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Years ago I had a solar panel installed on our roof for the princely sum of NZ$6000. During those years it has helped us cope with the cost of energy by heating our water. This of course depends on how much sun the panel gets according to the season and cloud cover each day. Over all it has proven itself effective after considerable service to the household. Even earlier than that, a friend, Steven Tetlow built such a generator and used it to charge car batteries which then ran an alternating supply to his home. It worked so well that he disconnected his house from the national grid!
Today I read an article on this front that may be good news for you:Solar panel costs 'set to fall'
It seems several of these schemes are becoming money makers as well as their creators sell the energy produced by them without any harm to the environment (unless you object to wind farms or that your neighbor has one when you don't).
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
While the building is under way
I have been asked to take care of the local hall while others are up country on the build project this weekend. It should be a temporary situation, as the project will only require a few days to complete. Meantime normal upkeep continues until the others come back with stories of what happened there.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Building project coming up
Within the next 2 months I will be traveling to the small Wairarapa town of Martinborough to assist in the construction of a new Kingdom Hall there. During this period I will be out of communication with the users of this blog. Before that, however, there is another build coming up on Marton (north of Palmerston North) in the North Island of New Zealand.
Those of you who have been on similar projects know what a wonderful experience it can be to help with such a work. Over the years I've lost count of the number of such projects. There have been at least six others including Upper Hutt (my first), Lower Hutt, West Wellington, Hastings, Shannon, Featherston, Foxton, Porirua, Masterton, East Napier, Wainuiomata, Pahiatua,(the list goes on). In Pahiatua nobody seemed to believe it could be done. Cars drove by for days while the locals took in the progress. Some just could not believe what they saw. All of these projects were successful in spite of the usual problems. Anyone who has been there knows the fine record of these events. Some are just renovations, while others are a complete rebuild on an existing site. Pahiatua was a memorable one. It was stripped down to the ground and then rebuilt from scratch in a matter of days! The towns' people could not believe it. The impact was only increased because it was completed long before a local church group who employed a professional builder to finish their place of worship. Have you had experiences like this?
Those of you who have been on similar projects know what a wonderful experience it can be to help with such a work. Over the years I've lost count of the number of such projects. There have been at least six others including Upper Hutt (my first), Lower Hutt, West Wellington, Hastings, Shannon, Featherston, Foxton, Porirua, Masterton, East Napier, Wainuiomata, Pahiatua,(the list goes on). In Pahiatua nobody seemed to believe it could be done. Cars drove by for days while the locals took in the progress. Some just could not believe what they saw. All of these projects were successful in spite of the usual problems. Anyone who has been there knows the fine record of these events. Some are just renovations, while others are a complete rebuild on an existing site. Pahiatua was a memorable one. It was stripped down to the ground and then rebuilt from scratch in a matter of days! The towns' people could not believe it. The impact was only increased because it was completed long before a local church group who employed a professional builder to finish their place of worship. Have you had experiences like this?
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Is it a perfect world?
One of the possible definitions of a perfect world would be "we have no problems". Nothing is troubling us.
It sounds idyllic, doesn't it? Yet it is a reminder of why this blog was set up- to deal with users problems. In this sense it should last as long as problems exist. When we run out of issues to deal with, the service is no longer needed.
There have been no questions posted for some while now. So I put the question to our members: Should this service be continued? (from John Durham).
It sounds idyllic, doesn't it? Yet it is a reminder of why this blog was set up- to deal with users problems. In this sense it should last as long as problems exist. When we run out of issues to deal with, the service is no longer needed.
There have been no questions posted for some while now. So I put the question to our members: Should this service be continued? (from John Durham).
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Recycling technology
At times I am called on to assess and recycle old computers or other electronics. This can vary from PC to TV that has become redundant. A lot of raw materials go into these systems. The electronics (especially chips) contain rare earth elements and highly processed metals. Old CRT screens contain significant lead. They also have an implosion risk because of the vacuum inside.
Places like the local dump also attempt to recycle things dumped on public sites. Local establishments like Earth link do similar work.
This has gradually grown in importance in recent years due to the growing range of electronic devices and the drain on existing minerals required to make these systems. Some systems (microchips) can be processed by crushing old circuit boards to provide access to rare earth materials inside. These processes require toxic chemicals to dissolve selected materials so they can be recovered for reuse. They are then concentrated and purified to produce suitable materials.
Local businesses send off old circuit boards to large reprocessing plants in the USA, where the materials are extracted chemically, purified and tested for use.
This needs to be done on a large scale because a circuit board may contain only tiny amounts of these rare minerals. Crushing increases surface area and allows chemical treatment to dissolve out the needed elements.
Once dissolved to sufficient concentration, the 'soup' can then be selectively treated to precipitate needed materials one by one for purifying.
After that other methods may be needed to filter out these rare substances in usable form.
These processes are often overseen by trained chemists, scientists and technicians who know how different materials can be separated and purified for use.
Based on the quality of the extracted substances, they can then be used in re-manufacturing with the recovered purified raw materials. Note: Some of this may be clear as mud to some, but to trained staff it is a job skill often in demand at such plants and their associated industries.
Places like the local dump also attempt to recycle things dumped on public sites. Local establishments like Earth link do similar work.
This has gradually grown in importance in recent years due to the growing range of electronic devices and the drain on existing minerals required to make these systems. Some systems (microchips) can be processed by crushing old circuit boards to provide access to rare earth materials inside. These processes require toxic chemicals to dissolve selected materials so they can be recovered for reuse. They are then concentrated and purified to produce suitable materials.
Local businesses send off old circuit boards to large reprocessing plants in the USA, where the materials are extracted chemically, purified and tested for use.
This needs to be done on a large scale because a circuit board may contain only tiny amounts of these rare minerals. Crushing increases surface area and allows chemical treatment to dissolve out the needed elements.
Once dissolved to sufficient concentration, the 'soup' can then be selectively treated to precipitate needed materials one by one for purifying.
After that other methods may be needed to filter out these rare substances in usable form.
These processes are often overseen by trained chemists, scientists and technicians who know how different materials can be separated and purified for use.
Based on the quality of the extracted substances, they can then be used in re-manufacturing with the recovered purified raw materials. Note: Some of this may be clear as mud to some, but to trained staff it is a job skill often in demand at such plants and their associated industries.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Feedback problems solved
In the last month I upgraded the feedback systems at modecideas.com with forms from http://emailmeform.com
It's a very secure arrangement with a captcha system that requires human visual read and code entry that varies randomly each time.
When it was complete a problem arose with people deliberately sitting down to send junk by hand. It is about the only way anyone could get around this type of security. Never mind- when suspicious activity occurs, the system reports the IP addresses to the site owner. The owner then forwards the feedback to the support staff and the kiddies are blocked off. Meanwhile feedback remains available to all genuine site visitors. Neat, isn't it?
It's a very secure arrangement with a captcha system that requires human visual read and code entry that varies randomly each time.
When it was complete a problem arose with people deliberately sitting down to send junk by hand. It is about the only way anyone could get around this type of security. Never mind- when suspicious activity occurs, the system reports the IP addresses to the site owner. The owner then forwards the feedback to the support staff and the kiddies are blocked off. Meanwhile feedback remains available to all genuine site visitors. Neat, isn't it?
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