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...

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.

It's now a year since I first got a starter kit of Idratek parts and 7 months since we had the heating system overhauled with Idratek temperature sensor & relay modules at the heart, but till now I've been mainly using Reflex programming for operation rather than leaving a PC on to run Cortex. The reason for this is baulking at running a PC 24/7 and the power that will consume.

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!

At the heart of the Idratek setup is ideally a PC running the intelligent 'management' software Cortex. Of course, this means having a PC running 24/7 - potentially costing more in electricity to run than the smart management of the heating will save in fuel. Cortex requires Windows as the base operating system, so a Windows PC is required. I already have a home-server, running Linux, to do a number of 'server' type things (file, print, email etc). The linux box is already a moderately low-power device, pulling around 20w but it's age is starting to show: it's a bit slow, still running Fedora Core 3 (remember 'Core' ?) and the harddisk is almost full.

Baulking at the idea of having 2 hungry servers running 24/7, I decided to try to combine both servers into 1 machine, so I got an updated version of the low power machine and have set about trying to get this combination working.

At last, the long planned heating upgrade has been completed.

The main reason was to replace our old boiler which really struggled to heat the house during winter. The boiler was 15 years old and "F" rated according to the government website, so replacing it with a new A-rated unit should save gas too, which of course saves a few £££ as well. At the same time it was going to be an opportunity to get the rads fitted with TRVs.

Keen to make things even more efficient we also wanted to zone the house so each of the 3 floors could be operated independantly.

We've had an Idratek temperature module (DTS) and relay module (DRB) operating for the past few months as a replacement for the traditional heating thermostat. Whilst this is very very much using only a fraction of what the equipment can do, this was a way to "test the water" so to speak.

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":

Not exactly brand new on the market, infact the Roku device on which this is based (er..oem'd?) is several years old.  However, for under £45 from UK (r)etailers, this unit is a really price for something that till now has cost a lot more. 

Even better,

Now that the Idratek bits have been running fine in the study for a couple of weeks, I want to move to actual 'trial' the kit rather than just play with it.

For me, the target application is improved control over the heating in the house - especially as it's got colder we've really started to notice considerable differences in heat levels between the 1st floor (which can be quite hot) and the 2nd floor (which stays chilly).