* Posts by Julian Back

2 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Mar 2008

Carbon Trust: Rooftop windmills are eco own-goal

Julian Back
Unhappy

They don't work in the country either

Household wind turbines won't work in many rural areas either. I live in a windy spot on a hillside and I've investigated installing a wind turbine. The advice I got was that all the big trees nearby would create too much turbulence and the turbine wouldn't last very long. So you need to put your turbine in the middle of a field, not on your house.

DAB: A very British failure

Julian Back

Power Consumption

I like DAB, i find the reception is much better than FM. I only listen to Radio 4 and DAB is a good replacement for long wave and it doesn't get take over by cricket. Internet radio isn't really an option for me as I live too far from my exchange for my ADSL to be reliable enough.

The main problem with DAB radios is that they use too much power. Batter powered DAB radios aren't really viable and mains powered radios use a lot more power than an FM radio (some even seem to use a fair bit on standby). Going to a more highly compressed stream like MPEG4 (DAB+) is unlikely to improve the power consumption situation.