First came SatNav for lost drivers. Now there's "SatLav," a toilet-finding service to help people caught short in central London.
Westminster City Council launched a new mobile phone text message service that will guide Londoners and tourists to their nearest public lavatory.
Anyone who sends the word "Toilet" to 80097 will receive a reply giving details of their nearest public convenience.
Student Gail Knight, 26, came up with the idea for an innovation competition run by the council.
"When I'm out with friends we're always ducking into McDonalds or department stores to use their loos but we feel a bit bad about it," she said. "I thought a text service would be really useful for people on the move."
The service is available across the Westminster, an area that includes many of the capital's most popular sights, such as Big Ben, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace.
Unlike in-car devices that rely on satellites to pinpoint someone's location, the SatLav uses mobile phone technology.
All that comes at a price, however. Rather than spending a penny, people will be charged 25 pence ($0.52) per text.
Showing posts with label UK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UK. Show all posts
Monday, December 3, 2007
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Hot Wind Turbines
Many wind turbines mounted on homes in British cities are contributing to global warming, not fighting it, according to a new study.
And although many environmentally-friendly homeowners also hope to cut their bills by generating their own power, most micro-turbines will never save as much money as the equipment costs, according to the study by the Building Research Establishment Trust.
"In large urban areas such as Manchester, even with very favorable assumptions about efficiency, lifetime and maintenance, micro-wind turbines may never pay back their carbon emissions," the report says.
"Even in the most favorable location considered in the study, there is no financial payback within the expected life of the systems, with the current system and electricity costs."
The study analyzed the likely performance of three of the most common household wind turbines in Manchester and Portsmouth in England and Wick in Scotland.
In many cases -- and across most of Manchester -- more climate-warming carbon dioxide is produced in the manufacture, installation and maintenance of the turbines than they save by generating "green" power over their expected lifetime.
"These studies have shown a large variation in the expected CO2 payback periods from a few months in good locations to situations where they never pay back, in poor locations," the report says.
Only those climate-conscious homeowners in the best locations in the two smaller cities studied can expect to save more carbon dioxide than their turbines are responsible for producing.
And although many environmentally-friendly homeowners also hope to cut their bills by generating their own power, most micro-turbines will never save as much money as the equipment costs, according to the study by the Building Research Establishment Trust.
"In large urban areas such as Manchester, even with very favorable assumptions about efficiency, lifetime and maintenance, micro-wind turbines may never pay back their carbon emissions," the report says.
"Even in the most favorable location considered in the study, there is no financial payback within the expected life of the systems, with the current system and electricity costs."
The study analyzed the likely performance of three of the most common household wind turbines in Manchester and Portsmouth in England and Wick in Scotland.
In many cases -- and across most of Manchester -- more climate-warming carbon dioxide is produced in the manufacture, installation and maintenance of the turbines than they save by generating "green" power over their expected lifetime.
"These studies have shown a large variation in the expected CO2 payback periods from a few months in good locations to situations where they never pay back, in poor locations," the report says.
Only those climate-conscious homeowners in the best locations in the two smaller cities studied can expect to save more carbon dioxide than their turbines are responsible for producing.
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