My "Reading Diary"
RN Book Show on the"Future of Libraries"
Good show to listen to.
Deakin Lectures 2010 available for downloading from the Wheelers Centre.
Try this one
"Prosperity without growth" By Tim Jackson
Thursday, July 22, 2010
No Junk Mail!
For many years I have had a "No Advertising Material" sign on my letter box. However, large amounts of glossy material has made its way into said box over the last few weeks. So I have added yet another sign - a very large, white-n- black "No Junk Mail". This has stopped the catalogues and other advertising material until..................
The Federal Election was called!!!
So now I am back to receiving so called election material. The letterbox is filling with "Meet my Federal (and State) member", electoral role info addressed to the "Voter" and other stuff.
The radio is filled with comments by Julia, Tony & Bob, plus comments on the comments from endless political commentators.
But its winter and cold enough for me to enjoy some of the speeches and promises. I have been around long enough to know that interest rates are controlled by the Reserve Bank, not Tony. I have met and worked with enough migrants to know Migration is a thorny issue and won't be solved in a day, in spite of Julia's speech mentioning Timor. The migrants, whether boat people or not, are people who deserve to be treated humanely but numbers must be controlled in some way.
Could someone please promise, and more importantly deliver, on pricing carbon in a climate change policy, good transport infrastructure and lower house prices.
Please, Please, Please!!!
The Federal Election was called!!!
So now I am back to receiving so called election material. The letterbox is filling with "Meet my Federal (and State) member", electoral role info addressed to the "Voter" and other stuff.
The radio is filled with comments by Julia, Tony & Bob, plus comments on the comments from endless political commentators.
But its winter and cold enough for me to enjoy some of the speeches and promises. I have been around long enough to know that interest rates are controlled by the Reserve Bank, not Tony. I have met and worked with enough migrants to know Migration is a thorny issue and won't be solved in a day, in spite of Julia's speech mentioning Timor. The migrants, whether boat people or not, are people who deserve to be treated humanely but numbers must be controlled in some way.
Could someone please promise, and more importantly deliver, on pricing carbon in a climate change policy, good transport infrastructure and lower house prices.
Please, Please, Please!!!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Time of Use Electricity Tariff
The autumn-early winter electricity bill arrived recently. This one had an extra $109 for a "service truck" visit in June. On querying this item, it was as I suspected, a cost for the service visit when the meter changed over in January. It has taken 6 months for the distribution company to bill the retail company.
While talking to the helpful operator I queried the low solar buyback tariff and got switched to their solar division.
To my surprise, I found that there may be a way to receive Victoria's higher 60c buyback rate for my generated electricity as well as keeping the peak/off-peak rates. This is now called the Time-of-use tariff and the rates compare well with my current tariff.
So now I will try and navigate the maze of forms and possibly appeal processes to see if we can action this. It seems this change has occurred recently following confusion between distribution companies, smart-metering roll-out and possibly other factors.
So although my bill is less than at a similar time last year, showing the effect of the solar generation, the buyback increase will also affect the overall costing.
Anyone who lives in their own home, has a reasonable north-facing roof and a couple of thousand dollars spare would be well advised to go solar. The economics, with the current REC's system and increasing competition in the industry, is obvious.
So if you still have the $1800 bonus the government have given us, why not invest in your own solar generation system?
While talking to the helpful operator I queried the low solar buyback tariff and got switched to their solar division.
To my surprise, I found that there may be a way to receive Victoria's higher 60c buyback rate for my generated electricity as well as keeping the peak/off-peak rates. This is now called the Time-of-use tariff and the rates compare well with my current tariff.
So now I will try and navigate the maze of forms and possibly appeal processes to see if we can action this. It seems this change has occurred recently following confusion between distribution companies, smart-metering roll-out and possibly other factors.
So although my bill is less than at a similar time last year, showing the effect of the solar generation, the buyback increase will also affect the overall costing.
Anyone who lives in their own home, has a reasonable north-facing roof and a couple of thousand dollars spare would be well advised to go solar. The economics, with the current REC's system and increasing competition in the industry, is obvious.
So if you still have the $1800 bonus the government have given us, why not invest in your own solar generation system?
Saturday, July 10, 2010
How does my garden grow?
July is one of the coldest months in Melbourne. The mid-winter solstice has passed and now we can see the result. On one of the few sunny days this July my solar electricity system generated 3KwH. This is better than I expected, but then again most of June and now July consisted of grey overcast days with negligible generation.
My son came out of hiding in his room yesterday to dig over part of the vegie garden. It has been overtaken by weeds growing as a result of a poor choice of mulch. Consequently the bok choi, cauliflower, coriander, lettuces etc have suffered. Never mind -the rest will do the garden good.
The Lime, Lemon and Lemonade trees have been fruitful. Even though the trees are small, the citrus is very welcome at this time of year for hot lemon green tea and other sweeter delights. The Tangelo is absolutely laden as per usual, but the fruit is still quite tart and full of seeds. I normally leave the fruit on the tree until Aug-Sep and use them for juice.
My Camellia's are still blooming beautifully as well as a couple of azaleas. And the jonquils provide another spot of cover. All this to help lighten the mood in a grey, cold and now windy winter. The Magnolia buds are starting to bloom and there are still a couple of roses blooming.
Now is the time to prune them and watch the new growth begin again.
Thus the circle of life continues.
My son came out of hiding in his room yesterday to dig over part of the vegie garden. It has been overtaken by weeds growing as a result of a poor choice of mulch. Consequently the bok choi, cauliflower, coriander, lettuces etc have suffered. Never mind -the rest will do the garden good.
The Lime, Lemon and Lemonade trees have been fruitful. Even though the trees are small, the citrus is very welcome at this time of year for hot lemon green tea and other sweeter delights. The Tangelo is absolutely laden as per usual, but the fruit is still quite tart and full of seeds. I normally leave the fruit on the tree until Aug-Sep and use them for juice.
My Camellia's are still blooming beautifully as well as a couple of azaleas. And the jonquils provide another spot of cover. All this to help lighten the mood in a grey, cold and now windy winter. The Magnolia buds are starting to bloom and there are still a couple of roses blooming.
Now is the time to prune them and watch the new growth begin again.
Thus the circle of life continues.
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