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UK gone mad


Ian Faulds

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I annoy the whole family for telling them to turn the friggin lights out all the time even if they plan on coming back in the room "soon" as soon tends to be between 10 to 60 minutes.

Same goes with my mother-in-law's ex-boyfriend who never turned a stereo off, just turned it down so you can't hear it...

I have a lot of devices on "master-slave" (not sure if that is allowed to say anymore...) so say if you want to use the Blu-ray player, record player or cassette you have to turn the receiver on first. Otherwise they are completely off.

I also have my computer (laptop), monitor and other things on a power strip I turn off when I leave the desk. The computer is of course still on...

I also have our heating adjusted to mostly only heat when we are home. Yes I know it takes more energy to get things up to temp but our schedule is pretty predictable so I if we are out for more than hour I count on the insulation to keep things going. 

I also don't heat tap water constantly as we have solar heating for that. Even cloudy days will keep it at around 40°C. The furnace kicks in twice a day to kill off any baddies that may have decided to try to form.

We use about half the oil our neighbors do and we have 2 teenagers!

 

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2 hours ago, DVD3500 said:

I annoy the whole family for telling them to turn the friggin lights out all the time even if they plan on coming back in the room "soon" as soon tends to be between 10 to 60 minutes.

The oft-used phrase in our house is: "I'm going back in there!"

The TV runs for hours, no-one near, I go in and turn it off, then that phrase appears. These days 'Er Indoors goes off to work at about 8am and I go round the house turning off all the lights she's left on.

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James Thurber's grandmother,

" lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house. It leaked, she contended, out of empty sockets if the wall switch had been left on. She would go around screwing in bulbs, and if they lighted up she would hastily and fearfully turn off the wall switch and go back to her Pearson's or Everybody's, happy in the satisfaction that she had stopped not only a costly but a dangerous leakage. Nothing could ever clear this up for her." 

Dripping Electricity | Fortnightly

(My Life and Hard Times, 1933)

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I inspected an Electrical Installation in a mate's bungalow 3 years ago.  It was, formerly a holiday park and his bungalow must have been the 'Canteen'. It had a three phase supply with only one now used. However, the two fuse carriers for the unused phases were 'Open'. They were still 'LIVE'. We were tempted to make a 'Plug in' board up whilst we worked there but I fitted a box over it so that the incoming 'Tenant' never saw it. He does visit the tenant regularly to perform a covert inspection.

I wonder what he will do when he retires?

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You can make your own gas? Rotting matter, gives off Methane, Anerobic digestion, and the end product is a nice fertiliser. BUT, the slurry that comes as a bye product with it is devoid of any oxygen and is lethal to wildlife!. Also the raw methane is very hight in sulphur, so powering your boiler without removing the sulphur can rot it out in very short order. As a cheese making company in Somerset found back in the 80`s, when I condemed a 2 year old Steam Boiler, they had been running on gas made from animal sewage.

Pete

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All supplies should have been three phase. No 'Earth' or Neutral required (in 'Star' of course). Three wires all sharing similar current, no wasted copper and interference minimised because 'The algebraic sum of the currents is zero'  (in a balanced load). I've tried quoting this to the anti-RF-brigade without any success. But then there is a proverb. 'Don't waste time talking to  fools, they cannot appreciate it'.

I did my apprenticeship on three phase stuff. I love it for all of the reasons by others quoted above. Three phase rectifiers hardly need smoothing either.  I could go on but that's enough.

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Any line to earth is (nominally) 230v. Three phase (nominally) only 440v if you touch two different phases. Always keep one hand in the pocket and wear rubber soles. Of course the 'Peak' values are much higher. Single phase to earth can now be 256v if you have solar with feed in. I won't bore you all with the real figures except that the UK is still higher voltage than Europe, The standards were idiotically 'Harmonised' to fit 220v +&-10%. We were 240v +&- 6%. Enough!

As a result of that we suffered very 'iffy' chargers, bulbs that blow or burn and cookers that draw over 13 amps through our fused plugs. Must get off the soap box again, I retired, thank goodness,

One place that I worked at had 3 phase transformed down to 24v 3 phase for educational purposes. Relatively safe and fun.

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10 hours ago, Mathew said:

It is isn't it. But being layed up for the last few weeks has left me little else i can do! I even fell asleep between posts! Can't even get out to photo some obscure part to bring that thread up! Hows the rbrr getting along john

Seems to be going fine. I get the feeling there have been a few retirements this year, but I am reckoning on 100 finishers to sign back in this evening. 

Sadly the wonderful and very welcome Pimperne Cake Stop is no more, but teams will be breakfasting at Lands End as I type, maybe some have already departed (earliest leave time is 8am I think). Honestly, they will now be feeling good, the tiredness goes as they are essentially on the last leg (400 miles??) and the weather is looking good. The tea and biscuits at Bude is always welcome, plus a cuppa at Badgers Halt. Not sure what other snack stops are planned.

No issues with fuelling have been reported.

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Glad to hear that no one has run out!     Maybe this is because it has been the big conurbations where fuel panic has been worst, and the RBRR route will have avoided those, only to leave with a full tank and rteurn with one only nearly enpty, I hope.    Which shows up how ridiculous the panic is, as lorries have much further to go, to deliver to Cornwall or the North of Scotland.    Or else, as this thread is titled, it's not the "UK gone Mad", but they city folk!   Arrgh!

John

Supply Crisis map, 2 October

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6 minutes ago, JohnD said:

Glad to hear that no one has run out!     Maybe this is because it has been the big conurbations where fuel panic has been worst, and the RBRR route will have avoided those, only to leave with a full tank and rteurn with one only nearly enpty, I hope.    Which shows up how ridiculous the panic is, as lorries have much further to go, to deliver to Cornwall or the North of Scotland.    Or else, as this thread is titled, it's not the "UK gone Mad", but they city folk!   Arrgh!

John

Supply Crisis map, 2 October

And to explain that diagram

In the most recent map, compiled on Saturday, a traffic light system used in the review shows the South East as red, which means that fuel stock levels at filling stations are under 20%.

 

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1 hour ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Can't be. NI only shows as above 40%, which seems very low. 

The trouble with averages is, as you know, it only takes a couple of very low results to bring it down quite a bit.

Some, but not me of course, might be tempted to say that if you moved across the border the average would rise significantly.

I've already got my coat on . . . .

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