WEBVTT NOTE Transcript 2024-03-11 from FLAC by https://elvery.net/prototypes/transcribe/ on my MacBook Air M1 on maximum quality setting. NOTE Body lightly edited eg "Diary Cast" to "Diarycast" and "moan" to "mown". 00:00.000 --> 00:02.000 Diarycast 00:02.000 --> 00:07.000 [Intro Music] 00:07.000 --> 00:17.000 Hi, I'm Damon Hart-Davis, and welcome to Earth Notes podcast on all things eco and green and efficient at home! 00:17.000 --> 00:20.000 10th May 2020 00:20.000 --> 00:26.000 A brief diarycast from EOU Towers on more blue skies and prospects of e-scooter support. 00:26.000 --> 00:34.000 Though cold air from oop narth is due to roll in, as I write late morning it is still sunny and warm out. 00:34.000 --> 00:40.000 I just took my daily walk in the cemetery and it was peaceful and soft and green with plenty of birdsong. 00:40.000 --> 00:47.000 There was a handful of people in, one taking pictures using [an] impressive telephoto lens of a green woodpecker. 00:47.000 --> 00:53.000 On the 23rd I noted that the cemetery was then also full of flowers and birds and green. 00:53.000 --> 00:57.000 With the explicit conservation effort being made in there it really is pleasant. 00:57.000 --> 01:08.000 There is a variety of micro-environments including overgrown and mown, with some parts relatively rarely visited by people I think, and thus possibly good for nesting. 01:08.000 --> 01:16.000 I also noted on the 23rd that we were seeing low electricity imports, well under 1kWh per day at least in the morning, 01:16.000 --> 01:19.000 as battery capacity was just about to see us through the night. 01:19.000 --> 01:25.000 With care, movable loads such as the dishwasher can fit under the PV generation curve. 01:25.000 --> 01:31.000 Generation and self-consumption have remained high as recorded in my stats cast for April, 01:31.000 --> 01:40.000 and indeed in the last few days the batteries, grid-tied and off-grid, are starting to last through the night, e.g. for the nights of the 4th and 5th. 01:40.000 --> 01:45.000 So the fridge freezer and other background loads are no longer causing imports from the grid overnight. 01:45.000 --> 01:56.000 And other than a bit of breakfast cooking, imports until mid-afternoon can be tiny, e.g. on the 6th only 10 Wh, not kilowatt hours, imported by mid-afternoon, 01:56.000 --> 02:05.000 and 320Wh all day, out of 6.92kWh gross consumption and 27.92kWh generation. 02:05.000 --> 02:09.000 The dinner time slot is still tricky and usually brings some imports. 02:09.000 --> 02:15.000 It's unlikely that this can be completely suppressed even as days get longer and thus PV generation higher at that time. 02:15.000 --> 02:20.000 The end-phase battery helps a bit, but cooking demands are peaky and often large. 02:20.000 --> 02:24.000 On the 7th, Radbot's patent application was dispatched. 02:24.000 --> 02:25.000 Hurrah! 02:25.000 --> 02:29.000 Work on the filing was a bit intense and displaced other work for Radbot and for school. 02:29.000 --> 02:34.000 I'll get back to it later today when I assume that the weather and outside will be less distracting. 02:34.000 --> 02:42.000 Given yesterday's astonishing shift by central government in favour of active travel of all types, not just temporarily for a softer lockdown, 02:42.000 --> 02:47.000 I'm rather hoping that the regulations around electric scooters will get sorted quickly. 02:47.000 --> 02:54.000 Folding e-scooters are potentially much easier to take on and thus integrate with public transport and less fiddly than folding bikes. 02:54.000 --> 03:00.000 And I hope lots cheaper than folding electric bikes, which seem to be about a grand. 03:00.000 --> 03:08.000 There are some journeys that I take on foot of about a mile or more, thus half an hour upwards, that would be much improved with some assistance. 03:08.000 --> 03:11.000 A bike takes space and locking and unlocking. 03:11.000 --> 03:17.000 I hope that a foldable e-scooter would be similarly quick, but less hassle at either end. 03:17.000 --> 03:21.000 One factor is the weight of the scooter if there is walking to be done also. 03:21.000 --> 03:29.000 It would be better to keep the travel somewhat active and not have the folded scooter be a nuisance to myself or others on train or bus, 03:29.000 --> 03:32.000 or when working at my destination. 03:32.000 --> 03:35.000 I'm intrigued to see how this one pans out. 03:35.000 --> 03:49.000 There's more on my Earth Notes Web site at Earth.Org.UK.