Central Heating Controls

I've been doing some research on central heating and hot water controllers, and the possible benefits in reduced energy consumption that they might offer. Here's my summary of some of the products available in the UK:

     Google Nest Thermostat

     Tado Smart Thermostat

     Honeywell Evohome

     British Gas Hive Active Heating

     Owl Intuition-hw

     Heat Genius

And the features that they each offer are:

Single zone control
     Nest Thermostat
     Tado Thermostat
     Hive Active Heating
     Evohome
     Intuition-hw
     Heat Genius

Remote Monitoring and Control via the Internet or Smartphone
     Nest Thermostat
     Tado Thermostat
     Hive Active Heating
     Evohome
     Intuition-hw
     Heat Genius

Anti-Frost Protection
     Nest Thermostat
     Tado Thermostat
     Hive Active Heating
     Evohome
     Intuition-hw
     Heat Genius

Multi zone control of individual radiators
     Evohome
     Heat Genius

Hot water control
     Evohome
     Heat Genius

Pre-Heat via Geofence
     Tado Thermostat

Pre-Heat via Weather Forecast
     Tado Thermostat
     Heat Genius

Auto Away via Geofence
     Tado Thermostat

Auto Away via Motion Detection
     Nest Thermostat
     Heat Genius

Adaptive Timer via Motion Detection
     Nest Thermostat
     Heat Genius

So, in summary, you can't have all the features in a single system. The Heat Genius system comes closest, just lacking the geofence feature of the Tado to enable the system to pre-warm your home prior to your arrival.

Le Mans

Radio Le Mans is broadcasting via the TuneIn radio app for the whole 24 hour race.

http://tun.in/sevLM

And there's free-to-air tv coverage on Eurosport Deutsch.

Formula 1 and MotoGP

Watching motorsport on free-to-air TV in the UK has turned out to be a bit of a challenge in 2014. Formula 1 has gone to Sky for half the season, and MotoGP has gone to BT Sport. However the Germans are broadcasting both on free-to-air satellite TV.

Find Formula 1 on RTL, on Astra 1L at 19.2E (12187.5MHz, Horizontal). BBC Radio 5 Live provides audio commentary for all races during the season.

And find MotoGP on Sport 1, on Astra 1M at 19.2E (12480.0Mhz, Vertical). Unfortunately audio commentary in English is harder to find. I've resorted to the Dorna MotoGP Live Experience smartphone app for audio commentary.

Both RTL and Sport 1 are commercial channels, so are supported by advertising. RTL especially seem to be able to schedule advert breaks whenever there's on-track action, rather than during safety car periods. Reminds me of the bad-old ITV days.

Use websites such as LyngSat, TrackSat and KingOfSat to find satellite channel details.

Terrestrial TV - Stage 2

Being in the Gorge itself is a bit of a problem, as there's no line of sight to the transmitter on the Wrekin, which is the local main broadcast point for digital TV and radio. However we're not alone in this situation, so there is a re-broadcast mast in the Gorge, which we do have sight of from the house. It is likely to have a reduced service, maybe only the core 3 TV MUXes rather than the full set of 6 that the Wrekin broadcasts. But we should get a good signal, being only 500 metres from the mast.

First thing to do was put up a pole to mount the antennae on. I used a pair of T and K brackets to get a 20cm standoff from the workshop wall, and mounted a 180cm pole of 3.75cm diameter and 16 gauge alloy. At the top I've put a Wolsey HG5 T-group (wideband) Yagi antenna for TV. I've also put up a Triax FM omni antenna, and a Triax DAB dipole antenna. The three antenna feeds are combined in a masthead triplexer, and then connected to the terrestrial input of the multiswitch.

Each output of the multiswitch is now carrying FM at 87Mhz to 108Mhz, DAB at 217Mhz to 240Mhz, terrestrial TV at 474MHz to 786MHz, and satellite IF at 950Mhz to 2150Mhz. So by using screened quad-outlets in the house I'll have FM and DAB on one socket, TV on another, and 2 satellite feeds (for twin-tuner recorders).