@tomasmcguinness

  • Gas Energy Usage – Oct 22

    As it’s now the first of November and heating season has begun, I wanted to do a quick comparison of my gas usage between Oct ’21 and Oct ’22. In Oct ’21, we used 93.2m3 of gas, which is approximately 1024kWh. We were away for eight day’s that month, so… Read ⇢

  • First Tesla Model Y Road Trip

    Back in 2019, we booked a 2020 trip on the famous Jacobite train, which starred as the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter film series. COVID-19 closed the railway, which meant we had to postpone the trip until this year. The original plan was to drive up to Fort William,… Read ⇢

  • My Mixergy IoT device – The start!

    I’m loving my Mixergy tank, but one of the main issues is that the temp display is connected to the tank by a short wire. My tank sits out in the garage, so without consulting the app, it’s hard to know how much hot water you have. Using my Home… Read ⇢

  • Smart Bulbs: my lightbulb moment?

    I’ve always disliked smart lightbulbs. Turn them off at the wall and you immediately question why you paid 1000% more. I’ve held this position for years and years, until one day I came across a tweet by Troy Hunt where he used the words detached and Shelly1. This immediately captured… Read ⇢

  • My Mixergy Smart Hot Water Tank

    I recently installed a Mixergy smart hot water tank into my new house, as part of a total renovation. I’ve been very impressed and wanted to share my thoughts on the product after using it for a few weeks. The problem with hot water tanks For me, the problem with… Read ⇢

  • Automating our dual fuel towel radiator

    As I explained in my earlier post, heating our bathroom, we installed a dual fuel tower radiator. A dual fuel radiator is one that can be heating by both our central heating and an electrical element inside the radiator. This allows us to dry our towels without having to turn… Read ⇢

  • Making a dumb light switch smart

    A few months back, when planning the rewiring of our house, we decided not to include any switched 5A sockets; you know the kind of arrangement where a switch on the wall can turn on some floor lights and lamps in a room? If you want light, but something subdued,… Read ⇢

  • Heating our bathroom

    The bathroom in our old house was cold. Really cold. It had two external, solid brick walls, and the room was tiled floor to ceiling. We had a rubber floor covering, so at least you didn’t suffer from very cold feet. We had a lot of condensation, which unfortunately led… Read ⇢

    Heating our bathroom

  • Moving a wall to create a bigger bathroom!

    When we purchased our house, one thing that we didn’t really like was the small bathroom. The layout is pretty standard for the type of house, with an airing cupboard and W.C. over the garage. We knew we wanted to retain the bath, for the kids mostly, and we knew… Read ⇢

    Moving a wall to create a bigger bathroom!