I've been taking meter readings from both the gas & electricity meters on a regular basis since our last full supplier change in July 2008. The interval between each reading has been between 1 and 24 days after the previous (generally about once a week) and at a consistant(-ish) time of between 11pm and midnight. The time is less important for long durations reads but more important to avoid skews on 1- or 2-day intervals.

The resulting charting shows our peak daily usage at the very start of January and again a little later the same month

I'm not fully convinced about CFLs.
Are they really better for the planet?
Do they really save money?

But despite my sceptism, I'm putting CFLs into our kitchen GU10s

I decided it was time to fit low-energy bulbs in our kitchen/diner. We currently have 2 surface mounted fittings, a 4-spot bar fitting in the kitchen area and a circular 3-spot in the diner area. There are signs that the 4-spot was a replacement for a traditional florescent tube whilst the 3-spot probably replaced a simple pendant lamp.

One of the aims of the technology & automation is to improve the efficiency of the heating system in the house. However putting in heat more effectively is only one part of the story. The other, of course, is reducing heat losses. Whilst this is not nearly as gadget driven it's nevertheless and essential part of the story...

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After running the top floor heating fully controlled by Cortex for about a week , I've now switched over our first floor so that only the ground floor is left under old-fashioned timer control.

The Current Cost unit I ordered earlier in the week arrived today.

Immediately it was out of the box to be set up. Suprised that it actually came with a 20 page user guide I decided to follow the instructions rather than ignoring them till something went wrong. For a change the instructions were clear and useful.

I've been meaning to do this for a few weeks, but I've just got round to ordering a Current Cost unit... Looking forward to having a play and then probably driving people nuts by knowing how many pence per year things cost to run!

It's been a traditional easter weekend with wall-to-wall work on the house & garden. Mostly the garden; typical when it's cold & wet too. So far only one visit to B&Q!

The power of many people has yet again been proved with a complete replacement the old decking to the rear (which was rotting) with lovely new in just 6 hours (including stops for bacon butties, coffee, tea, pizza, tea, coffee,....).

 So, if you read the above, you'll know I've re-downloaded & re-installed the latest MusicMatch Jukebox.  But are Yahoo pushing out malware that cripples  the installations of  troublesome folk that have resisted the "upgrade" to Yahoo Jukebox or worse... like me.. "downgraded" back the  better features of MusicMatch ?

I've been using MusicMatch Jukebox for years - I think since something like 1998/99.  Anyway, a long time.  It was such a good app that I quickly paid for their "plus" version which even included future upgrades.  Fab.  Happy as can be I kept on upgrading from time to time through till 2007.  But the upgrade to Yahoo Music Jukebox was utter rubbish so I've got rid of it.  Seems I'm not the only one that hated it.

In no particular order, a list of things I want to sort out during 2008...

1. Last few CDs not yet ripped.  I've been routinely archiving my CDs since the late 90's.  I've never lost the archive (touch wood) and always used MP3 and the higher quality sample rates, so most of the earliest MP3 files are still on the server.  Over the years, I've archived almost all of my CDs (currently 3200 tracks) but I know that a few have slipped through the net.  I've despirately avoided being anal enough to pull every CD off the shelf and check it's on the server, but the absence of the missing few on my iPod is starging to annoy me, so it's time to do it.  It's especially 'needed' now that the archive feeds not only 2 iPods and the desktop PC but also the new Roku/Pinnacle Soundbridge.  This is linked with my next "must do":

The week off in November has finally come. For a change we decided to spend the week at home doing various DIY stuff. The whole week enables us to get some bigger stuff done that would otherwise take several weekend -- and even longer because of the need to tidy up at the end of each Sunday.