Human Lifestyle

A very interesting and busy day.

I took our youngest to school, a very easy morning, thank goodness.

Chatted to the St John's Grounds Maintenance team chaps who were about to feed a lot of pruned vegetation into their shredder, and they were VERY happy for me to take the large Christmas tree trunk on my trailer, and said they'd sort out any other big sticks and branches for me, and leave them for me to collect. Nice chaps!

So, home with a big load of waste tree trunk. I then had a short time to get several sacks of mature compost from the bottom of the garden in the wheelbarrow up to the top, as a bit later today I'm expecting visitors from Hull to pick some up. I found 6 sacks of 10 to 20kg and one sack of perhaps 30kg.

I then came in and cleaned up, as at 11 I was expecting our first visitor, Chris from Ploughcroft, who I asked to give us a quote for putting a solar photovoltaic system on our roof. This company had given a competitive quote to Anna Semlyen, and I'd been inspired to see what it would cost us, bearing in mind the grant of £2400 and the forthcoming 'feed-in tariff' which will guarantee a financial return for 20 years.

Chris arrived soon after 11 and told us our roof was perfect for the photovoltaic panels, as it is South-facing, and the hot water panel is off to one side of the roof, leaving enough space for the electricity-producing ones. He calculated that we could get 6 panels on, which would generate 1200w whenever it was daylight. He told us that the feed-in tariff had been set somewhat above the expected figure, and was at 41.3pence per kwh. This system would cost in the region of £6500, but the grant would bring this down to within our reach at just over £4000, and would bring in a steady income from the electricity generated. He will send a detailed quote soon, and the company's electrician would visit early next week to check our electrics.

I liked Chris, we talked about quite a few green issues, social issues, personal politics, etc, and I would be happy to have his system. We'd have to borrow to pay them, would then pay back some of the loan (the Credit Union doesn't give penalties for early payback) when we got the grant, and we'd use about £2000 of our savings.

Chris left soon after midday and within half an hour, Jayne and Derek arrived from Hull. They contacted me through Vyouz, the virtual skip site. They wanted to give me some waste wood, and take away a sack of wood ash (this was free) and give me something for the large load of compost. They came in and had a cup of tea each, and we chatted about the stove, their allotment and lottie shop, and then we went down the garden to see where the compost makes itself. When we got back up to the top of the garden again, we loaded up their boot, and they offered £16 for perhaps about 90kg of compost. I was happy with this. Nice people, hope they enjoy using it!

I then had lunch, and chatted to Gill. Then I got a phone call... it was Chris from Ploughcroft. He said that he'd got bad news for me... he'd just heard that the Government had stopped the photovoltaics grant, as of last night. This was about 7 weeks before they were due to do this. This was a blow. With the added cost of £2400 to our final bill, we probably won't be able to put these panels on our roof... but we'll continue with finding out about the different installers and systems available.

Gill ironed my Fiddlesticks clothes and I got ready to go out to work... off to the Bishopthorpe Beavers, about 20 minutes cycle away. I'd done my circus show for them before Christmas and tonight it was balloons. I got changed and stuck inflated balloons between my unicycle spokes, I'd brought it along specially to hold them. The boys were delighted to see me and we had a brilliant hour, loads of fun.

At 7, I got changed back into 'civvies' and cycled back to my side of town, picking up a long branch on the way. I was due at St Nicks for a York in Transition meeting and I chaired, as well as participating. We had an enormous list of things we could be doing so we went through the list and kind of weeded some of them out, things we haven't got the time or personnel to do.

Home just before 10pm and all was well, I went onto the computer and dealt with emails and other stuff. At about 1.45am there were a series of short power cuts which made nearby house alarms go off and our fridge make a funny noise. Oh dear.

I got up quite early and took our youngest to school and then continued sorting out the waste packing crate wood, which has 'arrived' just at he right time, as we've used a lot of the very dry logs and the majority of what we have left are more recently cut. So this very dry stuff will help eke out the logs which are ready to burn now.

Gill went out, to meet her sister in town, and I kept busy outside but had the phone outside too, and received several phone calls. One was a photovoltaic panel installer, who is coming to give us a quote on Monday. This stems from my friend Anna Semlyen, who has had four quotes for pv panels, and posted the two cheapest quotes on facebook yesterday. I hadn't realised that firstly, the price has come down about 50% since I last found out how much it would cost, and secondly, the government grant of £2400 finishes at the end of March, and thirdly, 'feed-in tariffs' start in April. Anna had worked out the costings and pay-back times... and suddenly, photovoltaics look just within our reach, financially.

I got trapped in an email vortex after lunch... and another photovoltaic company responding to my enquiry this morning... they are coming tomorrow. I had two questionnaires to fill in about green festivals, one for a 'United Nations Music and Environment Initiative' and the other from a guy who's doing a dissertation.

Gill rang at 2.45, she was just about to get the bus back from town, so I cycled down to school to pick up our little one. We walked back together, chatting. The class had all signed a petition asking for a longer PE lesson, at the expense of French. Active Democracy at school... great! I wonder what the result will be?

I did some more wooding and got the backlog of logs finished... everything in the front garden (woodyard) is now cut, and there's a large pile of logs to split.

Gill made a quiche for tea, with sliced and stir-fried sprouts with tomato, and a really good potato and sweet potato with cashew nuts and sesame seeds thing. What a wonderful and creative cook!

Later on, I had to do some writing for the forthcoming Earth Centre visit.

I woke at about 8.30 and had my breakfast with a nice old Welsh guy (aged 88) on a walking holiday. I think his name was Gwilym and he was very nice. However, i couldn't stop and chat for long as I knew ideally I should be at UCLAN by 10am. I also knew I'd probably have to walk into town. So I got changed into Fiddlesticks clothes (minus hat!) and packed my rucksack and walked into town. The bus shelters confirmed my suspicions that Sunday morning bus services in Preston are few and far between...

But I got to the Harrington Building by about 10am and there was a lot happening there, so i went to get myself ready and was throwing my devilstick around in my usual arty way by ten-past.

I had a lovely day, working almost continuously. Towards lunchtime though, the Facilites Manager Phil, whom I'd had a discussion with last year about recycling I think, took me to the nearby Students Union Building to see the huge array of solar photovoltaic panels and the real-time readout in the building. You can read about this in more detail in this pdf newsletter (scroll down to page 3 'Solar Signpost') and the latest developments with more solar electricity and wind turbines coming on stream with this pdf, first page. I was very impressed, although the real-time monitors needed some explanation as to what the numbers actually mean.

I enjoyed lunch and the afternoon session even more, especially as Zoot showed me how to use a 'walking ladder'. I wasn't very good but I reckon I could be if I practiced! I also enjoyed watching The Wonderful Stevie with contact juggling and bubbles.

And all too soon (!) my enjoyment of Pugwash Convention and the Red Rose Brass Band came to a close as Stevie and I were offered a lift down to the station so we could get the 4.30 train.

I got changed at the station and our train was on time. However, there were quite a few children on the train, some of whom were fascinated by Stevie's constant contact juggling (see
this YouTube vid for one style of this, and this one and this one for more amazing manipulations!) I made a few balloon animals but Stevie really got their attention with a contact juggling workshop followed by plate spinning... it was a lovely sight to see, and one of the best train journeys I've had! Stevie doesn't have a website (yet) but if anyone wants to book him, you can ring 0113 261 0057 or email raw_raw_inexpert (at) yahoo.co.uk.

He got off in Leeds and then did a load of huge bubbles on the station platform, much to the delight of the children (and their parents!) I had another half hour to York and got home to my family at about 7pm.

What a weekend!

I did my blog and emails late on, and received the very sad news that my friend Austin Wilson died last weekend, very suddenly after the Green Festival. I talked to his widow Azra on the phone and she told me what had happened. I know them because they have provided fantastic Indian food at YGF since we started three years ago. They had been married 30 years and were a lovely couple. I am very upset and will attend the funeral on Friday.

I got up quite early as I needed to talk to the woman who had booked me to work at her child's school in Cliffe, near Selby, for the leavers' party. She rang me back on her mobile as her landline wasn't making outgoing calls, as the whole village had had a power cut at 1.30am, and the school was closed, so she'd had to cancel. It's a kind of mixed blessing as I was wondering about whether I should actually do this gig as I might have had H1N1 'Flu earlier this week, and if I did have it, I could be still infectious... AND it's raining heavily and I was intending to cycle down there... it's an hour and a quarter away.

So, I was able to peruse my emails and I was interested to find that a new website has been developed, called Real Time Carbon, which shows you how much carbon is being emitted from the mix of generation being used, updated every 5 minutes. Here is how it works:

RealtimeCarbon.org screencast from Jamie Andrews on Vimeo.

The other news is that the Government has introduced 'Feed In Tarrifs' which guarantee an income from solar photovoltaic panels and other renewable generation. This means that an average sized system on a domestic roof, costing about £12,500, will give an income of almost £1000 a year for 20 years plus halve an average home's electricity bill. Here's the Green Building Press article on it.

I think we need to seriously consider this (not that we have £12K to spare!) as our electricity bill is significantly lower than average, so we'd make/save more money than most! I wonder if I could get a loan from the Credit Union?

At about 4pm, despite the rain, I cycled down to town to put in two cheques, pay a bill, give in an invoice and to give in a form to the council. Whilst I was in the Nationwide, I asked if I could borrow £12K to put photovoltaic cells on my roof. I was seen to by a teenager (seemed like it!) who started to go through an eligibility questionnaire. I failed at the first hurdle. I don't earn £750 a month... their minimum requirement. Whilst in the Co-op Bank, I asked the same question, and I was told, after a few details were put into their computer, that I could borrow £11K over 84 months (7 years) and pay back £175 a month, an APR of 8.42%, interest amounting to £3,700. Early repayment penalty of about £44. I felt this was quite a good deal. I got a 0.5% APR discount as I'm a Co-op member!

Came back with a vast amount of stuff from Country Fresh including maybe 40 bananas and a large pile of Asian pears... all will be dried! So lit the stove, dried myself off and did some fruit prep later in the evening.

Boys seem pretty well back to normal. They've had the day off school and may have had Flu.