openspaceman

This is my worry, farmers depend on confidence there will be a sale for their produce, as do we all really, that confidence is not there and hedging on futures doesn't produce the confidence farmers need to plant now. Very little of the world's grain is traded as exports so it only require the loss of a little global production to have an effect

I cannot see that as not a member but I suspect I remember the younger because the mother seemed to own the farm.

Yes the Kinnocks certainly played that EU system well. I was trying to show it was not only offshore companies, politicians, old money and royalty that manage to avoid what the man on PAYE has to pay but also owners of fairly small businesses too.

Yeah, missed that so not tree of heaven and far less to worry about

Ah the grant getter king, whatever happened to him?

That 1 million is only if their dwelling is being past on, If there is cash that is treated differently and tends to attract 40% IHT. Toffs get round that by handing over ownership early and hoping to live a further 7 years. This is all insignificant compared with what company owners get away with, having company fuel cards and drawing a "pool" vehicle whilst owning a classic that is never driven, company has a portfolio of rental properties, including the one the CEO lives in and property services division employs gardeners, decorators and chauffeurs etc.

Buying an ac coupled charger- battery setup and having it fitted (DNO approval required) will benefit them greatly then as they have no costs involved with the panels.

Leaves look a bit like Ailanthus altissima , terrible tree for spreading by suckers. If it is I'd trench down and fit a root barrier AND/OR suggest the neighbour removes it. If they do decide to remove kill it with round up now 10 weeks before felling

I think that is what David would call an anamorph (the asexual form).

My panels were fitted by an electrician who became MCS registered for my job, as far as I am aware he never fitted any more as when the FIT changed demand fell. He is now considering getting back in to the work but hasn't found the time to visit me and start on my new string of panels :-(

Generally yes, the grid has to be live for the inverter to run, but I have not suffered an outage of more than minutes for over 20 years, attached house did for 10 hours last week as one phase was knocked out underground somewhere so they reconnected all those affected to another substation somehow. Most batteries seem to have an emergency power supply capability but I didn't go for that as the extra cost didn't seem justified. I do have a small generator and am still waiting for the electrician to fit a changeover switch, then I'll see if the output is good enough to keep the solar PV system live.

Yes and frankly I don't mind if that means their profits go toward providing more renewables, I'm not that sanguine about new nuclear as I think the money would be better spent on conservation and renewables infrastructure. Currently gas is providing nearly 50% of our electricity with wind and nuclear at about 15% the rest being made up of solar (not easily measured but up to 12%), hydro and coal. As I have produced 100% of my electricity since mid March and expect to continue to do so till mid October I do not understand why it does not feature in more homes.

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.