HerbGrower

Forget android. Linux phones can now run Factorio!

I suspect it depends on what kind of monitor you can afford. Its likely to fill more of your field of view.

But you could also just get a larger monitor so that it does fill your field of view. At some point its annoying to turn your head to see the whole screen so there is also a point it gets too big.

Its a virtual monitor though, so you can adjust it easily. I can certainly see the use in that, but on the cost side of things I would still go with a regular monitor.

How good is the detail on it for that, would it look like a somewhat lowres virtual monitor/projector? But I could see a use for that still, and if pixel densities can continue to improve it will only get better.

So physically something small like a lattepanda or raspberry pi would happily fit in there. You could also fit a decent battery inside.

The problems you would need to solve are connecting the touchpad, keyboard and screen to it. Even more fun as that is going to be an old screen.

Depends on how much of the shell you want to keep. Some Bluetooth keyboards would probably fit in the same footprint if you are happy to just cut out the current keyboard and most likely make some kind of border to fit around where the dimensions differ. If you are OK with that then you can probably do similar with the screen.

Although a new screen alone will cost more than this is worth.

I would be pretty interested to know how much of a difference it ends up making after a long time in total energy usage. Could make a nice thick shell.

Yeah there is that too, would need a lot of freezer tubs. I also don’t have space for a microwave to reheat them. Some stuff could go in the air fryer, or a saucepan.

My partner really doesn’t like eating stuff that has been frozen though. I think she gets it from her parents, they are really funny about it for some reason. They appear to think “best before” means “toxic after”.

I have a sudden desire to turn my 21L steel stockpot into an extremely large insulated slow cooker.

Previously thought of using a straw box or similar where you heat it and then stick it in the box and seal it up and just leave it.

Now I just need to find enough people to eat up to 21L of stew or curry.

You can buy cars too.

Get stuff second hand and it isn’t even that expensive. Performance per £ is still better than it was a decade ago for the overall system.

Depends if you want something you can build yourself or if you want to buy premade electrical things. Both options are probably worth considering tbh.

You can charge an EV on a regular socket. Unless you are driving a lot that would be enough.

The majority of car journeys are less than the distance I cycle to work. You don’t need fast charging for that. When you need it is on the rare occasion you do make a long distance trip. So 100+ kW at motorway service stations and perhaps a few others scattered around is really all you need.

Other places a lot of people park like work and shops could have a few moderate speed ones too, but even where we have them here most people with EVs don’t really use them much. Still, having a few would be pretty helpful for those without home charging options. An hour to charge kind of speed would be fine if it is while shopping, multiple hours if its at work.

Isn’t the copper largely an easy one to recycle though? Just offer some drug addicts their next hit and they will provide you with recycled copper.

Isn’t “DIWhy” used to suggest its a pointless or stupid end result? This thing is awesome.

Wind is great, mostly using conventional wind turbines. But it is still good to experiment with new power generation options.

Yes, just don’t tell anyone about it and you are fine.

I have been interested in plug in batteries instead. I could do it for my own house but not sure about the solar as well. Probably run my house off the battery and plug the mains into the battery to top it up.

Jackery, ecoflow and a few others all make pretty large multi kWh batteries. Seen some that are 20+ kWh. Not sure how much solar input they take, pretty sure some can do a few kW solar input too.

Then it is a matter of fitting the solar panels though. If my garden was larger it would probably be better, not sure on fitting them to the roof myself. In summer I could probably get quite a bit from my garden but winter its mostly in the shade.

Might be worth analysing my energy usage more. Heat pump would require an electrician and a proper house battery, not really a DIY job. Everything else could be DIY. My summer usage is like 150kW a month and that still includes hot water on the heat pump. So I presume I could do everything else on a fairly small battery and solar panels.

Alternatively, no battery and get rooftop solar and just sell the extra energy to the grid to pay for my energy usage when there isn’t enough solar.

Tbh sounds like EA getting what it deserves

100% uptime since the last time we turned it on!

Sugarcane is also necessary for making cheesecake, how do you think I power my bike rides?

I find it really difficult to get people to do free activities. Even just sitting on the beach together seems to be really difficult, but suggest something expensive and get far more interest.

Depends what you do. Sit round a burning superyacht at the harbour, warming your hands is a fun group activity which costs you nothing.

Just think how relatively strong even thin paper mache is. That is typically made by kids with newspaper and PVA, but its got some strength to it.

Now think of a stronger glue, its not a bad idea.

Depends on the tool and its cost for me. If its something I can realistically see using again and is a reasonable price then sure.

Ouch, I used hot glue for mine but its not great at holding to the surface, I just had a massive surface to make use of and pretty much made a ring of glue around the break. Doesn’t look like yours would work with that sadly.

So, probably don’t go with hot glue.

Could pickle them. Especially the onions. Gives them a near endless shelf life so you can use them at what ever rate you like.

Europe should “start” more US wind projects. Then get paid more not to do it and build them in the north sea instead.

Went through some ports recently, it feels nice seeing all the wind turbine blades laying on the docks waiting to go.

Go harder, disconnect from the grid.

Jackery/similar power station as your main power supply for the house, charged by solar and a backup generator. Or you could keep the grid connection just to keep as a backup. Either way that largely isolates your house from the grid in a way that plug in solar doesn’t.

I generally prefer fermented fruits and honey. Although I suppose rhubarb is a vegetable, and one of the things I grow with hand tools.

Yeah, expectation of them doing HP style bullshit makes me want to refuse the entire thing.

Plus as long as hand tools do a good enough job there is something rather satisfying about using them. So much quieter too, I can hear the local cats if one of them turns up and wants a head scratch. Or if I have gloves on, a tummy rub.

Not just China is it? Nuclear projects seem to always get delayed and run over budget. Meanwhile wind and solar seem to do much better in comparison.

But that could be due to nuclear being much larger and you hear more about something going wrong. A single solar farm having delays isn’t really something to be overly concerned with.

Petrol generator is probably cheaper. But still expensive.

I really hate proprietary batteries on powertools, so corded is tempting. But I can’t get power 250m away across a road and several other peoples gardens.

Jackery/similar are a far higher capacity than I would realistically need to run a few tools for a fairly brief duration but you need the big ones to have a high enough current limit to reliably run any kind of garden power tools I may need.

I found another solution though. Return to tradition! Got a hand scythe. Also working to remove most grass areas. Not 100% sure what to do with the space over winter when veg isn’t growing. More rhubarb? At least weeds don’t grow as much over winter either.