PowerSwitch

After November's 'The End of Oil' in London I felt that that was enough and that if I was to attend any more PO meetings they would need to be about the future we're going to be making. I think that all of us on here have read, seen and heard enough to probably have no need to hear dear old Colin or Matt again and I mean that in a caring, sharing sort of way

To that end, I was wondering if we could get together for a practical PO day - this occurred to me when I was reading some of the threads on LEDs and batteries and such and it struck me that people like Mike, Chris and oobey (and possibly many others) have a fair bit of practical understanding that would be really useful to neophytes like myself who would love to spend a day with you people and actually seeing and playing around with this stuff to give me confidence that I can understand it and put it into practice myself.

What do you reckon?

Sounds good to me, I can turn up with my bits of solar kit and the applicable bits from my lecture notes, and my gardening tales too

The only challenge is fitting it in around my course schedule, but things are a bit quieter for me after January (I hope!).

Sounds great Mike - anytime would be good.

Sounds great to me too! However, I might not have too much to contribute If we were to do it after January, then I might have a bit more knowledge though, as I would've finished the PermaCulture Design Course by then (it's a two weeks intensive one).

Also, would be great to meet some of you at last... I was actually at the LSE lecture on the 14th, but was sitting at the top, so didn't know who to look for afterwards and got lost in the pub

By the way, here's the link to the course I'm going to, if anybody's interested... I think they might still have some places:

http://www.designedvisions.com/Courses/ ... b%2006.htm

You got lost in the pub? What the hell were you drinking?

Joe wrote:You got lost in the pub? What the hell were you drinking?

Well, I actually ended up downstairs, where they had (I think) and end-of-semester party of some sort, and, well, how to put it? I treated myself to some free food (not too bad either) and cheap drinks, and the music was great, so I sort of, got a bit, erm, out of focus... Also my housemate was there, and I thought he deserved a compensation after putting him through the PO talk

So are we talking February then? In another week or so I'll have dates for what I'm committed to next term and I'll see when I'm free. I assume we're meeting in London somewhere as a central location? Unless you all fancy a trip to Wheatley in Oxfordshire! Probably not the easiest journey for many though...

I'd be happy to talk about plumbing & heating if anyone wants me to. It might be good to discuss future ways of heating our homes effectively, looking at the integration of solar panels with solid fuel boilers and the like.

Bozzio, Yes please, hopefully, fingers crossed, touch wood, I should have my new house by March I'd be very intreseted in a large heat store linked up to all manner of devices, (solid fuel stove, micro CHP, solar thermal, heat pump and the like).

I can talk about passive solar techniques, embodied energy and architecture / building etc.

I could give a powerpoint talk (Just need a white wall)

Hey this is sounding good. As I've booked a holiday for the 3rd to 10th of February, any time after that would be great, he said selfishly

It sounds like we've enough for a whole weekend (crash at yours Mike ), or at least several days spread over a few months. Probably London is easier for many people, though I could be OK with Oxford

There's probably more people in London. I can bring a (veg oil fuelled) car load down from Oxford if there's others to come, then I can bring various interesting books and bits of kit with me...

Hey - sounds good! Would also like to meet some of you. I can bring my inverters etc along. The modules are a bit too big to cart around on a train if we are going with a London location but well, a PV module isn't all that exciting to look at unless you are a total solar geek like me. Come to think of it, neither is an inverter. I'll just bring me and some notes/literature etc.

Unless an inverter is a big awkward thing, it would be confidence building for newbies like me to actually see the whole thing from panel, to battery, to inverter or whatever to CD player or radio. That's only one setup of course but it's the general idea...

Okay - I'll bring what I can.

Whilst on the subject ofmeetups, I have posted some info on another meetup re a possible eco-village response to PO in 'classifieds'

(Can anyone tell me how I do a link across to another post from a post?)

Do you have a showroom or "demo project" featuring your products anywhere?