richi

Thanks. I'd love to know what you find out. A data point (albeit a little out of date): When I was having ADSL problems a couple of years ago, I bought a month of Unlimited on a Three PAYG SIM. I tethered way more than 30GB without any problems.

Wow, @readiescards I didn't know the 30GB limit doesn't apply for a static installation -- is that what you're saying, or did I misunderstand you?

Here's an off-the-wall question: What if I installed a non-MCS system, didn't try to use everything I generate, and I have an old-skool, spinning-disc electricity meter? Presumably the meter goes backwards, but how do the electricity companies feel about it?

Don't forget to include the savings from offsetting the energy you won't be buying. That could be more than 20p/kW·h on a no- or low-standing-charge tariff, which dwarfs the FIT's 6.445p.

So a "Worcester Greenstar 12Ri Compact (ErP) Regular Boiler" or an "Ideal Logic 12 (ErP) Heat Boiler"?

Thanks again. It's gravity. If I were to convert to combi, what kit would you recommend?

Yeah, wall-hung.

This might be a distress purchase, so might not be able to convert pipework, etc.

My rental property has a 20-year-old gas boiler (S-plan). Looks like I'm going to need to replace it. What should I get? What should I avoid? I don't know what the current boiler is (I'm not at the house right now). But I'm pretty sure it's not a condensing, due to its age. House is a smallish 3-bed end-terrace, about 10 or 12 rads, from memory.

Yeah, I worked for Samsung SDS for a couple of years. We were based in Green Park, but the occasional visit to the UK HQ in Brentford were eye-opening at lunchtime!

...or if kimchi is a step too far, seek out other fermented and traditionally-bio foods, such as sauerkraut, proper live yogurt, tempeh, and pickled vegetables.

@Onoff makes an interesting point. Here's where @CoopersWMBO rolls her eyes as I strike up my usual two-part rant. 1. It's becoming clear that the microscopic fauna we share our bodies with are an important part of our overall health. We evolved with them (and they with us). Not just the gut biome, but also the little fellas living on our skin, in our nasal passages, etc. If this is the case, then modern, overly-clean lifestyles, sanitised, sugar-spiked food, and overuse of antibiotics will inevitably piss all over our health, in so many ways. 2. The nature of the wheat in our food has changed fairly radically since about 1970. It's now much easier for farmers to farm -- more consistent and shorter -- but there's some evidence to show that it contains proteins that are sub-clinically harmful to many people. I'm not talking about gluten, although a growing number of people are self-diagnosing as "gluten-intolerant" because they gave up wheat and feel much better -- it's more likely to be intolerance to the new proteins, rather than new intolerance to old ones. Ergo: Consider taking broad-spectrum pro- and pre-biotics after a course of antibiotics, don't wash too much, avoid wheat and sugar.

I'm in a similar boat (albeit with a reasonable ADSL2+ speed). Be aware of the new Openreach pricing for FTTPoD from February 2018. Basically, the build cost should be much less, assuming the fibre route passes a bunch of other houses that could also use it. Also, don't forget the Openreach Community Fibre Partnerships scheme.

h2energyrenaissance.com... wait, is that a black helicopter?

£45, including VAT and "next-day" delivery.

Thanks, gang. I've ended up ordering one of these from RS: Broyce Control True Delay Off Single Timer Relay, Screw, 0.5 → 10 min, SPDT, 1 Contacts, SPDT, 230 V ac, 24 V ac/dc

@Nickfromwales's analysis matches my intuition

Right, yes, of course I forgot to say why. We're renovating the house in two phases, which means we won't be using that tank for a while. So I've added a manual valve to the rising hot feed to it. But I don't want to close the valve until I've worked out a pump overrun. Make sense? And of course, I want to avoid the situation where the room stat doesn't demand yet the boiler cycles because the exchanger has cooled down a bit. @dpmiller would you recommend the part you used?

We have an old but reliable oil boiler. The system is effectively a one-zone S-plan, but with a gravity-fed hot tank (i.e., the hot water rises from the boiler to the tank with no pump). The boiler has no pump overrun circuitry. The room stat is wired to the valve, which then energises the pump. The boiler is switched separately by a timer/programmer. My plan is to use a modern room stat that also has a timer (the wireless one @JSHarris uses), wiring it to fire the boiler and the valve/pump. But I want to have the pump run on for a couple of minutes after the boiler switches off. Surely there's an off-the-shelf timer module I can wire in. Any recommendations?

Yeah, but this oven had a plate on the back rating it at 40-something Amps. And it was obvious the plug wasn't standard-issue. Mind you, the socket it was plugged into was at least a separate 50A circuit, but I bet the plug got toasty behind there when both ovens were heating up!

I recently removed a 6-year-old double oven from the old kitchen. I was "entertained" to discover it was wired into a 13A plug

I completely agree with your premise of buying from the best place first time around. But suppliers who post-price-match will usually match their own post-sale reductions. I recently got £30 off a fridge/freezer from ao.com after they dropped the price from what was already an extremely competitive amount. Which was nice. I just pinged them on Twitter and got the refund in a couple of days.

Stairbox recommends Treatex

Wow, that's amazingly detailed. Thanks a million @JSHarris!

I finally bit the bullet and got an Outlander PHEV. Where would I find your schematics, pretty-please Mr. @JSHarris, sir?