jsingleton

The last section is worth a read.

> Your personal donations can also make a difference, especially if you focus on where they can go the furthest

https://ourworldindata.org/foreign-aid-donations-increase#yo...

Good time of year to donate (in the UK at least, as the tax year starts in April). Various ways to donate depending on your jurisdiction.

https://www.givewell.org/about/donate/tax-deductibility

Electric Shift compares the carbon intensity of your next two electricity off-peak periods so you know if it's better to run appliances (or charge the car) tonight or tomorrow night (GB only).

The web app: https://unop.uk/shift/

We're on a dual-rate electricity tariff and often have flexibility about what night to charge the car, but is it better to plug in for tonight or tomorrow night? I got bored of working it out so I made an app for to do it for me.

More info and instructions in this blog post: https://unop.uk/electric-shift-web-app/

If you have any comments or feedback then please reply here or email me (contact details on my blog).

This is a post on our experience getting a solar/storage system installed and some other measures. Again, it's not too technical so any questions please ask. For example, I haven't touched on the backup power option as the grid here is pretty reliable.

I wrote this post for a less-technical audience but if you have any geeky questions then feel free to ask here, particularly around charging. We used a standard 13A socket for a while before getting a fast charger fitted and it was adequate. I've also worked for an EV charging company so I know a fair amount about the underlying tech.

There is some interesting info on building a cheap ~$20 purifier here: https://airpollutionguide.net/

I haven't tried as cheap HEPA filters appear to be harder to get hold of in the UK. Maybe due to different heating systems.

Clearing the Air: The Beginning and the End of Air Pollution by Tim Smedley is an excellent book if you are interested in this area.

It looks like you're using a Plantower PMS5003. I have one of those hooked up to a Raspberry Pi and it works well but I also built a few of these with ESPs: https://sensor.community/en/sensors/airrohr/

They support the PMS but I used the default SDS011. They both seem reasonable for relative values but I'm not sure about the accuracy without proper calibration. They don't appear to give similar readings to my Plume Flow 2: https://plumelabs.com/en/flow/

I recently finished reading Clearing the Air: The Beginning and the End of Air Pollution by Tim Smedley, which is excellent and well worth a read if you are interested in this area.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/clearing-the-air-9781472953339...

> ...a detailed blueprint for saving our cities. Suggested measures include a ban on all petrol and diesel cars in city centres; the replacement of diesel buses and trains with electric vehicles; and an end to the use of wood-burning stoves and coal fires. It’s an achievable vision, he insists. “However, whether it happens in 10 or 100 years is down to public pressure and political will.”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/31/clearing-the-a...

I also built a few monitors to add to Sensor.Community (a contributors driven global sensor network that creates Open Environmental Data), which are pretty easy to make.

https://sensor.community/en/

Our World in Data have an excellent analysis on this topic as usual.

> Focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local

https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local

Related blgog post: https://unop.uk/octoyosu-agile-tariff-comparison-tool/

Sample output:

  Wed 11 Mar 2020 to Tue 09 Jun 2020 (91 days)
  Period total 770.37 kWh (approx)
  Daily average 8.47 kWh (approx)
  Yearly average 3092 kWh (approx)
  Monthly average 258 kWh (approx)
  
  Super Green:
  Period total 137.44 GBP inc. VAT (approx)
  Daily average 1.51 GBP inc. VAT (approx)
  Yearly average 552 GBP inc. VAT (approx)
  Monthly average 46 GBP inc. VAT (approx)
  
  Loading agile pricing and calculating...
  
  Agile:
  Period total 84.24 GBP inc. VAT (approx)
  Daily average 0.93 GBP inc. VAT (approx)
  Yearly average 338 GBP inc. VAT (approx)
  Monthly average 28 GBP inc. VAT (approx)
  
  Savings:
  Period total 53.20 GBP inc. VAT (approx)
  Daily average 0.59 GBP inc. VAT (approx)
  Yearly average 214 GBP inc. VAT (approx)
  Monthly average 18 GBP inc. VAT (approx)
  
  Super Green 100%: 
        Agile  61%: 
  
  Done in 502ms

N.B.: HN doesn't support emojis so you can't see the full output here.

OctoPlot is a small command line tool that draws a graph of the Octopus Energy Agile GB electricity pricing in your terminal.

Source (EUPL): https://github.com/jpsingleton/octoplot

Sample output (colour not shown):

  Getting pricing data...
  
  Pricing data from Fri 22 May 13:00 to Sun 24 May 15:00 for region P
  
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   16p          £££                                                                                        
   15p        £ £££                                                                                        
   14p        £££££                                                                                        
   13p        £££££                                           £ £££                                        
   12p        £££££                                           £ £££                                        
   11p       ££££££                                           £££££                                        
   10p       ££££££                                           £££££                                        
   09p       ££££££                                           £££££                                        
   08p       ££££££                                           £££££                                        
   07p       ££££££                                           £££££                                        
   06p       £££££££                                         ££££££                                        
   05p       £££££££ £ £ £                                   ££££££                                        
   04p       £££££££££££££                                   ££££££        £                               
   03p       £££££££££££££                                   ££££££        £ £                             
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       1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2                     1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2                     1 1 1 1 1 
       3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 
  
  Paid most for electricity between Sat 23 May 14:30 and Sat 23 May 15:00 (-12.327p/kWh inc. VAT)

Inertia is slightly different to supply response and most inverters use grid coupling for frequency and phase synchronisation so are not suitable. The slow response of old plants is an asset in this case and only a problem if they are generating rather than just providing inertia, which is instant.