Leaderboard

Some progress, although I'm still waiting for stuff to arrive. Rather bizarrely, the only thing ordered from China, a supposed "hypochlorous acid generator" has been the first thing to arrive. This is what it looks like: First thing I did was take it apart to see what's inside and how it works. It is really simple, just a timer circuit that switches a controlled current through a couple of titanium electrodes that spiral around the base, and which are covered with a plastic grille. The timer runs for 8 minutes when the button is pressed. All the instructions are in Chinese and are indecipherable (I've spent an hour trying to just get the basics, to no avail). I went back to basic chemistry and decided that the starter solution probably needed to be about 1.2g of sodium chloride to 300ml of water electrolysed for 8 minutes at about 1 A, in order to give a solution with about 500 to 800ppm of hypochlorous acid (that's a pretty strong disinfectant, 50ppm would probably just about be OK). This thing cannot just produce hypochlorous acid, and produces a fair bit of sodium hydroxide in the end solution. Not enough to cause any significant harm, and it may well mean the solution is a bit better at cleaning surfaces. The main issue is that the pH increases way above the point where the hypochlorous can remain stable for long. I ended up with a final pH of around 8, and ideally this needs to be below 5, perhaps down around 3 to give a few weeks of shelf life. I've tried to assess the free chlorine, as a crude measure of hypochlorous acid concentration, but failed, as my test kit can't work up at this range, which bodes well for it actually having worked (as does the slight smell of chlorine). I have some stuff on order, including a high range chlorine test kit, that should allow a better assessment of the effectiveness of this thing. I also have some acetic acid on order, as I want to try lowering the pH to see how that impacts the shelf life. I'd like to try using very cold water as a starter, too, as that may increase the solubility of the chlorine gas liberated from the anode in the water. The hydrogen liberated from the cathode when the thing is running is just vented to the air. Also on order are some larger titanium electrodes, as I want to have a go at making a proper hypochlorous acid generator, one that separates out the hypochlorous acid from the sodium hydroxide, and allows better control of the pH. This will need an ion exchange membrane to separate the anode and cathode, but I'm hoping I can knock something up using standard waste pipe fittings. More to follow once I get more stuff delivered.

This is what a Great Crested Newt with a headache looks like. He was sheltering under a Ground Protection Mat: I had moved it for the first time in 4 years. Why the headache? Because every day for the last God knows how long, I put my foot on his head 20 or 30 times a day as I walk to and from the site: he was smack bang under the middle of the Ground Protection Mat - that alone weighs about 40 kilos. I had driven over the mat with a five tonne digger the other day. He doesn't look too ill, does he? Apologies about the focus, the little bugger wriggled, and I didn't want to hold him for too long. Popped him in the hibernacular, as agreed in the Planning Permission documents. 2 minutes later - gone. He might well have been there since the last bout of heavy rain - when its dry like this they stay where they are. But what a place to choose. Talk about hiding in plain sight!

Sounds like it’s an Estimators Online or other type of standard quote system. I have to say in these sorts of circumstances go with your gut feel ... it will probably be right !

Levelling the runway

Bet it is sub contracted to the same guys they use today ...

That or convert to male using a 3/4” hexagon nipple and then back to tap connectors.

Yes assuming the shower has a 3/4” female connection ..? You said tap connector which is the opposite to that

It’s known as a stem coupler but yes, a reducer

So you use a 22mm elbow and shove one of those in and you now have 15mm https://www.screwfix.com/p/hep2o-plastic-push-fit-stem-coupler-f-15mm-x-m-22mm/8401f Or you use a 3/4 to 15mm Titan and then use one of these. https://www.screwfix.com/p/hep2o-plastic-push-fit-equal-90-stem-elbow-15mm/8137f The straight bit goes where the pipe normally goes in a standard connector ..??

And lots of pressure on the screw so it does not cam out and chew up the head.

20190807_123815.mp4 No proper airplane

You could add a Henley inside an enclosure, then run either tails or other runs of SWA from that. You need the enclosure so that the SWA cable glands have something to fit to, and to protect the single insulated SWA cores from being able to be touched.

Today’s efforts

Is we’re in lock down, just started our 5th week I finally found time to start cleaning the oak beams. Wow! Oxalic acid works wonders, if been sceptical given how many black marks and stains we had. The Oxalic acid cleaned up the lot. All I need to do now is treat the cleaned up oak and then over it all up ready for plastering. Mind you the plasterboard supplier is shut and the plastering team in lockdown.

What worries me about this is the TOTAL load. You estimate the total load of the outbuildings to be 75A. That only leaves 25A for the house it is all fed from, so not much at all.

I'd put it on blocks. I strongly suspect that what starts off as clean stone will soon be full of crap and leaf mold with stuff growing in it.

Trailer and a skeleton kit and then plod on with the rest DIY

If you look through the building regs for buildings other than dwellings, it suggests that a flight of stairs over a certain number of rises must be broken by a landing. A half landing should still count as it is at least as wide as the stairs. So in my opinion it's two separate flights. I bet you won't notice the 10mm underfoot and they won't check it. Unless you've committed cash already why can't the stairs be made at say 165mm throughout for the first floor? I wouldn't worry that it'll be different to the other floors.

When he is inspecting stop him on the second half landing to ask him about the spindle spacing etc so he has to stop. So long as he doesn't walk up or down the full flight at once he will never notice.

It’s worth isolating on every end of an SWA. At about £16 each, a double pole isolator is not expensive and really important.