SteamyTea
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Posts
23866 -
Joined
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Days Won
200
Everything posted by SteamyTea
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Hansom my lover. -
AM Rock, this is Cornwall, the home of radio transmissions.
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I have "£50 ears" and a £20 radio. Am I getting 30 quid of benefit somewhere?
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Humour is reappearing then
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If the 20% charge twice as much, that will be £40 out of every £100, so actually cheaper than the 80%, which collectively would charge £60. Trouble is, as my partner is finding out, the 80% all claim to be brilliant. I have kept well out of her quite minor restoration.
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"The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way" Dale Carnigie (writer).
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Water is 4.2 kJ for 1°C temperature rise per litre of stored water, so 0.00117 kWh/kg. Concrete is about 0.8 kJ per kg, so 0.00022 kWh/kg. Knowing that, you can try and work out how large a water and slab store you need if you know the temperature bounds you want to keep the slab at. In physics, most things want to be equal at the lowest energy difference. So a thermal store only needs to be sized to cover the load, minus the temperature difference between the upper and lower temperature bounds of the slab. Plus any thermal losses as well. (I may have to revisit this to make it better English, but off to work now).
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Pico Hydro - Controling Generation
SteamyTea replied to Lesgrandepotato's topic in General Alternative Energy Issues
Here is a picture of a filter on a small hydro system near me. When I say small, it is 200 kWp I seem to remember.
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Di is the name of the Welsh miner that they are going to use to get them out.
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Di-Lithium batteries can't come soon enough: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-40922321
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How do you keep track of all this information
SteamyTea replied to Triassic's topic in General Self Build & DIY Discussion
Have a look at academic referencing systems, then combine it with https://www.mendeley.com/ Then you can keep notes, pictures, documents, scans delivery notes etc in one place that is easily accessible wherever you happen to be. There is a reason that universities use them. I use a modified Harvard system as it gives the name of the author and the date it was published. So say you scan a delivery note in, name would be the supplier and date would be when delivered. Easy to print out a list too. Now mentioning lists, these work for me, other prefer pictures (thought bubbles). All I can say is get used to lists, the act of writing it down is a good aid to memory in itself. -
So do I, there is no reason at all why we build such pitifully small homes. Except our historic class system, nimbysm, xenophobia and snobbery. We really need to change as a society and move into at least the late 20th century by becoming more inclusive and equitable.
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Sometimes nightmares are real: the insurance story
SteamyTea replied to ToughButterCup's topic in Self Build Insurance
I would encourage suppliers to read these pages, it helps inform and educate, and maybe entertain. -
You can search for the nearest gauging station (if your river is on it) here. https://nrfa.ceh.ac.uk/data/search
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(had to look her up)
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/luxury/10ft-wide-skinny-house-worth-27m-wins-planning-approval-london/ Seriously, what bother.
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Sometimes nightmares are real: the insurance story
SteamyTea replied to ToughButterCup's topic in Self Build Insurance
Did you keep the Durasol rep/trainers number? Get him in to rebuild it -
What buildhub needs is a caravan, then when any of us with a bit of time to spare, can go and helps out. Think of it as 'disaster relief'.
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Just a second though to possibly make your life easier. If your builder is being evasive, it could be because he don't want to be there. He may feel out of his depth but knows he cannot do the job to the standard expected. You will be doing him a favour getting shot of him.
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You really have two issues to deal with here. 1) Sacking the current builder 2) Getting a replacemement If you do the second one first, then the first becomes easy. So just a matter of finding someone decent to help you out. Now as you are an ex academic, you probably know that out of any class of students, 1 or 2 are head and shoulders above the rest. So why not get in touch with your local FE college that runs building courses and ask if they know of anyone.
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After a quick skim though, make that choice now, it will make the rest of the system fall into place. Then you can think about a couple of Sunamps for your DHW.
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Nick told me how to sort it out on a mates boiler (over on the old forum), it made a significant difference to my friend. Now, statistics about energy, I am nearly wetting myself with excitement. My house is all electric, so easy to monitor. Here are a couple of energy density charts, one shows the probability at the 500W granulation, the other at the 25W granulation up to 500W (as that is where I use most energy. The time period if from 12/02/2017 to0 14/05/2017. The mean power draw is 409W, so an average of 9.8 kWh/day. Each 'bin' is up to the next graduation i.e. 0 is 0W to 500W, 2000 is 2000W up to 2500W.
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This talk of usual journey distance is a bit of a nonsense when it comes to range anxiety. I could do 90% of my journeys on a gallon of diesel. It is the other 10% that I need the flexibility. When I travel up country to visit my mother 300 miles away, I do the journey in one stint. I leave early and have a simple 4 hour or so drive. No need to stop. Sometimes I pop into see some friends in Chipping Norton, adding a few miles to the journey and two trips via Oxford. I still don't have to 'fill up'. I really don't like driving, but breaking a journey I find even worse. I worked for Welcome Break as a contractor, though there is nothing wrong with their services, I am in now hurry to visit them, ever. I know a Tesla owner (the one that got hit), and he claims (via a third party) that he can get to Bristol on a single charge. Hell, I can get to London and back on a single tank. I think range is everything when it comes to cars (well apart from handling, grip, noise levels, acceptable performance (my old Suzuki Swift 3 pot was a great runner) and fuel economy). I had a motorbike that struggles to do 120 miles on a tank, it was hopeless for touring.
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This is a fun map of the country: http://www.crashmap.co.uk/Search