WEBVTT NOTE Transcript 2024-03-17 from FLAC by https://elvery.net/prototypes/transcribe/ on my MacBook Air M1 on maximum quality setting. NOTE Body lightly edited, eg "whirligig" to "Whirl-Y-Gig". 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 --> 00:21.000 28th January 2024 00:21.000 --> 00:30.000 EOU Review for 2023, a brief round-up of the year. The full diary can be found in the show notes. 00:30.000 --> 00:37.000 2023 has been largely taken up with work on my PhD as an unconfirmed, i.e. probationary, student. 00:37.000 --> 00:45.000 Courtesy of student life and some good friends, I have rediscovered nightclubs and am kinda, sorta, trying to get into music. 00:45.000 --> 00:47.000 Here are some brief snippets from each month. 00:47.000 --> 00:55.000 January. I did a dry January with a fairly dry February (for 2024 I've done dry-ish, which is also good). 00:55.000 --> 01:02.000 I officially started my new life as a PhD candidate, though it took quite a while to get my ID card and so on sorted. 01:02.000 --> 01:07.000 I bought a second-hand Dell monitor set up in portrait for reading long documents such as academic papers. 01:07.000 --> 01:11.000 It is a long time since I have had anything other than my small laptop screen. 01:11.000 --> 01:12.000 February. 01:12.000 --> 01:18.000 I attended FOSDEM for the first time in many years and I am going again in 2024. 01:18.000 --> 01:25.000 I worked out that we need to replace about 20 million gas boilers with heat pumps in the UK by 2050, at least once. 01:25.000 --> 01:27.000 We had another window implosion. 01:27.000 --> 01:31.000 There was a mixture of diversion and grid top-up to the heat battery. 01:31.000 --> 01:32.000 March. 01:32.000 --> 01:35.000 The central heating was turned off mid-month. 01:35.000 --> 01:39.000 We had a small, one-hour power cut at home a few days later. 01:39.000 --> 01:42.000 Then I went to my first Whirl-Y-Gig. 01:42.000 --> 01:43.000 April. 01:43.000 --> 01:51.000 Twitter finally killed off the EOU grid carbon intensity feed that started in 2009, along with many other public services. 01:51.000 --> 01:55.000 The local Piper Hall was demolished as part of the estate redevelopment. 01:55.000 --> 01:58.000 I helped out with the Surrey University hackathon. 01:58.000 --> 01:59.000 May. 01:59.000 --> 02:04.000 I created the beginnings of a base track for gentle data sonification. 02:04.000 --> 02:08.000 Unexpectedly, I got to meet Rob Hopkins, founder of Transition Town. 02:08.000 --> 02:11.000 The first Kingston Efficient Homes Show went well. 02:11.000 --> 02:12.000 June. 02:12.000 --> 02:17.000 My son was a ballboy on Centre Court at the Surbiton Trophy with Andy Murray playing. 02:17.000 --> 02:23.000 Turning the boiler off completely this month took gas consumption down to zero and no one got a cold shower or bath. 02:23.000 --> 02:24.000 July. 02:24.000 --> 02:28.000 I started switching all appropriate Twitter links on my site to Mastodon. 02:28.000 --> 02:33.000 I visited a heat pump installation in Progeson, North London a couple of times. 02:33.000 --> 02:35.000 No gas used at all this month. 02:35.000 --> 02:36.000 August. 02:36.000 --> 02:44.000 A fortnight's holiday in Perpignon, south of France, near the Spanish border, with temperatures reaching a high 30s. 02:44.000 --> 02:45.000 September. 02:45.000 --> 02:48.000 I helped out as a waste marshal at Kingston Carnival. 02:48.000 --> 02:51.000 The boiler was switched back on for hot water. 02:51.000 --> 02:54.000 The 40 year Mirfield school reunion was fun. 02:54.000 --> 02:56.000 I stayed B-and-B in the monastery. 02:56.000 --> 02:59.000 Another half hour power cut. 02:59.000 --> 03:04.000 As before our internet connection and main service stayed up, powered off grid. 03:04.000 --> 03:05.000 October. 03:05.000 --> 03:09.000 I received an NHS bowel cancer screening kit, results were negative. 03:09.000 --> 03:17.000 I spent time organising a Kingston Community Solar Working Group, the University Departmental Weekly Coffee Hour and a quiz team. 03:17.000 --> 03:18.000 November. 03:18.000 --> 03:27.000 I joined an interesting Elexon workshop, issue 109, about possible netting of import/export for domestic customers. 03:27.000 --> 03:29.000 I got my first DOI for a dataset. 03:29.000 --> 03:34.000 I visited York with my daughter for an open day in the University Chemistry Department. 03:34.000 --> 03:38.000 And I also visited the tiny house where I was born on School Lane. 03:38.000 --> 03:39.000 December. 03:39.000 --> 03:43.000 The heating was turned on on the 1st and the boiler failed on the 13th. 03:43.000 --> 03:49.000 Luckily the rest of the month was relatively mild and our enforced zero gas consumption was not too bad. 03:49.000 --> 03:51.000 The Thermino provided hot water. 03:51.000 --> 03:59.000 Annual mains gas use dropped from about 3 megawatt hours a couple of years ago to about 1 megawatt hour this year. 03:59.000 --> 04:02.000 I got us in the queue for an Octopus heat pump. 04:02.000 --> 04:05.000 Maybe we'll get a survey in February or March. 04:05.000 --> 04:08.000 My first paper's pre-print went online. 04:08.000 --> 04:12.000 I still do not know how well I will hack life as a part academic. 04:12.000 --> 04:18.000 My first attempt to publish a paper was rejected and I am still working on getting that back on track as I write this. 04:18.000 --> 04:30.000 There's more on my Earth Notes Web site at Earth.Org.UK.