openspaceman

Yes I think some claims for its soil benefits are a bit strong and the companies selling it are inventing properties for their proprietary production methods and properties, just like any other marketing promotion. It has become big business and I wouldn't hesitate to promote it to greenies locally if i had an otherwise stranded supply of woody arisings. I do think in the long term it will prove to be one of the few viable means or sequestering carbon.

Because network rail frequently replace signalling wire outside of the trunking they are very vulnerable to metal bladed brush cutters so the ban was not about personal safety but rather for the safety of the network.

Lovely picture, Mum enjoying the display, older child staying close and fascinated but little one a bit afraid and huddling up to mum

I have no experience of a jimny but my 2000 santana vitara has done me well, I only do a few thousand miles a year so it only recently clocked up 80k miles. 1600 petrol engine is a bit gutless and thirsty , 30mpg, and there is little stowage but brings my firewood home in multiple trips. The rear body did rust through st the chassis mounts but my mate took it on as a challenge when the MOT tester said it was a write off. My daughter bought it in 2004 for the soft top which I have never taken down in my 4 years ownership.

I prefer mounting on buildings (mine are) but many commercial sheds will not have been designed for the extra weight. Also a vertical south facing panel here would produce 80% of an ideally tilted one, E-W can do better in summer. Off grid you are better of tilting at about 60 degrees to maximise winter sun, between the equinoxes you will always have excess.

Yes, for off grid purposes you can ignore the fairly constant draw of 1/3kWh/day from the grid because in this case it is an ephemera of the inverters constantly trying to balance load with solar power and diverting excess to the battery. It is because the system was not well integrated plus some times if the load exceeds 3kW the balance comes from grid, With an off grid installation this would not happen and the inverters would need to be matched to the load. Note sometimes it may be better to parallel two (or more) inverters than have a larger one and my inverter will run a peak load for a while double its rating, great for start up surge but power factor has to be better than 0.8.

Yes you could sense the battery voltage to estimate the State of Charge switch the generator on at say 30% SoC and off at 90%. You can do siimilar to heat an immersion, I do this April to October. With the way solar pv has brought down the cost of hybrid inverters and standing charges have increased if I were planning a new build I wouldn't bother with a grid connection. Have a look at this screenshot of my system output (5.8kW PV and 6.5kWh battery) The blue is what I draw from the grid, the yellow is what I produce and use and the red is what I export. You will see I only need to buy from about now till mid March and I could generate that from 4x47kg propane bottles and have the heat for free. The recent uptick in power from grid is because I swapped out the AC coupled battery 2 weeks ago for a 3.6kW hybrid inverter and bigger (10.4kWh) battery and have not reconnected 1.8kW of PV because of a bit of bad planning, I should sort it today. I intend to add 2.4 kW before summer and get the income from exports to cover my standing charges. Once you have the inverter and battery then it is very cheap to add PV panels, ground mounted if you have the space, about £55 per 0.4kW currently. Get it installed professionally and you save 20% VAT. My previous system was entirely adequate but I was ill advised to have an AC coupled battery and inverter in the house, I have removed that and put the new stuff in the conservatory.

I live in suburbia where power cuts seldom happen, so no recent remote experience but I would be looking at a hybrid inverter and 10kWh battery for about £3k. The thing is this can power a house and cope with varying loads you can add a cheap generator that can then charge the battery at constant power for a long outage, switching off when the battery is full. Ideally I would use a 48V DC telecoms genset. Forty years ago when we ran a remote class room with a 10kVA petter genset the efficiency was appallingly low because the median load was below 2kW yet the engine had to keep spinning at 1500rpm.

I'd crush it to 2mm size class and mix it with compost. What you need to avoid is have it wash or blow off.

Power is what gives the speed, I suspect you mean pressure, which is what provides the tipping force.

You don't say what came out of the drain. A not infrequent thing with my counties was the sock on the fuel tap in the tank collapsing when it gelled up with diesel bug.

What he said. Wood won't rot if you keep its feet dry and the roof drains away from it. I'm not keen on roof felt unless it is torched on, I went for profiled metal with foam insulation , seconds, which prevents condensation and keeps cool in direct sun.

That is interesting, I was thinking it was tubular with some stuffing from the picture. Anyway it looks eminently doable with that tape and some ordinary door seal rope to add a bit of "give".

No higher back axle ratio; say the standard is 3.5:1 then the 4.2 tonne one would be something like 3.8:1 so the propshaft has to spin a bit more for the same distance but there is more torque at the back wheel for the same torque input by the propshaft to shift the extra load,

Thinking back I remember that if one added up the permitted axle weights, front and rear, of a standard transit 3.5 it came to 4.2 tonnes so...

Back jn about 2010 you had the option of a 3.5 or 4.2 tonne gvw transit. As far as I could see the difference was heavier duty rear springs and a slightly higher ratio rear axle

yeabut I never want to drive my old things on the road again

That makes sense, I would want something with the creature comforts of a Qcab, decent brakes (including trailer), heater, radio/stereo and 40k manual box and reverse drive without electronics

Crikey, I thought the 2007 t190 drove for a firm from new cost £50k.

I think this would be unnecessary and an undue burden on the house owner. 1960 build is 64-65 years ago (size fits with that being open grown) and could easily have been planted by the first owner. They are also going to get much bigger if nothing is done.

Yes that is what I thought, neither of them look older than I. Also the building looks like it was built in the 60s so the footing should be deep enough to take a bit of surface movement however unlikely. I would not like them growing bigger that close to my house.

I'm no mycophile but in the absence of expert replies I'd say spindle shank

Exhaust Gas Recirculation valve. I still cannot understand why an engine with adblue would have one??

no is what he said

Yes but it would be an interesting comparison to see how much the yield of usable loggettes differed between whole tree and snedded poles. @Woodworks made charcoal in his retorts from the output of his branch logger but I don't know if he sorted any of the arisings for logs.