ProDave

I recall the 15% rates. Over HALF my take home pay went on the mortgage, leaving me less than £500 per month to survive on. There were no luxuries, no going out. People today say how well we had it buying our first houses for so little, but I can't see many putting up with all the "going without" we had to do to survive those first few years. About all that saved it, was high inflation, and a salary that kept up with that high inflation, which had the effect of fairly rapidly deflating the debt in real terms, but it was still a few years before you could start to relax a bit.

I had the same "discussion" but about white or black coffee. One of the contributing factors was the black coffee was not only hotter, but closer to a black body radiator so would loose heat quicker than the cooler, lighter coloured white coffee.

I have built 2 timber frame houses and neither had cracks in the plaster. Indeed the present one, the first I have had with a vaulted roof hung from ridge beams, I almost expected some cracking where walls meet roof, but 3 years since plastering, not even the faintest hairline crack anywhere. Is the problem on mass production sites that they are built and plastered too quick? It was a year from our frame going up to it being plasterboarded, and another year before being skimmed. Plenty of time for settlement?

I used to worry about PIR lights triggering falsely in the days of a 500W halogen tube. Now with a 5W LED I don't mind if the cat sets it off. I tend to buy a light fitting with the sensor built in. That gets you a light that looks right and gives the required light but usually you don't get the choice of what type of sensor it has.

I deal with this by an outside PIR triggered light that comes on as you approach the front door. That illuminated the keyhole (you WILL have to put something down if carrying, to unlock the door) Once unlocked you open the door, turn an inside light on and pick up your stuff. Why make it more complicated? Our unload shopping routine is usually carry it all to the front door and place it just inside the door. Then when all there, go inside, wipe feet, change to indoor footwear and carry shopping to kitchen. This avoids keep walking in with wet feet etc.

It depends where you live. I agree, in the SE of England, most buyers do favour "solid" and as you say because of some shockingly badly built early TF houses that they just can't get out of their minds. Ask the same question in Scotland and TF is considered normal and has been for some time. I Don't recognise those defects of creaky and settlement cracks, not in any TF house I have seen up here.

I won't loose sleep, buying from the quality source I have, I am sure they are all type approved and compliant.

I will let you know if interference is a problem. I am not so concerned about interference to this heater switch, rather interference from it to more important stuff. Listening on 433,920 there is nothing transmitting continuously here. Just the car key fobs used regularly.

My car one seems to transmit as long as you hold the button.

This extra delivery charge for our "remote location" I have just had an email to confirm the windows have just been dispatched from Velux directly at Glenrothes, Fife. So it is not as though they have to come particularly far is it? Yet they would have posted them to the Lizard in Cornwall for no extra cost. Rant over.

Judging by the fact the board only has 2 connections, you apply power and it transmits (turns heater on) Remove power and it stops (heater turns off) It transmits a code so it only turns on the thing you want to turn on, and not open next doors garage door. If that is correct then that is the level of complexity that I like. A concern is whether it would block the car remote controls from working when the transmitter is on. I will have to try that and see. I would hope as the car keyfobs are used right next to the car that they would swamp any signal from the heater controller. But I do have history with such a thing happening before.

I have hit the buttons on ebay and sported a little under £3 on the transmitter and receiver in my link above. I wanted to avoid just hacking a battery powered keyfob transmitter. My assumption is I set a code using the 4 jumpers on the transmitter, and then press the button on the receiver and it will "learn" that code. If it is that simple it will do all I want. At the Arduino end, I have power and I just have to turn the transmitter on and off as required. At the receiver end, I just have to mount that inside one of the heaters and use it's relay contact to switch a heating element using the 10A relay on the board. I also have to provide a simple 12V power for it. As the heater is in a metal box, I might have to extend the receiving antenna outside the metal box. As usual I now have the 2-3 week wait for these to arrive from the far East.

That is the sort of thing that annoys me. It is a bit like the smart meter deception. I would much rather the car manufacturers said the stop start feature is to reduce air pollution than tell lies.

I am looking at something like this for the receiver https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-Channel-Receiver-Wireless-Relay-RF-Remote-Control-Switch-Module-DC-12V-433MHZ/272638003210?epid=3006634822&hash=item3f7a7dc80a:g:NHgAAOSwSypY-BkU And something like this as the transmitter https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EV1527-433Mhz-Wireless-Transmitter-Learning-Code-Encoded-Arduino-AVR-ATF/192441280820?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3D27344d523a564c628efcd674f40b9953%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D192441468854%26itm%3D192441280820%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851 What I don't understand is how I set up the encoding at the transmitter end?

That is probably over complicated. I want to turn 1 relay on and off remotely, that is all.

Thanks. I have ordered 2 litres. Later on there will be another 5 doors (some part glazed) to treat, but they have not even been hung yet. Is it okay to treat them in situ, or is it better to take them off and lay them flat to paint them?

I am thinking of an addition to this. There are plenty of occasions when the excess PV exceeds what the immersion heater can soak up, so some power gets exported. I am considering dumping some of this "unusable" power to a small electric heater. In the summer that won't be needed, but now, in the shoulder seasons, a little extra free heat in the house would be useful and even now there is still sometimes some surplus around mid day., So I am thinking of making a "wireless controlled electric convector heater" We have 3 cheap Glen convection heaters, bought when we were occupying the static caravan. It seems all I need is a simple wireless on/off transmitter built into the solar pv dump controller, and a wireless receiver built into one of the electric heaters. Then if the immersion dump power gets to 100% (or any threshold I choose) it could turn on the electric heater to dump more power. And being wireless the heater could be plugged in, in any room where a little heat might be useful. Any ideas therefore for a cheap wireless transmitter and receiver, preferably a receiver that has a volt free relay contact as it's output to switch a small heater?

Sloppy Journalism I expect, they probably mean 11KWh in a day not 11KW instantaneous. But even on mid summers day with a completely clear sky all day, I would be very surprised if those 4 panels could produce that much in that orientation. EDIT: Is that another one showing it's edge on the back sloping roof? so there could be more on that sloping roof?

XL Joinery Oak veneered doors, expensive ones.

I have 5 Oak veneered internal doors to treat. The general consensus seems to be "Osmo Oil" Having found the usual suspects, Screweys, toolstation etc don't stock it, I searched on ebay. Only to find Osmo do a bewildering selection of different oils. I am guessing it is this one "door oil? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Osmo-Door-Oil-3060-Clear-Satin-Tester-Single-or-Twin-Internal-Doors-Joinery/190805409273?hash=item2c6ce37df9:m:mr_MiJAZLQYsJAp1gvgca_A Is that the one, or something different? As it appears to be flipping expensive I only want to buy what I need, so how much for both sides of 5 internal doors?

Then do it. I would quietly ignore any segregation issues over that short distance. I fitted a 25mm conduit with a 10mm cable to our island, even though it currently only feeds a pop up socket, it is there should we change the gas hob for induction.

What size is the existing electric cable? 10mm gas pipe will be okay for a single hob (it is okay for a 4 burner hob) What size is the duct you are hoping to pass this cable through? How are you going to get the old gas pipe out and a new one in? I presume there is a bend at each end? For my 10mm gas pipe I fed it through a round duct with a gentle radius hockey stick and it was hard enough persuading the 10mm pipe that it was "flexible"

I had a lot of trouble finding anyone that would do what I wanted. I wanted more insulation than a "standard" TF and I did not want the standard concrete block outer skin that adds almost nothing to the insulation. I tried talking to Scotframe about using a standard frame and adding extra insulation to it, they refused to quote. In the end it was designed by a local architectural engineer and detailed by a structural engineer and built to those drawings and erected by a local small building firm.

Yes. Needs must. I paid a builder to lay the foundations and build and erect the frame. After that I have employed a plasterer and a joiner for some detail work, and just about all the rest I have done myself. Still not finished but I still hope to complete for that price.

Cost. I doubt it was much different to masonry. We paid in stages in arrears, so no massive burden. Why would floors be creaky and bendy? It is normal to fit timber floors in a masonry build as well. If they are creaky and bendy, someone has messed up on the joist calculations, and / or fitted them badly. Cabling in walls is best dealt with by a service void that also ensures you don't penetrate the air tight layer. Upstairs UFH can also be with spreader plates that require no fortification of the floor structure.