Probably but I like to keep up to date with what my MP is up to. After all our MP's work for us, right?
Theyworkforyou.com keep me updated on my MP (
Geraldine Smith). Every time she speaks in parliament I get notified. Now I'll grant you, most of it is not that interesting but she did have quite a bit to say about Post Office closures. You can see a transcript of what she said in Parliament
here. They will even
e.mail you every time it is updated.
The same people who run "They work for you" have started "
Hear from your mp dot com". It is a service to help your MP keep in touch with you. 111 of Geraldine's constituents have asked to hear from her on a regular basis. Hearfromyourmp.com have e.mailed her 4 times to tell her how many people have signed up and so far Geraldine has sent us any messages.
I guess the more people that sign up to hear from her, the more likely she is to start contacting us. I would much rather get a regular e.mail from my MP than the automatic Christmas card I get each year. Why don't you
sign up to hear from your MP?
I love it when the clocks change. The kids don't seem to wake up as early, the lighter nights make everything seem so much better. Added to that we have a holiday around the corner.
This week is busy for me, although I don't have a sermon to prepare for Sunday I do have a talk to do and I think I may be conducting a funeral on Friday. Add to that all the normal business of life I'm going to be practising my time management skills!
In my constant quest to find cheap energy sources that are environmentally friendly and economic I began to have a look at Ground Source Heating. I couldn't find much that was really helpful in explaining how it works so I asked my friend Andy. He sent me this concise, informative reply:
Graham,
Your Renewable Energy Hotline here! (I've asked Andy renewable questions before)
Yes, I've looked at Ground Source Heat Pumps quite a bit. You are all right in a way:-
- They are extremely good for the environment because you get 3-4 kW of heat for every kW of electricity. Looking ahead they are going to play an important part in meeting the commitment the government has signed to meeting 15% of UK's energy needs from renewable sources (the heat counts as renewable).
- I wouldn't describe them as any more complicated than necessary, but they are more complex than a boiler.
- You are right too, they are expensive, generally expect £5k-£10k on top of normal boiler cost. Grants can offset a small proportion of this: http://www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk/how/householders/
How they work:-
- They extract heat from the ground, which is generally at 5-10 deg C by pumping cold antifreeze or brine around the ground loop at say 0 deg C.
- The slightly warmed water, now returning at say 5 deg C has heat extracted from it by the heat pump, which takes the heat at 5 deg C and upgrades it to heat at 40 deg C which is then given to the water circulating round the house. This diagram shows it quite well, note how the heat pump takes heat in from the right at low temp and gives out heat into the house on the left at high temp, this is the clever bit you can't replicate in a DIY manner. http://www.earthwisescotland.co.uk/Tech/sys_diag.htm
- This is just about warm enough to be useful, but because 40 deg C is not very warm compared to a normal boiler you have to have especially large radiators or underfloor heating.
- Note this is not hot enough for hot water. Typically a heat pump cannot supply the hot water tank (although one or two can now) and a supplementary boiler is often required for that.
- A bonus is that in the summer you can use the cooled ground to absorb heat from the house, in this mode the heat pump is not used because the brine is returning at a suitable temperature to cool the house.
Why the Doel It Yourself plan won't work:
I think you've mistaken heat for warmth. The ground isn't warm, it's colder than the house, but that doesn't mean you can't get heat out of it. In scientific terms heat is a flow of energy, it doesn't imply warmth. A heat pump uses electrical energy to push heat "uphill" against it's natural inclination to flow from high temperature to low temperature.
Summary
If you are off the gas grid then although it is expensive it will pay back (in perhaps 10 years) compared to oil or direct electric heating, which have high running cost. If they have gas there is no contest on price both installation and running costs of gas are lower. From a green point of view it knocks the socks of everything else. They are very disruptive to lay, although the ground loop can be in a installed in a 70m deep borehole instead of a 70m long shallow trench. It will also be disruptive inside to lay underfloor heating or up sizing radiators.
And no you can't rig one up yourself!!
I came accross this as I was searching through some letters that had been published in the 1800's:
It starts: "It is with deep regret we inform you, that the circular letter alluded to above, was, at the time it was read, by some means mislaid, and the most diligent search and enquiry after it has been in vein ..."
Today sees the start of a fortnights study leave, most of which I will be at home for. I use this blog for storing my notes as I read stuff. I know it might not be very interesting, but it is a good way of keeping my notes because I have a good backup regime.
However if you follow this by RSS feed rather than regular trip to the home page, their will be a deluge (I hope) of posts to the study category which you might find a little boring... sorry.
One of the first thing I learned as I grew up was that I was going to have to spell my name out every time someone needed to record it or write it down. "That's Doel, D, O, E, L" I have to say, but even when you do that people write Dole. My name is not Dole it is Doel! I'm not telling you off if your reading this I simply want google to find me under Graham Dole as well as Graham Doel, hence the reason for including Dole as many times as possible in the title and the content.
Just in-case you were wondering my name is Graham D, O, E, L. My name is not Graham Dole!
and an excellent new year.
Just over five years ago Louise and I were going through the process of being interviewed and interviewing prospective churches. We left one group of church leaders having clearly seen that my understanding of God's mission was on a totally different page to theirs. I said to Louise "I want to go somewhere that is saying "If we carry on like we are we will die"". That's exactly what one of the church leaders said when we visited Morecambe. I knew then that Morecambe was the place for us.
I didn't expect the process of change to be so personally costly. I have lost count of the number of times I have been awake at 4am. This time it is because I learned that someone else has decided that after attending the church for longer than my mother has been alive that they can no longer stand to attend. What is it that has forced this decision? Is it the preaching? The music? The theology? None of these, it is the change in dress code.
Experience has taught me that people leave because of many reasons, but one thing pushes them over the edge and they pin their discontent on the one issue. The result for me is loss of sleep. Even though I realise that my lack of sleep has no bearing on them or the decision they have made not to attend, I can't help feeling sad. I have lost sleep over every person that has made a similar decision.
For those who know me well, you will know that without my phone, to tell me phone numbers, addresses, and to remind me of appointments would be utterly lost. For such a small device it is utterly invaluable.
Last week, however, I managed to get myself a reputation for having a fantastic memory. I was at a meeting representing the Baptist Churches in my area to a large charity that does Mission and Relief work (
The B.M.S.). I was talking to someone who grew up with someone in the congregation that I am part of. The discussion went on and it transpired that they had lost touch. I offered him their address, which I knew because I have visited on a number of occasions. I reached over and grabbed a pen and paper and proceeded to write it down. When I looked up the entire table was looking at me in silence. I thought I had done something terrible. The silence was broken by someone saying "I don't know, these young ministers, he didn't even need a PDA!"
A couple of years ago I got sick of loosing files when my computer crashed. So I created database and stored it on the Internet. I put all my preparation and files into the database. Then I rather cleverly configured the server to e.mail a daily backup of the file to a google mail account. "now", I thought, "I will never loose any thing due to a computer crash".
I moved my Internet service account. and intended to restore the database in due course. Due course came today when I needed something and I discovered that the backup only kept information about the table not the actual data.
Hours and hours of work have been lost because I didn't check the backups were working properly. I am gutted!
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