SteamyTea

Thought I would give the latest version a go. Number 57, like Heinz. They have a portable version, which I think is the same thing. Does seem to be a fair bit speedier and they claim it uses 30% less memory than Chrome. Still double, at 133MB compared to my old version of SeaMonkey (ver. 2.46). I was always a fan of Firefox, mainly because of the add-ons, but it did get slow and heavy in the end. Time will tell if it can recover its position and prove to be a good product again.

Good reply. Said something similar about a water softener to make the coffee taste better. I could have done with a way to turn my heating on when I got back from Canada, I just used the fan heater instead. I do like the idea of monitoring though, and to be able to access that data when the urge to play with a spreadsheet takes over would be nice. Thing is, I use my phone for all my interwb connectivity, so would have to get another phone or reconnect the landline. The cost of that would be add 50% to my 'energy bill'.

It should not be too hard to create something that is suitable and accessible from a phone. There is a lot to be said for basic controls though. My Mother has a new heating system and she forget to take the thermostat with her when she changes room.

That is a good thing, it will encourage the open source movement to create a better system.

Ah, an archaeologist report, that is nothing, just say 'Have you seen the film Essex Boys'. Just make sure you clear out the bats and newts. I used to live in a hidden gem of Essex, jewel of the arterial infact, Basildon

Welcome. Did your wife tell you to say that so that you can filter out the gardeners?

I agree it is an odd way to expect to get an order. I can see why they are doing that way. The alternative it so pay for the estimate up front, but then no other company would accept those drawings and calculations.

Morning. I am heart warmed to see the support on here and can only imagine what life must be like for you at the moment. Having seen the stress and disappearance of a few self builders in the past, don't be afraid to just ask, as Ian puts is, "an appropriately modest man-hug".

I use these on my heaters: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0066NEBO6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are a number of software packages, GIMP is one, as is Inkscape. (both free and available as portable versions). If you like CAD you can use LibreCad, again a free download and portable. But I like Ian's suggestion. Pen and Paper.

Now that is out of the way, you can do what you like. Neighbours are strange things. There are 6 houses where I live. Only two of us are owner occupiers, the rest are rented out. 3 of the rentals never ever give trouble, but 1, and always the same one, has a high turnover of tenants, causes no end of trouble with the parking (1 house, 1 space, what is hard to understand). Since I have been away the tenant of the "unlucky" house has moved out. Shame as the TV they left in the driveway is apparently still there. I was going to put it by their front door with a note saying that I would be embarrassed that I had left rubbish for 8 weeks littering up the place. Looks like I have a trip to the dump when I get home. What does this mean anyway, ask 100 people, get at least 100 answers.

Who is this Dave, and can he save me money? Or did you mean Nickfromwales, then it would be "so nicked a few £ again"

I have a 200 lt vented cylinder, so can get a better flow rate, but I have found that for two people, and only heated to 50°C, there was plenty of hot water. I have been using just the top element for the last few months (still not got around to sorting the blown lower element, but chatted up neighbour so should be able to use her shower if it all goes tits up) and it only takes 20 minutes to heat up enough for a bath (less water is heated). My cylinder is not normally heated from stone cold, so it may take a little longer. The E7 period is much longer than you need to heat your store to 65°C. You will only ever need about 12 kWh, so should be up to temp in 4 hours at worst.

Use it to your advantage. Say you got them to work harder and told them they can do it in a day. Then make sure your neighbour knows it is you that sorted it out. Brownie points for you

You are right, Lakeside was where I got stuck in the lift and realised that I had been claustrophobic for years. Why did no one else think that smashing up the doors (unsuccessfully) to get out was not a rational thing to do. The point I was making is that there are often charges to enter a market for both suppliers and customers. Council tax is one of them. VAT is another.

There was a bit about a decade ago that Blue Water (Thurrock) wanted to charge shoppers for entry. They already do this for most people with car parking charges or public transport costs. Very little we do does not have some kind of barrier to entry, just that we don't often think of it that way. If you take motoring, then the barriers are actually very high, cost of licence and renewal, driving lessons, test(s) vehicle testing, taxes, insurance, maintenance, disposal, fines. And that is before we pay for fuel. Then there are the discretionary spends on the vehicle, better trim, winter tyres, roof boxes. It is the same with a trip to the beach. Entry to that may be free, but it has a cost to get there and quite often once you are there. They could try varying the meter rental charge by the amount that passes though it. That would be considered, but it is really very simple and very low users would pay very little, just enough for replacement, reading and administration, plus the pro-rata amount for network maintenance. In some ways it is better to make a system like this as it highlights what the money is for. If you lump everything into one, non itemised bill, then people assume that there is a lot of profit making. And that is not the case with retail energy. It is an old and mature marketplace that run by legislation and has very little room for true savings.

Climbing shoes are great, till it is wet. Don't try walking shoes, one wet rock and it cost me a broken pelvis.

I did think about modifying some storage heaters, but the SHC is a nats under 2 kJ.kg-1K-1. Thing is with water, it is easy to use, cheap to buy, all the bits are already made, and has a second hand value if the idea is a disaster. The real problem is that I really don't need much heating, so can get away with a fan heater when I do need it. I think last years bill was under £400. This year there has been a large hike in the day rate for E7 customers, the night rate is not so bad still.

Part of the trouble is, that with FITs, you can have two energy suppliers in effect connected to the same meter. What is hard is whether it is best to charge customers for the right to connect, like a shopping club, or just charge them more for the product because they are not members. If the later, then there should be a charge for connecting home generation. It is really about what the charges should be, not if people should be charged.

It would be a stand alone system, just that the cylinders are relatively cheap, maybe second hand if I can find them. Don't, just that two 200lt (400 kg) cylinders will fit under the stairs and can be plumbed in easily. To the storage capacity for a the worse case, I would need to store 24 kWh above 30°C (ish). Also using two cylinders allows me to only use one when the weather is not so cold. Heat loss from the system is not such an issue as it will all be within the insulated envelope and only used when heating is needed. I would have thought someone would have commented on routing out the floor to fit the pipework.

That is how it should be. They are going to use more, so need to start paying the true marginal costs differences and pay for the extra infrastructure.

I usually think about space heating for my place this time of year. I am rather limited in what I can do, and hate spending money. As I have a particle board floor over polystyrene, I could router some semi-circular groves in it and fit UFH pipe and cover back over with the parquet flooring. Then connect that to a cheap pump and hot water cylinder. As the floor area that needs heating is probably about 20 m2 and only needs about 1 kW delivered to it to heat the whole house, I would only need to store 24 kWh. I could store that in 2, 200 lt E7 cylinders (I have room under the stairs) and run them up to 85°C. Not sure how realistic that is, but probably a fairly cheap to find out and I would be left with UFH pipework if I wanted to connect to a heat pump. I may have to model it.

And musically https://www.wired.com/2015/03/many-different-songs-can/

" .How many variations with just 12 notes? " 12! = 47900600 So quite a lot

I have had a quick read though that document, and it would take many more reads to understand what they are talking about properly. Two things that crossed my mind is that they talk about forward investment and energy reduction. If energy usage was reduced significantly, future investment would be lower, this would lead to less of a problem about billing. Apart from that, I really don't think it makes tom tits difference how the distribution billing is implemented. If they want more revenue, they need to up the price, if they want more control, they need to up the price, if they want fairness, they need to up the price somewhere. Purely as an aside, I am in Halifax NS at the moment, since I have been here (about 3 weeks), there has been two major unscheduled power cuts that have lasted several hours. This is more than I have had down in Cornwall in 15 years. The weather has been superb, days up in the 20°C and little wind or rain. The UK really does have a fantastically robust National Grid and we should be holding it up to the world as a beacon of engineering prowess. The Nova Scotia power has a time of day rate system that varies by time of year as well. https://www.nspower.ca/en/home/about-us/electricity-rates-and-regulations/rates/domestic-service-TOD.aspx Meter charge is just under C$11/month. They don't pay much for power here, especially when you consider they earn more.http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/labr69a-eng.htm