Blackpool LUG and virtual Makerspace
Virtual meeting every Saturday 10am. Ask for an invite.
After a long spell of only meeting virtually, we have restarted face to face social meetings once a month at the Hive cafe in Blackpool.
There is free WiFi, but no Makerspace facilities.
Saturday usually at 10 or 11am. Next one will be the weekend before Easter and will be announced on the mailing list
Mike
Attending: Tony,Theo,Surley,Les and Mike
Surley talked about his home automation system. Les was hacking a new controller for some Poundland Christmas lights. Theo was working on a racing game, Tony wa looking forward to tasting some sourdough bread he had made and Mike was about to start decorating in the small room under the stairs once the virtual meeting finished.
Attending: Tony, Theo, Barry, Simon and Mike.
Discussed:
No hot water produced this month. The average tank temperature was about 33c, just about warm.
This is the graph of hot water tank temperature. The logging is not for a full month, because I switched from using an ESP to an Arduino to capture the data and missed a few days at the beginning of the month. Should be back to the normal graph next month.
Attending: Tony, Theo, Mike, Barry and Surley
This week, energy costs were discussed at length. Tony and I (Mike) have been monitoring energy usage for many years using: https://monitor-energy.appspot.com/ This is a manual system where I read the meter and enter the reading on the site.
This graph show my electricity usage pattern since 2013. Hovering over each small circle on the graph shows the date, the average usage that week and the meter reading.
I also have solar water heating which is graphed in real time here:- https://iotplotter.com/user/feed/153228799529169234
Solar hot water graph for July 2022
Attending:
Barry, Mike, Surley and Theo
Discussed:
A journey to Bristol with cruise control set to 70MPH resulted in spending £12.50 more on fuel than the return journey from Bristol with cruise control set to 55MPH. Petrol is closing in on £10 per gallon and we talked about our earliest vehicles and the cost of fuel way back when…
My first vehicle was a Lambretta scooter and my first gallon of fuel was two shillings, which is now called ten pence. No prizes for guessing my age.
Blackpool LUG and virtual Makerspace 