Baldbloke

Bloody brilliant! A great read even if biological things aren’t your strong point. If you thought you knew everything about trees, think again.

Wish you and your love all the best. Glad to hear they have pulled their socks up and now trying their best regarding treatment. Don't be afraid to ask questions about anything you don't understand (no matter how apparently stupid) so that your wife, and you, can discuss everything to make informed choices. All the best, Godfrey.

I'm off for hip replacement next Thursday. Been waiting for nearly six months but very grateful for the opportunity via the NHS. Trouble is the knee on the same side is wanked out too, so recovery is going to be a bit slow. Consultant says he will do the knee after, but I probably should have insisted on being put on the list immediately after being accepted for a hip. The joys of getting older and having done manual labour for 35+ years?

11 KVA so I'm told. Plenty enough to fry you. Dropped a tree in leaf against some similar lines many years ago. Top went up in flames and saved me looking for a lighter to burn the brash?

I used some kind of cheaper board with a plastic coating recommended by my local builders merchant. The offcuts i used on a smaller trailer so there were was no wastage. About half the price of the resin impregnated proper boarding. I covered the boards with sacrificial thinner exterior ply, and sealed any gaps with silicon. My reasoning was that with rough handling and chucking on logs the exterior ply could be replaced every few years and the boards underneath would last. This has worked for two years so far, but my trailer is kept in a shed when not used. However, the smaller trailers floor which is kept outside fell apart within the two years as the plastic coated boarding was shite because it was left in the elements and the boarding within absorbed rain water and swelled. Buy cheap, buy twice.

Never had issues with supermarket fuel. It tends to have a quicker turnover than say a rural independent. It’s bio percentage is not determined by being a supermarket or independent supplier. You’ll notice some unbranded/ non sign written lorries supply supermarkets and independents. Ive been told the lorries collect from the same refinery out of the same pipes. I’ve always filled my 20 ltr Jerry cans without issues. Glad to see HSE suggest this is acceptable

Bet the mason pissed himself doing that inscription[emoji1303]

Truly green in many respects.

I don’t suppose it’s the money maker it once was anyway

Bit like a storage heater then? Expect they take a little longer to heat up though. Swings and roundabouts

Large enough bungalow but self built with underfloor heating throughout. I agree, something is not right

I have a neighbour who has installed a biomass log burner in his new build. I didn't want to criticise his (or his installers) workings but cannot agree with the sizes chosen for his accumulator tank. As it's a new build, I'm presuming his house must be fully insulated, so heat loss should be minimal. However, he is doing two burns/fires a day at present, and his pile of logs is diminishing more quickly than my wood usage for a three floor seven bedroom manse. I suspect his accumulator tank at 1000 litres would have been better had it been at least two thousand litres. It appears that the small tanks reserves cannot sustain the demand for 24 hours. He had a wood lorry of supposedly seasoned big logs delivered and cuts into logs as needed. His 22/24 cubed wagon delivery happened in mid September and was set down in a field opposite his house. The pile in three months is two thirds used already, so I reckon on him having already used 12-15 tonnes. Hopefully he is getting some subsidy payments to cover his usage. I believe my tank is either 4000 litre or 4500 litres with an expansion tank of 500 litres. I'm seriously considering to piggybank an additional 2000 litre tank onto the installation as the 65 kW boiler often exceeds the household demand and could comfortably heat another tank and stop the frequent over firing along with messages stating that I've used too much wood in the boiler. If I did that I'd move the electric immersions (powered from the wind turbine) from the big 4000 ltr tank into the new smaller tank as I reckon they'd do a more efficient job of heating the smaller body of water. It has all been a learning experience.

Borrowing a rifle and using it under the supervision of the estate keeper requires no paperwork. Borrowing it without supervision is an offence. A sex toy in the equation is just wrong

Our 60Kw boiler takes a big builders heaped barrow a winter day. We too kept the oil boiler (for when we’re working or back from staying away) and have to switch two levers and turn a switch. Before the biomass we burnt more wood in stoves to heat a couple of rooms. The biomass can now heat the whole house. Much more efficient. Insulation? No. Georgian manse so bugger all.

Thanks. It’s a lot of work to maintain. AIRBNB is great as you can do it when you want. We both work so that was the main limiting factor. Also it’s easier to just let out one room and en suite. Otherwise it would be easy enough to make it a business and let out three rooms but we preferred to keep it under the tax free limit of £7500/ pa

Here’s ours. 60 kW. 4000 litre tank. Just heats our house. One burn every three days during summer and once a day during the winter. Probably uses about 35 tonnes annually. we are in Moray, NE Scotland

The RHI application was approved but not taken up by me about 18 months ago. Don’t know if the rate has dropped since then, but I didn’t think it was worth the hassle of claiming at that time.

Logs/wood I should add that although I missed out on any subsidies to help cover the 24.5 k installation cost, the last 6 years has seen my oil bill reduce by between 3 and 4 thousand pounds annually. So even without the subsidy it still works faultlessly, and has just about paid for itself by saving on oil. I have also recently put multiple immersions in the accumulator which means that if it’s windy the turbine can help maintain the tanks temperature if it’s already sitting at 70 C. It’s also satisfying playing around with the two resources to effectively keep a large house warm while generating a bit of income.

Therminator 11 60kW

An absolute nightmare. I left it to a smarter person who worked for the biomass fitter. Spent a couple of grand in getting the meter and advice and even then had to get back to them (RHI) three times with more information. Very technical and quite frankly once I started taking the readings realised that the payments just weren’t worth the hassle of dealing with the ongoing commitments of paperwork. They even approved me as a wood supplier but in the end I said thanks but no thanks. Biomass had been in since 2013 but a retrospective consultation deemed my boiler too big for domestic use as over 40 kW. We later did some AIRBNB so could qualify as a business. For the few hundred a year along with the paperwork we reckoned that life was too short. Had I got the original grant my installation would have paid off handsomely. We put up a wind turbine afterwards which does pay

It maybe doesn’t stop you from travelling but it DOES severely compromise the chance a residency visa in somewhere like NZ or Canada.

The point is it concludes matters without having to go to court. People tend to think accepting a caution is easier and carries less consequences.

The police in Glasgow tried to get my son to accept a caution over a matter which was eventually resolved with no charge and no caution. Luckily a witness was found to clear him of any wrongdoing. Luckily he was under 18 at the time and I was party to the offer of the caution.... Had he accepted the caution there’d be no chance of him being in NZ over the last 4 years. The police could claim the matter is resolved by using this solution, and people don’t realise how serious it is to admit any liability in order to avoid a court appearance. if it’s still being investigated your mate needs to be made aware of these cautions as it’s an easy “out” for the police to conclude matters

I would guess it's very tricky to charge someone when there's only two people with differing stories, so hopefully the matter will be dropped. ASAP mention to him not to accept a caution over the matter (without legal advice) as I understand that it remains on file, and is taken as an admission of guilt. This can have some serious repercussions for shotgun and FAC renewals, future employment, insurance, emigrating and passport applications. http://hub.unlock.org.uk/knowledgebase/implications-accepting-police-caution/

So what was the outcome? I presume your mate is out? Did they follow through on a charge or drop it after hearing both sides of the dispute?