What if I told you that Rotherham was home to one of Britain’s best science museums? Well, it is, in the form of the Magna Science Adventure Centre. I feel like it’s somewhere that I would’ve written about before, but can’t find a previous blog post about it. We’ve been a few times – I went with my parents when it first opened, and I’ve taken our little one several times, including last weekend.
History of Magna
Magna was one of a number of visitor attractions funded by the Millennium Commission, to mark the turn of the Millennium. It opened in 2001, with high expectations – further down the Don Valley, the Earth Centre in Conisbrough had opened in 1999 and was already struggling to meet its visitor targets. The Earth Centre ultimately closed in 2004 – a shame, as I’d enjoyed my visit there and felt it was perhaps ahead of its time.
Anyway, the good news is the Magna was more popular, and is still open today. Indeed, it had something of a refit in 2022, so if you’ve been before, there are some new things to see. Magna essentially fills two roles: a history of the area and, in particular, steelworking; and as a more general science museum.
Magna is housed in the former Templeborough Steelworks, or ‘Steelo’s’ as it was known colloquially. This steelworks used electric arc furnaces to recycle scrap steel – relatively new technology at the time, and allowed a significantly higher throughput than coal-powered furnaces. It did require a lot of electricity, however – a staff member commented that, if it was still running today, the steelworks annual electricity bill would be around £100million.
Templeborough Steelworks was massive – housed in a building around 1/3 mile (530 metres) long. Most of the building is still there now – it’s not quite as long as it once was, but it’s still massive. The site closed as a steelworks in 1993, with much of the massive industrial equipment remaining behind in situ, and it wasn’t long before it re-opened as Magna.
Four pavilions
The main ‘sciencey’ bit of the museum is split into four ‘pavilions’ – air, fire, water and earth. The Air pavilion is in what looks like a blimp, suspended from the ceiling; fire is at the main level of the museum, water is on the ground floor and earth is underground. Almost everything is hand’s on, in the way that the best museums for kids are these days, so there’s lots of things to press, push and twist. In the Fire pavilion, there’s a demonstration of a fire tornado approximately every 10 minutes, and at weekends there’s also a forge demonstration where you can see how a piece of steel can be melted and shaped.
The water pavilion teaches the water cycle, and lets visitors compare different ways of moving water upwards. Down in the earth pavilion, you can control a digger and learn about quarrying and archaeology, and up in the air pavilion, you can see how wind energy and vacuums work.
The other major indoor attraction is The Big Melt, which runs on the hour four times a day. It’s a big light and sound show, which simulates how the electric arc furnace would have worked in its heyday.
Outside, there is a huge adventure playground, and in summer, there’s Aqua-Tek, which is a small waterpark. Obviously, this being February, it was shut.
Our nine-year-old pretty much demanded a return trip to Magna, hence our visit, and it’s one of their favourite places to visit. I agree.
Accessibility
Having been opened in 2001, mobility access to Magna is pretty good – there are lifts between the different floors and no stairs to manage. That being said, there are some uneven floors in the Earth pavilion in places.
If you experience sensory issues, it may be worth brining ear defenders. Some parts, like The Big Melt, are very loud. Also, on a practical note, it’s worth bringing a change of clothes and some swimming gear for kids, as they will get wet in the Water pavilion and/or Aqua-Tek.
Tickets are cheaper if booked online, and automatically become an annual pass for free repeat visits.
There is a car park on site, but be aware that Magna also has a huge events space, and so the car park may be full at weekends. When we went, there was a junior boxing competition, and this weekend it’s the Camra Great British Winter Beer Festival, so you may need to park some way from the entrance if you’re driving. It’s not far off the M1 junction for the Meadowhall Shopping Centre.
If you want to get there by public transport, then you can catch the X3 bus from Sheffield, Meadowhall or Rotherham, and it drops you outside the back entrance to Magna. In the near future, you’ll also be able to get to Magna by tram, as the Supertram Tram-Train service from Sheffield to Rotherham passes by the site.
I recently bought a pair of Onvis Matter Smart Plugs(sponsored link), as my first foray into smart devices that use a Thread network rather than Wi-Fi. These were to replace my remaining Tuya smart plugs, which use Wi-Fi.
I’m going to review the Onvis smart plugs, and talk about why I’ve chosen Matter and Thread smart plugs over Wi-Fi or Zigbee.
Why not Tuya?
I bought my Tuya smart plugs several years ago, when I didn’t know so much about smart home technologies. At the time, we’d only recently got a Google Home Mini, and so I picked up a cheap smart plug which happened to support Google Assistant and IFTTT, as well as Alexa. The other advantage of Tuya devices was that they could work without buying a hub as a controller, unlike Zigbee-based devices from the likes of Philips and Ikea. Bearing in mind that the hubs often cost at least £40, it’s a lot for when you just want one plug.
I wouldn’t buy a new Tuya Wi-Fi device nowadays, for the following reasons:
Wi-Fi devices use more power than others (Zigbee and Thread). Whilst we’re talking single digit numbers of watts here, having lots of Wi-Fi smart plugs around your home adds to your home’s ‘base load’ (sometimes known as a ‘phantom load’) of always on devices.
Tuya devices rely on Tuya’s servers to work. I understand that users based in Europe use servers located in Europe, but it means that every request has to make a round trip to their servers. This makes it slower than a system where commands can be actioned locally. Now, millions of Tuya devices have been sold over the years and I doubt that those servers would ever go offline, but if they did, any Tuya devices would lose their smart abilities.
Tuya is a Chinese company, so theoretically someone in the Chinese government could be logging every time you use a Tuya device. It’s a theoretical risk, but not having that data pinging across the internet in the first place is better for privacy.
The Tuya plugs that I have are also quite big, and not very sturdy.
Getting started with Thread
To use Thread devices, you need a Thread Border Router. Thankfully, I already have two, as they’re built into my Google Nest Wifi devices. You may also already have a Thread Border Router if you have some of the newer Google Nest Hub devices, a newer AppleTV or Apple HomePod, a newer Alexa device or a Samsung SmartThings Hub.
If you use Home Assistant, you can flash a Zigbee dongle to use Thread instead. Note that the blog post mentions enabling a ‘multi-protocol’ mode that allows you to use both Zigbee and Thread on the same dongle, but this isn’t recommended. As it is, my dongle just runs Zigbee nowadays but I may get a second dongle that I can flash Thread firmware onto. That way, Home Assistant has its own Thread Border Router, and it expands the Thread mesh network. Until then, Home Assistant is able to use the existing Thread mesh network that my Google Nest Wifi devices created – see How to join a preferred Thread network in Home Assistant for more.
Commissioning the Onvis smart plugs
When you get a new Matter device, it needs to be ‘commissioned’ to add it to your home network. You need to open the app for the smart home ecosystem you want to add it to (for example, Google Home, Apple Home or Home Assistant), select to add a new Matter device, and then scan a QR code on a label on the side of the device. In the case of these Onvis smart plugs, you also need to hold down the button for around 15 seconds to put them into commissioning mode. It helps to read the manual.
One of the reasons that I use smart plugs is that they’re controlling devices in awkward places, so I commissioned this in a place where I could sit comfortably with the devices plugged in, and then moved them to where they need to be. Otherwise, I’d be spending time crouched awkwardly in a corner.
Once commissioned, the Onvis plug will show up in the smart home app of your choice, and you’re done. I’ve been using them for a couple of days, and they seem to work well.
Why Matter and Thread?
So I’ve outlined why I wouldn’t use a Tuya device, but why have I chosen a device that uses Matter and Thread?
Thread devices only work locally. Whilst voice assistants like OK Google and Alexa may still need to use the internet to interpret what you say, they don’t need to send the actual commands across the internet. As well as protecting your privacy, it’s also faster; these Onvis Thread plugs seem to respond almost instantly, rather than at least half a second with the Tuya plugs.
The majority of Tuya devices do not work with Apple Home. This isn’t a massive problem for me, as although I use an iPhone and an iPad, I’m not a big Siri user. However, Matter devices are supported.
The idle power usage of these plugs should be lower than Wi-Fi.
As Thread is a mesh network, the more devices you add, the stronger the network becomes. It can also have multiple Thread Border Routers as exit points to your LAN/Wi-Fi network, so a network with several Thread devices and Border Routers should be very resilient.
Many of Apple’s newer iPhones (iPhone 15 and later), iPads and MacBooks include Thread radios, offering even more resilience if they’re connected to your Thread mesh network when at home.
I also think Matter is the future, although it’s taking longer than I would have anticipated for Matter devices to become mainstream.
It should be noted that these Onvis smart plugs do not support energy monitoring. They simply turn a socket on and off. Obviously, you can use automations in your choice of smart home ecosystems to set timers, or trigger them to turn on and off in relation to external events.
I’m noting this because it seems to be a common issue with these relatively early Matter devices – their Matter support is basic. With the Meross smart plugs for example, the Matter support is also limited to turning them on and off again. If you want to use their energy monitoring abilities, you have to use the Meross app, or install the Meross LAN integration from HACS for Home Assistant. These don’t use Matter and instead rely on Meross’ servers to send and receive data.
Price
I recently picked up a Zigbee smart plug for around £8 (including VAT) from AliExpress, which included energy monitoring. Seeing as these Onvis smart plugs don’t support energy monitoring, you may be surprised to find that they’re £25 each, or £40 for a pair (although as I write this, there are 15% off vouchers available on Amazon). So they are on the pricey side.
Which brings to the question about why I’m not just using Zigbee. After all, Zigbee is also a mesh network, and devices work locally. As it is, I have a small Zigbee network with the smart plug and a couple of colour-changing lights for our nine-year-old’s bedroom. And they work fine with Home Assistant. But then I have to use Home Assistant to make them appear in Google Home, and allow my Google Assistant devices to talk to them. Command fulfilment can be slow, taking a few seconds, and it’s unreliable – even when the Zigbee devices are obviously working, Google sometimes complains that they’re offline.
I suppose I could buy a Zigbee hub, like a Philips Hue or Ikea Dirigera, which would probably work better. But I already have Thread Border Router devices, and I’m hoping that Matter will mature as a standard.
Is £25 per Onvis plug worth it? Well, that’s up to you – but bear in mind that they work without needing a third-party app, will work with most smart home ecosystems, seem nice and sturdy and don’t rely on third-party internet servers. Hopefully, these Onvis smart plugs will be a good, long-term investment.
It’s also worth noting that these were the only Thread smart plugs that I could find on Amazon UK.
Matter Multi-Fabrics
One last thing to mention about Matter is its ‘multi-fabric’ feature, which allows you to add devices to multiple smart home ecosystems simultaneously. Initially, I’ve added all my Matter devices to Home Assistant, which has the Python Matter Server addon. On the device settings page, there’s a ‘Share Device’ button, which, when clicked, puts your device back into commissioning mode. You then get a new QR code in the Home Assistant interface, which you can use to add it to another smart home app like Google Home. You can then repeat the whole process for any other apps, like Apple Home.
This means that I have my Onvis smart plugs added to all three smart home apps, and they can be controlled by Home Assistant, Apple Home and Google Home. What’s particularly notable is that I was still able to control the lights in Apple Home whilst my Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant was restarting after an update.
Summary
Well, this ended up being a longer blog post that I’d expected. So, in summary:
The Onvis smart plugs work well, are sturdy, respond quickly and are compatible with most smart home ecosystems
They’re a bit pricey at £25 each, and don’t support energy monitoring
You need a Thread Border Router device for them to work, but you may already have one
They’re more energy efficient than Wi-Fi sockets, and don’t rely on third-party internet servers
The Pronouns Labeller uses an interesting feature of Bluesky called labels, which can be applied to individual posts (or skeets) and whole accounts. They can be used in a positive way, such as sharing pronouns, but can also be applied as a potential warning to other users. Today, I’m listing some of the labellers that I use – all of these are listed on the (unofficial) Bluesky Labellers page, which ranks them by popularity.
To use these, you’ll first need to subscribe to the labeller whilst logged in to Bluesky – there’ll be a big ‘Subscribe to labeller’ button on their profile. Once subscribed, you can configure which labels you want to see, and optionally hide all posts with a certain label (or all posts from users with that label).
If you want to apply a label to your own account, then there may be additional steps, usually detailed on a pinned post on the profile.
TTRPG Class Identifier. It’s somewhat telling that this is the most popular labeller on Bluesky. Once you follow, you’ll be given a class from a table-top role-playing game (such as Dungeons and Dragons) which will display as a label on your profile. There are commands that you can send to re-roll your class, and you can choose your race too. More details available here.
Nations. Allows you to add your country’s flag as a label, and see others’ flags. You can also add the standard pride flag emoji, and/or the trans pride emoji to your account too.
Sorting Hat. I have my issues with the author of the Harry Potter books, due to her views about trans people, but this lets you tell the world which Hogwarts house you would belong to, and see others.
XBlock Screenshot Labeller. Labels posts containing screenshots from other social networks, so that you can have them labelled and optionally hidden.
Developer Labels. Show off what programming languages you know on your posts.
Private School and Landlord labeller. Subscribing to this will reveal which private (fee-paying) school various (mainly UK) users attended, so you can see who benefitted from a paid-for education. Nepo Baby Labeller works in a similar way.
Birthdays. Will show you if it’s a user’s birthday.
Profile Labeller. Warns you about potential bots, and people whose posts are bridged in from other social networks.
Anyone can make a label, and there’s a Label Starter Kit on GitHub if you want to make your own. If I had the time and the skills, I would consider writing a labeller which allows users to show which British university they graduated from, for example.
Labels are one thing that I particularly like about Bluesky – especially as users can contribute their own. It’s quite a unique feature – I’m not aware that others have anything similar. Sometimes, a bit of extra context on each post is welcome.
I’ve added a couple of extra WordPress widgets to the sidebar, which appears on the right of blog posts if your screen is wide enough. For smaller screens, it’ll be at the bottom.
The second is a list of posts written on this day in the past. When I was a Movable Type user, I used Brad Choate’s OnThisDay plugin to achieve something similar. On WordPress, I’m using the Posts On The Day plugin instead.
Both plugins make a widget available to insert wherever widgets can go in your WordPress theme. They’re classed as ‘legacy widgets’ but are customisable in the WordPress user interface.
This does mean that, on shorter posts like this one, the sidebar is now significantly longer than the content. Oh well.
Recently, I’ve used Resolver to handle a couple of complaints that I have had with companies, such as the firm that provides water in Yorkshire. As I mentioned on Monday, we’ve had some water supply issues recently and this has resulted in some expenses for us.
Resolver works by managing the complaint for you. It sends your complaint using a unique email address, and notifies you of responses. You can also upload evidence, and keep these in a ‘case file’ to keep track of documents. If the company you’re complaining to doesn’t respond, then it’ll help you escalate the complaint to more senior people in the company.
The thing I like best about Resolver is that it helps you write your complaint in a structured way. Instead of one long free text field, you get a series of prompts, asking you to write:
what the problem is
its impact on you
what resolution you are seeking
You’ll also be prompted for important information like customer reference numbers, which will hopefully make things easier for the staff handling your complaint. Before your message is sent, you’ll have the opportunity to review and tweak it.
Resolver supports a wide range of companies across a number of sectors. Utility firms are there, as are telecoms companies, parking firms, insurance and financial services companies, and many others. Even my employer is there. Resolver was quite popular when PPI was mis-sold, as it allowed customers to manage their claims themselves, rather than engaging a claims management firm to do so (and who would take a cut of any compensation). Resolver is free to use, as it’s supported by advertising.
So far I’ve used Resolver twice, with one case resolved. I don’t often have the need to complain, but when I’ve used it, it has made the process easier.
Whilst I wasn’t tagged, I saw Matt Haughey’s ‘Answering the blog questions challenge‘ and decided to give it a go. It’s been a while since I did one of these.
Why did you start blogging in the first place?
I started blogging in 2002 as I could see people that I followed also starting to write blogs. I used to read Chris Pirillo‘s Lockergnome email newsletters, and saw that he and his then wife had both started blogs. Whilst I had run various web sites on Geocities and the like, having a blog that was easy to update quickly seemed like a good idea.
What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?
Like most of the blogiverse, I use WordPress. In my case, it’s the open source self-hosted version, running on a virtual server that a third party hosts for me. It’s the most popular platform and highly customisable, with many plugins and themes available and lots of guides for how to do things. For now, it continues to suit my needs.
Have you blogged on other platforms before?
Yes. I started on Blogger, using some free hosting – I started blogging at age 17 when I didn’t have a bank account or was allowed to sign contracts for hosting. Within 9 months I’d switched to Movable Type, as I was 18 and could pay for things online myself.
On other blogs, I’ve used ExpressionEngine before, and my final year project for my Computing degree in 2005 was to write a simple blogging system in Perl and PHP, to compare the two.
How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that’s part of your blog?
Just using the standard WordPress web interface. Years ago, I used w.bloggar, a Windows app which is still available on GitHub and is now open source. I have the WordPress app on my phone but mostly just use this to upload images.
When do you feel most inspired to write?
Most of my writing is done at weekends – this is being written on Saturday evening. During the week, I don’t really have the time, but if I’m sufficiently inspired then I may write the occasional post on my lunch break from work. Generally though, I write the blog posts for the forthcoming week at the weekend. If I know I’m going to be busy then I’ll try to write more in advance.
Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
It’s rare that a blog post will go live on the same day that it’s written. Generally, I write in bulk and then schedule the posts to go live every other day throughout the forthcoming week. However, if something urgent comes up, I may shift things around.
I don’t have any drafts saved – generally, I write and then schedule each blog post in one session. Of course, I have the opportunity to tinker with each post before it goes live. I also have a note in Simplenote with blog post ideas, but these are usually single bullet points.
What are you generally interested in writing about?
I like to share interesting places that we’ve been, and, if I’ve recently solved a problem, writing about how I solved it. I also write quite a bit about home automation and occasionally about transport.
Who are you writing for?
I know there are a few regular readers, but also for myself – on more than one occasion, I’ve followed my own guide to solving a problem when it has happened again.
Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?
Just to keep it going. I may change the theme at some point but only to another simple and lightweight one. I quite like the fact that it’s quick to load.
I imagine I will stick with WordPress for the foreseeable future, unless a better fork comes along.
Who else do you want to tag?
I’ll tag Kevin and Dave2, since I read their blogs and I’m pretty sure they read mine too.
We didn’t do much in January, hence the lack of blog posts about days out. Indeed the only post to the Days Out category was our trip to the Jorvik Viking Centre, and though I published it last month, our visit was in December. January isn’t a good month for going out to places as it’s cold and many attractions are shut for the winter.
As well as the cold, we’ve had the heavy snow to contend with. This resulted in me taking some short notice annual leave to home-school our nine-year-old when the school closed. Indeed, I only managed one full week at work this month, as I had to take a second instance of short-notice annual leave the following week. That was caused by a burst water main, knocking out the water supply both at the school and at home. There was also a funeral to attend.
So it’s been something of an eventful January, just not one that is full of things to write about on a blog. Oh well.
What’s happening in February?
This would be where I tell you about lots of exciting things that we’re planning for February. Alas, we don’t have any plans; it’s probable that February may end up being as uneventful as January. We’ll see; perhaps we’ll end up spending a nice weekend afternoon somewhere if we get lucky with the weather.
In 2021, when we were back in lockdown, I hosted and co-hosted a couple of webinars through work. One was about Section 28, the legislation in force during my years at school which banned the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools. The second was a panel discussion with two other colleagues about what it is to be bisexual and some debunking some common myths about bisexuality.
This year, I’m hosting another webinar, with the rather long title of ‘From Ace to Zir – the A-Z of LGBTQ+‘. Over the space of an hour, I’ll be delivering a glossary of LGBTQ+ terms, including what they mean, and when to use them (or not use them if they’re now considered slurs). Starting with A, and terms like asexual, I’ll be going though each letter of the alphabet to help LGBTQ+ and their allies to understand the various terminology used. Many of these words are relatively new, and so I’m hoping it’s useful. I’ve also tried to include as many of the various pride flags as I can.
The fight for liberation – How it all started, about the Stonewall riots.
Queer South Asians – Looking back and forward, about South Asians with queer identities, especially in Bradford, and hosted by my colleague Usman
Stonewall postal action network documentary screening with Austin Allen, a screening of a short documentary and a discussion with Austin Allen, who ran a postal LGBT action network from his home in Queensbury, near Bradford.
There are also other events taking place across the wider Bradford district during February – details are available here.
Whilst Pride Month takes place in July, LGBT+ History Month is also important and different. Pride is, depending on your view, a protest and/or a celebration for LGBTQ+ people and allies. Whereas LGBT+ History Month has a more educational focus, looking at LGBT+ people in history and the key events that have pushed LGBT+ rights forwards (and sometimes backwards). As I work for a university, LGBT+ History Month is closer to our mission, and also happens during term time. Pride, alas, takes place when our undergraduate students are on their summer break.
By the way, if you want to buy the pin badge shown in the image above, here’s the link.
We’ve had our solar panels for a couple of years now, and, as a thought experiment, I’ve wondered if it would be possible to go ‘off grid‘. This would mean having no connection to the electricity and gas networks, and potentially the water network too.
Now, I’m very much aware that this is a classic example of Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, and indeed, the short version of this is pretty much, ‘no’ when it comes to electricity and water. Especially if the person reading this is my wife, Christine (love you sweetheart). It is intended to be a thought experiment after all.
Getting off the gas grid
We’ll start with the easiest one – getting off the gas grid. This is actually a long-term of ours, and many homes are now getting disconnected from the gas grid.
When we bought our house, which will have been 10 years ago this summer, it was a very gas-reliant house. There were three gas fires, a gas central heating boiler and water tank, and a gas cooker. We got two of the gas fires out before we’d even moved in, and the remaining one followed when we had the very old gas boiler replaced with a more energy efficient condensing boiler in 2016. Next to go was the gas cooker, when we had the kitchen renovated in 2022, so now we only need gas for heating and hot water.
Now our boiler isn’t quite nine years old, but it’s likely to have a few years left in at least. When it’s due for replacement, our plan is to switch to an air source heat pump, which will be electrically powered. That will mean there’s no need for a gas connection to our home, and we can have it completely removed. As well as meaning that we don’t need to pay the daily gas standing charge, we’ll no longer have pipes carrying an invisible and highly flammable gas running into our home. And it’ll reduce our carbon footprint too.
Off-grid electricity
So that’s the easy one out of the way. Going off grid for electricity, however, is likely to be much harder.
We’ve made a start, at least, with our solar panels. In the summer months, with longer days and more sunlight, we generally generate enough to be self-sufficient. We also have a battery attached to the system, so the solar panels can charge the battery during the day, and then the house can run off the battery overnight.
However, at this time of year, we are very much not self-sufficient. This is especially true as I write this on a very dull Sunday afternoon, where our solar panels are contributing a mere 7 watts of power. That’s about enough to run a couple of LED light bulbs, but certainly not enough for our freezer, for example. We would therefore need other ways of generating electricity on dull days, or at night.
Ovo Energy have a useful guide here. Generally speaking, a roof-mounted turbine would be capable of generating 1-2 kW of electricity, which is less than half the peak capacity of our solar system. And that’s based on a lot of assumptions about wind speed that may or may not apply to your property.
As well as the installation cost, we would probably also need planning permission, as our house isn’t detached. We’re therefore looking at around £2000-3000, and it would probably take quite some time to recoup that investment.
Dull days with no wind
So, a solar system backed up with a wind turbine might cover our electricity needs. Unless it’s a dull day and there’s no wind.
I’m in a few Facebook groups for people who use Home Assistant and who have solar and battery systems, and quite a few other members have the Agile Octopus tariff. On this tariff, electricity prices change by the half hour, based on wholesale prices. If it’s forecast to be a particularly sunny and windy day, electricity prices can be very low. Indeed, they occasionally go negative – in other words, Octopus will actually pay you to take electricity out of the grid, rather than the other way round. It’s great for people who have battery systems that can charge from the grid, or who can plan their days to use more electricity at the times when it’s cheap.
Though we are Octopus Energy customers, we’re not on Agile Octopus, because prices can also shoot up on dull days with no wind. Our fixed tariff means we pay 21.10p/kWh, regardless of the weather, but on Agile Octopus, the electricity unit price can go up as high as £1 per kWh. And if you haven’t been able to charge up your home battery by then, it could get very costly.
As an aside, if you’re not already an Octopus Energy customer, here’s my referral link. You get £50 off your bill if you join, and their customer service is better than any other energy company that we’ve been with so far. There’s also an unofficial Home Assistant integration that uses their API.
Therefore, if we were to disconnect from the grid, we would need a third source of electricity. This is where it gets a bit more tricky. The options I have looked up so far include:
A wood burning stove, with a thermoelectric generator. However, in my research, I’ve yet to find anywhere in the UK that would sell such a system. And those that I have seen for home use would only be able to generate a few watts – not even enough for our house’s ‘base load’ (fridge, freezer, devices on standby etc). We have a chimney that we could use, but we would also need filters to stop particulate matter getting into the air.
Some form of hydro generation using water collected from rainfall on our roof. This would only really work when it rains; although we live in the Pennines where it rains quite a bit, I doubt this would power much more than a couple of light bulbs.
Therefore, we would probably have to fall back on a diesel generator, which would be noisy, smelly, and not good for local air quality or the environment.
No Smart Export Guarantee
The other benefit to being on the electricity grid is that you can be paid back for any excess electricity that you export. Even though it’s January, we’ve exported around £1 of electricity this month, and that’s only after our battery has been fully charged. In June last year, we were paid £46 for the electricity we exported, against £36 for the grid energy that we used. So that was a net payment to us that month. Indeed, over the whole of 2024, we were paid £227 for the excess electricity that we exported.
If we’re not on the grid, then we can’t export. So if our battery is full, that electricity is essentially being wasted. Of course, if I was serious about going off-grid, then I would probably invest in another battery to prevent this from happening, but then that’s another expense.
What about water?
Going off the water grid would be the most difficult. Although ironically, we’ve been inadvertently off the water grid four times so far this month, due to supply issues. I have an active complaint with Yorkshire Water about that, but let’s imagine that I want to willingly disconnect from the water grid for a moment.
Clearly, we would need some other way of getting clean water into the house. Rainwater is the most obvious, but we would then need somewhere to store it. In 2023, I read The Climate Change Garden(sponsored link) by Sally Morgan and Kim Stoddart, and the book shows you how you can store water in tanks underneath your garden to cope with water shortages. During the 2022 heatwave, we had a hosepipe ban for several months, and so I’m considering whether to get a water butt to store rain water for use in the garden. You may be eligible for a subsidised water butt from Save Water Save Money – you’ll need to pop in your postcode to see if your water company participates.
But even a butt, or huge tanks under our lawn, are unlikely to be sufficient. We would ideally need to have access to a constant flow of running water, such as a stream. And we would need the means to filter the water so that it’s fit for drinking.
And what about sewage? We don’t have a particularly big garden and so we probably wouldn’t have room for a septic tank, or any other means of storing and/or treating waste.
A case study: Gibson Mill
Up above Hebden Bridge is Hardcastle Crags, a National Trust property which is home to Gibson Mill. The Mill is off-grid, because of its remote location – it’s about a mile away from the nearest electricity cables, for example. So, electricity is instead generated on site, using solar panels and a hydro-electric generator. Mills were typically built next to watercourses and Gibson Mill is no exception, being served by Hebden Beck. Whilst this would have driven a waterwheel in years gone by, nowadays it drives a turbine to produce electricity. The solar panels have recently been replaced with newer, more efficient models, and there are huge batteries to store energy.
Gibson Mill also has no connection to the sewerage system, so its toilets are composting toilets. Below the toilets are huge vats filled with worms, who digest our waste for us. It’s feasible at this scale because it’s a tourist attraction, and the alternative of laying pipes would be more expensive.
Conclusion – staying mostly on-grid
So, in summary: going totally off-grid would be difficult, although coming off the gas grid is achievable and something that we want to do eventually. We don’t live in a very remote area, and so going off-grid with electricity and/or water wouldn’t really make sense. Even if we could find the means to generate our own electricity, the upfront costs of installing the required equipment would probably outweigh the potential savings.
We’re getting to the end of the January, so it’s time for another playlist of the month. This month I’m focussing on one specific niche genre: electro swing. Imagine swing and jazz music, but overlaid with a modern dance beat. It’s fun music and easy to dance to. Here’s a 10 track sampler playlist – as usual, you can listen along on Spotify.
“Inspector Gadget” by Madam Misfit. I had to get a Madam Misfit track in somewhere, as she’s one of my favourite artists. Alas, she’s not at this year’s Sci-Fi Weekender as it clashes with a Steampunk festival in America. This song covers the theme tune to the Inspector Gadget TV series, with additional verses written by Ms Misfit.
“Horny” by Pisk. This is a cover of the late 1990s song by Mousse T vs Hot ‘n’ Juicy (“I sent a message through the internet but it rejected).
“Still In Love With You” by Electro Velvet. Probably the most commercially successful electro swing song, on account of it being the 2015 UK Eurovision entry. Alas, the rest of Europe weren’t so keen, and it scored 5 points overall and we came 24th out of 27 countries.
“Take A Chance” by Odd Chap featuring Sarah Myers. Odd Chap is one of the most well-known artists in the electro swing subculture, and this song features songs by Sarah Myers who is actually Madam Misfit in another guise.
“Headless Horseman” by Kid Kasino. Halloween themed songs seem to be a big thing in electro swing, so whilst it may be January and October, it would be remiss for me not to include this.
“Black Betty” by Caravan Palace. Yes, it’s an electro swing cover of the Ram Jam classic.
