CR5 Issue 157 June 2018

Technology
It’s amazing to think that we were still getting snow
back in March: just weeks later and it’s June, which
even the UK usually manages to get through without
any blizzards. Who knows, we might even get a long
hot summer this time – and if we do, technology is
happy to help.
If you’re planning to party on the
summer equinox, the longest day
of the year, it’s worth getting some
long-lasting gadgets such as the UE
Boom 2 portable speaker. It’s loud but
not too loud, portable but not too small, and it’s
waterproof because it’s sold in Britain. At around
£93 it’s pricier than many but is solid, sounds great
and is well made – plus the battery lasts for 15 hours
of tunes from a single charge. It’s a really great
speaker for outdoor entertaining.
If you’re barbecuing, technology can
help. The superb Looftlighter (around
£45 on eBay or £55 in the shops)
can ensure charcoal lights instead
of smokes, and a BBQ thermometer
can make sure food is properly cooked. We love the
Thermapen instant read thermometer (around £50)
but for an even more high-tech option there are
Bluetooth-enabled meat thermometers that send
readings to your smartphone so you don’t even
need to lift the lid. Weber’s excellent iGrill 3 (£89.99)
is one of the best around, but there are more
affordable options too.
4
HERE COMES SUMMER:
TECH FOR OUTDOOR LIVING
There’s a new entry in the outdoor lighting
market: Philips, which has brought its Hue
smart lighting system to gardens too.
We love Hue for its ability to create
all kinds of light “recipes” and
effects and to do so from a phone
or tablet, and you can now mix 16
million different colours outdoors too. The catch,
inevitably, is cost: the wall-mountable Lily spotlight
is about £260 and the pedestal lamp around £125. It
might be worth waiting for rivals to follow Philips’
lead: Hue-style indoor bulbs are widely available for
a lot less than Philips chargers and we’d expect the
same to happen with outdoor lighting too. Don’t
try and cut corners with normal Hue
bulbs in standard lamp fittings unless
those fittings are large and properly
waterproof. They might not work
anyway: your home’s exterior walls
may block the connection between the
lights and the Hue hub, which has to be connected
to your internet router.
1. UE Boom 2 portable speaker 2. looftlighter
barbecue lighter 3. Thermapen meat thermometer
4. Philips Hue smart bulbs
76 Log into www.cr5.co.uk your local community website!
1
Sadly, living in the UK means even a warm day
doesn’t stay too warm for long, and many of us turn
2 to outdoor heating. Don’t buy a heater that heats
the air; it’s a waste of money, because most
of the energy goes on heating the air
nobody’s actually in. Gas heaters
are the least efficient: consider a
modern infra-red (not near-infra-red)
electric heater, which heats the surfaces
it’s pointed at (including people), or a halogen one
if you don’t want to spend a few hundred pounds.
A good tabletop or free-standing halogen heater
doesn’t cost too much to buy or run – about 9p
per kilowatt hour, with heaters starting at around
3
£39 – but make sure your seating area is
sheltered as a stiff breeze can undo the
work of any outdoor heater.