Latest news with #Backup
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
90s 'Madchester' legend back on stage in Bolton as headline star of ball
One of Manchester's most iconic stars will be back on stage in Bolton to ensure everyone has a ball. Bez, of Happy Mondays fame, and a 90s 'Madchester' legend will be taking visitors back to the decade for the 'Bucket Hats and Ballgowns' ball at the annual Backup North West charity ball. The event will be held in the 1887 suite at the Toughsheet Community Stadium and it's sponsored by PCG, Product Care Group. It will take place on Friday, June 20, and tickets include a drinks reception, two course meal and entertainment from the man himself. They can be picked up now – with a standard ticket costing £100 and a VIP ticket costing £125. Bez will be headlining the Backup charity ball (Image: Backup North West) The charity ball is being organised by Backup North West – an organisation which helps young people who are experiencing homelessness. Tickets can be bought from their website here ( Maura Jackson, CEO of the Backup North West said: "Bucket hats and Ballgowns is the Backup charity ball not to be missed headlined by Bez of Happy Mondays and more, fame or infamy? "The event will be an evening of fabulous food, entertainment and music to take you back to that amazing era of iconic Manchester music of the early 90s and beyond. Tickets are on sale now." The night will raise much needed funds to prevent homeless and rough sleeping among young people across Bolton. Every year the charity organisers a glittering ball. Have a story? Get in touch at Backup, formerly Bolton Young Persons Housing Scheme, was set up in 1992 in partnership with Bolton Council and Irwell Valley Housing with one house in Daubhill. The charity operates a number of houses where young people aged 16-25 can stay if they are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Their supported accommodation includes emergency housing, temporary accommodation, short and medium stay supported housing. READ MORE: Bolton woman holding 24 hour Danceathon for 5th and final time READ MORE: Bolton Wanderers charity football day for Bolton Hospice READ MORE: Bolton Pride celebrates tenth anniversary this weekend They also have non-accommodation based support jobs" target="_blank">work focusing on mental health, employment support and more. Young people can live in more than one of their services to make progress and develop more independence before moving on completely. They have different services to meet different levels and ranges of needs.
Vox
22-04-2025
- Business
- Vox
A battery-powered house? You can make that a reality.
Growing up in rural Tennessee, power outages were frequent and sometimes fun. With no TV or lights, we played boardgames by candlelight or played outside if the storm stopped. But because my family also ran a restaurant out of our house, sometimes the food in the fridges spoiled, leading to thousands of dollars worth of lost groceries. It never occurred to me so many years ago that a big battery could one day solve this problem. As extreme weather worsens due to climate change, leading millions more to experience debilitating blackouts, the home battery industry is booming. Home batteries are not like the AAA batteries that go in your TV remote control. They're big, high-capacity lithium-ion workhorses designed to power multiple devices and appliances in the event of a power outage. The amount of energy that can be stored in residential batteries, which is measured in gigawatt hours (GWh), grew by a record 54 percent from 2023 to 2024, according to a new report on energy storage in the United States. It's now enough to power up to 1 million homes. Growth is even bigger in Europe. Many home batteries are being used to store energy from solar panels, but there's a burgeoning market for backup batteries that can keep essential appliances, like refrigerators, running during a power outage. Some of these batteries are also smart enough to charge up when energy is cheap and then discharge when it's expensive to save on utility bills. We're also starting to see appliances with built-in batteries that make them more efficient and effective. Solving the lost groceries problem is only the beginning. As more people add battery capacity to their homes, the power grid can become more resilient to spikes in energy usage and bring down costs for everyone. While the number of battery-powered houses still make up a minority of all the homes in the US, home batteries are becoming more affordable and accessible, giving the average American household the chance to take advantage of what an electrified future has to offer. One of the more interesting home batteries I've come across is made by BioLite, a Brooklyn, New York-based company that got its start building camp stoves that can charge your phone. Backup by BioLite is a home battery specifically designed for the dead fridge problem, or any other dead appliances. The primary unit is a slim battery pack that can fit behind your refrigerator or sit on top of it. It plugs into a standard wall outlet and doesn't require a contractor or any rewiring to install. Just plug your fridge and any other devices into the Backup's power strip, and it's ready to take over in the event of an outage. One $2,000 Backup battery gets you 15 to 30 hours of power, and if you daisy-chain several batteries together, you can get a few days worth of power. 'This is not meant to be a niche product for the bleeding-edge solar battery storage expert,' Erica Rosen, BioLite's vice president of marketing told me when I visited BioLite's headquarters in March. 'This is for folks who are, like, 'I just threw out $400 worth of groceries. I can never do this again.'' That example hit home for me. But it's not actually what I think is most useful about the capabilities of home batteries. For people who pay attention to their power bills, Backup and other home batteries make it easier to take advantage of the time-of-use pricing some utilities offer, which makes electricity cheaper during low demand hours and higher when demand is high. Backup, for example, works with an app that lets you schedule the battery to kick in during high demand hours; BioLite is planning to eventually update the app so that this feature works automatically. Plugging solar panels into these batteries gives you even more autonomy over your energy sources. Once you're actually generating electricity, you can fill up your home batteries without drawing from the grid at all. If there's an outage, the panels can keep those batteries charged when the sun's out. If your utility offers it, you can also take advantage of something called net metering, which enables you to sell some of that stored energy back to the grid during peak demand. If battery-powered living sounds appealing to you, there are now even more creative ways to ease into it. A company called Copper started selling its battery-equipped stoves this year. The $6,000 Copper Charlie is an electric induction range with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery inside that's programmed to charge when electricity is cheapest. The range plugs into a regular wall outlet — other inductions require a 240-volt outlet that not all homes have — and the battery supplies enough power for everyday cooking. It also kicks in during power outages so that you can keep cooking if the lights go out. The battery also gives the oven a boost, so that preheating is faster. There is, nevertheless, something unstoppable about the home battery revolution. This is just the first of many battery-assisted appliances that Copper plans to make, according to Weldon Kennedy, the company's co-founder and chief marketing officer. It's not hard to imagine how the same basic backup features of the Charlie stove could work in a hot water heater or a washer-dryer. These kinds of appliances require a large amount of energy all at once and then sit idle for hours at a time. It makes great sense to charge them up when energy is cheap and then discharge that stored energy later. 'Because you don't have these giant spikes in energy use across the electrical grid at, say, six o'clock when everyone turns on their electric stove,' Kennedy told me. 'It just makes the whole system better.' None of this comes cheap. The Copper Charlie range and Backup by BioLite are four-figure investments. There are other companies in the space, too, but they're just as expensive. Impulse makes a battery-equipped stovetop that also costs $6,000, and Jackery sells a home backup battery for $3,500 and up. You can find even more expensive and extensive home battery systems from companies like Tesla, Anker, and Bluetti. There are some government subsidy programs available to offset those high costs, but on a federal level at least, it's not clear if the Trump administration will keep them in place. There is, nevertheless, something unstoppable about the home battery revolution. As certain solutions get cheaper and easier to use, like Biolite's Backup, other options are becoming more appealing. Electric vehicles, after all, are basically big batteries on wheels, and a growing number of automakers are enabling bidirectional charging, which lets your vehicle power your home or send power back to the grid. GM is even working with some utility companies to help its car owners buy the equipment necessary to turn their EVs into home batteries. Still, with the Trump administration downright hostile to clean energy, the US is lagging behind Europe and China in adopting more battery power. But the cost of battery production is falling fast, and we should expect to see batteries show up in more home appliances in the near future. After all, just one big battery could save you a fridge-full of groceries in the next power outage, and that outage is definitely coming. Climate change is making weather more extreme and unpredictable, which means it's more essential than ever to be prepared for anything. A version of this story was also published in the User Friendly newsletter. Sign up here so you don't miss the next one!
Sky News
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News
Nigel McCrery: Creator of Silent Witness and New Tricks dies
The creator of TV crime dramas Silent Witness and New Tricks, Nigel McCrery, has died aged 71. He had been diagnosed with a terminal illness in October 2024. The screenwriter's agent posted a photo on social media on Monday, paying tribute and confirming his death. United Agents wrote: "It's with a heavy heart that we share the news of screenwriter, author and producer Nigel McCrery's passing. "As the creative mind behind such hits as the much-loved, long-running BBC drama series Silent Witness and New Tricks, Nigel captivated and inspired audiences for years with his work. "His numerous contributions to the arts will always be remembered. Nigel had an incredible career and will be greatly missed. Our thoughts are with his family at this time." Running for 28 series and still ongoing, Silent Witness follows a team of forensic pathologists investigating crimes. It is one of the BBC's longest-running dramas. New Tricks, about a group of retired detectives helping police solve cold cases, aired for over a decade, across 12 series. McCrery began his career working as a police officer with the Nottinghamshire Constabulary murder squad, where he developed an interest in forensic science. He left the force after a decade to study at Cambridge University, after which he began working for the BBC, eventually ending up in the drama department. It was there he wrote his first TV series, police procedural Backup, in 1995, which ran for two years. Silent Witness followed, airing in 1996, initially starring Amanda Burton as the lead detective, before Emilia Fox's character took the reins in the eighth series. A 29th series is expected to follow the one which aired at the start of this year. The drama is also broadcast around the world. New Tricks, which starred Dennis Waterman across all 12 series, premiered in 2003, with its final episode showing in 2015. McCrery also penned All The King's Men - a First World War drama starring David Jason, medical drama Born And Bred, and Impact, about a group of air accident investigators, all of which aired on the BBC. He also wrote several novels, a play and numerous military history books.
BBC News
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Silent Witness creator Nigel McCrery dies aged 71
Nigel McCrery, the creator of the TV crime dramas Silent Witness and New Tricks, has died aged agent confirmed the news of his death to BBC News "with a heavy heart".The screenwriter and novelist was diagnosed with a terminal illness in October Witness, which follows a team of forensic pathologists investigating crimes, is one of the BBC's longest running dramas. New Tricks, about a group of retired detectives helping police with cold cases, ran for 12 series over more than a decade. His agent told BBC News: 'It's with a heavy heart that we share the news of screenwriter, author and producer Nigel McCrery's passing."As the creative mind behind such hits as the much loved long running BBC drama series Silent Witness and New Tricks, Nigel captivated and inspired audiences for years with his work. "His numerous contributions to the arts will always be remembered. Nigel had an incredible career and will be greatly missed. Our thoughts are with his family at this time." Police officer Nigel McCrery served as a police officer with the murder squad in Nottingham before he began his TV leaving Nottinghamshire Police, he joined the BBC on a graduate entry scheme in 1990, and soon moved into the drama used his background in policing to create Backup, a drama about a police operational support unit. It ran between 1995 and 1997. He then went on to create the drama Silent Witness in follows forensic pathologists and scientists investigating crimes and trying to catch the people starring Amanda Burton and then Emilia Fox, it became one of the BBC's most enduring dramas. Its 28th series was broadcast earlier this year. McCrery created New Tricks in show, which focused on three retired police officers who were drafted in to help solve cold cases, and became a starring vehicle for Dennis Waterman, ran for 10 also wrote several novels as well as a number of non-fiction books.
