ProDave

They have not even hinted where the first SMR power station will be built.

There is no shortage of drilling rigs, if we have not yet sent them all to the scrap yard. There are still a few in the Cromarty Firth, though not as many as there used to be.

What are all those wires for? Why are they coming up in the middle of a floor? Is another wall going to be built on top of the floor? Too many for just a floor socket. Explain what is going on? If you really need a hole for them, just drill a round hole with a drill bit. But I am still curious why you want cables coming out of the middle of a floor.

The current oil situation should be a wake up call for the government re energy security. But they can't see it. We have done a good job so far on renewable generation and that will continue. But we still need oil and gas and will do for some time. So let's drill our own. Most people seem to think if we drill our own it means we have abandoned the plan to go green. No it does not. It means we just want to get as much of the oil and gas that we need from a secure source closer to home, which has to be better than transporting it half way around the world from insecure sources via insecure shipping routes. Oh and the government would get more income from the extraction of our own resources not to mention the employment it would provide.

As mentioned many times, the ridiculous pricing system we have ensures we will be paying prices set by gas, until there is so much renewables that the very last gas power station has shut down. Ministers may say otherwise but that is the sad truth until someone changes the way retail electricity prices are set.

Yes that is exactly what you need to do.

I briefly did some work for a passive house building company here. I was not allowed to drill a hole through the external wall of the building (i.e. through the air tight layer) If I needed a hole, I had to discuss it, and one of the joiners would drill the hole in the agreed place (not always where I wanted it) and they would then seal the cable penetration afterwards.

How did you even get that past Building Control? Means of escape?

It is supposed to make the build more precise and more controlled. But the price. £800K for the build, not including the plot (another £650K) Eye watering figures for me, both of them. And I don't recall them saying how many square metres. Also no details of insulation levels, heating system etc. And in spite of it being built in a factory, it appears the plumbers got no thought in the design and they still had to work out pipe routes and drill all the holes just as they would in any other build.

And this is why I dislike "plastered on the hard" forcing cables to be chased in. Much better with a timber batten service void and plasterboard.

When I have been wiring a new house for the client, the first thing I do is go round with a tape measure, a big black marker pen and put a cross on the wall where all the sockets etc will be according to whatever drawings I have been provided with. Then I walk round with the client and discuss their needs, wants and preferences. Invariable most of the socket positions get changed as do lighting positions. As to kitchens. I have yet to see a new house built with the kitchen layout shown on the plans, another thing that gets changes as things evolve so don't even start the wiring for that until the kitchen is on order. What I am saying is don't get over excited about drawing plans. Unless you are the unusual client where nothing changes when you see the building for real.

Electric cables in a wall must run in a safe zone. Broadly speaking a safe zone is horizontally or vertically from an electrical accessory, e.g. a socket, or within 100mm of the corner of a room or ceiling. If you want to run electric cables around a room then do so at socket height, and ensure each wall has at least one socket to create that safe zone, and that is where all your mains cables can correctly run around a room.

BUT electric cables must tin in safe zones. So to ensure this the electric cable tray must be within 100mm of the ceiling all the way across the room. The data cable tray can be at any height you want.

Call that a Beech? Nah,

https://www.toolstation.com/universal-top-fix-seat-bung-kit/p46310

Post a picture of the other nut. It will be possible to buy another one (probably sold as a pair)

Yes LPG gas. Turn off at the bottles. Back to the subject of isolator switches for kitchen stuff. I put mine in the back of the cupboard above the ovens. I can inform our learned readers, it is an absolute mare terminating cooker sized cables in a switch box at the back of a cupboard when you are working on a step ladder reaching into the back of a cupboard so working at arms length. I do question is it really necessary, particularly for an oven. If there was a fault is is probably quicker to go the consumer unit and turn off the clearly labelled Oven rcbo than pull the stuff out of the cupboard to get to the switch.

Water and gas off when we go away. Leccy stays on for the fridge, and for the PVR to record stuff while away.

Make the plywood a very snug fit and glue the edges to the walls of the cabinet frame as well.

Good call. My neighbour had a huge tree right next to his bungalow, it would have flattened the bungalow if it had fallen onto it, and if you were in the bedroom next to it, it might be your last nights sleep. But also across the road was the 11KV overhead line. SSEN removed it for free when he pointed out if it fell down it would break their overhead line.

I would cut a sheet of 10mm ply to be a snug fit in the recess behind the cabinet, fixed there with your favourite gap filling adhesive. Fix the cabinet with the official fixings into plasterboard fixings, then two screws through into the studs one top one bottom, going through the flimsy back and your 10mm ply

If the flimsy back it recessed a bit as is often the case, fix a more substantial backing board behind it.

Just an example of my inventive DIY tree felling. These 2 trees, the right hand one had failed at the roots and was leaning over onto it's neighbour. All the tree men that looked seemed to suck air through their teeth, but all agreed both need to come down. I suspect none really knew how to do it. To fell them in one go, it was likely the tops would reach the house or static caravan. I suspect nobody wanted to climb a compromised tree to take the tops off. My inventive solution was put up a scaffold tower next to the trees and working from that with my extended pole saw I cut the tops off. That now just leaves the two mostly bare trunks to fell. Now short enough that they won't reach anything they can harm. Again not advice, just how I did it myself. I would really really love a mini spider cherry picker for this sort of work, but silly money for something I would use once in a blue moon, so the scaffold has to do, even though it is a lot of work to put up for a 15 minute job then take down.

Find the location of the studs. Unless it is a very small cabinet, it is very likely at least one stud will be behind the cabinet. So I would fix the cabinet with plasterboard fixings, AND one or 2 screws directly through the cabinet (additional holes drilled for this) straight into a stud. I have done this for kitchen cabinets and they have not fallen down yet.

Must check to see if Artemis is really going to launch today or is that a victim of the date?