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More nonsense. The petrol car is made how does scrapping it make any sense. Typical CO2 emissions for a petrol car are 230g per mile, so 7000km is 1000 kg. It takes 5 to 10 tonnes to produce an electric car, so already the electric car needs to exist 5 to 10 years to get pay back compared to an existing petrol car. But that doesn't include grid CO2 to charge vehicle etc.which would extend CO2 payback also Typical car average life before being scrapped is 17 years, except Ford's and Vauxhall which is sooner. So may make sense to scrap petrols at between around 10 years, but not a new car or 2 year old one. But scrap all diesels cars tomorrow would be my view. But would need to be a voluntary scrappage system to encourage participation.

Now that, is a good point!

Ours are roof battens also. Cheap, long lengths, pressure treated readily available.

Scrap old cars (and American ones.) Give them the 2 year old ones. Nwky carless person gets an electric. Some paperwork involved there clearly. Might be easier to give the electric car to the old banger owners instead.

No it’s just a concrete slab. How would inside a closed panel even get damp? There are no windows on this wall.

There shouldn't be any water.

when my men did all my floors - they insisted on moisture meters fitted to downward facing cup -- left them in place and came back to check them from memory the number they were looking for was 3.5% they said they could do it at higher moisture rate but glue was twice the price --so i waited then they came back and ground all the floors_ sucked all the dust off them to get a perfect flat finish -then checked it again for moisture content only then did they start to lay it and they laid it AFTER the skirting boards were fitted -- cut it all in perfectly real professionals job was prefect and that is not a term i use lightly only downside with using this company is that they are so good you need to book them 4-6 months in advance but well worth it still looks great nearly 2 years on

Morning My SB is an L-shaped bungalow which creates an internal courtyard garden. One of the walls facing the garden is exposed blockwork at present. I had been toying with cladding it, but prefer a slightly different idea.... I am considering erecting mesh frames onto the wall and growing ivy all over it. Regarding preventing attachment (or damaging levels of attachment) to the house wall, the RHS says this: Application of two coats of ‘Easy-On’, a clear anti-graffiti, silane-based, nanoparticle paint, was as efficient in preventing attachment. Application of another, petrochemical-based paint, while not completely preventing ivy attachment, significantly weakened it, thus easing ivy management. This advice comes from the attached study. I am investigating the costs of appropriate paints, mesh, etc. The obvious, and pertinent, question is: am I being mad?! J-O-L-A-2016-Volume-3-Issue-1-Blanusa(etal).pdf

Interesting, that's the sort of issue I was wondering if it could cause but couldn't think how it would. I know that if you get the hot and cold feeds connected the wrong way round it gives a lot of issues 🤣 I'm glad I didn't just crack on with it though as I think I have potentially found a solution that will allow it to go in as intended without massive upheaval. Possibly. Not going to be the neatest solution and I have no doubt a plumber would slap me round the head if they saw the potential fix, but if it works...

No, I might not need to create an air gap as such. As you say, the shape of the corrugated sheets will do the job. I may end up doing it anyway, though, as I need to fix battens to the wall to attach the corrugated sheets onto, and they will create a (larger) gap. In fact I will probably double layer the battens, as I need the first batten to run vertically so that water can escape, then the second batten to go horizontally for ease of fixing the sheets. I can't see a more efficient way. Regarding Ivy, I think I would be able to get to the vulnerable bits in the case of this project and regularly rim any stray parts of the plant from going where it shouldn't!

I went through this when I fitted solar thermal 20+years ago on old house unless its different for solar -- then the angle should be same as your latitude approx 53-54 for me but in winter they worked better when hung at an even steeper angle due to height of sun in my case I opted to go an even higher angle as in summer they produced too much and boiled by 300 litre tank - unregulated panels-- but in winter when my underfloor was wanting heat they did help as long as it was clear skies it was always my intention to go full solar if i was building a new house -- but costs of 60000 litre insulated storage tank under the house might have been prohibitive-- basically a very wet cellar but where I ended up on this quarry site rebuilding an old house which is built on live rock --made that a non starter maybe just as well as price of solar thermal panels have not dropped at all -best output for a £2400 solar panel would be 4kw--where PV panels have and thats only 8 solar panels at £120 each ? providing you have the space

Any idea why roof time battens were used as opposed to 'normal' battens? Also, is that Jackon ICF - looks very similar to ours? If so, any top tips on securing to it internally or externally?

How do more options make something into an 'issue'? Every build system has pros and cons but, after a lot of research, we decided ICF fitted our use-case best. I think the reason ICF hasn't been adopted by housebuilders is probably because that's not the way they did it in the past... Plus, at the moment, there are probably more brickies than there are construction workers who can spell ICF.

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The amount of chambers, welds, material used (polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) engineering plastics rather than steel for strengthening and thermal improvements

We're using Jackon - or BEWI as I think it's now known. Just doedonen a quick check and it looks like it's metric. Each strengthening plate is 10mm from the surface, 50mm wide, 100mm gap, then another 50mm plate etc.

tricky question If I had been 20years younger I would have done it all myself but trying to work on a roof with one leg that hardly works and gives way at any time was not on so mine was professionally fitted with extra costs involved 26 panels --11kw invertor and a stack of 5 batteries 17kw capacity it became clear to me from the start that the tariff you pick will decide what the installation should be I picked battery make so i could go octopus intelligent flux which at this time your import and export rates are identical for same time periods eg most of day +night it it 20.6p per unit good time is 16.00 to 20,00 then it is 27.6p for export --but also import is same there is no night cheap rate as such they have total control of when it chargers and discharges the battery --sounds bad -- but in practise it works fairly well -my panels all face s/w on the roof of house house is shieled by a hill behind so no major production happens till it gets high enough to get at the far side of roof the house is all electric ASHP so this morning as an example --battery been sucked down to 20% in peak time last night so this morning it is dry and i,m importing a small amount ( 500w) and it is also charging the battery a little as the panels are only making 800w at 07.30 this continued to 08.30 when the panels started to make more than usage -- so now the battery is still low but gradually charging I expect that it will start taking small amount of import if sun does not come out properly till round about 12.00 and usually battery -is full by 13.00-- so then it starts to export back to grid at same price i paid this morning-- so actually no cost to me to fill battery and in the afternoon when its doing well --11kW -it will keep sending it back at the 20.6 till the peak time when it will most likely still be full -then it will be 27.6 p a unit when they start to take it back It is supposed to only go down to 20% --but quite often they will suck it down to 5% --I am guessing it is something to do with grid balancing and they get more money for it then if they do suck it dry then they will start to recharge it at some point at the lower rate so all it all I find it a simple and fair system I have also joined AXLE energy for their grid events where they will pay you £1 per unit when they want it events last one to two hours and can be any time of day they will pay you £10 a month even if you send nothing back- but fi you do the first £10 is from what you send If any body is interested mail me and we can both get some money for me passing your details on what would I change if doing it again --smaller battery stack -as cost of extra batteries will never be got back --and as the pay you for export when batteries are full no point in having too many batteries to completely cover consumption of a 16kw ASHP with battery storage in should months would be prohibitive

Like the idea of the osb across the top as a base for the wiring to route out of the room. If I do go for option 3 i have an intention to use osb/plywood backing in areas where heavy stuff will be secured to walls (eg tv, kitchen cupboards etc) And if using battens I'm planning to use 20mm as standard (reduced space loss and £££) and only go to 50mm if necessary for pipework or to encompass additional strengthening

We've covered this before but if you have a ground mounted array, the angle is up to you. So start with PVGIS and try out different angles. From memory, it gives you the angle which generates the highest output in mid summer - but if you vary the angle, you can find a point where the total yearly output is the same but the highest output is less and output is pushed more into the shoulder months. So if your inverter would normally be clipping at the highest output, you'll get more out of the installation by finding that angle - for us it's about 45deg rather then the ~33deg (from memory) that gives highest level of output. We have 6.5kWp of solar and an 5kW inverter - yesterday at the peak we were generating 5.4kW from the solar, so only losing a bit due to the inverter clipping. From here on in, this will get closer and sometime in September we'll be generating much more than we would have been doing at 33deg and we'll be able to use all of it. So it's worth doing a bit of analysis to work out what the best orientation and angle will be over the full year.

Explain that a bit more in the context of the article.

Obviously the fridge was previously installed so it's likely possible with the factory plug on it. However, given you've already chopped that off and are making your own connection: 1. Just use a long cable a feed it through before you make the connection. 2. Then make the connection before you slide the fridge into place.

Who pays for the asset being scrapped? More tomfoolery……

@markharro Mount them remotely, just a thousand times easier, more practical, and you won’t then be breaking off plaster and scratching paint removing spotlights (which are not meant for this at all!). Fine if it’s a driver per luminaire, as we are about to start installing for one of my current clients, but if it’s for one stray run of led strip just beef up the cable size and put it somewhere more practical. DEFO do not puncture the FR ceiling behind the smoke head!

Environment It’s good for the planet to scrap a new petrol car and buy electric Carbon savings from driving EVs are so large that it makes sense to scrap a working petrol car to make the switch Madeleine Cuff6 August 2026, updated 7 August 2026 http://localhost:56805/wp-content/external_image/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubmV3c2NpZW50aXN0LmNvbS93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyNi8wOC9TRUlfMzA3NDU2MzcxLmpwZw__.jpg Electric cars are far better for the climate than traditional petrol vehicles JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images In a straight choice between a new petrol car and a new electric car, on climate grounds the electric car wins easily. But what if your existing petrol car is still working fine – or is even only a year or two old? Contrary to popular belief, the overall climate impact is lower if a new petrol car is scrapped in favour of an electric vehicle (EV), new research reveals. Studies show that although EVs produce more carbon emissions when they are manufactured, they are responsible for much lower emissions when they are being driven compared with a petrol or diesel car. Overall, the whole-life emissions for an electric car are almost 90 per cent lower than for combustion engine vehicles. How I pay almost nothing to power my house and electric car Elliott Campbell at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Roland Geyer at UC Santa Barbara wanted to find out whether drivers should wait until their current combustion engine car is ready for the scrapheap before moving to electric. Using US data, they analysed the emissions impact of scrapping a fossil fuel car and replacing it with an EV at different points, from scrapping a car that is just a year or two old to one at the end of its life. Their modelling accounts for the emissions associated with producing and running a new electric car, and other factors including variability in the grid electricity mix, vehicle efficiency, manufacturing emissions and mileage. “We found that in the vast majority of cases, and even for a brand new gas vehicle, you would be far better off scrapping the gas vehicle and switching to electric,” says Campbell. “It takes more energy to build an electric vehicle, but the savings from driving the vehicle swamp all the upfront costs.” Campbell stresses he doesn’t expect people to immediately scrap their brand new cars. Instead, the study aims to show that there is zero environmental benefit in keeping a fossil fuel car on the road until the end of its life. The findings hold true for almost any scenario, except where an electricity grid is very reliant on coal power, or when a fossil fuel car is driven less than about 7000 km per year. “The idea here is just to simply show what a huge advantage electric vehicles offer, so that when the opportunity to make the transition [is] something that people are ready and excited to do, by all means go for it,” says Campbell. “There’s no environmental concern to hold you back.” Kenneth Gillingham at the Yale University says the paper takes a “clever angle”. “I think what they’re talking about makes perfect sense. I’ve thought about this before [but] I’ve never thought to write a science paper on it, and I’m impressed.” http://localhost:56805/wp-content/external_image/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubmV3c2NpZW50aXN0LmNvbS93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyNS8wMS8yMzE1NDYyMS9TRUlfMjM3MDY1NDg1LmpwZz93PTkwMCZoPTYwMCZjcm9wPTE_.jpg Electric cars now last as long as petrol and diesel counterparts Records from UK vehicle safety tests show that the average lifespan of an electric vehicle is 18 years, and the reliability is still improving considerably from year to year But Gregory Keoleian at the University of Michigan points out that the study is considering an “extreme case”. “It’s unlikely somebody’s going to purchase a combustion engine vehicle and retire it after a year,” he says. Instead, those cars will likely hit the second-hand market, which could have knock-on economic and behavioural impacts, such as lowering the price of second-hand cars so dramatically that it convinces more people to switch from public transport to car use. More research is needed to model those potential impacts, says Campbell. But the study’s authors say their findings lend support to the idea of subsidised scrappage schemes, to encourage people to scrap older fossil-fuel cars in favour of electric vehicles. Such policies could accelerate the EV transition in the US and help to cut transportation emissions, which are now the single largest source of carbon emissions in the country. Journal Reference: Science DOI: 10.1126/science.adv5441 Environment It’s good for the planet to scrap a new petrol car and buy electric Carbon savings from driving EVs are so large that it makes sense to scrap a working petrol car to make the switch Madeleine Cuff6 August 2026, updated 7 August 2026 http://localhost:56805/wp-content/external_image/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubmV3c2NpZW50aXN0LmNvbS93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyNi8wOC9TRUlfMzA3NDU2MzcxLmpwZw__.jpg Electric cars are far better for the climate than traditional petrol vehicles JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images In a straight choice between a new petrol car and a new electric car, on climate grounds the electric car wins easily. But what if your existing petrol car is still working fine – or is even only a year or two old? Contrary to popular belief, the overall climate impact is lower if a new petrol car is scrapped in favour of an electric vehicle (EV), new research reveals. Studies show that although EVs produce more carbon emissions when they are manufactured, they are responsible for much lower emissions when they are being driven compared with a petrol or diesel car. Overall, the whole-life emissions for an electric car are almost 90 per cent lower than for combustion engine vehicles. Read more How I pay almost nothing to power my house and electric car Elliott Campbell at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Roland Geyer at UC Santa Barbara wanted to find out whether drivers should wait until their current combustion engine car is ready for the scrapheap before moving to electric. Using US data, they analysed the emissions impact of scrapping a fossil fuel car and replacing it with an EV at different points, from scrapping a car that is just a year or two old to one at the end of its life. Their modelling accounts for the emissions associated with producing and running a new electric car, and other factors including variability in the grid electricity mix, vehicle efficiency, manufacturing emissions and mileage. “We found that in the vast majority of cases, and even for a brand new gas vehicle, you would be far better off scrapping the gas vehicle and switching to electric,” says Campbell. “It takes more energy to build an electric vehicle, but the savings from driving the vehicle swamp all the upfront costs.” Campbell stresses he doesn’t expect people to immediately scrap their brand new cars. Instead, the study aims to show that there is zero environmental benefit in keeping a fossil fuel car on the road until the end of its life. The findings hold true for almost any scenario, except where an electricity grid is very reliant on coal power, or when a fossil fuel car is driven less than about 7000 km per year. “The idea here is just to simply show what a huge advantage electric vehicles offer, so that when the opportunity to make the transition [is] something that people are ready and excited to do, by all means go for it,” says Campbell. “There’s no environmental concern to hold you back.” Kenneth Gillingham at the Yale University says the paper takes a “clever angle”. “I think what they’re talking about makes perfect sense. I’ve thought about this before [but] I’ve never thought to write a science paper on it, and I’m impressed.” http://localhost:56805/wp-content/external_image/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubmV3c2NpZW50aXN0LmNvbS93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyNS8wMS8yMzE1NDYyMS9TRUlfMjM3MDY1NDg1LmpwZz93PTkwMCZoPTYwMCZjcm9wPTE_.jpg Electric cars now last as long as petrol and diesel counterparts Records from UK vehicle safety tests show that the average lifespan of an electric vehicle is 18 years, and the reliability is still improving considerably from year to year But Gregory Keoleian at the University of Michigan points out that the study is considering an “extreme case”. “It’s unlikely somebody’s going to purchase a combustion engine vehicle and retire it after a year,” he says. Instead, those cars will likely hit the second-hand market, which could have knock-on economic and behavioural impacts, such as lowering the price of second-hand cars so dramatically that it convinces more people to switch from public transport to car use. More research is needed to model those potential impacts, says Campbell. But the study’s authors say their findings lend support to the idea of subsidised scrappage schemes, to encourage people to scrap older fossil-fuel cars in favour of electric vehicles. Such policies could accelerate the EV transition in the US and help to cut transportation emissions, which are now the single largest source of carbon emissions in the country. Journal Reference: Science DOI: 10.1126/science.adv5441

Hi Onoff, no Im not messing.. & I expected this response tbh. I still don't get it. How do I feed the string through from the RHS hole (twds the R, lower centre, of the adjacent 'plug socket' sink cabinet)... to get it out at the back of the LH cabinet? Some kind of extra long coathanger type rigid wire?? Thanks Zoot