Remove Weight To Make Something Better
You would think, that by now, we’ve pushed the technology in lifts, as far as we safely can.
But, go up in a very tall building and you’ll often have to change lifts to get to the top.
One of the problems was that the weight of the steel cable that holds the lift car up, was just too much.
But now Kone have come up with a carbon fibre lift cable, that is both light and strong. They call it Ultrarope and it’s described here on their web site.
They claim that maximum lift heights can rise from 500m to a kilometre, whilst saving energy too.
That sounds good to me.
It’s a classic case of improving something, by using a new lighter and stronger material.
A Message For nPower Customers
After my article on nPower’s cheaper tariff, that they hadn’t told me about, I’ve just had a phone call from a friend, who saw it and like me he saved a few hundred pounds by not switching suppliers, but by switching tariffs.
So if like my friend and myself, you get your energy from nPower, it might be worth checking with one of the comparison sites to see if you are getting the best deal. You may find a painless call to the company, will save you money, without changing energy suppliers and hopefully little hassle.
Burning US Trees In UK Power Stations
This story talks about a crazy idea of cutting down trees in the US and burning them in UK power stations.
I haven’t seen the numbers, but it does strike me as an extremely wasteful process, with all of the transport across the Atlantic. We would be much better off, using the subsidies promoting the use of this fuel, in insulating buildings and replacing those, that can never be made energy efficient.
Sorting Out My Energy
Every so often, I check up to see if I’ve got the best energy deal. As some companies are now offering smart meters, I wondered if I could get one of these thrown in.
So I checked one of the comparison sites and found, that I could save four hundred or so a year, by swapping to nPower.
As my current supplier is nPower, I found that strange, as I thought, I was supposed to be on the lowest tariff, according to new government legislation.
So I phoned them up and got changed onto the new tariff. The only downside is that there is now a £60 cancellation fee!
I can’t help thinking, that all of this has a touch of professional theft about it.
I think the moral of this story, is that you should check your energy bills against the rest of the industry probably twice a year.
You might be surprised, as I was, that one short phone call, saves you a few hundred pounds.
I still haven’t got my smart meter though! But then the big companies are reluctant to bring those in, as it will both cost them money for the meter and because savvy customers will cut their energy use.
Now The Big Brother Fridge!
The Sunday Times and the Daily Mail are carrying a story, which says that National Grid, want all appliances to be able to be switched off, automatically, when there isn’t enough electricity. The story is here in the Daily Mail.
The problem is that for every method of electricity generation or method of saving, there are vociferous opponents.
Coal produces CO2 and therefore adds to global warming.
Wind farms blight the countryside.
Nuclear power kills everybody with radiation.
Fracking causes earthquakes.
Barraging the Severn and other rivers would upset the birds and the RSBP.
People won’t insulate their houses, as why should they spend money for no visible improvement?
People can’t get it into their heads, that AGAs and other high energy use appliances are antisocial.
Energy saving bulbs are ugly and give a bad level of light.
Perhaps not having power for a few hours every day, will make Daily Mail readers and the other ostriches see sense.
Ed Miliband Says He’ll Switch The Lights Off
Well not directly, but he has just said on BBC Breakfast, that he will break the link between power generation and distribution and bring in a tough new regulator to force prices down, when wholesale prices come down.
It’s all motherhood and apple pie, and might appeal to voters, but it would have the effect of stopping major power companies investing in the generating capacity we need.
So the lights will inevitably go out!
The only way to avoid building generating capacity is to find ways to insulate our poor housing stock and force consumers to actually do it!
But then the British public is addicted to using as much energy as possible.
Santander Make A Mistake
Paul Lewis, the BBC’s respected personal finance expert, has just flagged up this story on BBC Breakfast. Although, it’s not a big financial failure like PPI, it could have been inconvenient for some former Abbey customers. This is the first three paragraphs of the story.
Santander, the country’s second biggest mortgage provider, says 30,000 of its customers may be due compensation, after errors made in 2008.
All were former Abbey customers, who were put on standard variable rate (SVR) mortgages after coming off fixed-rate deals.
But they were not told clearly enough that they could have transferred their accounts elsewhere.
He also flagged up that there is no central way to notify customers that there might be a problem with their bank or insurance company’s systems and said there was a business opportunity.
He’s right on that last point!
What is needed is a site, where you register with just e-mail address and short post code, like N14 or IP4. You then enter your bank, insurance company, supermarket, broadband and energy suppliers, phone and mobile companies and perhaps your make of car.
Then when anything turns up like this Santander problem or the Virgin broadband failure, the site would send you an automatic e-mail.
All warnings would of course be available for any registered member to view.
Unlike the price comparison sites, the site would never sell or give your details to any third party.
Paul Lewis said it was a business opportunity! It certainly is!
Spittelau
In Vienna if there is one place I had to see, it is Spittelau.
You walk out of the station of the same name and it’s there, only a kilometre or so from the centre of Vienna.
When you first see it, you think it is some weird work of art or even a chemical plant designed by a benign Devil.
It’s actually a waste incineration plant, which provides district heating and to be fair it’s more beautiful than SELCHP.
The world needs a lot more Spittelaus. As they often do, the Japanese are copying the ideas in Osaka.
It is a superb example that shows the close relationship between art, engineering and architecture.
Can you imagine the fuss, if they decided to build a plant like this at say Silvertown in East London? On the other hand, the plant shows that refuse incinerators can be good neighbours.
Every large city should have it’s Spittelau!
Walking to Brick Lane Music Hall
From Pontoon Dock station opposite the London Pleasure Gardens, I walked down to St. Mark’s Church, Silvertown or the Brick Lane Music Hall, as it is now known.
It is a walk, I have driven many times in the past and I regularly used to fill up my cars at the garage shown. But not at those prices, of which as a non-driver, who is scientifically-green, I heartily approve.
The flats seems good value to me. When C and I got married, we’d have never been able to buy something on a deal like that. you could get a 75% mortgage if you were lucky.
The Anonymous Widower 