Chaplaincy Wireless

Simon Stevens (Yellow) benieth the new wi-fi unit

southampton university, chaplaincy, wireless

The Chaplaincy is Wireless

Horah! The Southampton University Chaplaincy is now wireless :)

Here we are, three of us with laptops (Alex, Rob and myself) sitting in the Chaplaincy with our laptops enjoying the delights of the internet in a new setting. Sad I know. But bring your laptops along to the Chaplaincy (just along from the big Jubilee swimming pool towards Portswood) and enjoy the Chaplaincy internet cafe - "Cheaper than Lattes, Closer than Home"

Alex and Helen

Rob and Andy

Simon (Yellow) Stevens

university of southampton, soton, chaplaincy

Extraction of a Heat Exchanger

We in the Kitchener Community had a fantastic weekend with old friends joining us for a couple of days of garden enjoyment. I'll post later about the actual gardening we did, but here I just wanted to share one of the most exciting finds of the weekend.

We were discussing how to turn our hobo stove into a hot water heater for our outdoor bath when Hallam (Rachel's now fiancee !!) mentioned that hot water tanks have heat exchangers. At which point James stepped over to take a look at the hot water tank we have lying around the side. Sure enough inside was a perfect coil of copper tubing - perfect for the stove (in fact it was what we had thought of making). After a little extraction exercise it was free, and a thing of beauty it is too. Now we just need to work out how to fix it in the oil drum.

James and Luke cut a window in the tank to have a look

Then set about freeing the coil from it's housing

Exposed it sat lurking inside like some eroded rib cage

Ben standing victorious with the coil. Result.

heat exchanger, plumbing, hot water

Photovoltaics

Our groovey blue photovoltaic crystals.

Blogging on the Roof

Over the Easter weekend Chris and I have been helping install my parents new solar water heating panels. We already have a nice shiney set of photovoltaics (the true electricity-producing 'solar panels') which produce about 5 kWh in the summer, but in a further attempt to reduce our carbon footprint (and enchance my step fathers PhD research) we've invested in these new panels to generate all the hotwater needed in summer to remove the need for burning the boiler (which itself generates electricity).

On Good Friday we raised the panel onto the roof and then today have been preparing the piping to connect it into the water tank. Before it's conected the panel is kept under cover (hence the brown cardboard) to prevent it over heating while it's dry. When it's connected up with water flowing it will be generating hot water whenever the sun is out as there is a tiny solar powered pump to drive the system - how neat.

Our panels are pretty damn cool and are made by Solar Twin. Check out their website and why not pick yourself out a panel for your house.

Peter and our eco-roof (photovoltaics behind and solar water heater infront).

The water heating panel up close.

Me blogging on the roof. I've also slept on this roof.

solar panels, photovoltaics, solar water heating panels, Solar Twin

Good Friday Sunrise

Following my Tesco adventure I was quiter excited to find the sun begin to rise a little after 5 am as I passed Swindon. I'm not usually a big one for sunrises, I've never been that impressed when sunsets are so accessible and impressive. But this one blew me away. For about 10 minutes there was this stiking band of deep red on the horizon and eventually it burst into deep oranges and yellows. It was so striking that I had to stop at a petrol station and stand watching it for a quater of an hour or so. It was splendid and the break gave me a good oppertunity to reflect and pray. Glorious.

Sunrise on Good Friday

Good Friday, sunrise, Easter

4 am in Tesco

So it was a tad late (well, early on Friday morning) when I eventually set off home for Cheltenham after having spent a lovely day with my good friend. I decided it would be a handy move to stop at Tesco at Winchester to get some essentials, like my Easter eggs, and check that I was awake and safe enough to drive. I also found that my iPod hadn't synced my friends album I'd copied for the journey. So I popped my MacBook Pro in my trolly and connected the iPod up. Of course the idea of opening up my Photo Booth camera was obvious and so here is a little log of my Tesco adventure. I did take some video which I'll see if I can upload to YouTube.

Goodbye as you enter Tesco

Shoppers are replaced by re-stocking trolleys

A little procrastination before the real task of shopping

Tesco do a good line in Fair Trade coffee, but I wasn't after this

I needed Timotei...

tishews (if only they were spelt sensibly)...

some sweets (american hard gums)...

drugs for my headaches...

and I found Quarn on offer @ 2 for £3

But what I'd really come for was Easter Eggs (yes I appreciate the lack of forward planning)

I picked up a Fair Trade egg

and a 3 for £3 offer * on Cadbury's (though they only had flake)

Then took it all to the rather lonely checkout man who suspected I was slightly odd seeing as how I was wondering round the store at 4am with a Laptop in my trolley taking photos and not wearing any shoes.

* as it turned out both my Mum and Brother had also got the same offer so we all swapped Cadbury eggs.

easter, tesco, 4am

Mahusive Phahesis

Today it all began. This is the beggining of the end. Today I opened TeXnicCenter and created my thesis document and wrote a few lines in it. I hear that writing the first line in any document is the most difficult so with that done the rest will be a breese, surly.

It will be alright won't it?

It has begun