B&Q start selling wind turbines

So B&Q have started selling windsave wind turbines on their website and in the their larger stores. They cost £1,500 which includes a survey and fitting. You can't buy for self install. Their claims about money saving seem quite high, I'm not convinced that everyone will see their money back before the end of the turbine's 10 year life.

However I think this is a great move, and I'm sure the price of turbines will drop, when some more competition move into the marketplace, so the payback period will improve in the future. I think the law also needs to change to relax planning permission, allowing turbines like these to be bought like any other appliance, with 'Do it Youself' fitting (something I'm sure B&Q would welcome!)

Personally I'd like to open a small wind farm with some much bigger turbines, but sadly I lack the space. Perhaps I'll put some in the local park instead. It's either that or a domestic nuclear power station.

Wind turbine on B&Q

richorama :: music

In my spare time I produce music on my computer. I thought I would publish some of my recent compositions as a separate blog for you to listen to and download if you're interested. It's mainly drum 'n' bass (so don't worry - I don't sing!) produced using Reason 2.5. I'm no professional, so if you have any tips - let me know. I'm also interested in obtaining more sounds and influences, so if you play an instrument send me some samples!

richorama :: music

An app a day

Some fella called Dana Hanna has decided to write an application (computer program) every day for 30 days. Ok - so they're not all that useful, in fact they're not useful at all, but I take my hat off to him - some of them are quite impressive.

You can view his blog here:

http://www.anappaday.com

And download his applications here:

http://www.anappaday.com/downloads

You can also 'chat' with him to influence his ideas - perhaps by the end of the experiment he will produce something useful.

My kind of workout

Clare showed me this video last night (while I was painting the sitting room). I thought it was quite good.

Peak Practice

We went for a walk in the Peak District on Saturday. The weather was great and the eight mile walk, which took us up Mam Tor, was good. Needless to say, we all ached by the end of the day.

View the album

Man blows up speed camera

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/5320092.stm

Just seen this (rather amusing) article on the BBC news site. A guy basically gets flashed by a speed camera, already has 10 points on his licence so in fear of loosing his licence, he blows the camera up with thermite.

Great plan - and I guess even though he's been found guilty of damaging property, he still retains his licence - although I think four months in jail is considerably worse.

Perhaps it's better to keep to the speed limit when you have 10 points.

New wheels

The time came for Clare to have her own wheels - so last week we bought this little motor. It became apparent that the last owner had not been doing too much servicing, so I changed the air filter, oil filter, fuel filter, engine oil and even the gear box oil (unintentionally). I also removed an extra 'gary boy' tin can which made the exhaust look bigger, badder and quite stupid. Sadly not all parties considered this to be an improvement - I was stopped before I could remove any other non-standard components.

Holidays

We've been on holiday for the last two weeks. We spent a few days at home going for walks (see photos) and bike rides etc. We also took a trip to Suffolk to see Hannah Laughlin our new neice and ride on Wytchcraft (see photos). We then spent a week on Mallorca (see photos).

Mallorca was very pleasent, after a small baggage mix up, we stayed in an old converted barn in the middle of the island. There were plenty of fruit trees growing on the grounds, so we had lots of fresh grapes. We took a few walks, did some sight seeing, and had plenty of pool time. We hired a Mercedes SLK A class with the hotel points I accumulated in Pittsburgh - so we drove around quite a lot on tiny mountain roads. Lots of fun.

Board stupid

I just saw this video on YouTube. Needless to say, I was quite impressed.

I need this car

Tesla Motors will soon be releasing their first car in partnership with Lotus. It goes from 0-60 in 4 seconds, reaches 130 mph and has 248 bhp. All this and it runs on batteries. One of these would seriously reduce my travelling costs (I spend around £75 a week on fuel) and would get me to work a lot quicker (well perhaps not legally). The problem is the estimated price tag of around $80,000. Never mind, perhaps I should search for a milk float on autotrader instead.