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It's to de-rate the outgoing supply, so L > SP MCB > final destination. The cable feeding the MCB should be able to take the current of the supply so it's not looking up to par.

I seem to remember, back in 1973/4 that we had an energy crisis, and to save electricity, the three day week was introduced by the government. Then, in 1984/5 we had the Miner's Strike. Then, during the 1990's, we had the Dash for Gas, with 35 new gas turbine power stations being built. I am not sure than 'home grown' energy security is any more secure than any other form. But with wind and solar, we can, if we ignore NIMBYs, plug in to the existing infrastructure a lot easier and quicker. There is a saying, “Steal a little and they throw you in jail; steal a lot and they make you king” (Eugene O’Neill), surely distributed generation is, by nature, more secure.

There is no reason that renewables (wind, solar and battery) cannot generate and maintain frequencies and voltages. It is just that in Spain they were mostly set to follow voltages and frequencies. Unlike a rotating generator renewables can produce voltage and frequency independently. You could have an inverter provide a rock steady 50hz regardless of current and voltage. The dropping of frequency as the grid loads up is entirely a weakness of the old, spinning grid. If we were building a renewable only grid we could hold 50hz. In fact, I bet that adding spinning ac generators to such a system would be an issue as suddenly you have a device that might start to drag the frequency down in overload.. The iberian blackout exposed some weaknesses in the way Spain was integrating renewables into the grid not intrinsic issues with renewable generators

We're both going to hell. lol.

I wonder if the instability contribution from rooftop solar was due to large numbers of inverters going off line at more or less the same time as the upper voltage limit was reached as they all have the same limit. Likewise if they all had the same reconnection timeout (the report mentions a 180 second delay plus startup check time) you could get a situation where significant (at least locally) chunks of generation is switching off then back on. Maybe if inverters were required to have a subtle (say +/-0.2v) random variation to their nominal cutout voltage you wouldn't get whole blocks tripping out the instant a magic number was hit. Likewise if there was a random delay before reconnect (180-240sec) the capacity coming back online would be more gradual. IIRC there is something in the ethernet protocol about each node waiting a random time before resending is there has been a packet clash to avoid exactly this sort of unintentional synchronisation.

Wine, dine and 69

Datable ?

Except we'd have to build a load more coal stations *and* all the infrastructure to supply them (coal trains from the mines, mines, miners) and, assuming they aren't on old sites, the new grid architecture. And then you'll have to get approval for new coal burners. I imagine locals will be less than happy about a new combustion plant opening up next door. I remember going gliding near Radcliffe on Soar back in the late 90's during a mild inversion. As soon as you got to a certain altitude (towed) you got above the "cap"amd could see the brown fug surrounding the station. Lovely.

A bit in our case. The trouble is whether you have the depth available for eps. If you have extra to excavate and to increase the perimeter wall, then there are these costs to add. Eps is easier to handle, to cut and to shape to any ducts. We have lots of ducts, water pipes and drains in the floor and they were a pain to cut around. I did the iddly ones where I was concerned with the quality and am happy that I did. There are some really quite grotty bits in the pir but everyone else is content that the screed will bridge it. I have commercial project expectations, and domestic is less onerous.

Didn't actually pay anything for planning, it came with the land. Building Warrant cost £4400 for architects fees, plus £4500 for structural design with certificate.

No-one (except me!) has yet picked me up on the fact that using PIR on the top would in effect act as a 2nd VCL where you do not want a VCL. If you substitute 30mm rigid (breathable)wood-fibre you'd get 0.1609W/m2K. I don't think BCO would quibble. I have no idea of the size of the job but it may be that if you took it outside the roofing job it may drop in price. How many m2 are we talking about? Possibly the trickiest bit of all will be removing the floorboards without excessive damage, but it can be done by punching the nails through the boards before you lift them. I did that on a 32m2 floor. We allowed for 20% replacement boards and got away with <5%.

Both very (expletive deleted)able back in the day.

Oops yes ! . wtf was I on . Anyway if anyone wants to build a machine to impregnate with an AI hybrid life form I’m more than up for that .

Or Christie. Read the book decades ago.

Not watched it, but just skimmed the wiki page. Backing away now ............ 🫥

lol yeah I’ve watch his videos . But ! I’m not just using local llm to write code ; the house will be controlled via realtime local llm ! . Ever watched the film with Julie Andrews ? Not the sound of (expletive deleted)ing music !! Demon Seed …

Cost of that Mac will pay for 5 years of Codex pro which I'm hearing is much much more efficient than Claude Opus 4.6 so could get an awful lot done with it plus can always move subscription if something better comes along. As someone who has traditionally loved playing with hardware seeing what Alex Zsikind* and others are doing is making me envious. But then I think 'What would I actually do with any of this stuff?' and the answer is just play around and not much more.

I know ! I know ! But I’m planning a 5 yr project . The thing is I could go less say 128gb or 256gb but …. If that becomes a limitation I’m going to be real pissed . So I decided get something that in theory can’t be limited except by my ability rather than hardware .

Yes but also should be careful with the pennies. @JohnMo what did you pay?

Mac Studio M5 Ultra 512G when it's announced? That's a mighty big hole in your pocket!

Global ram shortages biting badly due to AI server rush . Decided go big or go home ( a man behind back of a pub said that to me once ) . 512gb got to be! ; if available . Roll on April 1st ( Apple 50th ) or wwdc ( early June )

I remember it being cheaper than the equivalent u value in pir. Maybe its changed now.

I think he is a Scot, so no words minced!

You mean various colours and various finishes and different application methods and what preparation you need. And what make. And you could use wallpaper! Oh dear, meltdown coming.

Clarifications: 1. I should have said 'replace the floorboards' after adding the layer of PIR. 2. The VCL goes in 'hammock-wise' first, and the insulation goes over that - the mineral wool within the hammocks and the PIR on top.