What are you all up to
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TG
At least you have the choice of two!!! That was our idea when we had the kitchen redone earlier in the year only to discover the Truma heating and hot water had stopped working because of a faulty PCB. I suspect people that do our hobby are more inventive than the majority so we made do and mended, surprising how much you can do in a microwave.
David
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Takethedogalong
Your boiler certainly seems to have been quite a saga? When we took the opportunity to change to a Combi and also moved the boiler to a new location upstairs rather than in the utility. In the original position the new rules wouldn't have allowed it to vent out easily. I probably mentioned that BG were very efficient, one engineer did the bulk of the work over three days with a sparks popping in to do the electrics. As far as the survey was concerned we just discussed where we wanted it and how the gas supply would be rerouted on the outside of the house. Probably not the most elegant way of doing it but a lot cheaper than trying to reroute internally!
The good news is that we seem to be benefitting from reduced gas usage due to both the efficiency of the boiler and the fact that we now only have hot water on demand rather than being heated and stored in a tank.
Probably a bit cheeky to ask but I assume there were circumstances for the funding?
David
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I have spoken to several of the tradesmen that just to work for our company and they say the same. The cost of annual certification makes it far to expensive to continue with "odd job favours" as you put it.
I have always considered myself pretty practical in terms of DIY and I often sought advice from the tradesman just to check I was doing things correctly. Unfortunately the rules, especially for electrics, have changed so much that you have to be very careful. This was highlighted when we had our kitchen redone. Whereas before you could run an oven and electric hob off the same 45 amp supply (?) they now insist of a much higher margin of unused amps that we almost had to have a new supply installed for one or the other. We compromised by having an induction hob which has a built in controller to limit the draw on the supply. Also when the electricians were doing the electrics they didn't like the spur I had installed to provide outside power despite the outside socket having its own circuit breaker and being of IP66 standard.
David
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As I say heddlo we shall see..........
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When our son and grandson were living with us the motorhome became home and office for our son, grandson slept in the house. We used to look out across the garden at 2am and see the M/H fully lit up (we knew the heating was on too.) It was like having a teenager back at home!
(With the consequent bills....)Every year I switch our heating supplier but this year I've gone back to Britisg G for a dual fuel fix so I'm keen that they keep to their side of the bargain especially as the boiler was put in by them not long ago.
It's a wonder we've got any power today, the winds are so strong and it's pouring with rain non stop.
I've been trying to update my Christmas food order as I see some items have sold out already!
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We are erring on the side of caution as well heddlo this Christmas. Mum and Sister are our bubble, both households have had no one other than absolute essential (boiler fitters🙄). We have agreed with rest of family not to bother with presents for us, don’t want them shopping at any risk, or paying online delivery fees, we shall say hello via WhatsApp, etc... Will just do a nice meal, the four of us. Our best present will be to finally all get together when it’s safe to do so.
Too risky for some, we have lots of teachers, emergency services, essential workers in family, lots of children all ages, all out daily in community, and it’s not worth risking losing someone just to say Merry Christmas as far as we are concerned. Boxing Day I have suggested to OH we take MH for a day out provided no lockdown, not too far, get in a nice walk somewhere quiet. I enjoy cooking in MH.
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We'll definitely be on our own this time round, our nearest daughter and partner have booked a small cottage on Dartmoor (the attraction there is an unusual item, a fully tuned grand piano so they can play music to their hearts content!!) We had intended to meet up somewhere on Dartmoor for a day out with the M/H but it doesn't matter if we don't, it's all up in the air at the moment. The rest of the family we'll hopefully see if things improve in the New Year.
Everyone locally is going to make an effort to "light up" Christmas so that's at least something to think about, should be some nice displays! (We'll do our best...
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We’re quite resilient in case of power cuts - a generator (run via a tractor ) that’s powerful enough to run the milking parlour, all the farm and the house. But in the house we don’t need electric to cook (solid fuel Aga), or keep warm (wood burning stove), and no central heating.
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Not cheeky at all DK. I looked to see if there was any funding we might be able to access when we were first considering new boiler. Not a chance, applicants had to be on one benefit or another, usually Pension Credit I think. We don’t have or need anything like that (thankfully), in fact we are long way off getting our State Pensions. So at that point we resigned ourselves to getting quotes and looking at funding it ourselves. We couldn’t get our usual gas fitter to commit, as he was booked up for months with work. So a chance conversation with a neighbour, asking for a recommended fitter threw up that she had just accessed similar work, and it had cost her nothing. We investigated, answered three basic questions and jackpot.....we qualified. Old house, old boiler, OH had had a heart attack three years ago, so we ticked all the boxes, it really was that simple. Seem to think it might be some sort of area scheme rather than National.
We looked at moving our boiler. It’s currently up in attic, on exterior wall, with header tank and cistern up there as well. OH is currently re boxing in this large space, after we had a new roof on house a few years ago. It would give us a very big attic room, and we considered just boxing around cistern, bit like a chimney breast with alcoves. But going combi means we can get rid of tanks. We did ponder on moving boiler itself down into cellar head pantry, but a lot of re routing, and this would have meant ripping house apart as our floors are solid oak. So we have gone for leaving boiler up in attic, but won’t let them run pipework outside house, as it looks awful on newly renovated exterior wall. Hence the need for scaffolding to work outside where pipes emerge from attic! The original prat of a surveyor forgot to let the boiler fitters know where the boiler was, and hadn’t ordered the scaffolding for their arrival. After a heated phone call, whereby they wanted to add on the cost for scaffolding (😱) I politely stuck to my guns, insisted that we had all the paperwork and emails confirming our price, and that it wasn’t our mistake. From there they went away to see what they could do. This involved another survey and different grant, but covered the scaffolding. (These surveyors were excellent, did an Energy Efficiency rating and condition of house survey. It was good news as we had already done lots ourselves in terms of making house more energy efficient, the cellar lagging, and new boiler was all we needed.)
Through this the communication has been poor in terms of arranging contractors to come and do work. They are as messed about as we are, but given that we ain’t going anywhere at the moment, we are being patient. Lagging and boarding in cellars was completed yesterday. Boiler should have gone in yesterday as well, but text message (no apology) said fitter couldn’t make it. I shall ask him Monday, make sure we get right story, but fingers crossed, this time next week, we should have house back to normal. I have a lounge full of bags of tinned and packet foods, freezer is stuffed in garage, there are bikes and other stuff from attic all over the place! It is a huge saving, we have fingers crossed now that like you we find house warmer and a bit cheaper on gas bills. Neighbours are very pleased with theirs. We can get on with finishing attic then.
Boy are we in need of a holiday😂
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One thing to remember (as advied to us when we were "surveyed?" with combi boilers in the "warmer months?" when the heating is not on ,,to get hot water (unless it has hot water header tank) the heat exchanger will need to get hot before any hot water is available ,so if possible install the boiler as close to the most used taps as possible.,, ie kitchen and bathroom ,which will save can save quite a lot of cold water run off
,ours is in the utility room under the bathroom and next to kitchen , Some of the houses in our area have had them fitted in their lofts which means quite a run to the kitchen to get hot water to the tap , as they have noticed when heating not on , especially if on water meters0 -
Interesting JV thanks. We are a frugal Yorkshire household in the main. We don’t use our heating a lot, unless it is really cold. Our stove heats back room, hall and kitchen, filters up stairs when lit to take chill off up there, so we might have heating on for an hour in morning, couple of hours in evening at most in Winter. I hate warm bedrooms, can’t sleep if heating is on. Electric shower, cold fill washer and dishwasher. Water heater seldom got used unless having a soak in bath, or cleaning vehicles. No water meter. House is well insulated, cellar floors were weakest point. Being old, it’s a house that has to “breathe” as well, we get the air where it’s needed, the heat where we want it to be.
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Not really a good day for a cycle ride but I was ordered out by Mrs C who had operation tidy-up planned for today. And apparently, and I might add totally unfairly and completely untrue, my scorched-earth approach to tidying and helpful suggestions were not only not wanted but it seems could be counter productive?
So I visited the past glories of Tynemouth railway station, had a (takeaway) coffee at the beach, then watched the ASV Pioneer make its way into the Tyne and found they had named a street after me in South Shields.
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Everyone locally is going to make an effort to "light up" Christmas so that's at least something to think about, should be some nice displays!
I feel sorry for those people who at the moment cannot celebrate Diwali. Must be tough for them.
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A rain sodden day that is best forgotten.
Mrs WN spent some time applying Gesso to a lot of painting boards. I spent the day doing not a lot to my eternal shame. Reading most of time.The exciting part of the day was sorting out the caravan insurance. Yes, the day was best forgotten.
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I made the Christmas cake today but I am not sure who is going to eat it - probably OH. I am not sure who is going to ice and decorate it either as daughter usually does that. I might have to 'whip up a snow storm' with some royal icing as that is the extent of my capabilities
. I thought getting the ingredients would be a problem. The flour was no problem but the dried fruit was another matter. I tried ordering currants with my online order the past couple of weeks with no joy so I ventured into Waitrose later yesterday (nicely quiet) and got what looked like the last packet on the shelf. While the cake was in the oven I planted up a basket for the front of our house with some cyclamen. Because of the weather I did it in the greenhouse and messed it up. OH had just cleaned and tidied it this week - oops! OH tidied the garage which looked as though it had been ransacked. In fact it had as he had lost his favourite screwdriver - now found. He then watched Easter Parade on TV.Nasty very wet and windy day here as well. The wind is blowing in the 'wrong' direction and has blown a lot of leaves into our garden.
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I remember being impressed with Tynemouth Station when we went through on the Metro. It seems completely out of place but was clearly far more important in times gone by. We did a complete circle of the Metro line from Whitley Bay into Newcastle and then returned via Byker and Tynemouth. I hope to go back to explore more.
People often complain that the North does not get the transport investment that say London does. This is probably true in the long term but the Newcastle Metro was the largest transport infrastructure projects in the 1980's in the UK.
David
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Yes, not shown in my photos is how big the station is, there is in happier times a large indoor market held within the covered station, and how many platforms there were in its heyday. A old photo below shows how big it was.
Whitley Bay again is another fascinating station with its own high clock tower.
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Our combi boiler seems to take forever for water to run hot. I think the pipe runs must go through some sub-soil glacial permafrost.
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I got to know the Newcastle Metro quite well a few years ago when I commuted home to look after Dad. OH used to drive up to area, and a couple of days later I would join him, hopping on train Doncaster to Newcastle, then using Metro to get out various locations. Made life really easy, as he could drop me at Airport after a few days up near Wallington, without hitting any City traffic. Another transport link I used extensively was the Tyne Valley rail link to Carlisle as well. This is very scenic, all along River Tyne, off at places like Corbridge, Hexham and further West. We did a good bit of Hadrians Wall touring using this.
I hadn’t realised Tynemouth Station was that big though Corners.
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We must have had one of the original combi boilers in our home, it chugged along nicely, it was well over forty years old put in to replace a solid fuel range by previous owners. The water took ages to run hot from the kitchen taps even though the boiler was a few metres away. So now we have a new combi, the hot water is still slow when everything else is off, not good as we're on a water meter. We won't have the problem of replacement parts and repair delays and it's more efficient generally (I think?!)
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Whether it was by luck or judgement our new boiler is installed in the old airing cupboard which just happens to be next to our shower room and just a yard or two from the main bathroom so fortunately we have no issues on that score. The only shock I get occasionally is when taking a shower and Margaret turns on the hot tap in the kitchen!!!!
David
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Just back from a lovely weekend at The Ranch AS site one of our local sites that luckily we can use under the current restrictions. Didn’t do much just had a walk around the garden centre yesterday in Ayr and apart from that relaxed it’s just nice to get a change of scenery. Easy tow home today and van back in it’s space just had to empty a lot of things out it too as the service engineer is due on Friday to give it its annual service hopefully nothing wrong with it fingers crossed. Probably won’t be away again now for a few weeks so have a few jobs around the house pencilled in to do over the next wee while. Just waiting for the rain to go off then I shall go out and give the Volvo a wash.
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I know that feeling David!! 😱
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One would not expect him to do nothing less, it would be foolish if him to do otherwise, surely? It just goes to show that T&T did work, well at least for some.
It could well be a breakthrough moment, as with him already having been infected, it may help to show if a person can catch the virus more than once. As the long term effects of the virus are unknown a second dose could of course result in him having an even worse reaction to it than he previously had.
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Oops, the double negative in my first line was unintentional. Please ignore the "not", as it should have read....One would expect him to do nothing less....
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Now, for the next ten days the PM will be in his flat in No 10 in his very own bubble !!
No need to apologise for such a slip, Nellie, most folk on here do it regularly, don't read the result & wonder why little barbs are thrown by the pedants.
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We’ve had an early start (for us) as well today, and a red sky😁
Boiler fitters are here, it is happening. Fingers and toes crossed no glitches now. Said a sad farewell to our old boiler, did us proud. This new one has a lot to live up to. Old one known affectionately as “Moaning Myrtle” as she occasionally needed system bleeding after a period of none use, and could be quite musical😂
I am nervous to be honest........😕
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