When Apple’s iPad was first launched I was openly skeptical about it. What was the point of this device? It wasn’t as mobile as my phone, or as powerful as my trusty laptop. A satirical video spoof of a man out jogging with an iPad strapped to his arm, and of course all the gaffes about the name better representing a sanitary towel amused me greatly.

A colleague (and long established Apple fan) was quick to snap one up, so it wasn’t long before I got to see an iPad in the flesh. Then, still, I mocked the device, and (carefully!) used it as a iBeerMat.

However, last Christmas I was fortunate enough to be gifted an original 32GB wireless iPad. Given my previous iPhone experience it didn’t take me long to get everything set up. After an initial period of fascination with what is certainly a very interesting gadget, its real benefits started to show.

A year on, this device (yes, this post has been written on my iPad) is used far more than the workstation, laptop or my mobile while I’m in the house. It doesn’t do any single thing well enough to warrant its price tag, but it does so many things that I’d now swiftly replace it if it ever broke.

On that topic, the screen is (understandably) fragile. I managed to crack mine during a spectacularly malcoordinated mishap. Fortunately I sourced a replacement screen kit for around £40 (thanks, eBay!) and while the outer edges of the device show the signs of my rudimentary intrusion, it’s all working okay.

Use cases

The various catch up TV apps mean I can watch television no matter where I am in the house, from the bedroom to the bathroom and of course the kitchen. On the subject of the kitchen, the web browser there is incredibly useful for recipes, and while the iPad is mounted on the wall the touch screen means the talented among us can even navigate the web with our noses while our hands are covered in sticky ingredients.

An iPad is substantially easier to take on holiday than a laptop, and is just as good if like me your only needs are to stay on top of email and social media while you’re away. Oh, and for taking your own films to watch (try CineXPlayer) on the plane or in the hotel room.

I’ve used the notepad feature a great deal, while studying or taking measurements etc. When our daughter came along, the iPad became an essential part of the baby feeding kit during the early days when it was important to note down all her intake – we still know the details of every feed she had during her first month at home!

While watching TV I’m often distracted by questions such as “what other film have I seen this guy in?” or “surely that’s not factually correct!” – well, the IMDB and Wikipanion apps come straight to the rescue there. Sure, I could look this up on the phone or the laptop, but (and I can’t believe I’m saying this now) the laptop is too big and slow to get going, and the mobile does have a rather poky screen.

The battery life is good too – the iPad craps all over both the iPhone and my laptop in that department.

I use the reminders application a lot to keep on top of my domestic to-do list. If I think of something while I’m out and about I can add the task from my phone and it’ll be waiting for me on the iPad when I’ve got time to crack on with things.

It’s also my home device of choice for staying up to date with Twitter and Facebook, although the lack of synchronisation between Twitter apps gets quite tedious (ooh I’ve got a new mention; oh no, I saw that hours ago on my phone). Some web sites are better to read on their free iPad app than the original web version due to fewer adverts – Mashable is a good example here.

Finally (for now!), it’s a great portable radio which I use a lot for radio 4 and cricket commentary.

Overall then, I can’t believe what a fan-boy I’ve become. The iPad is a great device. There, I said it.

On this, the shortest day of 2011, I mark a third of a year since my solar panel installation. Solar PV has been in the news in the meantime because the government made a fairly dramatic U-turn on the FiT (Feed in Tariff) on the 31st October, announcing that only systems registered before the 12th December would get the then established rates of payback for the full 25 year period; all systems registered after that date would see the FiT almost halved depending on the size of the installation. Just yesterday the Friends of the Earth and a couple of installation companies managed to obtain a high court ruling that this change was unlawful as the government hadn’t finished their consultation on the matter, so we shall see where this goes!

The government claimed that the FiT scheme had been so successful that it had brought down the cost of installations to the point where they are far too profitable. They wanted payback to take about 16 years, but reckoned some systems would payback in only 8 years. Fortunately for me, my solar system has been registered well within the approved period, so unless the government breaks their existing agreement, I’m tied in to the more favourable rate of payback for the next 25 years. Time will tell as to how long it’ll take to reach payback!

Consumption

My wonderful Wattson energy monitoring system has been measuring both our consumption and generation since the PV system was installed. In the graph below, it should be noted that the values for August and December are not complete, as the system was brought online late on the 23rd August, and the last measurement was uploaded yesterday morning.

The blue bars are our consumption, and the green line is our solar PV generation. I’m pleased to note that in the final week of August, we very nearly generated enough power to meet our needs – hopefully that’ll be the case in from May to August.

Our consumption has increased month on month due to the fact that a part of the house (a north facing extension) is heated by electric storage heaters, so as winter has drawn in it has been necessary for us to put a lot of energy in to keep us warm. The remainder of the house is heated by gas fired central heating, which isn’t included in our consumption here, but we need to use that surprisingly little – my theory here is that a combination of a heated northern edge and the heat from kitchen appliances goes a long way to maintaining a comfortable temperature.

Another key change in our consumption has been caused by the arrival of our daughter in mid-October. Suddenly we need to run bottle warmers, sterilisers, and electric heaters on cold nights. Also we bath her nearly every night, and as our water is heated overnight we generally need to run the booster immersion heater for 15 minutes or so every evening – something we rarely used to do.

On the other hand, when compared with the same period last year, our consumption is well down. This is partly due to a milder winter so far (we had snow twice by this time last year!), and also due to the solar generation offsetting our consumption. These two factors are reasonably easy to separate as our night readings are down 40% (milder winter) and our day readings are down 54% (due to solar PV assistance), causing an immediate saving in outgoing bills before the generation payouts listed below are taken into account.

Generation

Generation has faded as I’d expect as we slipped into winter. Given an even spread of cloud throughout the year I’d expect the green line to be roughly sinusoidal, with a peak in June and a trough in December.

On the 23rd November I submitted my first quarterly generation reading: 817kWh. There’s an agreed 3.1ppkWh export payout, plus the 43.5ppkWh FiT. The trouble is there’s no export meter – when we are generating more than we are consuming my consumption meter simply stops, so there’s an assumption that we use half and export half of what we generate. I’m therefore paid (3.1/2)+43.5=45.05ppkWh, so was pleased to receive my first cheque for £366.42 this month.

If every quarter gave an identical yield (which of course they won’t), I’d achieve payback in a little over 8 years. Nice. Perhaps though things are even more optimistic: the majority of that quarter was actually winter-side of equinox, so it should be below average. Time will tell – perhaps the government were right to make a hasty change after all, although I am inclined to suggest that 6 weeks notice wasn’t at all reasonable on both prospective consumers and those businesses that had cropped up around this industry.

Some 15 months ago I embarked on a project to have a set of winter wheels and tyres for the 330d. Naturally I didn’t get around to it for last winter, so we had lots of snow. This year however, I am ready! So this week as temperatures seem to have dropped below the magic 7°C mark, I’ve taken the 18″ MV2s off for the winter.

Getting the rear wheels off the 330d was a real bitch, a combination of the cold and a lack of copper grease ensured this job took me hours. The new tyres are 225/45 R17  Pirelli Sottozero Series 2s which I mail  ordered from Oponeo. Below the difference in tread style is obvious when compared to one of the 255/35 R18 summer tyres (Falkens).

The tread blocks are much bigger and further apart, which should make them far less liable to clog up with snow. Also the rubber is slightly different – far softer at lower temperatures.

So the car doesn’t look quite as purposeful on these smaller wheels, although the brakes really do look like they’re bulging out of the wheels now! The ride quality has certainly improved thanks to the higher profile tyres, but then the 18s demand such skinny tyres that even the M5 rode better.

I can’t be too critical of the performance just yet as the tyres haven’t had a chance to bed in, but so far things feel pretty good. There’s slightly less stability when I grab the car by the scruff of the neck, but any misbehaviour is entirely controllable as breakaway is less sudden that on the 18s. When out and about in the wet in near freezing conditions, the car is certainly at least as capable as on the 18s. Due to the camber matters have always noticeably improved as tyres bed in on the 330d, so I’m hopeful for some serious winter performance. I’ll report back when I’ve got some mud, snow and ice experience!

Recently I made the mistake of lowering a rear window while a window blind was stuck to it. The suction cup disappeared down into the door, so I went to raise the window, at which point it all went horribly wrong! There was a sound like breaking glass, and the window got stuck. Fortunately it transpired that no glass was broken, but the window regulator was, and that needed replacing. So the most obvious question is, what the hell is a window regulator?

So in the above photo, the top item is a replacement window regulator, and the lower item is the broken one I removed. There’s a steel cable that’s wrapped around the central drum, and that had burst off the drum, and the noise I’d heard was it flipping around the drum and hitting the window glass.

Replacing the item isn’t especially hard. I found a good guide here: http://www.bmwgm5.com/Rear_Window_Regulator.htm

The part is BMW B51.35.8.212.099 which currently retails at £75.84 ex VAT.