SteamyTea

I am more intrigued as to why people think that self building is going to be cheaper. We don't self-build cars, washing machines, TV's. I have never heard anyone mention that it would be a good idea to self build a railway system, or an equivalent to a A320. So why housing? Where are the savings to be made, nailing a bit of skirting, running a few metres of copper pipe. Or is it that self builders treat it as a hobby?

I think our Jeremy is the man who knows about these @JSHarris 4 kWp of PV is not much, and if self installing should not cost much. You may find that adding more modules and putting the juice into your DHW is pretty effective and cheap to do. There was a programme on the radio the other day about Lithium, I think it explained that even though lead was a better material, lithium had the better power density figure, not that it matters a toss for static installations. I think it was this programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08pdzxq When you have spent all our cash on batteries, and you run out of power, you can use the lithium salts to cheer yourselves up

Small vented cylinder with a 3kW electric heater in it. Cures the electrical supply problem and the storage problem. Pretty cheap to fit too. Does take up a bit more room, but may be it could be installed outside. I think plumbing is way to complicated. You either store water and heat it, or heat it on the fly. Good job we don't get a plumber in to make the tea, it would never happen

I did this a few years ago for a giggle

Back in 1991 we were building a new workshop inside our factor unit. I was holding up one end of an small RSJ while standing in the window opening, probably 4 foot off the ground. I started to feel unbalanced (still am) and decided to jump down while still holding the RSJ (which was not too heavy). That night I slipped m disc in bed, took me 4 hours to crawl out of bed and down the stairs to the phone. Got taken to hospital and they gave me pain killers that made the sky go pink and suspended reality. All very strange. Was the most painful thing I have had, and that includes my serious car accident that left me in hospital for weeks. And that curious incident with the camera earlier this year. I still have trouble now in my lower back, neck and shoulders 26 years on

May be worth starting a new topic on this, then people that have managed cooling mode can post up ho wit was done on different models. It would be a very useful resource, especially if the manual was uploaded as well.

What I find interesting about the graph is that frequency does not correlate well with demand very well on the 25th. I am not sure if that was just a 'bad day' for the grid, or there is something much more fundamental going on. One of the problems is that the power auction for each half hour block to help balance the grid closes about an hour and a half before it is delivered. Then something unexpected can happen.

I think the morning sun hit my temp sensor.

I just heard the Beeb report. The thing that struck me about it was that they mentioned that around Noon it was producing more than our 8 nuclear installations. Hopefully that should being the message home. It is much easier to get few large consumers to use power than 30 million domestic consumers. I don't have a problem with that. A quick chart I have just knocked up.

They may have a point about how the West can corrupt. We have been shafted by the New York Times already.

Well Robert McNamara said "never answer the question asked of you, only answer the question you wish you were asked". So did the East Germans fells safer because they were being spied on by their own people, not did they feel they had to show willing

Ian You have had experience of an oppressive police state. Did all the controls forced upon the general public make them feel 'safe', or just a bit miffed that they are all potential enemies of the state?

Not sure. They did in Northern Ireland, was not a great success.

Seems silly to try and make a low energy and low carbon dioxide emitting house, then burn any waste. Better to bury it if it cannot be reused.

May is putting armed troops on the ground now, a bad move in my opinion as we have not had that on the mainland since the civil war (actually might be wrong there, but generally right, we have used them for disaster relief and as firemen). Didn't Roger Moore pick a bad day to pass away. Now there is a security man I could respect

It is another example of why governments/parliament should not be allowed to make technical decisions. What are the odds that Hinkley gets cancelled at great expense next, or will they just wait for EDF to go bust.

It is always difficult knowing what to say after something like this. There will be a lot of hand wringing and recriminations (has already started on Radio 4). The security services are hard pushed to deal with these sorts of attacks and will probably ask for more powers to try and pre-empt this sorts of attacks. I don't think this is the same sort of thing that happened on Westminster bridge and the Houses of Parliament. That was a troubled man, not a terrorist. Having said that, when they identify the person that caused this (Radio reporting it was a man), it will be interesting to see if he was known to the security services.

Only fit metal baths is the answer. We fitted a spa bath in a club above a leather goods shop. The spa leaked and damaged about £7000 worth of stock in the shop. Our insurance would have covered that, but the prat that owned the I worked for decided that it was the spa bath that was faulty. £70,000 later we lost our case.

I put a length of timber in the car, just fitted as long as I placed the front end on the dash. Shut the hatchback and it poked the timber though the front windscreen. A mate of mine, who was keen on DIY but not very good, was nailing down some floor boards. He hit a pipe and had to call a plumber. The plumber fixed it all up and left. My mate then nailled though the repair. What a twonk.

What, 2 quid, the same as a Coke.

I seem to remember that @JSHarris downloaded an older version of Thunderbird and managed to transfer to that, then upgraded. Think the details are here: I am just giving SeaMonkey a go (again). It has Thunderbird built in and was pretty easy to set up. Not got around to transferring my old email to it yet as I need to work out how PGP works in SeaMonkey first. I still recommend using Portable versions of applications of you can. They are dead easy to back up, just copy the whole folder over. They tend not to 'clog up' Windows in my experience too.

Let me go try mine out on myself now. Batteries are flat (Mine is a Rolson from B&M for a few quid)

Best way to find out is to ask your existing lender, and a few brokers. You do stand to loose your house though if your circumstances change. If you wonder why banks are asking for 25% deposits, it is because they think that housing is at least 25% overpriced. I can't predict the future, but I believe that we are due a 'correction' in house pricing. How this happens is a really big unknown. It may be stagnation in nominal price (what people usually think of i.e. I paid £3000 now it is work £200,000), or it may be a 1989-95 crash, where the nominal price actually reduced. Or it may be interest rate driven, with the associated inflation pressures. The World Bank warned the UK that house prices were over priced in 1999. They were about 4.5 times income back then. But why not just buy a holiday home, plenty down here here for sale. I don't believe that self building adds value to a property, we have too many rules and regulation to allow that to happen.

Should have sued them, they would have taken notice then. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39893111

And you will only be able to use the power they produce on other BadApple products. Even Microsoft have realised they need to incorporate other ecosystems.