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UTILITY WEEK | 23RD - 29TH OCTOBER 2015 | 31 Community Editor, Utility Week, and content director, Utilities: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellen. bennett@fav-house.com; News editor: Jillian Ambrose, t: 01342 332061, e: jillian.ambrose@ fav-house.com; Associate news editor: Mathew Beech, t: 01342 332082, e: mathew.beech@ fav-house.com; Assistant editor (insights): Jane Gray, t: 01342 332087, e: jane.gray@fav-house. com; Research analyst: Vidhu Dutt, t: 01342 332026, e: vidhu.dutt@fav-house.com; Reporters: Lois Vallely, t: 01342 332080; e: lois.vallely@fav-house.com and Lucinda Dann, t: 01342 332083; e: lucinda.dann@fav-house.com; Business development manager: Richard Powell, t: 01342 332062, e: richard.powell@fav-house.com; Business development executive: Sarah Wood, t: 01342 332077, e: sarah.wood@fav-house.com; Publisher: Amanda Barnes, e: amanda.barnes@fav-house.com. General enquiries: 01342 332000; Membership subscriptions: UK £577 per year, overseas £689 per year, t: 020 8955 7045 or email membership sales manager Paul Tweedale: paultweedale@fav-house.com. 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 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2014 Membership subscriptions: UK £577 per year. Overseas £689 per year. Email: paultweedale@fav-house.com Top Tweets Disconnector Let there be (less) light You can't have too much of a good thing, they say. Well they're wrong, apparently – at least when it comes to such modest home comforts as central heating and lighting. The problem, according to eggheads at the University of Aberdeen, is that the "eternal summer" provided by modern homes – always well lit and toasty warm – could be damag- ing our immune systems and leaving people vulnerable to illness and even "early death". The scientists at the esteemed Scottish university reckon that we have evolved genes over the millennia to fight off a range of seasonal flus and the like, but that these genes are not active all year round. They switch on and off according to the time of year. The problem is that by living in such an artificial environment, our bodies don't know what time of year it is and can't turn on our winter immune systems. They say unless we take deliberate steps to hang around in the cold and the dark more in the winter – which, let's face it, isn't going to happen – our pampered lifestyles are going to kill us. The one glimmer of hope is that evolution is ongoing, so our genes may be able to catch up and detect signals of approaching winter other than light and temperature. The TV schedules still prove a pretty reliable indication of the time of year, thinks Discon- nector. If only we could tune our immune systems to the onset of Strictly Come Dancing, our bodies would always know when winter was imminent. Brainwaves and voltage If permanent artificial light is having unintended conse- quences on our bodies, what about radio waves? Disconnector was intrigued to learn of a British initiative spearheaded by Lord Drayson for a concept called Freevolt, which maintains that it's pos- sible to harvest enough elec- tricity from existing radio com- munications – GSM, 3G and all the rest – to power low-energy devices such as sensors, of which there could be billions once the internet of things gets a full head of steam. It may sound mad but Dray- son has a good pedigree. As plain old Paul Rudd Drayson he was a very successful execu- tive and entrepreneur before becoming a science minister in the last Labour government. So he should know. Disconnector doesn't know whether Lord Drayson's brain- child will ever become a reality (doubters question the eco- nomics, given the low cost and efficiency of modern miniature batteries), but it does beg the question, if the world is bathed in sufficient electrical energy to power billions of electrical devices, what the hell is it doing to our brains? Light bulb moment Of course, it has been possible to give devices electrical charge without the need for wires for some time, through the use of induction loops such as those used by electric toothbrushes. Now, a crowdfunded light bulb that can float and spin in mid-air while switched on has been developed by Swedish company Flyte, which raised more than £400,000 on Kickstarter earlier this year and hopes to have a product in mass production soon. The floating light bulb uses very low-power LEDs and needs an induction loop, so it uses a lot more power to perform the trick than can be justified by the amount of light it throws out. It's therefore more likely to find success as a faddish Christ- mas present than anything else. In fact, the only practical application Disconnector can think of is as a warning monitor that we really are overcooking the ether: if the bulb lights and levitates even when the base is turned off, we really ought to turn off a few transmitters. Disconnector Fatih Birol @IEABirol Variability of #renewables is challenge to which energy systems can learn to adapt, but variability of govt policies is far greater risk Leonie Greene @LeonieGreene At @bisgovuk to discuss severe damage to British #solar industry, the need to support exceptional global growth opportunities & the #£1Plan. Rafael Behr @rafaelbehr SNP seem very conflicted about fossil fuels. Mathew Beech @beechams1042 Standing room only at the @CitizensAdvice and @SmartEnergyGB fringe at #SNP15 Jean-Michel Glachant @JMGlachant F17/Funny Belgium regulatory frame.1-no roll-out of smart meters: Ok.2-but users cannot pay to install them:as nobody has right to read them Ben Geman @Ben_Geman Marco Rubio to say in speech that #Clinton "believes #energy policy is more about trying to change the weather than empowering our people" Megan Rowling @meganrowling Draft #climate text is all "hat and no trousers" on #lossanddamage, want Warsaw mechanism to be made permanent - @SaleemulHuq #ADP2 #COP21 Roger Harrabin @RHarrabin UK #renewables cuts rapped by UNEP chief scientist. @CarbonBrief @eciu @UKERCHQ @RenewableUK @solarcentury Emma Pinchbeck @ELPinchbeck Gov told @CommonsECC that UNFCCC didn't care about UK climate policy changes. UN Scientist just called cuts "perverse". Now what? @RHarrabin William Marchant @richonlyinname Russia Today unhappy at proposed Chinese nuclear investments that could undermine UK national security. That's Russia's job. Pesky Chinese.