests is the Folding-At-Home "Fold It" endeavour which I've been part of for years. Fold-It is a recent implementation of the folding@home goal that gets you to fold proteins with a purely human visual intuition means. The results are staggering against computational-brute-force, which the F@H team have been doing for years. edit: Actually I think FoldIt may now be independent of the original F@H from Stanford. I'm certain it was originally linked though I can't find the common person any longer. It's been a few years since it launched.

Give it a shot. It's fun, you inherently learn HEAPS through sheer curiosity, and it creates topics of conversation and competition that's genuinely fun amongst your peers and friends who are doing the same thing. Plenty of these style games around, go look. Give it a shot. Play some games.

A little extra from one of Janes older workshops:
http://vimeo.com/16227360 A lot of tongue in cheek, some of the same stuff is covered, but some great elaboration also. Bit of fun. LOL @ the Massively Multiplayer Thumb Wrestle Wars at the end :-)

Jane McGonigal homepage:
http://janemcgonigal.com/

USB Laser Duck will end us all.

Not much to say really. Laser Duck is the embodiment of the future slavery of human kind as we know it.

http://www.instructables.com/id/USB-Laser-Duck/

Exponential function

I keep forgetting to link this video. Caught it a year or two back. Presents in laymans terms what you learned in highschool, but forgot to apply later...

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6A1FD147A45EF50D

edit: On the same topic; Wow, in the Age Newspaper today State Parliament proved they're failing to even look at our own growth statistics by proposing an irrelevant tiny expansion to the city boundaries. http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/green-land-cut-back-as-melbourne-grows-much-bigger-20100729-10wvi.html?autostart=1

Another scale of the Universe

Another great "scale of the universe" animation. Apparently to scale. I really liked the reference to 70-light-years being the extent of our furthest radio transmission. An irrelevant spec in space. So much for the Seti project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U&feature=player_embedded

Scale of everything

Great little flash zoomer representing the scale of pretty much everything. Very simple, very well presented. Worth your time to have a zoom :)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/525347

Domino AND, OR, XOR gates demonstrated

Nice little visual representations of the base logic gates used in circuitry.

The best graph in the Universe

This is the best graph in the Universe. Period.

Originally spotted this amongst the Manpollo project videos, but I'm sure it has an origin somewhere. Good stuff.