openspaceman

I was only considering the cost of electricity and I was probably using a graphic from before the recent rises but here it is

It was to do with the algorithm that Ofgem dreampt up for deciding the cap and now there is no competition in the domestic market all the companies have gone to the maximums allowed. The worrying thing is that the wholesale price of energy is the minor part of domestic bills. Worse still much of our energy is not related to the gas price, which has spurred all the increases. Government has taken a lurch to the right in the last two days and policy is now led by someone whose faith means that increases in pollution will be annulled as we return to a garden of Eden. I do not share that faith but will apologise to him when we meet at the pearly gates, anyone for tennis?

money saving expert is punting a plusnet deal that ends tonight, £11/month for 18 months after an amazon cashback IIRC

Yes it very much annoys me that standing charges have gone up. As a percentage of the bill it becomes worse for those that conserve their energy use. It particularly bugs me as it represents over 50% of my gas and electric utility bills but I'm looking at ways to reduce that.

Yes I had that on a few windows that never got opened, stuck with double sided tape on the frames and tightened with a warm hair dryer. I can't say it had a fraction of the effect of replacing them all with proper double glazing.

Well you have just explained why means testing is costly and beloved of bureaucracy and how subsidies as a means of market intervention are unfair.

Certainly don't try ether again, can cause more damage. I suppose this has indirect petrol injection, if so far too modern for me to help.

Flowfit do cheap PTO gearbox pumps but you need to work out what pump flow you want. You actually can continue to draw oil from the tractor back axle but it needs a bit of thinking about, I posted a diagram years back but cannot immediately find it. Do fit a maxiflow type filter in the return line.

A problem with banding is that unless there is some elasticity in the band any shrinkage causes loss of tension.

Is there something preventing it turning over fast enough? These coils don't work below sabot 400rpm.

In that case it is immaterial whether it meets building regs (and they are not post dated on installs prior to Part J 2002 IIRC). From looking at the picture it could comply depending on the height above the roof and horizontal distance from window and ridge. Either way having the extension fitted by someone who is qualified to self certify the flue makes sense, if you can find someone, else whole new flue.

I doubt shooting will be much of a control, can get expensive too. Yes and getting a trapped rodent, or two, out of a live trap and killing it humanely can be problematic. I never did grasp how to break a squirrel's neck as it poked out of the trap cleanly. So I favoured tunnel traps but some of the new tree attached re settable ones look useful.

From research Judith Rowe din in the 70s it is not numbers of squirrel per se but young males displaced by males with territories that cause the damage. Also damage is related to phloem width, so if the tree puts on a spurt of growth, say after a thinning has removed a bit of competition, then they are attracted to that tree. Often the damage will start from a "stance", either the ground or a branch, so formative pruning may reduce the chance of damage to the valuable part of the stem. When I started the damage was virtually only on beech and sycamore but now the grey squirrels are more catholic in their species. Yes I do not expect the younger foresters will appreciate the form and size of beech trees we used to sell into the furniture industry any more than they could appreciate the huge field grown billowing elms of my youth. As a nation we have not appreciated the damage to timber nor the effect on wildlife (especially dormice) that grey squirrels have done. It is also a reflection on how badly incompetent the workforce was in the application of a useful control, warfarin, whose use had to be banned because of universally poor practice.

Well I doubt they did, originally when testing smoke you drew it through a paper filter and compared the greyness against a chart, then they started talking about PM10 (microns) and then PM2.5 as the equipment got to be able to discriminate better. My cheap PM meter takes snapshots of the air and counts the size and amount of reflections off particles in just the same way a CD player responds to the pits in the CD. The PM values are a subset of the overall particulates and the smaller particulates are a yet different subset. BTW I think petrol engines emit more ultra fine particulates but they are too small to impact on mucous tissues and get exhaled.

I've nothing against diesels, still have a pre dpf car, it's the fuel that makes the problem. Back in the day I mostly ran petrol work vehicles (pug 504, LR and hilux), true they used more fuel (about 1/5th) but they were cheaper to buy and service but then I always aimed to work withing 20 miles of home.

That's right; I volunteer on some rights of way vegetation and surface maintenance and we are not allowed to remove any wood. Actually since covid the organisation has fallen down and only three sessions have taken place, none since July, which is of course when the major vegetation problems arise.

Not sure what that is about but the machine looks quite similar, I wonder if that engine unit would bolt on my gearbox.

Is that the single cut model sold by Barrus? I preferred this for lightness and still have the handle, cutters and gearbox in the hope of finding an engine. It's real old school with a throttle lever that you had to learn to operate with finger or thumb. Much better cut than my current makita.

AKA a hovel

Ah I see.

Actually the circulation due to buoyancy is quite small so a very low power fan can have a big effect, think why hot air balloons are so much bigger than helium ones. I have a ceiling fan, mostly used for circulation on hot days but we did use it to de stratify the air when the wood burner was in that room. The instructions were to reverse the flow when using it to de stratify but we found it better just to blow down,

Yeah I would go on a Stirling engined one just for that reason but don't use my peltier one anymore.

I cannot see that as being necessary as hot air rises up the stairs anyway, it is getting it distributed on the ground floor where a fan comes in handy,

Tends to jam the single roller on the Dosko which can make chipping tedious. It's the same with any wood than has a punky exterior but have not experience the problem with more modern chippers.

Are you sure that's not woolly aphid, it looks a bit fluffy for mildew