Happy Winter Solstice Today 21st of December has the shortest daylight hours, of the year, in the northern hemisphere. I look forward to the longer days, in meantime good to get out at lunchtime, but probably not enough sun to get enough Vitamin D naturally.

Boiler Consultation BEIS at the UK government published last week the Improving Boiler Standards and Efficiency Consultation on boiler efficiency, hydrogen-ready boilers, and the role of hybrid systems.

Energy round up Energy is big in news with increased prices. Like many others I have not only turned down the thermostat last year but optimised the flow temperature, make sure boiler condensing and operating efficiently. There are several good videos on YouTube about this including those from Szymon Czaban (Urban Plumbers) and Heat Geek. I am also now taking cooler shorter showers, less often. My job no longer needs commuting but when I have to go into office it will be by either bus or bicycle with a train.

Web browsing tips. I recommend using Firefox to browse the web and install the extension(s) uBlock Origin and/or Privacy Badger. If you use YouTube like me then try Enhancer for YouTube™. It has many great features: As well as blocking adverts it can turn off autoplay, to try reduce the bad effects of the YouTube Algorithm, prevent videos loaded in background tabs from automatically playing; has extra feature buttons including one to remove the overlays at end which is great if they are covering something you want to see like credits; hide shorts which I find tend to be a big time waste; automatically expand the videos descriptions; automatically sort comments from newest to oldest; hide comments if you find you waste time being drawn into them, and many more tweaks to YouTube you may wish to make, I use the KDE colours based theme, and many more additional options for YouTube.

Happy Beltane / Merry Mayday I have not used this blog as much as I intended being busy with life. It is a pity did not get to the local May Day March although went past by on way through city centre for some family to get there covid jabs on other side of town, turned out as well as appointment they were doing walk-ins so maybe could have rejigged the timing to go, but to tell you truth I missed several announcements even though by emails and in WhatsApp group on, had come so only found out on the day.

Building on SGN’s Oban project and other recent Gas Quality research and industry review by the Gas Quality Working Group, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a consultation on revising the Gas Safety Management Regulations (GSMR). These proposed changes will reduce processing costs and remove a barrier to future diversification of UK gas sources to support progress towards Net-Zero.

There are many aspects of internet safety with an ever-evolving set of threats that need to guard against when using the internet. My understanding of internet safety has evolved both as the internet evolves and with my family using the internet. Parental controls are an area I have come to understand practically. It is well worth parents understanding them and properly setting them up even if can be a bit of extra work to deal with.

The blog is back using HUGO static site generator, and a theme by Rijo Thomas. I am getting used to writing entries as Markdown text using Ghostwriter. Displaying the year for entries is not matching those in the file and I have yet to work out why, but given there are many calenders I am in no rush to fix. The year can be worked out from the url of the post.

I have been wondering what to do with this blog, driven by me moving my websites to a new host Webarchitechs. So far the new virtual server does not have PHP on, and I am minded not to install it. I wish to keep it pretty slimline and lightweight, which will mean no WordPress. So should I abandon this blog? Or rehost it in the same way Giles Thomas has done as outline in his post using his new solution.

My prediction is that in 2050 in the UK and hopefully worldwide, there will be two sort of large scale Gas Networks delivering energy for heating: a non-fossil synthetic / bio-methane (with up to 20% Hydrogen) and a fully 100% hydrogen Network be it from fossil fuels with Carbon Capture and Storage (Blue Hydrogen) or from electrolysis from Green electricity. To get there we need to grow market for bio-methane using the existing Gas Networks.