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SteamyTea

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Everything posted by SteamyTea

  1. SteamyTea
    My DHW costs are higher than my space heating costs. I too found the same thing. If I was willing to spend the money, I would be going for A2AHP for space heating the whole house (I tend to just heat the room I am in, but heating the whole house would be nice). DHW would be via PV and E7 into a Sunamp (that suits my lifestyle). My house is very small, and I live in a very warm part of the country.
  2. SteamyTea
    Have you looked into Air to Air Heat Pumps. They have a good CoP, are cheap to buy and can often be self installed. On a more general note, the best heat pumps are water source ones, then ground source, then air. They all need to be seemingly oversized and run with the output temperature lower than the maximum. The downside of ASHP is 'frosting'. This is caused by a combination of air humidity, external temperature, desired temperature output and amount of time the unit is running. Space heating and domestic hot water should, if possible, be separated, they do different things, at different times and at different temperatures. When trying to decide on the best heating method, start with electrical resistance heating as this is generally considered the lowest capital cost but highest running cost. If, say an ASHP, comes out more expensive after 7 years, then it is not worth considering. You will need to have a good estimate of your thermal energy usage, but you need that anyway.
  3. SteamyTea
    Better known as the University of Easy Access Re government backing of engineering. My view is that we have now just about created a good business environment to run an engineering business (planing consent is always a problem) with a low labour cost base. The aerospace and armament industries are pretty 'high tech', as is the automotive industries. We have good software engineers too (I dislike the term software engineering). So probably what is really letting the side down is financing, and that may be because it is too easy for an individual to make good money in it. I have not read up about that £1/4 bn investment scheme, but I think it may be a competition that leads onto further funding (never a good idea). I also think that a lot of the science behind batteries has been done, not as if we are getting a new periodic table to play with, it is now really an engineering problem (I am discounting my 1000V tinfoil and tooth filling amalgam battery that is created when I eat a Quality Street that I have badly unwrapped).
  4. SteamyTea
    It has started, the government choosing 'winners' again. http://www.cityam.com/268984/government-power-up-investment-into-battery-technology
  5. SteamyTea
    I have just received my annual ER form, have noticed that it has a Security Code (10 numbers) and a Password (8 letters, all lower case) printed on it. Now I can go online and register, text the security code, call a number and give the security code or post the form back, which will include the security code and the password. Not even banks send out such insecure letters. What nonces.
  6. SteamyTea
    Why I live on my own and make my own mistakes
  7. SteamyTea
    Just seen this, it is about fires in timber framed places (flats mainly). https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jul/17/fears-use-timber-frames-blocks-flats-grenfell-tower-fire
  8. SteamyTea
    Can't help with the blocks, but any chance you can go and edit your post to make the texted larger. Looks like it has been super or sub scripted.
  9. SteamyTea
    Has that always been the case, how much does it cost and do many home owners get it done?
  10. SteamyTea
    Not being a chemist I can forgive them that confusion, though it should be put right. Write them a letter. I think it was the mid 80's that they made furniture 'fireproof' so that should not be the cause of poisoning as not many people will have 30 year furniture. Listening to the Radio report this morning, there is talk about reviewing and tightening the building regs. They also mentioned general apathy in the building trade with regard to regulations. Will be interesting to see what comes out of it all.
  11. SteamyTea
    About the same as we al worked out in a few hours of it happening. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jul/13/grenfell-tower-building-control-warned-about-refit-insulation-plan I hope the Guardian keeps up the pressure.
  12. SteamyTea
    While wandering around the back streets of Penzance today, I found a glockenspiel for sale. Transparently you trim the ends to make the note sharp, and hollow out the back to soften the sound.
  13. SteamyTea
    You can PM it to me if you like
  14. SteamyTea
    One like this
  15. SteamyTea
    There is a WHS about half a mile from me. I am not actually in it, but am affected by the restrictions i.e. need planning permission too change my shed, not add a shed, just change it. They are a total nonsense and brought in very undemocratically. Like the Green Belt, they need to be got rid of (not the buildings/views/areas, just the designation).
  16. SteamyTea
    I would have kept very quiet about it all. You can get software that will mask areas I think.
  17. SteamyTea
    But much easier and you can add in different instruments. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/88-Keys-USB-Flexible-Roll-up-Roll-up-Electronic-Piano-Keyboard-SE/122300383285
  18. SteamyTea
    We had the job of making the samples that sales people took around for Corian. I seem to remember that we just cut them up on the bench saw, then sanded the edges and polished with jeweller's rouge. I was not very involved in the job and can't remember what happened exactly, but we treated it the same as our cast acrylic.
  19. SteamyTea
    Bit thin on details about the drill.
  20. SteamyTea
    Does Sketchup use layers? I assume it does. And can you import or copy and paste an image into it?
  21. SteamyTea
    Just download a few freeware 2D Cad programs and see how you get on with them. Trouble with CAD is users tend to like what they first used and changing to another program is troublesome. LibreCad is an open source package that is similar to old AutoCad programs, it is also portable so you don't actually install install it. https://portableapps.com/apps/graphics_pictures/librecad-portable It is also worth trying out Sketchup and the new Microsoft clone.
  22. SteamyTea
    Make an image of it and write it to a new card. Then check the new card is working and 'archive' the old one (put the original in a safe place). You can get utilities for Windows that can read Linux drives, but I have not found a good free one yet. Try: https://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=1159 I use Win32DiskImager and had no real problems with it. https://portableapps.com/node/36350 If you are using a Windows PC then SDFormatter is useful. https://portableapps.com/node/23594 Be very careful when writing an image as I once wrote to my Windows partition and lost about 2000 pictures.
  23. SteamyTea
    If you can, try and hunt around and see what script they have written to run the unit, probably Python, though may be C. Be even better if it is not encrypted and you can have a poke around in it. I have not had any SD cards fail while logging get, but then I usually 'play about at Christmas' and make a new one. Just looked at one of my log files and it has 1.6 millions unique lines in it and seems to be running fine. It logs every 6 seconds and has been doing so since 10/02/2017 (had the occasional inadvertent switch off).
  24. SteamyTea
    I find the best, and quickest way to get a job done is to start it. I am also not afraid of failure, and starting again.
  25. SteamyTea
    Is that a stray earth lead in the picture? (The French think earthing/bonding is for pansies)
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