Mitra Jenkins Family

New Pictures of the Kids

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:33:40 +0000

I've added some pictures of Harrison and Anton taken earlier this year. Have a look at them in the photo gallery

Solar Panel Output for June 2010

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:31:33 +0000

June was very dry and sunny and as a consequence we had our second best month for electricity generation. We generated 347.5 kwh, which is more than we used in the month.

Go to the solar panel output page for output comparisons over the past few years.

We had a smart meter fitted this month, which means that we can monitor in real-time the electricity we're using, importing, generating and exporting. The only down-side is that the meter no longer spins backwards when we're exporting back to the grid.

We've also registered with the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme, although we will receive far less per kwh generated than someone installing a system now. This is understandable, as the purpose of the FIT scheme is to get more people to install renewables. Rather than 41.3p per kwh generated, we get 9p, plus 3p for what we export.

Solar Panel Output in May 2010

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 09:28:07 +0000

May was another good month for electricity generation from our solar panels. We generated 305.8 kwh.

Go to the solar panel output page for output comparisons over the past few years.

Local Election Result

Mon, 10 May 2010 13:35:39 +0000

I stood in the city election in Worcester on Thursday 6th May for the Green Party. This was the first time I've stood for election to anything.

I had no real chance of winning, but I hoped to make an impact and certainly get more votes than the BNP candidate (last year the Green Party got 3 more votes than the BNP at the County Council election in the same ward).

The results for my ward (Nunnery) were:

Labour: 1761 votes (44.26%)
Conservative: 1394 votes (35.03%)
Green: 456 votes (11.46%)
BNP: 368 votes (9.25%)

Election results for the smaller parties are never so good when there is a general election at the same time, but the Green Party still managed to increase its share of the vote. Hopefully, this bodes well for the future. Although, until people in Worcester truly understand the seriousness of some of the environmental issues facing us, such as peak oil and climate change, the Green Party will always struggle to make an impact here.

Solar Panel Output in March and April

Sun, 02 May 2010 12:07:37 +0000

Time again to update our output statistics. March was just below the monthly average at 219.8 kwh, whilst April was excellent, being very dry and sunny, with a generation of 307.6 kwh.

Go to the solar panel output page for output comparisons over the past few years.