Mains power voltage drop to reduce usage?...

[Max Demian]

On 11/11/2022 17:35, Bob F wrote:

On 11/11/2022 3:14 AM, Max Demian wrote:
On 10/11/2022 22:52, Bob F wrote:
On 11/10/2022 4:07 AM, Max Demian wrote:
On 09/11/2022 00:21, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Tue, 08 Nov 2022 12:50:43 -0000, Max Demian
max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:
On 07/11/2022 23:56, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Mon, 07 Nov 2022 11:46:03 -0000, Max Demian
max_demian@bigfoot.com
wrote:
On 06/11/2022 19:49, Bob F wrote:
On 11/6/2022 9:53 AM, Max Demian wrote:

Actually my fridge freezer might as well not have one as it
rarely
turns off. Ice forms inside the fridge part and you can just
about
freeze vodka in an ice cube tray so it must be about -25C.

Have you considered adjusting it?

It\'s set to 1, which is next to off, so I assume that\'s the minimum
refrigeration.

Sounds like the thermostat is fucked, will your landlord replace it?

I don\'t know as it does still work as an FF. I\'m not too bothered
with
it as it is.

\"Ice forms in the fridge part\".  Refrigerated food is damaged when
frozen.  It\'s not fit for purpose.

It doesn\'t freeze the food, even milk. The ice is on the back of the
fridge part. There is a drain to get rid of water condensed there
but it freezes instead.


Is the defrost circuitry working?

It doesn\'t have one that I know of. How would I know?


Use the magic google. Model #, and \"defrost\" or \"defrost timer\" or
\"defrost heater\", or look at the parts list.

It doesn\'t have a label saying what make or model it is. Maybe at the
back, but I don\'t want to pull it out. Might stop working.

--
Max Demian

 

[Bob F]

On 11/12/2022 12:06 PM, upsidedown@downunder.com wrote:

On Sat, 12 Nov 2022 14:58:57 -0000, \"Commander Kinsey\"
CK1@nospam.com> wrote:

On Thu, 10 Nov 2022 21:02:03 -0000, Mark Lloyd <not.email@all.invalid> wrote:

On 11/10/22 05:51, Max Demian wrote:

[snip]

I know why it happens, just not why people use a furnace with gas.
It\'s a waste.

Waste of what? If you heat with electricity heat is wasted in the
cooling towers of the power station .

and in transmission lines.

Power stations should be closer to houses.

If you have an unused swimming pool in the basement of your apartment
building, just throw in a small research reactor (100 kW to 1 MW) and
you have heating for the winter

I visited a swimming pool reactor on a field trip while in high school.
It was really something to stand on the side of this deep pool of very
clear water and see the glowing elements at the bottom, know what it was
causing the glow.

 

[Vir Campestris]

On 11/11/2022 14:28, NY wrote:

In our present house we have normal gas central heating, but there is a
large stove in which we burn wood and peat to heat that part of the
house so we can reduce the gas CH heating needed. Although we have to
buy peat bricks and sawdust bricks, we\'ve not needed to buy any logs for
several years because we are still using up tree branches from when we
pruned trees, and just as we were thinking that we\'d have no wood for
the year after next, a big tree blew down in a gale this summer so it
will provide us with lots of firewood - which reminds me, I need to cut
some of the longer lengths into stove-sized logs and work out how to
split them diametrically. A proper *sharp* axe is needed: the present
one just embeds itself firmly in the log and doesn\'t actually split the
wood at all. Time to find someone with a grinder to sharpen the axe!  If
we can heat the house \"for free\" with our own wood, why pay for extra
gas for the CH?

I\'m told that for the logs you need a grenade. No, not a Mills bomb but

https://www.google.com/search?q=log+grenade

Andy

 

[Peeler]

On Wed, 9 Nov 2022 21:32:22 +0100, cretinous Carlos E.R., another brain dead
troll-feeding senile ASSHOLE, blathered

I have forgotten the math for this, but anyway, it is not cheap. Copper
has never been cheap. The cheap method has always been one capacitor, to
generate a bit of a phase. Many motors use this trick. Look inside a
household fan, for instance.

WTF has your sick shit got to do with any of the 3 ngs you keep crossposting
it to, you troll-cock sucking dumb spick?

 

[Vir Campestris]

On 11/11/2022 14:24, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 11/11/2022 12:40, Vir Campestris wrote:
On 11/11/2022 11:52, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
No one cares about bacteria in their central heating primary circuit.

Unless the level gets high enough to clog things up.

But in the hot water circuit they can be really bad news.

Andy
Not in the hot water CIRCUIT, but in the hot water TANK in an indirectly
heated system

My typo. Oh well, you knew what I meant!

Andy

 

[whit3rd]

On Saturday, November 12, 2022 at 2:59:20 AM UTC-8, Commander Kinsey wrote:

On Sat, 12 Nov 2022 10:34:37 -0000, Mike Monett VE3BTI <spa...@not.com> wrote:

What is the composition of the atmosphere currently?

By volume, the dry air in Earth\'s atmosphere is about 78.09 percent nitrogen,
20.95 percent oxygen, and 0.93 percent argon. A brew of trace gases accounts
for the other 0.03 percent, including the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide,
methane, nitrous oxide and ozone.

Trace gases. And we worry about them ROTFPMSL!

No, not \'worry\', but \'care\'. To the careless, there are many \"reasons\" something does not matter.
But, consider a mirror: a hundred thousand microinches of glass, 10 microinches
of aluminum. The aluminum is just a trace of the content, but... when you see
your reflection, the glass, most of that mirror, is... irrelevant. The ratio of glass
to aluminum is ... irrelevant. The fact that the aluminum is a trace addition to the
mass is.... completely irrelevant.

Ignoring greenhouse gases on such a spurious basis, is irrational. It violates common sense.

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Mon, 14 Nov 2022 12:38:59 -0000, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2022-11-14 01:27, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Thu, 10 Nov 2022 12:07:43 -0000, SteveW <steve@walker-family.me.uk
wrote:

On 09/11/2022 00:14, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Tue, 08 Nov 2022 12:35:03 -0000, Max Demian <max_demian@bigfoot.com
wrote:

On 08/11/2022 01:22, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Mon, 07 Nov 2022 11:27:33 -0000, John Larkin
jlarkin@highlandsnipmetechnology.com> wrote:

We heat our kettle with gas. All that heat winds up in the house,
which usually needs it. An open flame is a more efficient heater than
a gas furnace; no heat is vented.

Even resistive heating is better than a furnace. Except for gas being
cheaper for some reason.

I find it hard to believe that you don\'t realise that this is due to
the
Second Law of Thermodynamics.

I know why it happens, just not why people use a furnace with gas. It\'s
a waste.

The highest efficiency gas fired power station is aroung 62% efficient.
Then there are 5% transmission losses.

A condensing gas boiler is over 90% efficient.

Then why don\'t they make the power station like the boiler?

Because the exhaust gasses can not be colder than the hot water output..
For heating a house 60°C or less is good. For hot water, 45°C is enough.
For a power station, you need to boil the water at elevated pressures.

There must be some kind of heat exchanger system they could use. Or another use for the warm gases. Heat the neighbouring village with steam or water?

 

[Sjouke Burry]

On 09.11.22 21:13, Commander Kinsey wrote:

On Wed, 09 Nov 2022 07:07:54 -0000, <upsidedown@downunder.com> wrote:

On Tue, 8 Nov 2022 15:03:08 +0100, \"Carlos E.R.\"
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

Depends. Do you have 3 phase motors?

In my country house I currently have only one pump, which require
three phases.

That can be done with single phase power and a three phase inverter
(single phase input, three phase output). I don\'t know the current price
of that, though.

Typically the single phase 230 V input inverter has 127/220 V three
phase output. The 230/400 V motors are much more common.

The other alterative is to use 3 capacitors to generate the phases
from single phase,, but the output power is severely reduced.

Is it possible to use a special transformer to shift the phase? So you take a single phase and lag it a bit? Do that twice over, then you have three phases cheaply.

120 degrees phase difference between the the phases.
quite a bit more than a \"bit\".

 

[Max Demian]

On 11/11/2022 13:16, Commander Kinsey wrote:

On Fri, 11 Nov 2022 11:19:09 -0000, Max Demian <max_demian@bigfoot.com
wrote:

On 08/11/2022 18:59, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Tue, 08 Nov 2022 10:22:26 -0000, The Natural Philosopher
tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 07/11/2022 21:51, David Wade wrote:
On 07/11/2022 18:07, Sam E wrote:

[snip]

They don\'t use those for heaters, only motors.  Why would you
need it
for a resistive heater?

I have it on my heat pump.

Heat pumps are not resistive!  That would defeat the whole purpose.

Heat pumps don\'t work well at very low temperatures. IIRC, the
emergency heat is normally resistive.

[snip]

Air-2-Air heat pumps loose efficiency below about 4C but  modern ones
continue to provide some output down to -4c. None that I am aware of
have resistive heaters, but of course some folks will have separate
resistive heaters should the temp drop below -4.

IIRC all domestic heatpumps have resistive heaters, because its
necessary to bring DHW up to temp to kill germs.

What is DHW?  And whatever it is, why can\'t the heatpump do it?

Domestic Hot Water. Heat pumps don\'t heat it to a very high temperature.
Probably enough for a bath or shower, but some are afraid of legionella
and what not. I don\'t know how much danger there is in domestic systems.

I don\'t have hot water.  The shower is electric and so are the washing
machine and dishwasher.

What about hand washing and manual washing up? Do you have instant
heaters for the sink/basin(s)?

--
Max Demian

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Mon, 14 Nov 2022 12:43:05 -0000, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2022-11-14 03:21, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Sat, 12 Nov 2022 20:00:51 -0000, Carlos E.R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2022-11-12 15:49, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Thu, 10 Nov 2022 12:42:09 -0000, Carlos E.R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2022-11-10 11:36, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/11/2022 10:11, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2022-11-10 02:39, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Wed, 09 Nov 2022 12:01:19 -0000, Carlos E.R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:


As I said, this is a modern country. Basically the whole of
Spain is
using smart meters, changed maybe ten years ago. And I saw
nothing in
media about them being faulty.

They\'re (form your point of view) pointless, and a possible
source of
spying and control. Why would you be happy with this? They can
turn
off your power at will!

Well, as I said, I no longer have to bother to open the door for the
meter man.

They really work well, no problems detected, AFAIK.

There was no alternative. It was smart meter, or mandatory cut off.


They work really well here too. People are finding their smart meters
have moved them onto more expensive tarriffs without their knowledge.

That doesn\'t happen here. Someone called and the client said \"yes\".

And their true use - to cut people off when the load is too high -
seems
to be being revealed

No revelation here, we knew.

Their first step was to mandatorily insert a current limiter at the
entry box, with a lead seal for not tampering. But people tampered it,
with a \"jumper\". So the next move was smart meter with current limiter
included. End of customer fraud.

Digital things can be hacked.

If found one goes to prison.

If. Do you trust your neighbour?

The electricity companies do their own checking.

And you trust the justice system? Let\'s say you and your neighbour have a dispute over something. Your neighbour sneaks over to your house in the middle of the night and does something to your meter which acts in your favour (or in the case of a smart meter he could do it remotely). The electricity board and the court will probably say you\'re stealing electricity. At least with the old meters you could have a security camera.

And did the above folk you mention go to prison? In the UK the
punishment for meter fraud is having to pay it back!

At least a fine, which is order of magnitude higher than paying it back.

Not in the UK.

 

[John Larkin]

On Mon, 14 Nov 2022 13:38:59 +0100, \"Carlos E.R.\"
<robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2022-11-14 01:27, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Thu, 10 Nov 2022 12:07:43 -0000, SteveW <steve@walker-family.me.uk
wrote:

On 09/11/2022 00:14, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Tue, 08 Nov 2022 12:35:03 -0000, Max Demian <max_demian@bigfoot.com
wrote:

On 08/11/2022 01:22, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Mon, 07 Nov 2022 11:27:33 -0000, John Larkin
jlarkin@highlandsnipmetechnology.com> wrote:

We heat our kettle with gas. All that heat winds up in the house,
which usually needs it. An open flame is a more efficient heater than
a gas furnace; no heat is vented.

Even resistive heating is better than a furnace.  Except for gas being
cheaper for some reason.

I find it hard to believe that you don\'t realise that this is due to
the
Second Law of Thermodynamics.

I know why it happens, just not why people use a furnace with gas.  It\'s
a waste.

The highest efficiency gas fired power station is aroung 62% efficient.
Then there are 5% transmission losses.

A condensing gas boiler is over 90% efficient.

Then why don\'t they make the power station like the boiler?

Because the exhaust gasses can not be colder than the hot water output.

With a heat pump, they can. Imagine a boost converter.

 

[Peeler]

On Wed, 09 Nov 2022 22:52:22 +0100, Sjouke Burry, another brain dead,
troll-feeding, senile ASSHOLE, driveled:

120 degrees phase difference between the the phases.
quite a bit more than a \"bit\".

Another senile troll-feeding asshole who doesn\'t get what\'s going on here.
LOL

 

[Scott Lurndal]

Max Demian <max_demian@bigfoot.com> writes:

On 11/11/2022 17:35, Bob F wrote:
On 11/11/2022 3:14 AM, Max Demian wrote:
On 10/11/2022 22:52, Bob F wrote:
On 11/10/2022 4:07 AM, Max Demian wrote:
On 09/11/2022 00:21, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Tue, 08 Nov 2022 12:50:43 -0000, Max Demian
max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:
On 07/11/2022 23:56, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Mon, 07 Nov 2022 11:46:03 -0000, Max Demian
max_demian@bigfoot.com
wrote:
On 06/11/2022 19:49, Bob F wrote:
On 11/6/2022 9:53 AM, Max Demian wrote:

Actually my fridge freezer might as well not have one as it
rarely
turns off. Ice forms inside the fridge part and you can just
about
freeze vodka in an ice cube tray so it must be about -25C.

Have you considered adjusting it?

It\'s set to 1, which is next to off, so I assume that\'s the minimum
refrigeration.

Sounds like the thermostat is fucked, will your landlord replace it?

I don\'t know as it does still work as an FF. I\'m not too bothered
with
it as it is.

\"Ice forms in the fridge part\".  Refrigerated food is damaged when
frozen.  It\'s not fit for purpose.

It doesn\'t freeze the food, even milk. The ice is on the back of the
fridge part. There is a drain to get rid of water condensed there
but it freezes instead.


Is the defrost circuitry working?

It doesn\'t have one that I know of. How would I know?


Use the magic google. Model #, and \"defrost\" or \"defrost timer\" or
\"defrost heater\", or look at the parts list.

It doesn\'t have a label saying what make or model it is. Maybe at the
back, but I don\'t want to pull it out. Might stop working.

In almost all cases, you\'ll find a label with the model number
in the refrigerator section, generally on the hinge side of the
interior wall just inside the door.

 

[Carlos E.R.]

On 2022-11-12 22:48, Bob F wrote:

On 11/12/2022 12:06 PM, upsidedown@downunder.com wrote:
On Sat, 12 Nov 2022 14:58:57 -0000, \"Commander Kinsey\"
CK1@nospam.com> wrote:

On Thu, 10 Nov 2022 21:02:03 -0000, Mark Lloyd
not.email@all.invalid> wrote:

On 11/10/22 05:51, Max Demian wrote:

[snip]

I know why it happens, just not why people use a furnace with gas.
It\'s a waste.

Waste of what? If you heat with electricity heat is wasted in the
cooling towers of the power station .

and in transmission lines.

Power stations should be closer to houses.

If you have an unused swimming pool in the basement of your apartment
building, just throw in a small research reactor (100 kW to 1 MW) and
you have heating for the winter

I visited a swimming pool reactor on a field trip while in high school.
It was really something to stand on the side of this deep pool of very
clear water and see the glowing elements at the bottom, know what it was
causing the glow.

I\'m curious.

Do they have to add chemicals to the water, to keep it clear, no algae
or bacteria? Or simply the radiation keeps it \"clean\"?

--
Cheers, Carlos.

 

[Carlos E.R.]

On 2022-11-14 22:55, Commander Kinsey wrote:

On Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:49:59 -0000, John Larkin
jlarkin@highlandsnipmetechnology.com> wrote:

On Sat, 12 Nov 2022 14:51:23 -0000, \"Commander Kinsey\"
CK1@nospam.com> wrote:

On Thu, 10 Nov 2022 10:11:53 -0000, Carlos E.R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2022-11-10 02:39, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Wed, 09 Nov 2022 12:01:19 -0000, Carlos E.R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:


As I said, this is a modern country. Basically the whole of Spain is
using smart meters, changed maybe ten years ago. And I saw nothing in
media about them being faulty.

They\'re (form your point of view) pointless, and a possible source of
spying and control.  Why would you be happy with this?  They can turn
off your power at will!

Well, as I said, I no longer have to bother to open the door for the
meter man.

You don\'t anyway, what was he going to do if you were out?

Anyway, my meter is read about once every 5 years.

Water used to be unmetered at our cabin, but then they installed smart
meters. I got an email from TDPUD that they suspected a leak, based on
the usage pattern. They sent me graphs and we saw a constant low-level
flow when nobody was there. It was a leaking shutoff+drain valve.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lnq4lzds3ku5nko/Truckee_Leak.jpg?raw=1

The big plateau was the leak.

Realtime metering catches stuff like that.

Leaking water I don\'t care about, it\'s free, if it\'s big enough I see
water.

Not free here, and sometimes you do not see it.

> Leaking gas I smell.

Sometimes. Some thought like you, now they are dead.

> Shorting electricity I smell.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

 

[Carlos E.R.]

On 2022-11-14 23:00, Commander Kinsey wrote:

On Mon, 14 Nov 2022 12:43:05 -0000, Carlos E.R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2022-11-14 03:21, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Sat, 12 Nov 2022 20:00:51 -0000, Carlos E.R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2022-11-12 15:49, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Thu, 10 Nov 2022 12:42:09 -0000, Carlos E.R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2022-11-10 11:36, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/11/2022 10:11, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2022-11-10 02:39, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Wed, 09 Nov 2022 12:01:19 -0000, Carlos E.R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:


As I said, this is a modern country. Basically the whole of
Spain is
using smart meters, changed maybe ten years ago. And I saw
nothing in
media about them being faulty.

They\'re (form your point of view) pointless, and a possible
source of
spying and control.  Why would you be happy with this?  They can
turn
off your power at will!

Well, as I said, I no longer have to bother to open the door for
the
meter man.

They really work well, no problems detected, AFAIK.

There was no alternative. It was smart meter, or mandatory cut off.


They work really well here too. People are finding their smart
meters
have moved them onto more expensive tarriffs without their
knowledge.

That doesn\'t happen here. Someone called and the client said \"yes\".

And their true use - to cut people off when the load is too high -
seems
to be being revealed

No revelation here, we knew.

Their first step was to mandatorily insert a current limiter at the
entry box, with a lead seal for not tampering. But people tampered
it,
with a \"jumper\". So the next move was smart meter with current
limiter
included. End of customer fraud.

Digital things can be hacked.

If found one goes to prison.

If.  Do you trust your neighbour?

The electricity companies do their own checking.

And you trust the justice system?  Let\'s say you and your neighbour have
a dispute over something.  Your neighbour sneaks over to your house in
the middle of the night and does something to your meter which acts in
your favour (or in the case of a smart meter he could do it remotely).
The electricity board and the court will probably say you\'re stealing
electricity.  At least with the old meters you could have a security
camera.

If... if... if... all your ranting is useless and pointless here. Here,
you either have a smart meter, or no electricity. You can get mad at
them all you want. Argue all you want. Pointless, it is done and forgotten.

And did the above folk you mention go to prison?  In the UK the
punishment for meter fraud is having to pay it back!

At least a fine, which is order of magnitude higher than paying it back.

Not in the UK.

I do not live in the UK.


--
Cheers, Carlos.

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Fri, 11 Nov 2022 14:28:26 -0000, NY <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

\"Commander Kinsey\" <CK1@nospam.com> wrote in message
newsp.1vg2ddscmvhs6z@ryzen.home...
CO2 tends to cause increased respiration because the body\'s natural
reaction
is to try to breathe more in the hope of getting enough O2. It\'s why pure
O2
(or O2+N2 with no CO2) in scuba breathing apparatus is a bad thing: the
body
needs *some* CO2 to stimulate breathing.

I disagree. The CO2 appears from your activity. You will then be
stimulated to breathe as soon as you\'ve done some work.

And I\'m a scuba diver.

I\'m sure it does happen once you know about the symptom and know to start
moving around and exercising to produce CO2. But when it first happens you
tend to panic. I\'ve never scuba dived or used any other respirator/tank air
supply for real, but I had chance to be tested with reduced CO2 air (under
medical supervision!) as part of a demo of how the body responds. First
comes a bit of a headache and a desire to breathe more deeply and more
often, then a panicky \"I cant breathe\" feeling.

Your body wants to breathe when it has too much CO2 in it. Not enough would cause nothing to happen at all.

To much CO2 will lead to
unconsciousness but as I understand it, it is not poisonous as such, so a
few breaths of normal air is enough to revive a person.

Apparently people have died in their sleep from CO2 suddenly coming from a
nearby lake. I call bullshit. I\'ve woken up due to too much CO2, when
two of us slept in a car. I awoke breathing faster than normal, opened
the door for a few minutes, then went back to sleep.

Yes I\'d also have expected that the body would try to wake you up, rather
than \"letting\" you just die of oxygen deprivation.

Some people can fall asleep at the wheel, I\'ve never understood that either. I have to be lying down and comfortable in a quiet dark place. You\'re supposed to wake up at a sign of danger, it\'s instinctive.

CO is much more
dangerous than CO2 because removal of CO and breathing of normal O2 will
not
immediately make the haem give up the CO that is bound to it.

My parents had a scare about 20 years ago. They have a holiday cottage in
Yorkshire which is heated partly by a coke/wood stove. Some friends were
staying there and one of them woke up in the night feeling dizzy and
sick.
Luckily she was a nurse and recognised CO poisoning so she got everyone
out
and opened the windows. The stove flue had got partly blocked by a bird\'s
nest during the months that no-one was lighting fires. My parents felt
very
guilty and bought several CO detectors. They have also had a cowl fitted
which prevents birds getting in and nesting.

This is the 21st century, why are people still using such things? The
arsehole living behind me has a wood burning stove. He used to burn any
old wood from the skip in it. Until a few complaints to the council from
me caused them to tell him off, then make him raise the chimney, then move
the chimney to the other side of the house. Sweet revenge for complaining
about my parrot noise!

The house is a 200-year-old cottage. When we bought it, it only had an open
fire - and very rusty electric storage heaters. To begin with, we used a
bottled-gas fire, then got a wood/coke burning stove, and then had a
bottled-gas boiler and radiator central heating. The CH is more expensive to
run than burning wood or coke, so we try to manage with the stove as much as
possible, especially to provide long-term heating in the loving room for the
evening, using the CH just to boost the temp for when we get up or if we are
in a room other than the living room.

For some reason, my parents opted for propane rather than oil for
heating/hot water back in the 1980s, and when the original gas boiler
eventually needed replacing, they opted for another gas one rather than
switching to oil even though they knew how expensive gas was. Now my sister
is taking over the cottage (my parents are too elderly to manage the journey
up there and to cope with the change from \"normality\") I wonder if they will
decide to switch to oil when the present gas boiler eventually needs
replacing.

One of the cottages near ours only has a coal fire for heating: no central
heating at all. They had a chimney fire and their chimney was condemned by
the fire brigade until it had been swept and repaired, so they had no
heating (apart from a loaned paraffin heater) until \"the estate\" sorted it
out - which they did very quickly, given the lack of alternative heating.

Did the fire brigade stay in the house and make sure they didn\'t use it?

In our present house we have normal gas central heating, but there is a
large stove in which we burn wood and peat to heat that part of the house so
we can reduce the gas CH heating needed. Although we have to buy peat bricks
and sawdust bricks, we\'ve not needed to buy any logs for several years
because we are still using up tree branches from when we pruned trees, and
just as we were thinking that we\'d have no wood for the year after next, a
big tree blew down in a gale this summer so it will provide us with lots of
firewood - which reminds me, I need to cut some of the longer lengths into
stove-sized logs and work out how to split them diametrically. A proper
*sharp* axe is needed: the present one just embeds itself firmly in the log
and doesn\'t actually split the wood at all. Time to find someone with a
grinder to sharpen the axe! If we can heat the house \"for free\" with our
own wood, why pay for extra gas for the CH?

Gumtree/freecycle/freegle is great for getting unwanted wood (trees or planks) to burn.

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Sat, 12 Nov 2022 11:03:16 -0000, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 12/11/2022 10:46, Bev wrote:
On Sat, 12 Nov 2022 10:31:17 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 11/11/2022 17:41, Vir Campestris wrote:
On 11/11/2022 14:28, NY wrote:
I need to cut some of the longer lengths into stove-sized logs and
work out how to split them diametrically. A proper *sharp* axe

No - a wedge shaped maul
is
needed: the present one just embeds itself firmly in the log and
doesn\'t actually split the wood at all.

Sounds like a felling axe rather than a splitting one


I\'m told that for the logs you need a grenade. No, not a Mills bomb but

https://www.google.com/search?q=log+grenade


You need a splitting maul, which is an axe with a wedged head, or a
grenade, or a hydraulic log splitter.

Sharpness is not an asset, dimensions are.

Splitting gnarly logs is well nigh impossible

Easier to saw them

I mostly agree with all that TNP says but personally have not had a lot
of success with a grenade. Splitting maul works best for me or, for very
large diameter, rather than working my way around the edges I borrow a
tractor mounted splitter - they are *fun*

I got my younger friend who has more arteries and lungs to help me split
some big stuff.

Using a grenade and a big sledge and my occasional chainsaw input.

I had one huge log left over that i stuck on the fire last weekend to at
least start burning it, and went to bed with it barely smouldering. The
next morning it was just a pile of ash.

Why are you lot living in the last century? My dad (they have a small log fire which won\'t take large logs from some suppliers) bought one of these: https://www.logsplittersdirect.com/SpeeCo-LS401005-Log-Splitter/p5176.html

 

[Bob F]

On 11/16/2022 3:37 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:

On 2022-11-16 06:28, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Mon, 14 Nov 2022 12:46:08 -0000, Carlos E.R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2022-11-14 03:21, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Sat, 12 Nov 2022 20:04:42 -0000, Carlos E.R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:


Anyway, my meter is read about once every 5 years.

They really work well, no problems detected, AFAIK.

Have you measured it?  Switch off everything in your house, and
use all
your LED lighting at once.  Add up what they should be using, and see
what the meter thinks.  There have been reports LED lighting is
measured
at up to 5 times what it really is.

It is the same power as it was before, with the mechanical meter, or
less.

Maybe they fixed it after the big farce.  And of course there\'s still
this:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/smart-meter-warning-thousands-customers-28458788


Maybe there never was such a problem in Spain. We did things right from
the start.

There was never any need for smart meters.  What a waste (economically
and environmentally) making all that new equipment.


Obviously the people that held the purses did not think like you, thus
you are mistaken.

Kinsey knows everything better than anyone but trump. In their own
\"minds\", of course.

 

[Carlos E.R.]

On 2022-11-16 15:13, Commander Kinsey wrote:

On Wed, 16 Nov 2022 11:37:48 -0000, Carlos E.R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2022-11-16 06:28, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Mon, 14 Nov 2022 12:46:08 -0000, Carlos E.R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2022-11-14 03:21, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Sat, 12 Nov 2022 20:04:42 -0000, Carlos E.R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:


Anyway, my meter is read about once every 5 years.

They really work well, no problems detected, AFAIK.

Have you measured it?  Switch off everything in your house, and use
all
your LED lighting at once.  Add up what they should be using, and
see
what the meter thinks.  There have been reports LED lighting is
measured
at up to 5 times what it really is.

It is the same power as it was before, with the mechanical meter, or
less.

Maybe they fixed it after the big farce.  And of course there\'s still
this:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/smart-meter-warning-thousands-customers-28458788

Maybe there never was such a problem in Spain. We did things right from
the start.

There was never any need for smart meters.  What a waste (economically
and environmentally) making all that new equipment.


Obviously the people that held the purses did not think like you, thus
you are mistaken.

That\'s not why they made them.  It\'s environmental bullshit to encourage
us to use less power.  How ridiculous, we use what we want or need to,
until the bill is too high, then we use less.  Seeing it in realtime is
pointless.

It doesn\'t matter if you see it in realtime or not.

Here, the price per hour can be different, and one day to the next too.
That needs a smart meter that can meter that.

If you hate the idea, it is irrelevant.

If you somehow have an electromechanical meter, they will charge you the
highest price per hour of the month. No problem.


--
Cheers, Carlos.