Following recent developments in the pricing of electricity for households with solar panels in the Netherlands, I got interested in the energy balance of our own household. A little over two years ago, we moved into a newly build house that qualifies as a "zero-on-the-meter house". This qualification implies that -- under certain assumptions -- the house has a net energy balance of zero or below zero, i.e....
As part of a larger effort to get a better understanding of our energy consumption and production, I wanted to log the power generated by the photovoltaic installation in our house. We use a Solax system consisting of 8 solar panels, a Solax X1 inverter and the Solax Pocket Wifi 2.0 device. Via this manual I will explain how I got the data extracted. In the rest of...
As part of a larger effort to get a better understanding of our energy consumption and production, I wanted to predict the production of our solar arrays on a day to day basis. This requires information on the Global Horizontal Irradiance, which is calculated in the weather models by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute KNMI. Because the KNMI is a publicly funded organisation and is part of the...
In the Netherlands and increasing number of homes have a smart energy meter, that communicates with the energy supplier and automatically provides them with numbers of the usage. In earlier times, you had to read of the reader yourself, fill in a registration form and mail it in to the energy supplier. The newer meters have an accessory port that can be used by the home owner, to...
We started playing around the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and were for the larger part of...
A few months ago, one of my brothers-in-law asked me if I wanted to join his first ever Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Of course I said yes! We played our few sessions now, and I have been making props to enhance game play or make things easier. In a series of a few blog posts I will outline the things I made, and provide considerations and details if you want to make them yourself. In this installment two small wood working projects: an initiative tracker and a dice tray.
Continue readingDungeons and Dragons props – Initiative tracker and dice tray
A few months ago, one of my brothers-in-law asked me if I wanted to join his first ever Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Of course I said yes! We played our few sessions now, and I have been making props to enhance game play or make things easier. In a series of a few blog posts I will outline the things I made, and provide considerations and details if you want to make them yourself. In this installment: Potions of Healing.
Continue readingDungeon and Dragon props – Potions of Healing