SteamyTea

I live (alone) in a small house, 48 m2 total floor area. While it is fine for me size wise, the two things that annoy me is the narrowness, 4 metres wide on the outside, and the stairs in the living room. It makes the living room very narrow, 3 metres wide, and in effect, it is a corridor with a sofa in it. So rather than think in square metres, think about what needs to go in each room, what needs to go against a wall, and what must not be against a wall i.e. 3 sides of a bed. I find that most houses have oversized kitchens and bathroom. It is a great idea that we spend loads of time creating the perfect meal, and a romantic notion about wallowing in a candle lit bathroom for hours. Reality is different. Showers are often too small though. I like @ProDave's idea of building to a Council Band tax limit.

Well hopefully Google, and ChatGPT will put us to the top of the lists. And you know your RCD works, as intended, as well.

And kw/h, Kwh, kwH, KWH, KW/h, KW/H. We should, as a species use the correct units of energy the joule, not Joule (unless referring to the man or at the beginning of a sentence). MJ is the more appropriate unit, 1 million joules, there are 3.6 MJ in a kWh, or 1 MJ is 0.2778 kWh when rounded to 4 decimal places, but in reality, 2 decimal place would do, so 0.28 kWh to the MJ.

Because the PR/Marketing people have got hold of it and are misrepresenting the science. To give you an example, today is a bit chilly down here, about 7°C, but sunny, 170 W.m-2 on the horizonal, so higher if face on. Now if I stand out in the sun, and out of the wind (mean speed 0.44 m.s-1, with gusts of 3.1 m.s-1). So at best I probably have 200 W.m-2 of solar energy hitting my 1 m-1 of surface area facing the sun. But I would not stand out here without a jacket, and thermal leggings. Now, if I covered my one main wall, about 2.4m high and 6 m long, I would have ~14 m2 of area. Now let us say that without and wind chill factor at home, I could get away with a quarter of the power (bit of a guess as hard to test, but not a stupid, uneducated guess), that wall would be consuming 700 W and I would, at 100% absorption be getting 50 W of that. But in reality, I would be soaking up a lot less, maybe 20% at best (as good as a PV module), so 10 W. 700 W out, 10 W in. Bargain. As a reality check, yesterday when I was out all day, my house used 21 kWh, of which 3 kWh was for DHW (had a bath before I left). So that is 750 W to heat the whole house (and it was at 22°C when I got in last night, bit warmer than normal) So rather than heat just one room, I heated 2.5 times the area, for 50 W more, and overheated the house. That is a better bargain. Now I know that these 'far infra red' system do not run at the same power as our sun, but if they were at a level that is comparable to what I am already doing, and all the energy get reradiated back, then they would still be lot less efficient, by at least 2.5 times. And I would have a cold house, even if I felt warm. Condensation would become a problem, and there would be many 'shadows' that would be quite cold.

James May did an interesting thing about his Porche A/C lights, think it showed red when it was on, and nothing when it was off. If it was the RCD, which is a device that trips if there is an 'earth leakage fault' which basically means that a wire is loose or damp, causing a mismatch between what is going in and what is going out, then turn off power and look at ALL the wired connects. If the fuse has blown this shows 'over current' and the fuse blows to stop anything catching fire. The RCD and the fuse/MCB (mini circuit breaker) do different things, though there are combined units that can do both. There are many things that can cause an RCD to trip, one is damp, and shower pumps can easily get damp.

Does it mention far infra red? Yes it does.

Save me the bother correcting the (expletive deleted)ing (expletive deleted)

All depends which side the warm, wet, air is. Trouble with a loft is it can quickly swing between both. So, is this a warm or a cold roof?

But this week I had an altitude gap of 8' (2440mm), as they were both minus numbers, that is a 6' (1830mm). So I would conclude that GPS (on a phone) is not too good, or my house has sunk.

Powered it with caffeine and cheese sandwiches. And 9 gallons of diesel, which is cheaper in Oxford than down here for a change.

Then a harder hit with a larger tool. Well at least your are happy to get the tools out and give it a go. We like that.

Black line is roughly what I have driven today, both ways. So off to bed, I need to sleep on the cans of Blue Sparkle.

I moved all my possessions down in two trip in an old Corsa. That included my very long ladder, which I got rid of the other day.

May be the RCD and a mini circuit breaker is in the consumer unit. Is anything 'tripped' in there?

ASM will take them off your hands, and give you a couple of quid for them.

Or a kink in the flexible shower pipe (if it has one)

Camper van is even better.

On the shower pipe. Just to draw some water though. But if no noise at all (except a tiny water noise), then the unit is probably dead, though that may be just the cable. Remember that electricity and wet fingers are not a good mix. It should be on its own RCD, they usually have a green test button on them and are often on the outside of the bathroom wall, high up, near the door. But could be anywhere.

That is the kind of excuse that a fraudster would claim once in trouble.

Was not so bad in Aylesbury, ice warning light went off. I used to live 'down the Lizard', have they got mobile phone coverage yet? My current temperature 22/01/2023 21:01:37, 5.625°C

Looks very similar to mine. Is it running making a noise) and now water coming though? That may just be that it has drained the header tank and got an airlock. Open the taps and start sucking, well it works for me. The other thing is they have a flow switch in them, that may have got stuck, so no noise when you open the tap. It is probably easier to get a replacement. Scroll down this page and see if something is similar.

I shall look at it later, just recovering for my weekly drive up country and back. As you have a suspended floor, it may be easier to insulate than you think. Can you crawl under it?

At the end of the trial, work out your kWh rate to see what it really saves.

Is it (expletive deleted). On the drive up was listening to the weather forecast, outskirts of Oxford was -10⁰C last night. Was 6⁰C when I left home this morning.

Welcome How large will a shipping container be when it has 400mm of insulation glued to the inside? How much more will it cost than a factory built timber frame place that matched the insulated foundation and has a guaranteed airtight? There is a reason that houses are not made from old shipping containers, and it is not lack of shipping containers.