Welcome to AndyWhittaker.com
Little bits and pieces I've done over the years
Introduction
New website for 2026, based on Grav CMS. Grav is a flat file Content Management System which results in a fast web browsing experience.
Many years ago I spent a lot of time creating my Andy Whittaker website because I believe in sharing what I know and discovered. I am a big fan of open-source software, especially github and even publish some of my own stuff too.
Recently, I have also been interested in looking after our planet by focusing my thoughts on renewables and reducing the amount of energy I use. I have built my own house that is fully insulated (cavity filled with 100mm Celotex Foam – Cavity closed with 4kW of solar PV (12 x BENQ PM096B00 330 Panels), ~2200W of Solar Hot Water when it's very sunny (Valliant) and (currently) ~23kWh of battery storage with 2 x LUX LXP5000ACS inverters connected in parallel to 8 x PylonTech US3000 batteries. I'm planning to write a few articles in the coming months to share what I've done. I will probably author a few YouTube videos while I'm at it.
I have a full-fibre 900Mb connection to my home provided by Zen Internet, been my choice of ISP for at least 25 years.
My home lab setup consists of a Proxmox server hosting a few internal docker containers and LXCs (Ubuntu Server, pihole, OpenClaw, NGNIX, Home Assistant, Frigate) and a TrueNAS server for my backups and some other apps (Immich, Gitea, Plex, TailsScale, CloudFlared)
Recent Articles
Why Your Shiny New Enterprise SATA Drive Refuses to Power Up
16 Apr 2026
Why Your Shiny New Enterprise SATA Drive Refuses to Power Up TL;DR Modern enterprise SATA drives (WD Ultrastar, HGST Helium, Seagate Exos, Toshiba MG) use pin 3 of the SATA power connector as a "power...
Adding a Page View Counter to a Grav CMS Site
10 Apr 2026
Adding a Page View Counter to a Grav CMS Site
If you run a Grav CMS site and want to show visitors how many times an article has been read — today and all time — this is how to do it entirely self-ho...
What is AppArmor and Why Should You Care?
09 Apr 2026
What is AppArmor and Why Should You Care?
If you manage a Linux server and you have ever had a permission denied error that made absolutely no sense — the file existed, the ownership was correct, you...
Going Paperless: Self-Hosted Document Management with Paperless-NGX
21 Mar 2026
Going Paperless: Self-Hosted Document Management with Paperless-NGX Every year the same ritual: hunting through years of email to find last year's home insurance policy, the car MOT certificate, or pr...
Adding an Indicator Stalk to a Tesla Model 3 Highland
01 Jan 2026
Adding an Indicator Stalk to Tesla Model 3 Highland - A retrofit guide
Quick Specs:
Cost: £142 delivered (AliExpress) Install Time: ~45 minutes Difficulty: Medium (requires basic tools and patience)...