Every couple of months I look at the cost of solar PV panels.
The current scheme in the UK is that you get a payment from the electric company for electricity you export to them, that rate is disproportionate to help the adoption of carbon neutral technology.
http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/apps4/pvest.php
The above site indicates that a 3.8kWp system should create me 3350kWp per year.
The current FIT (Feed In Tariff) tariff for a system under 4kW is 43.3pence.
That means that the system (if I exported it all) would generate: 3350 x 0.433 = £1450.55
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Generate-your-own-energy/Cashback-Calculator
The energy saving trust paints an even better picture of the situation but allow depends on how much is shines outside. Now £1450.55 would pay for a home improvement loan over 10 years after which I get it all. My problem is that I cannot tell if the 3350kWp is realistic. Plus there is variables like the reliability and cost of inverters, the conversion rate of the panels (new ones are meant to be 17% efficient and the top site I left at 14%).
I need more data.
Friday, July 29, 2011
DVCS - Monotone to Git
I have been moving all my projects away from using the monotone version control software over to Git. Largely because monotones development has stagnated and there are lots more tools that integrate with Git than do with monotone.
For a while I have kept a cheat sheet of commands I used in monotone and their Git equivalent. I am moving a lot of my non-important documents to Google Docs and realised that this particular spreadsheet probably could do with being widely accessible.
So here it is:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtD6Xu8ZpvMgdDJ4UGtGMG95LXBLd3Jfc1ZITlBzNXc&hl=en_GB
Feel free to share, its probably of limited use as there were never many monotone users. I'll be looking to add a column for Mercurial soon as it would be nice to have it all in one place.
For a while I have kept a cheat sheet of commands I used in monotone and their Git equivalent. I am moving a lot of my non-important documents to Google Docs and realised that this particular spreadsheet probably could do with being widely accessible.
So here it is:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtD6Xu8ZpvMgdDJ4UGtGMG95LXBLd3Jfc1ZITlBzNXc&hl=en_GB
Feel free to share, its probably of limited use as there were never many monotone users. I'll be looking to add a column for Mercurial soon as it would be nice to have it all in one place.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Innovate Britain
Certainly for the last 2-3 years I have seen the spiralling cost of foods in England. With the Americans arguing about the best way not to default (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14142621) on their debt, it got me thinking what next for us?
Devaluing the pound or more Quantitative Easing would just boost the private banks margins again. Which I think did do a job of making sure the house of cards didn't fall down. However it was clearly another tax payer subsidy with no possibility of getting our money back.
Devaluing would improve exports and tourism whilst making imports more expensive and reducing the likelihood of us travelling abroad. Problem there is that the UK is not geared up for exports any more, that train has sailed (if you like to mess up your metaphors).
http://theageofstupidity.blogspot.com/2009/09/british-pound-devaluation-delusions.html
What really needs to happen is government needs to be as small as possible and the population be entrepreneurial.
I have always thought that capitalism isn't great, but its better than anything else. The reasons I see against capitalism are usually the reasons where capitalism is not being correctly used. Quantitative Easing is such an abuse, the market should have collapsed and reset itself. Like ripping off a plaster you either do it fast or slow, we took the slow route.
What should happen now, is the UK should have the strong pound and we live with that. However we then innovate our way out of the problem (Japan and German did it in the 70's and 80's). Create new ideas, products and ways of doing things that means other countries have to pay us a lot for. We need to stop looking for central banks to solve the problem. We should be asking our government to slim down its spending and red tape.
Devaluing the pound or more Quantitative Easing would just boost the private banks margins again. Which I think did do a job of making sure the house of cards didn't fall down. However it was clearly another tax payer subsidy with no possibility of getting our money back.
Devaluing would improve exports and tourism whilst making imports more expensive and reducing the likelihood of us travelling abroad. Problem there is that the UK is not geared up for exports any more, that train has sailed (if you like to mess up your metaphors).
http://theageofstupidity.blogspot.com/2009/09/british-pound-devaluation-delusions.html
What really needs to happen is government needs to be as small as possible and the population be entrepreneurial.
I have always thought that capitalism isn't great, but its better than anything else. The reasons I see against capitalism are usually the reasons where capitalism is not being correctly used. Quantitative Easing is such an abuse, the market should have collapsed and reset itself. Like ripping off a plaster you either do it fast or slow, we took the slow route.
What should happen now, is the UK should have the strong pound and we live with that. However we then innovate our way out of the problem (Japan and German did it in the 70's and 80's). Create new ideas, products and ways of doing things that means other countries have to pay us a lot for. We need to stop looking for central banks to solve the problem. We should be asking our government to slim down its spending and red tape.
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