1202 ALARM

Okay green energy fans and cheapskates who love getting something cheap, here is my quick guide to getting a home electric vehicle (EV) charging point installed. First of all you are entitled to a grant of up to £500 against the installation from the Office for Low Energy Vehicles (OLEV), which your installer will process for you. After some research we went for the EO 32-amp charger installed by Baird Electrical and this cost us £250 after the grant was applied. The installation was very straightforward as the charging point is beside the meter box on the outside of our house which itself is on the driveway. The EO charger is the simplest to operate and all that was required in the meter box was a 40-amp RCBO in a separate consumer unit.  After getting the charging point installed we decided to switch to a Day/Night meter to get half-price electricity at night to charge the car. Our supplier is Airtricity and the night rate in the summer runs from 12:00am until 9:00am...

Another broken television, this time a slimline 32-inch Bush which had suffered a cracked LCD during a house move. So I took off the LCD panel and dumped that and behind we have 22 high-output LEDs as a backlight. These are 3-volts each and wired in series so that the current can be kept constant and relatively low, which means the power supply has a 66-volt feed out to the backlight. Luckily the power supply is working fine so it was easy to rig a test (always being careful not to electrocute oneself, kids) and even control the light using the power button on the old remote. It is very bright and looks amazing. The only downside is where to put the power supply so that it is out of harm's way and earthed because the remnant case is metal. Unfortunately it is just too wide to sit in between the 2 rows of LEDs inside the box, but I'll work on it.

We've been collecting the last remnants of the Wow-Wee Light Strike series over the last few years because for home laser tag these are great fun. http://rgwni.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/i-bought-couple-of-these-light-strike.html Unfortunately, the prices on eBay have got completely out of hand and there are very few items left in the UK, so finding this working pistol in the Barnardo's charity shop in Carrickfergus for £1.99 was a stroke of luck. It means we can have a side arm each to go with our pulse rifles when we're playing Starship Troopers!