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Community Disconnector Good job too Yo, ho, ho, children! It's nearly Christmas, the time when Santa rewards all the little boys and girls of the world – as long as they've been good. Disconnector reckons one little lad who must have been particularly good for the past couple of years is Jeffry Sterba. When little Jeffry landed the CEO's job at American Water Works in 2010, he must truly have thought all his Christmases had come at once. Official records reveal that in 2012 he pulled in a cool $3,787,715. Since being in post, he has been paid more than $8 million. The only downside of raking in millions of dollars for running a water utility is that it sometimes comes to the notice of folks who don't earn millions of dollars, but whose taxes go towards paying those who do. Groups such as Outsourcing AmericaExposed.org, who distributed a photo of a smiling Mr Sterba all over Twitter, lampooning him as the "highest paid water worker" in America. It's not nice having your mug plastered all over Twitter while complete strangers call you nasty names. Mind you, eight million dollars will buy you a lot of vintage whisky with which to treat such insults philosophically. Video stars Back in the UK, water companies have more mundane things to worry about, such as burst Go home, Santa! pipes in winter. It's a struggle trying to find a new spin on an age old message so that customers sit up and take notice, so hats off to United Utilities, which has released a spoof pop video incorporating a song all about the perils of burst pipes, sung to the tune of Vanilla Ice's 1980s classic "Ice Ice Baby". Ice Wise Baby sees Santa and his elves rap their way through tips on how homeowners can protect their water pipes from freezing and bursting this Christmas and encourages homeowners to lag their pipes and learn how to isolate their water supply. The full video is on YouTube here: http://bit.ly/1bglTRV Let me float this idea Wow, thinks Disconnector, some people know how to think big – really, really big. The great man is referring to the South Koreans here, who have just towed the world's biggest ship out of dry dock. And that's not hyperbole, at 1,601ft end to end, the Prelude is longer than the Empire State building is high and is officially the world's biggest ship. The behemoth is owned by Shell and when it is finished in 2017 it will effectively be a floating factory for processing liquefied natural gas. Shell plans to sail it to Western Australia where it will sit offshore for the next 25 years, processing gas for distribution around the world via regular LPG transports, them- selves large boats but dwarfed by the Prelude. If all goes according to plan, it will be capable of producing around four million tonnes of LPG a year. An onshore facility with the same capacity would normally be four times the size. A floating LPG processing plant, eh? That's one way to beat the planning inspector, thinks Disconnector. Greenpeace will still be on the course, of course. Expect some activists to be tying themselves to gantries just as soon as they've managed to find someone to print big enough banners. Candle power At the other of the scale an ingenious inventor in dear old Blighty has shown that you don't have to think big at all. You can think small. Really small. Journalist, film maker, and boat owner Dylan Winter has created a DIY heater, using just tealights, two flower pots and a bread loaf tin. He claims his invention, if powered by cheap tealights from Ikea (£1 for 100), can heat a room for 8p a day. The system uses convection heat transfer. Four tealights are placed inside a bread tin and covered with two ceramic flowerpots, creating a mini-furnace. Dylan has posted a video showing how to make one on YouTube and it's gone viral, clocking up 3.9 million hits to date. you can see it here: http:// bit.ly/IHewro Editor: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellen.bennett@fav-house.com; Energy editor: Megan Darby, t: 01342 332087, e: megan.darby@fav-house.com; Features editor: Karma Ockenden, t: 01342 332086, e: karma.ockenden@fav-house. com; Reporter: Mathew Beech, t: 01342 332082, e: mathew.beech@fav-house.com; Reporter: Conor McGlone, t: 01342 332083, e: conor.mcglone@fav-house.com; Production editor: Paul Newton, t: 01342 332085; Business development manager: Ed Roberts, t: 01342 332067, e: ed.roberts@fav-house.com; Sales executive: Nicky Shaw, t: 01342 332070, e: nicky.shaw@fav-house.com; Publisher: Amanda Barnes, e: amanda.barnes@fav-house.com. General enquiries: 01342 332000; Subscriptions: UK £543 per year, Overseas £655 per year, t: 01342 332011. ISSN: 1356-5532. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Printed by: Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE. Published by: Faversham House Ltd, Windsor Court, Wood Street, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 1UZ Disconnector always though their was something deeply suspect about Santa Claus. Where does he get cash to buy all those presents, for starters? And what about his domestic arrangements? Single bloke. Load of elves. It's not right. Now, thanks to work by the School of Earth & Environment at the University of Leeds, we are finding out the true cost of Santa: his carbon footprint. They have calculated the carbon required to make the presents, feed the reindeer and helpers and power a sled to fly to all seven million homes in the UK, and it equates to a shocking 9 tonnes per stocking, 25 per cent more than the average Brit emits in a whole year. Scrooge was right. Bah Humbug to Christmas. You heard it here first. Subscriptions: UK £543 per year, Overseas £655 per year fhcustomerservices@ abacusemedia.com 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2012 UTILITY WEEK | 13th - 19th December 2013 | 31