Member postings for Samsaranda

Jay

You didn’t forget to get a Part P certificate included for your workshop did you, hopefully your Sparky included it in his estimate, authorities can be very pedantic about certifications. Dave W

We had a Honeywell wireless room stat which lasted about 8 years before giving up the ghost, it only used two sets of batteries in that time. We have a maintenance contract for the central heating system and when it broke they replaced it with a different make of room stat called Salus, it eats batteries about every six weeks, apparently a common problem according to comments on the internet, I can only presume it was supplied as a replacement because it was cheap, I would warn anyone to think twice about selecting that make if they are in the market for a replacement stat, it will cost a fortune in batteries. Dave W

I have always used citric acid, much safer than traditional hard acids, Sulphuric and Hydrochloric, the only downside it is slower acting but hey us modellers have plenty of time. Dave W

John Doe 2,

I am interested in how many solar panels you reckon it will take to power your compressor, I fear that your shed roof may not be large enough to accommodate them all. Dave W

My recent experience of Reeves castings are that they can be variable in quality, some cast iron ones that I have machined have areas that are so chilled and as such it’s like trying to machine glass, the gunmetal/bronze castings that I have tackled some have very hard outer skins which need cobalt drills to penetrate and inside the castings are voids some encroaching into finished areas. We have to realise that the casting process can have variable results depending on the foundry practices used by individual foundries and its never easy to produce very small castings consistently because of their size and the rapid rate at which they can cool being the source of problems. Model Engineering castings by virtue of their size could always be problematic and we have to accept there may be problems. Dave W

I will turn 76 this month, where has all the time gone, and have just had my fifth colonoscopy where more polyps were removed. I was informed that because they have found polyps on previous procedures then I am now to receive a colonoscopy every two years, I am glad that at the age I am then the NHS is concerned enough about my fate to continue providing the procedures for removing any subsequent polyps that manifest themselves in my bowel. Although sedated during the procedure I find it fascinating watching the travel of the scope through my nether regions and even more intriguing when polyps are captured and removed. Although the preparation for the colonoscopy is not very pleasant, that is emptying the bowel with vile preparations, the procedure itself is not painful and the staff in the theatre endeavour to not humiliate the patients. My two penny worth is if offered the test either screening or internal examination then have it, we are lucky to live in a society that provides free health care, there are many countries in the world where this is not so. Dave W

Possibly the grade of steel that you are trying to thread, do you know it’s specification? My choice would be a split die as solid dies are usually for tidying up or finishing a thread. Dave W

Yesterday afternoon partway through a difficult job realised that I was going to need some cobalt drills to get holes through the material I was using, went on the internet and placed an order with Rennie Tool Company for a pack of ten 4mm Cobalt drills, the time was 3.40 and their website stated orders placed before 3pm would be despatched the same day. I realised that I had missed the deadline so would probably have to wait two or three days for them to arrive. Lo and behold lunchtime today they arrived having been posted yesterday in Stockport using Royal Mail tracked 24 delivery, that was excellent service, I have no connection with Rennie tools but their service was first class. Dave W

In 1960 I lived on a farm in Devon for a number of months, used to help with the milking, fourteen cows morning and evening, it was a dream come true I was only thirteen at the time, Frances is right the taste and smell of milk that has come straight from the cow and through the cooler is very different from milk that has been processed in a dairy factory. Dave W

Currently a KWh of gas energy is a third the cost of a KWh of electric energy, so from now on a gas kettle gets my vote. Dave W

Carbon Tetrachloride is banned, it is deemed very carcinogenic, used to be used as a solvent and years ago many of us used it in industry. I wouldn’t like to give advice on how to dispose of the liquid as there are probably a multitude of regulations that cover it. Definitely not safe to ship with carriers. Dave W

Robin

Your comment about Economy7 may explain the price anomaly, I had wondered in the back of my mind whether it was something like that. It may also be that Shell Energy have been granted an exemption from the price cap because they state that all their energy is from sustainable sources, hard to believe that all the energy they sell to domestic customers is from sustainable sources, similar comments are made by other major suppliers, when you analyse where the energy is sourced there isn’t enough sustainable energy created to fulfill the amount of customers supposedly receiving it, another dubious marketing ploy! Dave W

Dave

My gripe is about paying 34p per unit when the published cap is 28p per unit, also Robin is paying over the odds, I am on a default tariff as my supplier only has default tariff and paying by monthly direct debit, the cheapest form of payment, they are not gambling with fixed price contracts until the market returns to some normality. Why is Shell Energy my supplier charging me 6p per unit more than the supposed published capped price as stated in Offgem documents.The vague statement in small print that regional differences exist should have no effect on the capped unit prices, regional variations have always been addressed by the daily standing charge which differs with suppliers all over the country. Their appears to be an inequality in the way that the price cap is applied if different energy companies can exceed the stated capped price. Dave W

Nigel

EDF supply about 70 % of Frances electricity from Nuclear power stations, the question I can’t understand is the cost of electricity on the world markets has increased dramatically because of the huge rise in gas prices, gas is now a major element of fossil fuel energy, EDF produces electricity from Nuclear how is the price of a unit of electricity produced from Nuclear affected by the world price of electricity produced using gas. The price of production from Nuclear should remain at a constant or near enough because it is unaffected by the rise in gas prices, EDF are whingeing that they are losing billions because the government has pegged the industry prices that can be charged, perhaps this and other circumstances surrounding EDFs operations is indicative of how poorly run the company is, and they are the company that will be providing the bulk of power from Nuclear in the UK, makes you think doesn’t it. Dave W

I act as treasurer for a club run by my wife, it is a group of mostly retired ladies who meet fortnightly for craft and social gatherings, the club has been meeting for 22 years and in that time has always banked with the same high street bank, their annual turnover is just over a thousand pounds. A couple of weeks ago I received a six page form to fill in asking stupid questions such as how much overseas trade we carry out and other equally ridiculous questions. The form also required all the present signatories to the account to provide evidence of identity which needed to be countersigned by a solicitor, evidence of identity was listed as passport or driving licence, how many retired people in their seventies and eighties still have valid driving licences or passports. All the signatories to the account had already proved their identities when they were initially appointed. The purpose of the form was to identify and tackle money laundering, my thoughts on this subject are why are the banks harassing retired persons clubs when they are daily handling millions of pounds of dirty money from the city of London. The form threatened that failure to comply with the requirements of the form would affect the continuation of the bank account, I filled in the areas of the form that I considered reasonable and left the rest blank, if they close the account then the club will resort to a tin box under the bed for holding any monies. It seems that banks are becoming more and more obstructive to ordinary customers. Dave W

Emgee

Many thanks for your response, it makes you wonder if the Regulator is carrying out his duties with due diligence if there are anomalies with pricing such as with my provider and that of Robin. Without total transparency we will never know the extent of the variations that obviously exist within the UK for a supposedly capped price for KWh of electricity. Dave W

Emgee

I have seen the OFFGEM Website but the price they currently quote which is 28p per KWh, which is some 6 p lower than the rate that I pay, and is quantified by a statement in small print underneath which states that the price may vary by region and method of paying. I pay by the most cost effective method which is by monthly direct debit, quoted as the cheapest method by suppliers, my complaint about the price cap and the way it is administered is that it is far from transparent if there are regional variations, surely if the price is capped then it should be a standard price per KWh throughout the country. The energy under the shambolic system that we have is purchased in accordance with prices on the international markets so easy to set a standard price for all UK consumers. Regional variations in pricing have always been catered for by the daily standing charge which is set by the energy companies depending on how costly the infrastructure is to bring the energy to the customer, the standing charge is always listed as a separate charge unconnected to the price per KWh. I feel that in the circumstances that prevail of now, with energy costs on an upward spiral then the Regulator and the energy companies need to quote a standard cap for unit prices, if they are unwilling to do this then they need to be totally transparent with prices, at the moment I feel that we the customers are being taken for a very expensive ride by not only the energy companies but also the regulator who just makes woolly statements such as an average family can expect to pay X pounds per annum, these are dire times, we need clear information from those that are supposedly managing this debacle. I will throw into the mix again a comment I made previously in this thread, Energy consumers in France have had the next rise in costs pegged at 4%, why are we being ripped off. Okay rant over. Dave W

Robin

Youre not alone in paying what appears to be a charge in excess of the perceived cap 28p/kWh, my current supplier, Shell Energy, charges me 34p for day rate and 18p for off peak, I have an Economy 7 tariff. I have tried to find a published figure of what the maximum charge per KWh is when energy is capped, all I find is the figure quoted for an annual charge that an average family could expect to pay. The maximum charge that a supplier can charge per KWh must be laid down somewhere but I haven’t been able to find it, the only reference to charges per KWh is on your bill from your supplier and nowhere does it state what is the maximum unit charge that can be charged. Has anybody been able to find the official maximum charge per unit that a supplier can charge? Dave W

Robin,

I doubt that you will get a sensible answer as to whether Smart meters will transmit from your cellars, the overriding issue for the energy industry is to fit as many meters as they can. The fitting of the meters is contracted out to a third party and all they will be interested in is payment for the installation, your energy supplier will only be interested in claiming another installation completed which goes towards building his stats of percentage of customers who have Smart meters fitted. From what you have described then Smart meters will not function in your cellars, the next step in the process will be relocation of your meters to a viable position, this of course will be at the customers expense because he requested the Smart meters, the process of Smart meter fitting is triggered by customer request. I am firmly against my meters being replaced with Smart meters, the process is expensive and in my view totally unnecessary, in the end the cost of this process falls on us the customers, recent events with the energy price cap show how shambolic our public utilities have become in the years since privatisation, latest French increase in electricity costs are pegged at 4%, food for thought. Dave W

My workshop is approx 18 x 7 and I used to have fluorescent tubes, I replaced these with 7 LED tubes, the light is now much easier to work with and a bonus is that the cold in winter doesn’t affect the light output as it did with fluorescents. Dave W