Thomas shares makes

Solar Matched Electric Heating

A heater power-controlled to consume all excess solar production!

I built a prototype test setup that makes sure every Watt produced by our solar panels is used by an electric heater. It uses an industrial power controller and some code to match the heater's power usage to whatever power is not used by the house.

This would make it possible to maximize our solar self consumption, which is required to get a decent return on your solar investment.

For us, injecting to the electricity grid is giving away power, we have to pay about 15x as much compared to what the utility pays us for returning energy to the grid.

(dir)VimDiff as GIT difftool

Tig blame + VIM showing all files of a GIT commit in diff-tabs using dirvimdiff

I configured GIT's difftool command to show the changed files as diff-split file tabs I can easily cycle through by pressing gt.

This makes for a good terminal-based meld/beyond compare/... alternative.

Combined with Tig, it allows to quickly inspect a GIT commit's modifications in file context, let's take a look at the quick and simple steps to set it up.

Podcast downloading with Python and systemd

My favorite radio show airs on Sunday afternoon, and often can't listen to it live. Fortunately the radio station offers a podcast feed so I can catch up and listen to old shows. I set up a systemd user timer (cronjob) on my Linux computer that runs getpodcast to download updates.

MR1 'robot' platform build

I printed this miniature cart/robot to show my son I can use my 3D printer and electronics hobby to build things he too can enjoy.