antiprocrastination software

Gavin A · Dec 6, 2012

I've just installed a tool to google chrome to attempt to force me to spend less time on forums, and more time getting through my massive to do list.

I can't help feeling that 1000+ posts in a year might have been better spent doing something more related to keeping the work coming in, so I've auto limited my entire forum time to 15 minutes a day for lunchtimes, other than one day per weekend.

Apparently you can't even turn it off on the day at all, so no cheating... and firefox is borked and internet explorer is terrible, so I might even manage to stick to it for a bit at least.

so I may well be posting a lot less for a while at least, and hopefully getting more installs booked in instead.

Somecamel · Dec 8, 2012

haha, great idea

I spend far too much time on these things as well

whinmoor · Dec 8, 2012

Not sure that it's working for Gavin. Seems to be just as prolific as ever. Probably worked out a way to circumvent the software.

Gavin A · Dec 8, 2012

I seem to have it switched off on saturdays and after 11pm.

ps I just clocked you're running medoria solar, I was admiring your pricing and payback guide the other day while trying to work out a clear way of formatting something similar on our site.

whinmoor · Dec 8, 2012

We've "met" once. I came to introduce myself when you were exhibiting at Elland Road a few months ago but you were busy so I ended up talking to your buddy.

It's not easy to design a decent cost/payback table. We weren't sure how complex to make it. I spent a while with our website guy to come up with ours but I like your idea of offering basic, mid-range and top-notch systems. Our prices are reasonably accurate as well. We were quoting last week against Solarlec charging over £9k for LG (4kWp e/w split) so it wasn't difficult to undercut them.

Did you do the installation above the newsagents/Chinese takeaway by the traffic lights on Kirkstall Lane/Kirkstall Hill? It looks like an interesting arrangement and only a few hundred metres from your office so you must pass by frequently.

Gavin A · Dec 9, 2012

ah right, yes I remember, sorry about that, I did want to have a chat then, but you'd gone by the time whoever I was talking to had finished.

No I'm not guilty of that install which I do have to pass every day. I'm still slightly baffled by exactly how they did the curved roof bit, but also annoyed they didn't manage to level the top 2 panels up properly. There's actually a few installs around our office that are nothing to do with us and are pretty bad examples, including 2 that actually overhang the gutter... it regularly annoys me on the way into work.

whinmoor · Dec 9, 2012

Gavin A said:
No I'm not guilty of that install which I do have to pass every day. I'm still slightly baffled by exactly how they did the curved roof bit, but also annoyed they didn't manage to level the top 2 panels up properly. There's actually a few installs around our office that are nothing to do with us and are pretty bad examples, including 2 that actually overhang the gutter... it regularly annoys me on the way into work.

To fill in the others, someone has installed solar panels on the curved roof surface above a Chinese takeaway and newsagents on a busy crossroads a few hundred metres from Gavin’s base. It faces southish and could be ok (with microinverters) but just looks a bit odd.

I don't have a photo of the finished job, but here's the location from Google. I guess Gavin sits at these traffic lights with this view pretty often but nowadays he has the solar panels to look at.

Gavin A · Dec 9, 2012

it ain't using microinverters, I've checked.

Worcester · Dec 9, 2012

@GavinA seems like that software must have an overide button reading your posts on thermodynamics!

I've read the thread but am not going to put my 2 penneth in (did thermodynamics as part of my degree course

) It just seems that some people don't understand the pirinciples of the the evaporation / condensation cycle and the latent heat inherently involved in the state change from liquid to gas and gas to liquid. And as you say worrying that those that are installing heat pumps and have been in air conditioning and refrigeration for years also don't get it!

Maybe time to try to stop educating those that don't get it, and have shut their minds...

Gavin A · Dec 9, 2012

It'd been a while since I looked into that stuff, so I considered yesterday as a refresher course.

I've also been trying to work out for a while whether these panels are worthwhile or not, so in that respect yesterday was well spent being as it seems that nobody who sells them or installs them in this country has the first clue about how they work, never mind MCS etc.

I'm actually quite impressed, installed and used in the right way I reckon they should be able to significantly outperform even ground source heat pumps across the year. I like the way that at the top end in full sun they don't go off the scale in terms of heat production, but instead act to reduce the power consumption of the compressor.

It is annoying that they haven't got more data published, but I'm seriously tempted to see if I can get my aunty to let us install a test system in inverness instead of the GSHP she's been discussing getting installed for ages. She's got a 6kW wind turbine and 3.5kW solar PV, and is on oil heating, so is a perfect candidate for a decent heat pump set up, but it does get down to -20 in the day time sometimes, which is below the operating temps for air alone, so it'd be relying on the solar gain in those periods.... possibly a bit too extreme for it alone, but I could leave the oil in as a back up.

ps - I've got saturdays off on the software, plus after 11pm.

Worcester · Dec 9, 2012

You're right of course the problem has been misselling! It would be interesting to see how it performs at the most critical time - long periods of sub zero, because that's when it's needed most. I can see GSHP's working all year round no problem and have seen ASHP's do it on properly insulated houses with underfloor heating. If it can provide that 'in between' solution - excellent. Of course the MCS requirements for heat pumps now mean that you can't use the back up in-line immersion in your heating calcs, so systems should be properly sized, and it gets very complicated with dual source, be interesting to see how it works in Inverness ..