Jeremy Harris

I run our floor cooling from our ASHP with a flow temperature of 12 deg C. Works extremely well, better than I'd have thought, TBH.

It was the first thing my wife commented on, she reckons it has the most comfortable seats of any car I've owned since the Jag I had back in the early 1990's. The seats and performance were about the only good thing about the Jag . . .

I've owned three BMWs, a Mercedes, four Toyotas, two Mitsubishis, a Jaguar (and a few others makes, years ago). The worst interiors were the Toyotas and the Mitsubishis, followed closely by the Jag. The best so far is the Model 3. Second best was the Mercedes SLK. The older BMWs were OK, the last one was not only dire, with rattles coming from everywhere, but BMW service was simply appalling. All I can say is that the Model 3 feels solid, has absolutely no rattles, seems to be very well put together and is significantly better than any other car I've looked at recently in the same price bracket.

Yes, we had that set up on my uncle's farm many years ago. Not common, though, and I believe it's only ever used for a single consumer fed from their own dedicated transformer.

No, all they do is record audio and send it back to Amazon to do the voice recognition stuff, take the action needed, etc. They aren't really very smart, as all the "heavy lifting" of interpreting language and putting it into context is done by Amazon's remote servers, that analyse the voice recordings that the units send back.

Not yet, I'm afraid. The Model Y is a bit too small I think, and the other options would be a fair bit bigger (and a lot more expensive). There's a list of all EVs here: https://ev-database.uk/

Before the meter is fitted you will need something for the meter tails to connect to. As you're going to need to run a protected 25mm2 run of SWA to the house eventually, you will have to have a switch fuse, so it makes sense to fit that now, as the meter fitter can connect to it. You will need two of these, one for each phase. You will also need to have some form of small consumer unit installed for the TBS (temporary building supply). I used a caravan hookup box, as it was weatherproof, had an RCBO to give the required protection and included a 16 A commando outlet that could run stuff on site. These come in a range of types: https://www.cef.co.uk/catalogue/categories/caravan-hook-up-16-amp-range . You will also need an earth electrode installed with the earth wire connected to the TBS box. The TBS box can be fitted close to the kiosk and fed by tails from one of the switch fuses.

Doesn't look like it from the incomer. Looks like a 3 phase supply (in the old colours) that's only using the red and yellow phases, plus neutral. I've not seen a split phase supply for years, although there was one on my uncle's farm around 45 years ago, with a pole-mounted transformer in the yard.

Yes, they should do, as it's a standard 3 phase head.

And send audio back to Amazon's servers, so they can get as much data as possible about you: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/CLQYZENMBI/amazon-data On a more serious note, I believe there is an obligation to inform any visitors or guests that they may be being recorded if they enter your home. Although the user of these things agrees to their data being sent to Amazon (and it's customers), visitors and guests may not have agreed to being monitored. (bearing in mind that you do not need to use the keyword "Alexa" for the device to record and send audio to Amazon: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/amazon-echo-record-audio-before-alexa-wakeword-patent)

I can't see why you couldn't have a standard single 3 phase meter. That should measure the total energy from two phases OK. No need for two meters, two standing charges, etc.

We just cable tied the pipes to the steel reinforcement mesh before the slab was poured. There's some details in our blog, here: http://www.mayfly.eu/2013/10/part-sixteen-fun-and-games-in-the-mud/

There is. It has a heating mode and a hot water mode, both of which can be independently set. Like all heat pumps like this it can either operate in hot water mode or heating mode, not both at the same time.

Until the house is built with a signed off electrical installation, you must have the temporary building supply (assuming you want to be able to use power before the house is complete) connected as a TT installation. The meter fitters will need something to connect to, in all probability, so it's a good idea to get, as a bare minimum, an isolator switch and pair of tails ready for the meter fitter to wire to the meter. If the house consumer unit is going to be more than 3m away from the incoming supply, then you need to fuse the cable supplying the house, so fitting a switch fuse as the isolator makes sense. As before, there is no earth connection on an electricity meter. What is it you are planning to do with the electricity supply before the house is finished?

There's no earth connection needed for the meter, just whatever you decide to use as a temporary building supply. That needs to be wired as a TT installation, with an earth electrode and an RCD providing protection.

Yes, a small ASHP that runs UFH that's built-in to the insulated ground floor slab. We have no heating upstairs, apart from towel rails in the bathrooms, and don't need any, as the bedrooms stay at a comfortable temperature.

Just something that detects when mobile 'phones are being used and disables the car might be a start. The number of people that still drive around with a 'phone in their hand, or even try to text whilst driving, still seems to be pretty high. It seems that the risk of getting caught by the police is very small, based on the number of drivers around here that use their 'phones like this pretty regularly.

Yes, but it doesn't really need very much heating in winter at all. Worst case we need about 1.6 kW of heating (so about 0.5 kW of electricity) to keep the house warm when it's -10°C outside. We've never had temperatures that low, and on average the heating seems to come on for a few hours overnight once every day or two in winter. It's not unusual to go for a couple of days without the heating coming on on milder days, like this past weekend.

What current EV won't do 60 miles in cold weather, out of interest? The only one I'm aware of is the Smart EQ, which was fairly and squarely aimed at being just a tiny city car.

I really dislike the interior of the RS4, it's massively over-complex, with a mish-mash of controls scattered all over the place and a small central screen that looks as if it's been tacked on as an afterthought Not sure what Tesla models you are referring to. The interior of my Model 3 easily beats the quality of the interior of any BMW or Mercedes I've owned, really solid, decent quality real wood and materials etc. The 15" screen is not "a cheap Chinese tablet", it's made by LG in South Korea as it happens, and seems to be of a similar quality to something like an iPad screen. I get you hate Teslas, which is fine, but using false information just to diss them seems a but unnecessary.

You're right, but I think the Model 3 was intended to fit into the mid-sized saloon category and be a car aimed for a bigger market than just those looking for performance. Performance is really a bit of an accidental side effect of having an electric drive train, even the budget end EVs are pretty quick when compared to conventional cars. Tesla seem to have hit the spot with the Model 3, as they are selling like hot cakes all around the world. I suspect the Model Y may well be even more popular when it comes out, just because it's effectively the hatchback version of the Model 3, and hatchbacks seem to be more popular here than saloons (I'd have rather had a hatchback, TBH). Being a bit mundane looking has made the Model 3 appeal to people who wouldn't be seen dead driving something like an RS4, though. Makes it a bit of a sleeper, as there are still a few boy racers around who don't quite understand what the discreet "Dual Motor" badge on the boot lid really means. If someone wants a real performance car, one that looks as fast as it is (0-60mph in 1.9s, 250mph top speed, 8.8s quarter mile) then they just need to wait for the new Roadster.

Not sure how you can not be aware that autopilot mandates that you keep your hands on the steering wheel, TBH. If the car detects that you aren't actively holding the wheel when autopilot is engaged it gives a pretty loud warning after 5 seconds, and if that is ignored it sounds another loud warning and disengages autopilot. My guess is that this driver had one hand on the wheel, to fool the car into thinking he was able to take control, and was using the other hand to play video games. Tesla are very clear that autopilot is not Full Self Driving yet, and requires the driver to remain in control at all times. Autopilot is not yet capable of fully autonomous driving, Tesla make that very clear. Idiots will always be idiots, matters not what car they choose to drive. No one has ever driven a Tesla on autopilot without having to intervene after a time.

In general, there is a bit of tolerance on dimensions allowed before planners will take either enforcement action. Our build was challenged by a neighbour (not 100% sure who) on the basis that it was too high. Luckily I had access to a Total Station and we still had a survey pin in the lane, so when the planning officer came around to check I could easily show that the ridge height was slightly lower than we had approval for. During the conversation with the planning officer I asked how much leeway they allowed on dimensions, and he said +/- 100mm. Based on that, I'd say that you're unlikely to get away with a ~300mm increase, although it would probably be at the discretion of your local planning department. Worst case is that they could get you to pull the extension down and rebuild it to the correct dimensions. Best case is that they might accept the change and just ask for another application (and fee) as a material amendment. It's anyone's guess as to what they might do, though.

There's certainly a lot of people gunning for EV manufacturers, and Tesla in particular. Not sure why, maybe it's fear that EVs might actually turn out to be better than conventional cars in most ways. The rapid charging hype stories (and they are largely hype) are pretty typical of those that choose to selective report on things, without bothering to do even some rudimentary research into the facts. The facts are that Tesla have built a pretty good Supercharger network, and only Tesla's can use this charge network. Tesla Superchargers may have CCS connectors, but they will not charge a non-Tesla. Rather unsurprisingly, the Ionity group ( BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company, and Volkswagen Group with Audi and Porsche ) have chosen to provide their own dedicated rapid charge network to compete with Tesla, that offers the same sort of rapid charge rates as Tesla Superchargers, at (and this may be a surprise) about the same price for electricity to Ionity group member's cars. Because Ionity couldn't do what Tesla have done, and create their own unique communication protocol to lock out other makes, they were unable to prevent their rapid chargers from being used by EVs made by manufacturers outwith the Ionity group. Their solution to this has been to use punitive pricing. They have made Ionity rapid chargers ludicrously expensive to use for any EV not manufactured by an Ionity group member. The plonker in that video should have done a bit of homework before going on a rant that's completely missed the point as to why Ionity are charging a punitive tariff for non-Ionity group EVs. TBH, even their 69p/kWh is better than someone rocking up at a Tesla Supercharger in a Kona EV and finding that, despite the connector fitting, they cannot get any charge at all from the thing.

Have you driven a dual motor Model 3? I suspect not, as even the boring LR version I have (the one without the bigger wheels, stiffer suspension and big Brembo brakes) easily handles twisty lanes at speed. The Model 3 Performance was tested against an M3 last year by Top Gear, and wasn't too shabby: They did a drag race (the area where Tesla's traditionally tend to do well), a 0 to 100mph to 0 straight line test, a hot lap around a circuit, and a (rather pointless IMHO) drift off. Unsurprisingly, the Model 3 won the drag race fairly easily, and won the 0 to 100mph to 0 race. It also won the hot lap fairly convincingly. Unsurprisingly, the only thing the M3 did well was the drift off.