Channel Update - June 2022 | Solar | Starlink | Tesla Accident | Covid | Pond Dive
It's certainly been a while since I have posted new content, and I must apologise!
Here's the latest YouTube video!
My lack of updates has undoubtedly not been for want of trying; the Winter of 2021 saw me working on several complex software projects - which doesn't leave me with much time for much else - and at the start of 2022, I have been consulting Pro bono with the Ukrainian Ministry of Economy.
Solar Panels
Now life is settling down again, and I have some updates for you all. First, we are installing a new rooftop solar PV system which, by my estimates, should allow us to run our home, business and two electric vehicles completely off-grid during May-September. With the costs of energy spiralling steadily due to the global pricing of natural gas and the consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, there isn't a better time to install rooftop solar PV. The saying goes, the best time to install renewables is yesterday; the second-best time is today.
We now have Starlink internet!
This is amazing for us since it provides a stable low latency broadband connection where otherwise we'd have none.
We replaced an outgoing 5Ghz Ubiquiti microwave dish system (40/5Mbps) and now see speeds around 3-8x faster. Around 300Mbps down and 30Mbps up. It meant that I could publish today's YouTube video in 4K.
A detailed review will be published in due course.
Someone crashed into my car.
While I was diving, someone crashed into Christine in a no-fault accident (no fault of mine, anyway!). Christine captured the accident on her onboard sentry cameras. I have learned a lot about insurance and how insurance claims can be best managed. It seems fitting to share this info in a YouTube video for anyone else in a similar situation!
And... I caught covid-19
Having avoided covid in 2020 and again in 2021, it got me recently. The original guidance for scuba divers who contracted covid-19 was a blanket three-month (90 day) scuba ban followed by a diving medical. The advice from the UK Diving Medical Council has been revised and is now given as a risk-assessment matrix. Fortunately for me, I have just returned to diving from one-month off, and no medical is required.
As we've dug two new wildlife ponds in the garden, it felt right to jump on in for my first 'return to diving' scuba dive!
If I hadn't caught covid, these ponds would have been deeper!
Take care,
Mike (Diving Developer)