By lucashale, on January 26th, 2012
By lucashale, on January 25th, 2012
Over the holidays we brought a new TV and I thought I’d best check the power consumption since saving power was part of the justification for the purchase. The old TV was a 3rd generation Plasma (from 2005) and the new one is LCD LED so it will use less power, right?
I’ve already posted about the smart power board we purchased in No more vampire devices but what if the TV was better then the standby power used by the power board? Why would I think this could be possible, well since we swapped TVs around I have had to manually activate the power board as the IR sensor is still attached to the old TV. Each time I’ve noticed that the power board is warm, this means that it is consuming a significant amount of power. Time to attach the power meter!
So what were the result?
The power board, old TV, Wii, and PS3 in standby consumed 7 Watts
The power board, new TV, Wii, and PS3 in standby consumed 4.5 Watts
I measured the new TV by itself, it didn’t even register a reading! That means that my based on my power meter it consumes less than a milliwatt!
What about the smart power board? It measured 2 Watts! So now I’ve just unplugged the Wii (2 Watts) and replaced the smart powerboard with a plain old normal power board and now the standby power is 0.5 Watts. A saving of 6.5 Watts in standby!
Oh and the TV also uses about half the power when it it turned on as well but it does have a 7 star rating!
By lucashale, on December 19th, 2011
I’ve heard good things about the TV show “Game of Thrones”, it has been called a Middle Earth version of the Sopranos. Unfortunately here in Australia it has been hidden way on Foxtel and haven’t had the chance to watch it yet. Although I’d heard about it I knew little more than it was a TV show on HBO.
Then this weekend while looking for Christmas gifts for my family I came across a book called A Dance with Dragons which looked like it might be the something to read once I finish the Wheel of Time. Once I picked it up, yes I judge a book by its cover, I found it was book 5 of a series called A Song of Ice and Fire and that the first book is called A Game of Thrones!
So now I know what I’ll be reading next!
A Dance with Dragons: Book 5 of a Song of Ice and Fire
A Game of Thrones: Book 1 of a Song of Ice and Fire
A Clash of Kings: Book 2 of A Song of Ice and Fire
A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow: Book 3 Part 1 of a Song of Ice and Fire
A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold: Book 3 Part 2 of a Song of Ice and Fire
A Feast for Crows: Book 4 of a Song of Ice and Fire
By lucashale, on June 5th, 2011
Well with E3 almost upon us I had better get this prediction out in the world.
Say goodbye to DVD and BluRay disks for your next games console. Removing the media drive will allow the consoles to be smaller than ever before, think Apple TV size.
Bluetooth is here to stay for the controller.
Wireless N will allow those games in the cloud to be downloaded with greater speed. All three (Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo) will come with HD Video cameras for gesture based control, think Kinect, and also video chat, Microsoft will use it’s newly acquired Skype.
All will be HD display with 3D and include movie downloads and social media interaction. HDMI, DisplayPort, or Thunderbolt?
Since everything in now in the cloud your games and scores can follow you to your friends place. DRM and other craziness will have some impact to how useful these features will be but the console with the least to loose will set the standard and the other will have to follow if they want their slice to the market.
On the other side will be the TV companies adding their own functionality to the smart TVs of the future. Once Android is built into TVs and the apps store full of games designed for that platform casual gamers may no longer require a console, this prospect will hurt Nintendo the most so I’m sure they’ll be looking to combat that with their next generation console.
By lucashale, on June 5th, 2011
I’m told one of the uses for TimerResolution is to help reduce DPC Latency on Windows. This is supposed to improve performance of many games and applications.
I suspect that all that is really happening is that some poorly written drivers are getting a boost.
A great utility to check the DPC Latency on your system is http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml, try it with and without TimerResolution running and see if it makes any difference on your system.
By lucashale, on March 1st, 2011
With the upcoming release of Apple’s revised cloud solution I think it is best I get my prediction out in the world.
So will all our storage be now be in the cloud? Will my phone keep its contacts online? My iPod only downloads songs as a stream? My camera uploads instantly with no more SD cards?
Yes and No.
Bandwidth, access, cost, and privacy will mean that local storage will be around for a while to come. I think what will take off in the next couple of years is “Sync to the Cloud”
Yes “Sync to the cloud” has been around for a couple of years but no one has really executed it in a way that has changed how we work for the better. My hope is that with Apple’s track record and since this is not their first attempt that they might just get it right this time.
I look forward to never having to worry about backups, running out of space, transferring to a new phone, or worse a stolen camera with all my holiday memories. That day is coming.
The “Sync to the cloud” idea means that all my devices will have access to a common storage pool that is always up to date. My TV has access to the same photos and videos as my laptop and tablet, even it I’m out of the house no matter what operating system they run.
By lucashale, on February 6th, 2011
I was given Book 1 of the Wheel of Time – The Eye of the World as a Christmas gift in 2002. I was lucky if I was getting through 2 or 3 books a year at that time and it was not until late last year on a trip to the USA that I managed to get to the book. Yes 8 years later. Little did I know I was tackling a book series that was already into it’s 13th book and still incomplete!
I’m up to Book 3 – The Dragon Reborn which so far is the best of the series.
New Spring: A Wheel of Time Prequel
The Eye of the World – Book 1
The Great Hunt – Book 2
The Dragon Reborn – Book 3
The Shadow Rising – Book 4
The Fires of Heaven – Book 5
Lord of Chaos – Book 6
A Crown of Swords – Book 7
The Path of Daggers – Book 8
Winter’s Heart – Book 9
Crossroads of Twilight – Book 10
Knife of Dreams – Book 11
The Gathering Storm – Book 12
Towers of Midnight – Book 13
More details on series can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wheel_of_Time
By lucashale, on February 4th, 2011
Our little solar panels have harvested over 500kW/h of sunlight!
The solar meter was installed in December and is a Landis+Gyr EM1200. Details can be found at http://www.landisgyr.com/ap/en/pub/products.cfm?eventProducts=products.ProductDetails&ID=131&catID=61
The full list of display codes was a little hard to track down but here it is for anyone else looking for the information.
| Normal Display |
| Display ID | Description |
| 88 | Display Test |
| 01 | Time |
| 02 | Date |
| 03 | Total Imported kWh |
| 04 | kWh Imported Rate A |
| 06 | kWh Imported Rate C |
| 07 | Total kWh Element 2 |
| 13 | Total Exported kWh |
| 14 | kWh Exported Rate A |
| 16 | kWh Exported Rate C |
| 08 | Flagged Warnings |
| 09 | Error |
| 30 | Program File Number |
| Alternate Display |
| Display ID | Description |
| 20 | Present Voltage |
| 21 | Max Voltage |
| 22 | Time of Max Voltage |
| 23 | Date of Max Voltage |
| 24 | Total Instantaneous Power |
| 25 | Present Current E1 |
| 26 | Present Current E2 |
| 27 | Max Current E1 |
| 28 | Max Current E2 |
Still waiting for our first full power bill to see how much difference the grid connected solar system has made to our household.
http://www.lucashale.com/2010/11/you-are-my-sunshine/
By lucashale, on January 6th, 2011
The next place that needed the water saving touch was the kitchen. The old tap was 15+ years old and was one of those nasty cheap ones that leaks, bends, paint chips off, just junk really.
It was time for a upgrade and we wanted a mixer tap. However since the old tap was one of the 3 piece systems we needed some stainless blanking plugs to cover the extra holes, Bunnings to the rescue again!
We got the actual tap from a plumbing supply store as they had a better range and we finally selected the Adelphi mixer made by Dorf.
http://www.dorf.com.au/product-ranges/mixer-taps/adelphi/adelphi-sink-mixer
 The new kitchen tap The tap is installed and we think it looks really good (that isn’t our sink in the photo above). Hopefully combined with our water tank we will see a difference in our water usage.
By lucashale, on December 26th, 2010
One of the next steps in changing our house over to using less energy and less water was the purchase of a new washing machine.
We considered several factors and not only wanted to get one that used less water and power but also one that was built to last.
The power consumption can be assessed by using the following government website – http://www.energyrating.gov.au/
The water consumption can be assessed by using the following government website – http://www.waterrating.gov.au/
Assessing how long they will last was a bit harder, we decided to stick with one of the well known European brands Miele.
We got a combo washer/dryer – front loader washer and condensing dryer
http://www.miele.com.au/au/domestic/products/washerdryers_models_17213.htm
 Miele WT 2670 We also wanted a model with a delay start timer since now the we have our solar panels the new meter is measuring usage at time of day so it is less expensive to run the machine between 11pm and 7am. Combined with our tank water we should be reducing our impact on the world every day. The old machine didn’t end up in land fill either, we found it a new home with a friend that was moving house and was looking for a second hand washing machine.
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