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You write a certificate with a lot on LIM or N/A and they accept it because all they want is a bit of paper that nobody ever reads or understands.

All it needs is a light dusting of Halfords finest silver spray paint to be right up there with "The Faberge Dog's Egg" as featured in Viz.

Is that the one he's going to saw in half for @Crofter ?

As a longtime harvester of forum knowledge for a boat build I completed a while ago I am familiar with the bizarre ecosystem of online forums and the need to pan for the nuggets of gold amongst the crazy gravel and try and ignore (or resist the urge to participate in) the aggy clashes between dogmatic keyboard-pounders foaming at the mouth in dark rooms sometimes half a world away from each other. I was therefore very surprised when I found ebuild which seemed to be an oasis of informed and good-natured conversation populated largely by apparently pleasant people - with an added sprinkling of Obi Wan Kenobi build-gurus sporting almost laughable levels of in-depth knowledge. I was sad to see ebuild die, hope this place will be as good. The signs are positive. I'm building a small (not tiny) house in West Wales, solid wall with EWI. We are off-grid electrically already with PV and a small wind turbine (live on site in a caravan). We intend to have an unecessarily deep bath. We might not have a woodburning stove now (partly seeing sense, mostly seeing the price of decent room-sealed stoves). Our windows are going to be bigger than is wise. We don't really know what we're doing.

We need to see that pan connector....... All looking good. But that pan would not pass muster with my SWMBO. She has a thing about not having "ledges" for dust to settle on, and that includes not having an exposed U bend. We both had to go into town last week to find one that satisfied my My <£100 budget and her "no ledges" criteria.

A dose of bleach will have that sealant clean and shiny in no time. Forget all your "bathroom cleaning" products,. neat bleach works wonders. I paint it on with a paint brush. leave for a while then rinse off.

With a compressor-driven fridge there is no real difference between that and a freezer, and often fridge-freezers use the same cooling circuit for both. It's simpler and easier to use a small freezer as a fridge than the other way around, but only because the freezer will have a larger cooling arrangement than a fridge, and the temperature can be controlled over a wide range with just a thermostat. Many years ago, a friends old (1950's) yacht had a cool box with an ice compartment. Back then it was easy to buy ice at pretty much any port, so all we did was put ice in the ice chamber and let it keep the cool box cold. Ice would last a fairly long time, maybe three days if the weather wasn't too hot. I'm sure that the phase change cold packs you can get would do a better job, as they start off at around -18 deg C, from having been "charged" in a freezer. You could possibly make a tiny unit for just freezing these cold packs, then use those to keep the cool box cool. Not sure of the best way to do this, but I would think a two stage Peltier cooler, cooling down a small, well-insulated, compartment that was only just big enough to hold a couple of cold packs, could be made to work OK. Whether it would be worth doing is debatable, and depends very much on how long you'll be at sea and away from power. Most of my sailing has been coastal, with lots of trips across the English Channel, and a couple of delivery trips down to the Med. I can't recall being away from port for more than about 48 hours at a stretch, even on the delivery trips.

I'm really sorry to have had to be a bit negative but the risks of continuing to use an installation, or even portable, LV system with no earth and no real protection from electric shock are high. Given that the inverter must have a fake CE approval (it cannot have passed with that outlet fitted, for a start) then I think it's very wise to get it tested. If it were me (accepting that I probably feel a bit more confident about taking stuff apart to examine it than some) then I'd open up the inverter case and examine the internal construction and layout, looking for visible signs that the design pays heed to the need for adequate isolation between the ELV DC input and the LV AC output, together with adequate insulation of high voltage areas from the metal case. I'd also want to see that the earth pin on the socket was properly connected to the metal case. Assuming all was OK internally, then using this as a temporary supply would then be OK, provided that a protective earth was provided, by means of an earth rod connected to the metal case and earth pin on the socket, together with a plug in RCD to provide protection downstream from the unit. I really wish Trading Standards had the resources to stop all the non-compliant, and potentially dangerous, electrical stuff that is sold via Ebay and other on-line sellers. Back when I was investigating and testing LED lights to use in our build I even found some lethal GU10 lights being sold by one of the very well-known DIY stores. To their credit they did withdraw them from sale immediately when presented with the evidence (the LEDs used a capacitive dropper, so weren't isolated from the mains supply, and had bare chips on the front face, with a 50:50 chance that they would be at line potential..............). In this case the seller is clearly in China, selling via a drop-shipping arrangement in the UK, and using a UK address as a mail box. Trading Standards could do nothing more than close down his present seller ID, I think, and I'm certain the seller would just pop-up again within a day or two with a new ID. My experience is that Trading Standard just don't bother chasing things like this, as they know they are wasting their time.

Just playing with some fittings here in case it helps, assume the maple Contiboard is the OSB wall: Two 45o solvent weld, M/F then a solvent/ring seal adaptor then push fit pan connector. 150mm from "OSB" to centre of 110mm. Projects nom 300mm along: Then two 67.5o solvent weld M/F, puts centre of pipe nom 200mm from "OSB". Projects along about 275mm:

No comment milud. actually it was a blind date set up by our friends, her first question was "what do you want to do with your life", I said retire and build my cottage in the countryside and I don't care where." I asked her what she wanted to do with her life and she replied " I want to retire to where I come from, Devon, and I just happen to own my late fathers old timber and asbestos bungalow out in the sticks down there", ( and flattering her long eyelashes said) "but I don't have the resources to do it up or anything". Kerching ? ( not a bad cook)

By the power of Fosters: 17, 54 & 95mm standard Starrett cutters. My first rodeo doing this so happy enough. Just got to cut the rectangle out for the flush plate now!

Welcome! We were all there at some point (some of us haven't moved that far away). If we all knew what we were doing there'd be no need for a forum and the world would be a poorer place!