Steven P

There is some merit to this, most plastics made from oil, the oil could just as easily be diverted into the power station instead of making plastic. So all we are doing there is using the oil before it is converted to electricity, and the big power stations can have industrial filtration and cleaning on the chimneys, carbon capture and so on. However I'd only advocate that when the plastic gets to the end of its useful life rather than a 2 shot use - plastic bag, burn it. It saves creating huge landfills which are just methane machines - methane is worse than Carbon Dioxide. Colouring of stuff... it has been a thought of mine for a few years that anything that is not easily recyclable is coloured magenta (pink-purple) in the shops. All branding gone, just a pink box with the product name on. Manufacturers will change what they use but for me, as a consumer we'd only need 2 bins: dry waste and wet waste, no thought needed. In the recycling centre anything pink is dumped / burnt whatever, and everything else is recycled. All wet waste (food scraps etc) can be composted / methane digesters / whatever. Similar to the bottle ideas above, all I'd want to do is take bottles to recycle with no thought needed if it is good to recycle or not.

Third vote for a Henry - no coincidence that soot hoovers are the same type. However soot = hoover killer. For my stove I'll put in a paper supermarket carrier bag which catches most soot, wrap it up and in the bin (or in the fire pit and put a match to it - soot burns pretty well, slow burner but load of heat)

Surely not, tax us? Noticing the cash only barber I'll go to tomorrow is something like £13.50 so everyone gives £15.... £1.50 a cut is never declared... sure that would never happen

but that puts me off generally. Every now and then I'll send a message to ask for more details but if I don't get anything I won't put a bid on - say a £50 'spares or repair' might need fresh fuel, adjustment and a good clean, it might need a new cylinder so I'd like a clue what kind of repair is needed, might get more bids that way.

If I want to collect a 2nd hand thing I'll go to Gumtree, if i want it posted to me I'll go to ebay. A frustration of mine is "spare or repairs, none runner" with no clue about why it is a none runner - a decent description will save you hassles later. If you think they are easy fixes suggest you what you think the problem is.. with a disclaimer of course.

I saw that, the insults he was throwing about are the kind that could stick and could be career ending. Banter is one thing and the false arguments that they have so that they can keep their names in the public domain, part of being in public life. However there is line I think and crossing it isn't acceptable - comparing Vine to Rolf Harris? I assume he was referring to Harris conviction of touching up school girls and not dodgy painting on the TV. Unacceptable and deserves all he gets. Probably all who make similar insults deserve the same.

Reckon they have gone but... financially spending time on them is the best, whether it is to make 2 or 3 running and strip the 4th for spares, or splitting them all for parts to sell separately. However to clear workshop space a message on here "does anyone want them" or auction site job lot spare will do that - all depends on the motivation. Middle ground is clean them up, blow with an air line if you have one, sell individually as spares / repair.

Going to distract the conversation further here - used to look after a large gas engine, also started on compressed air. Amazing to see a piece of machinery as big as that starting so silently. I think the air vessel had to be insured and tested separately. I reckon at the moment so long as the green energy is being captured and used or stored every little helps - it is often turned off due to demand or storage issues. Different demands though, heat stores, great if you are wanting heat, hydrogen or other liquids if you need the energy to be portable (ships, planes, and so on). In the middle there is the question of how do we store electricity for later use - batteries, heat or compressed air, or something like hydrogen. We are limited in this country for pumped storage locations and capacity. I'm not sure which is the best but just my gut reaction which I think is.

Battery saws - had a half price deal on a Qualcast 36V saw a few years ago, if it goes wrong well, it was cheap, but generally I'll go to that rather than the petrol Stihl - as a homeowner not a professional. Like for like I reckon for logs up to 6"-8", chain speeds are similar, but after the power of petrol keeps the chain speed up. As above, battery life is the issue - home that is OK, flatten a battery, put it on charge, cup of tea time. Took down and logged a decent sized horse chestnut with it - apart from the battery all good. Like anything though, keep the chain sharp. When I come to replace the petrol saw it will be for another battery one, probably 36V, whatever is out there

Pretty much yes, but I am not sure of the alternatives to hydrogen at the moment if we want a liquid / gas fuel to replace gas. Heat storage sounds OK but over time you loose heat - not sure if that would work to capture solar power in the summer to use the next Easter? So I'd go for a system that can be stored longer, and one whose technology isn't too far off what we have now. Having said that, so much going on out there that next week there might be something new and better announced

However when it comes to instant power supplies - short term at least - not a lot is quicker than pumped storage the 'hollow mountain'... it will still take some time to replace gas as a power source but a necessary evil to do so. I'd be putting my money into something like Hydrogen - an easy conversion from fossil fuels and can be stored in existing facilities

Aldi and Lidl I reckon I have a 50-50 success rate good for the money / throw out tools (each tool are from a different Chineasium manufacturer dressed in Ferrex / Parkside colours)

They're working on it. I did a back of fag packet set of sums once and there is more glass fibre in the UK small boat fleet than wind turbine blades - the balance might have changed since then though. It will be the next challenge though (Siemens - one of the big manufacturers I think has a recyclable blade due out in the next couple of years if not already).

But with any luck you'll see their face, and either recognise them (as the OP says, thinks they know who it is), a friendly warning "I have you on camera, don't do it again" or let the police have the tape.

A lot of the suggestions are tempting, but you'd have to sit out all night to catch them in the act or do some major work to the tractor to secure the fuel or build a barn. Not sure I'd put stuff in the fuel tank that makes the diesel unuseable unless you know it is going to go that night. Best way to go is to collect the evidence I reckon, cameras. Is there anywhere on the tractor that you could place a spy cam / trail cam pointing at the fuel tank? Couple of security lights on the tractor pointing in the right direction will get a stone through them but might scare them off that night. Not limited to where you can park if the camera goes with you. Could also use the camera as a dash cam in case of accidents? Use the tractor battery for power supply saves you buying AA batteries all the time.

Rail guns, we can use the energy of the sun to fire nuclear waste at it

Yup,. if it is steel that is more fixable.

I come at this from a slightly different angle at times.... though about a month into the lockdown with limited traffic the air quality was noticeably better... so why not reduce emissions just for that? Anyway, oil is going to run out in my lifetime (according to Google), not sure the Ukraine war was a good advert of securing our energy supplies from overseas, whatever we can generate ourselves is going to be a bonus. So I'd go for green energy as soon as we can, eke out the oil reserves till we can live without it. Small nuclear reactors will take about 10 years? from concept idea to commissioning I think for the medium term. Noting that the oil producing countries are generally controlled by the unhinged or regimes that are not stable. Extend the Israel-Gaza conflict and our oil supplies could be limited. Annoy Putin too much and his oil that gets to Europe in a round about way could be limited. Buy too much wood chip from the US and all it takes is a vengeful lunatic president and we could be in trouble, we are lucky that neither of their next presidential hopefuls are unhinged or going senile.

Cast iron? good luck.... (you might heat it locally enough to bend it but will need to heat the whole lot to ease the stresses afterwards) Might be easier to adjust the flue to fit? easier to bend, adjust and cut to shape, or make a collar to fit between the stove and flue. Firebricks are probably not off the shelf for 'rear warped Clearview brick', so perhaps get some mouldable refractory or fireclay, rolled 1" thick and pushed into place for the shape. Perhaps put some clingfilm or paper between the stove and clay so it doesn't stick

In my case the chimney runs through the loft, the heat transfer, chimney to loft space is above the insulation and this heat goes straight out. Insulate the rafters as well and some of this heat will be retained in the loft, the temperature difference house to loft will be less and the heat loss from the house will be less. So there is some merit to insulate the rafters (as well as the roof space).

I've looked at this for my loft, changing it from a cold loft to a warm loft (or not so cold loft - still keep the installed insulation). I am being put of because no one can really give me a decent answer for the moisture. The actual insulation installation should be an easy DIY job. As far as my thinking goes, don't insulate right up to the tiles, leave a decent air gap there with vents as required. My thinking also to leave a gap along the base of the insulation and at the top / ridge or a vent to allow some air movement between the insulation and the tiles. Before I bite the bullet and do that job I'd get a roofer in for advice (I'm in Scotland, roofs here tend to be tiles fastened to plywood sheets fastened to rafters so more wood that could rot) (other insulation jobs to sort first) My loft has more than the minimum required at the moment so was thinking to add maybe 75mm, supported on netting (the orange barrier netting, under the suspended floors is held up with that OK), stapled in place and the insulation placed on top. Loads of space for the spiders to live! Was thinking rockwool as you said about polystyrene, not sure I'd want that burning in the case of a house fire. I did a test once, sheep wool, rock wool, polystyrene and PIR, about the same of each into the fire. PIR and polystyrene loads of black smoke, fire as you'd expect, rockwool just sat there, melted a bit, sheeps wool burnt but no real nasty fumes. We used to get meat packages delivered - meat direct from the farm - and that was insulated with wool, which afterwards was a waste material.. and is now insulating the gable end of the house, it did make a difference I think but because it was filled up over time there was no sudden changes in temperature up there.

I'm sure you get the terms of reference here, there was a man on here a few month ago asking advice and was convinced that a set of motorcycle leathers and helmet, some step ladders and all would be good - wouldn't listen to the advice given - and then one day, no more posts (I am assuming he either hired someone in or managed to avoid an accident doing it himself). Anyway post a photo and see what the advice is

We get Canadian wild salmon in our Morrisons (wouldn't usually say which supermarket but I know you'd all ask "Waitrose?"). Ours fly that way, theirs fly this way. Left to their own devices and according to the Scottish Government map I just looked at wild Scottish Salmon swim over Iceland and to (Canadian) Newfoundland and then back.. so why bother flying them if they will swim there and back anyway....

Fish farms - as an example Salmon. They are fed pellet foods which if uneaten will sink to the sea bed, algae will use that creating blooms, starving the plankton in the area and then the oxygen levels drop. The waste from the fish do the same - so all you eventually get in the area is dead water and farmed salmon. The salmon attract parasites - lots of salmon in the area, lots of parasites which pass to the wild fish - attracted by the waste food - and spreads through the wild population... which can be controlled by releasing parasite killing stuff into the water... which then kills off other stuff. With meat farming the medicines are given out in a more controlled way. Farmed salmon are very fatty, no room to exercise, so they have the good fatty acids... but also the bad ones too (you can see the difference in the supermarket - farmed salmon has a layer of brown gunge / fat on it, wild salmon doesn't). Seaweed - been farmed for centuries - the Romans did it! (some see weeds are used. For example and I can't remember the names for the ingredient but ice cream has seaweed derived stuff to thicken it and make it creamier (and cheaper to make). However 'seaweed' you might buy at a Chinese is more likely to be salted dried cabbage or kale (and Wasabi is often horse radish). If you looked into everything the food industry did to all types of food you' probably get an allotment and lead 'The Good Life'.

Got to love Arbtalk, one minute a lively discussion about the merits of meat eating and the next "Snails? We must swap recipes"