SteamyTea

I don't think so, but there may well be some confusion over terminology. Used to use an impact driver for undoing stubborn screws and bolts, they could be revered to tighten up as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_driver Then a hammer drill, also know as percussion drill or impact drill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_drill So I may well be wrong, but ours at work have this torque increasing mechanism, based on a hammer and anvil. I always think of a 'hammer drill' as something that just vibrates the drill bit up and down as it rotates, but does not increase torque. As I mentioned earlier, it is based on this physics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerk_(physics)

My understanding of impact drills are really jerk drills. They have a spring, ratchet and rotating mass that is released every rotation. That mass caused a jerk force increases the torque on the drive shaft. Stopping torque is a third power of mass, rather than the second power of speed.

We could tax them on it. Mine does 35 mpg/tonne (ish), my last car 37 mpg/tonne, but it was not so good. 60 MPG for a 1.6 tonne car as opposed to 62 MPG for a 1.8 tonne now. Many years ago, when I was studying automotive engineering, I read an article about this, seem to remember at the time (1982) that mass divided by 540 gave the gallons per mile. My passengers on Tuesday were most impressed that my car does 4 lt/100 km (they are used to that metric).

I hate the noise that impact drivers/drills make. Is there a good drill that is non impact, or at least had the facility to turn the feature off. We use Milwaukee stuff at work, the circular saw is very good. Nor so keen on the rest of the kit, though the angle grinder was alright, if a bit on the large side. Mixing makes, if bought in a good deal is not so bad as you often get one charger and two batteries, so saves getting a second charger.

Just a thought, possibly a bad scenario. If there are a number of grid connected system, and one of them is an islanding system that is incorrectly wired in, so it does not disconnect from the grid, would the other systems still be connected and running? I know that most inverters check that grid impedance as part of the running/disconnect protocol, but that may be within tolerances in a rural setting. An unlikely scenario I know, but with millions of systems fitted, unlikely becomes inevitable.

Ah, Trenton, PA, part of the rust belt. I lived in Meltdown Midtown, PA, slightly more classy. Unless she is on the NJ side.

I was with your old Mayor on Tuesday, he is a relative on mine. Did not mention your problems as he now deals with nuclear stuff. Was interesting as we had not seen each other since 1968.

One pothole at a time.

Never go that far in the conversation. That is for another day with them, which I have no idea when it will be, but she is looking to retire to Spain, so less of a journey.

Just spent a few days with my colonial cousins, one who lives in Walnut Creek, California. She is a very clever, ex banker, and fully qualified accountant, so hates paying for anything. Got chatting about energy bills and she said they were paying $1000/month. Now her house is a lot larger than mine, and they work from home now, so would be more expensive. Now I am home, I thought I would have a look at Californian prices. California prices are 58% higher than the national average, makes my penny per kWh rural surcharge seem quite reasonable. PG&E Rate Rate type Rate per kWh RESIDENTIAL TIME-OF-USE SERVICE FOR PLUG-IN ELECTRIC VEHICLE CUSTOMERS TOU 30-61¢ RESIDENTIAL TIME-OF-USE (PEAK PRICING 4 - 9 p.m. EVERY DAY)- All Electric TOU 36-61¢ Southern Californian Edison Rate Rate type Rate per kWh Option B Residence All-Electric Allocation TOU 18-77¢ Option DT - Single Family All-Electric Allocation TOU 34-59¢ Option DT - Single Family TOU 34-59¢ Time-Of-Use Residential (5-8 PM) Single-Family Residence TOU 29-82¢ Time-Of-Use Residential (Prime) All-Electric Allocation TOU 27-64¢ Option A Single-Family Residence All-Electric Allocation TOU 12-92¢ Time-Of-Use Residential Rate (4-9 PM) Single-Family Residence All-Electric Allocation TOU 30-66¢ Time-Of-Use Residential Rate (4-9 PM) Single-Family Residence TOU 30-66¢ Option A Single-Family Residence TOU 12-92¢ Option B Residence TOU 18-77¢ Data last updated by our partner WattBuy on Feb 8, 2026 San Diego and Electric Co Rate Rate type Rate per kWh DOMESTIC TIME-OF-USE FOR HOUSEHOLDS WITH ELECTRIC VEHICLES, ENERGY STORAGE, OR ELECTRIC HEAT PUMPS TOU 34-72¢ RESIDENTIAL - TIME OF USE SERVICE - DR TOU 29-53¢ COST-BASED DOMESTIC TIME-OF-USE FOR HOUSEHOLDS WITH ELECTRIC VEHICLES TOU 10-71¢ DOMESTIC TIME-OF-USE FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING TOU 27-75¢ DOMESTIC TIME-OF-USE FOR HOUSEHOLDS WITH ELECTRIC VEHICLES TOU 21-70¢ DOMESTIC TIME-OF-USE FOR HOUSEHOLDS WITH A SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEM TOU 31-66¢ RESIDENTIAL TIME-OF-USE - DR2 All Electric TOU 28-68¢

70 tonnes of concrete holds about 15.5 kWh.K-1. The losses are about 650W in total, with about 500W going usefully into the house.

VID_20260211_181431387.mp4

I think that may be a problem with the OS. Dedicated hardware does not need the same sort of heavy overhead systems to run. But yes, (expletive deleted)ing stupid idea.

Why not one HP and some supplementary resistance heating for the coldest times?

WTF Just put a switch or dial on the wall FFS.

Not like the Dutch, they are allowed to put a finger in a dyke to stop the dribbling. So much more liberal.

Misread that as Bellend.

Is one allowed to repair a public asset without permission?

I hit a new pothole at work. Two hours later 20 metres of the car park was disintegrating, that became 40. Pot hole is now about 3 metres deep. VID_20260130_080418062.mp4

Only with consent, or a face mask and rubber suit, don't want to leave 'evidence'.

Well, this is just plainly naive, isn't it? What about all the infrastructure and energy required to run all the cloud functionality? That is a really good point and one I have not thought about. A very quick web search seems to show that 1 TB of data uses between 40 and 70 kWh/year. If each 'user' has 1 GB of data, that is around 0.055 kWh/user.year, or 6W. A Raspberry Pi, running headless uses about 3 W, with a bit of tuning, about a watt (what mine uses. An ESP**** about a tenth of that. To that figure, the energy usage of 'smart switches' needs to be added, regardless of if it is cloud or locally connected. Another quick web search gives a result of 1W for a Shelly Relay. So that could be another 10W for a few connected devises, or ~90 kWh/year. With a cloud connected service, the energy usage of the data transport has to be taken into account. So a local router, a share of the local telephone exchange (or 4/5G), 3 to five internet servers etc. So it is probably cheaper to use a local service, that is hard wired if possible, but not as good as a manual switch. Food for thought.

No shit.

There is also 'stick' build.

My off peak times covers both circuits, so I run the washing machine during off peak hours as it is cheaper. When it is really cold, I run a fan heater in the morning to heat up rooms. But I am often up by 4AM. I have also put timers on my off peak circuits, this limits the time to the last 3 hours of the E7 window. This works fine for me as my storage heaters and DHW are charged closer to the times I need them. My life is easy as I live alone.

You can usually hear an immersion heater work by the fizzing sound. So during the day, try keeping the kitchen switch off, and flick the 'Peak Supply' switch on, you should be able to heat some noise from the cylinder, or you can check the meter and see if you have an extra 3 kW load on. The kitchen switch may be just a secondary switch to make life easier i.e. not having to open a cupboard. Most of us on here like to keep water temperature as low as possible to save parasitic losses. I have a 200 lt DHW cylinder and store, via E7, water at 50°C. That is enough for a bath and a shower. Check the thermostats as the upper one (peak) should be higher temperature than the lower one (off peak).