How We Use AI

AI isn't going anywhere, so I choose to use it responsibly.

I don't use it to generate whole websites, produce generic sounding content or uncanny imagery.  Claude and GPT don't write my emails or run my life. 

Instead, I use it locally to speed up the development process, powered directly from solar panels on our roof. Local AI on my computer helps with coding without contributing to data centre power and water usage.

The result is faster turnaround, more complex functionality as standard and maximising your budget for the parts of your project that need human input.

solar panels on a narrowboat roof

Technical Info

I started with the 380w array shown in the image above, but now use a single 460w bifacial solar panel. This runs into an Anker power station, then all the computers are plugged into that rather than the mains. The solar setup has covered the PC usage from April to when I wrote this in October. 

Coding is assisted using local, open models like Qwen Coder running in LMStudio on an Nvidia GPU. Agent skills and a harness mean it can produce code quicker. As I've been coding over 15 years I already have a large code library and can prompt the AI assistant effectively. 

Now my custom WordPress theme & plugins and custom GravCMS theme & plugins are built there is little required to maintain them. By reusing our existing code each project is created from a head start instead of vibe coded from scratch.

solar powered local coding setup