Steven P

Likewise a few years (too many possibly) since I was at college, I think your 55 years trump mine here though. Yes, big difference between installation methods, what is actually installed and the power losses in each, and I think we are pretty much saying the same here - my clouded memories and it is quite reassuring that my mind isn't just making stuff up. I wasn't so sure that arborist wanted to go into formulas though - the concepts are good enough? Enough to say in the cable it is more efficient with power losses to go DC, but for the actual kit it is cheaper to go AC. Long distance cables (like Norway to UK) and the equipment costs are a smaller thing than the electrical power losses? Overland going to have to live with transmission towers. I think you are right and the grid is working towards a more distributed power generation model - lots of small generation schemes all over the country, interconnected with cabling rather than a few very large power stations - home solar and wind included in the calculations.

Some of the warehouses are huge.. though never stopped to measure them

I like the explosion! Grand scheme of things, there are bigger sheds for Amazon

Yes, a bit of ozone - imagine each of the crackles like a tiny lightning bolt. In damp and wet weather the resistance of the air is reduced and the electricity can jump between phases - tiny lightning bolts (or sparks, whichever), nothing to worry about but that is what the noise is. I wouldn't be living within at least 100m of a pylon either, passing underneath them, the further you are away the more the effects drop off - an inverse square, double the distance and the effect goes down 4 fold. However I have no problem walking or working on or under them.

Higher voltage overhead transmission lines are not insulated so don't suffer as much

ok

Pretty sure 2 power lines and a substation arn't gong to ruin the aesthetics of Blyth

Can I be all anal, I usually am... officially 230V +10% or -6%.. (same for 3 phase domestic) - which let the UK just keep going at 240V... but officially it is 230... (I think my house generally goes at 244V and new LED bulbs every 6 months). Appliances have to accept the range 215V - 250V, something like that

Repeating an old line... didn't the bible say that the gays should be stoned. Not sure if that would stand up in court for drug driving "But God said I have to be"

The capacitance in a cable is within it - between the phases rather than it's surrounds, sea water won't affect it much. The way a cable is made up will - a larger subsea cables and so on. HV DC cables are electrically more efficient however each end of the cable - the conversion AC to DC and back again is trickier. For a long distance cable the conversion is acceptable to lower the losses and running costs. Within Europe, including Norway here, we all should have compatible electrical systems and interconnections (domestic, my fridge and TV will work just well on Belgian electricity, 230V AC, 50Hz) AC cables are cheaper to install to get the same power transmitted - been a few years since that college course, but think it was something like DC and 2 phase AC needs 3 cables (phase, phase or neutral and earth), 3 phase AC needs 3 cables (3x phases). 3 phase has 1/3 more power through the copper. We can build smaller transmission towers. For long distances though I think the worry is power losses and to get enough power at the far end to make it worthwhile and not eaten up along the route in losses.

Not sure if they are dong another link but the Norway - UK link lands at Blyth - allows the UK to buy spare hydroelectricity from Norway... and in reverse we could sell them spare wind power to top up their hydro reserves. Efficiency: At higher voltages you need less current (amps) to send the same power down the line. It is the current that causes most power losses - such as heating the wires - so if you can reduce the current it is more efficient. We can't go high voltage in the house else Mrs Miggins would blow her head off doing the toast in the morning, most of the power supplies in or around towns are no where near the 400kV in the question (You'd know if they were, the substations for that is quite large). 40KV will generally be well away from the population - soiling the view perhaps going over the endless plantations of spruce.

I don't know the details for this upgrade, but if they are just replacing the cables then any increase in EMF will not be as great as if they were installing newer larger towers. Suspect they are needing to replace the insulators and doing the cables at the same time - they would need replacing one day anyway. If the towers are the same then the maximum load on them will not be changed, they cannot really install larger heavier cables. Use the same size cables and the current (amps) rating will be roughly the same, any increases will not be in proportion to 275:400.

Sounds perfect, airflow and space to take the condensation away from the wood

Inverse square rule, should be well safe at 100 to 150m away from the conductors.

I don't store many multiple years of firewood, but have taken the opinion that a tarp over the top is probably asking for more problems than it solves - airflow and evaporation is needed. I reckon that if it take moths to dry each 1" of log then the reverse is true, it will take months to get that 1" properly wet again. Most of the rain landing on it will run off or evaporate fairly quickly. British summers of course, it is possible to have rain for the full summer. Logs on wet ground - as JustMe will absorb moisture from below and not have the airflow to dry off well. If you can get a log store with the roof above the top of the log pile - so air flow happens - or perhaps get the tarp suspended above the top of the logs then that would work (a shed is where I'd go given the chose though). Logs that were dry last October and outside will go inside just as soon as we get 3 days with no rain and will be dry be heating season this year

Yup, grasping at straws

Like a cheap nut, easily cross threaded. It has been sugested above that if you want to continue your conpiracy dillusions then you pop over to the other thread instead of continuing to go around and around and around on multiple threads saying exactly the same thing. Be a good chap and pop over there then. Back to making the news then, and I believe UK General Election and whether the voting age should be altered.

Just an opinion on the ages, people mature at different rates, some 16 year olds are with it enough to hold down a job, raise a family, be a constructive member of society and contribute. Some 60 year olds still want looking after, it is how we are. Not sure paying taxes, the amount of tax or education state should be a limit to voting - that would exclude a lot of 'grown ups' too. Likewise with the other metrics mentioned above, if you say "You are young and don't contribute enough' (jobs, education, voluntary works, armed forces, families and so on) then you have to apply that to anyone older too - fair and even for all. Not sure that is a society that is good "You - you are unemployed, and take take take, so you cannot have a say" type of thing.

Sign up at 16, in a general election year, you sign up for 6? years. After 5 years (and 25 days)(max time between elections), at the next general election you could have been in active duty for 3 years and have had no say in the politics that sent you there.

That comes around every few years with on party or the other. Election year, both parties will say a lot but do action on about half. I understand his thoughts, we can send them overseas to be shot and killed but they have no say in the politics that sends them there.

My go to is split as soon as I can, more surface area to dry quicker.... or take the bark off - same thing? Birch doesn't do well being kept damp, which is odd for a tree that likes it wet

Not so sure about knowing 'zip' - if so then you have a dollop of common sense at least. In other walks of life, usually the one who signs something off is responsible for what they are signing off. I do the stuff, my manager signs it off as checked, approved to go ahead, but their manager has accepted that my checker / manager has suitable skills and experience to do the checks. If me and my manager follow the correct process (that isn't anything mental), then the next one up the chain gets hit. In work my line manager is not a checker - checking goes sideways and then back to my manager for approval. Similar for buildings and the council? Design is done, checked by the architects somewhere, council approves with knowledge of the architects experience?

Yes, English law and case law ... 'Candy floss conservatory' - probably went that way because it is low value? Could be looked at again if the damages were to a new build worth lots of money, or lots of money for the repairs where fighting the case, judicial review and all that could make economic sense? Remember years ago a talk by the H&S man, often they would just settle cases because the legal fees were more than the payout even if the injured party had no leg to stand on - cheaper - might be the same here that a small repair is more cheaper than contesting the case, getting the designers or builders to court and passing the liability on to them.

Likewise, consider the timbers for your house - all good after 15 years? so no reason why they shouldn't be.... if they are well stored. Leave them stacked outside on the ground you might get a couple of years from some species, off the ground, plenty of air flow, and covered you should be OK

Yes, tree roots are probably encroaching on their land, report says causing damage. However if the builders built to a certain standard knowing that there was a maturing tree within a distance (Oak, 30m?), then surely some responsibility must go back to the designer of the building?