@sawboman
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Is a surface run even allowed in a bathroom? I thought that all cables had to be buried and untouchable. The rules are full of IP ratings, isolation, remote switches and the like. The isolator is apparently supposed to be outside of the room according to the apparently current rules, (which were different in 1992) or so it appears. Dealing with the current rules is a game for those really in the know, no one else should try to play.
Dave, I can only agree that for you the capability is all positive and I envy your being able to take such trips, though my destinations of choice might well be different. I checked my google plots of movements. Back and forth to the tip, the supermarket, the doctor, the pharmacy and even a slightly miss placed plot of a walk to a post box, boy that was exciting as a different walk. The rest of the time it did not move anywhere.
I hope that those who worry about mobile phone tracking never use a cash card, credit card, mail order or for that matter a bank either as all are tracked and mined actively for a chance to work out your social background, tastes, desires, wants or what can be sold to you – or if you are spending more than your declared means suggests you should. Probably best not to have a TV or an entertainment account with anyone either.
Oh and forget using a car as ANPR and video observation is everywhere these days, though possibly not when it is most needed. Encoded public transport tickets are another tracking risk, better avoid them and walk everywhere. Also avoid social media as that is a happy hunting ground for so inclined trolls and sundry malcontents. Few if any of whom have any connection to the two, three or four letter spy agency acronyms, though they can be far more vicious and unpleasant.
Above all enjoy your trip Dave but do not make me too envious by reporting too great a time, Google already tells me what I am missing!
To put it in electrical terms, plenty of voltage but low current
One company had a graphical demonstration of that, with nothing turned on the pressure was impressive, use a tap or water cistern and the pressure dropped as near as dam-it to zero, yet the flow at that ground level was still impressive.
The sort of shower it appears you are proposing is a flash heater sort which often uses only the cold water supply. If the flow on that is already poor the results of a shower pack will also be poor to worse. You should not normally use a boost pump (combined hot and cold feed) type of shower with a combie boiler type set up.
Most shower pumps are only suitable for use on a system with header tanks and need something like a 6 foot head supplying them, (see their detailed specifications). Ideally the cold water supply should come as a direct feed from the cold header tank and the hot water pipe should not normally feed other devices in other rooms. Otherwise you will get weak flow at the best and all sorts of problems at the worst, e.g. dangerous performance with the risk of scalding or chilling thermal shock, or both.
In most locations fitting a boost pump directly to the incoming water supply is a no-no as it can result in reduced pressure, or negative pressure on the mains which will allow crap, i.e. contaminated water to be drawn in. Get caught and you will be big trouble.
Normally the incoming supply should feed a low level tank with ball valves and suitable water standards approved fittings and the boosted supply is then pumped from the low level tank to the high level one. This needs suitable electrical installation, it is fairly straight forward but must comply with the water and electrical regulations for the area. Water regulations my stipulate a direct cold water feed for drinking water and possible for one WC; non return valves may also be needed, e.g. on garden taps, water softeners, and so on.
The theory of the header tank is that it can fill slowly when water is available and then meet the pulse of your demand when needed. It can then fill up more slowly once more as the level drops.
Watch out for specific rules regarding the use of booster as they might be banned in some locations because they can affect overall water demand.
Like Bob we have a very high mains pressure, about 5 times the rated pressure and sometimes higher for some devices so we needed a pressure reducer valve to stop items blowing leaks.
After a sinus infection leading to a lung infection I was almost frog marched by a consultant to the pharmacy to use the products from http://www.neilmed.com/uk/video.php I have used the squeeze bottle over the sink for the past 18 months or more, easy and mess free. It really helps, I certainly know if I miss a session. I do use their pre-made pack of minerals, which can work out a bit pricey. I guess you get what you pay for.
Dave, I have an apology to make, Peter Field from the Building Research Establishment (BRE) reported to MPs that the EN 13501 EU standard was woefully inadequate in 2000 not in 2005. So at least some knew that the EU standard, which automatically became the law of the UK was hopelessly flawed a long time ago. I will watch the effects of a unilateral move to introduce their own rules by the French with renewed interest. I was reminded by an ex-colleague this afternoon that EU procurement rules affect contracts. These rules could have been used against me while I was working, had I specified standards higher than the EU ones. Non compliant contractors could sue for unfair exclusion and tailoring the specification to exclude them. In fact one North American maker did try this route informally via a director when they could not meet contract specification requirements, but as it affected an essential requirement for inter operation they were successfully rebuffed.
I was waiting for the EU to be blamed. Oh, you managed to get a swipe in at Labour too. What about all the responsible politicians since then too? It doesn’t seem to have stopped the French “In France, in the high-rise towers like Grenfell, we can only use non-flammable materials – they don’t burn, they don’t catch fire.” and they’re now reducing that to 28 metres and expecting to do that within weeks. http://news.sky.com/story/france-plans-new-cladding-law-after-grenfell-fire-disaster-10930623 “Following the fire, French housing association LMH removed the flammable cladding from other towers despite not being compelled by law at the time to do so. Damien Guth, the group’s technical director, said: “What we noticed, as well as experts, is that the plastic core inside the cladding was responsible for the rapid spread of fire. “This is what prompted us to replace the cladding on our tower blocks to avoid risk.” The company said it was a matter of ethics.” Why is France capable of spotting the bloody obvious and doing something about it, yet all we do is call for another inquiry that will take years? When we get to the bottom of this, if we ever do, it will be a home grown disaster of our own making. I may not have Drezha’s training but it seems obvious to me that cladding a building in flammable material cannot be a good idea.
A bit of a dog’s breakfast there. Please indicate how the French ensure that a domestic law can survive a legal challenge from any Tom Dick of Harry that the rules are above the EU requirements which trump national rules.
There is nothing to stop anyone or any company from exceeding the minimum standards, but changing the law is a different matter. Perhaps the french will do what they usually do and ignore any bit of the EU they do not like, even though they signed up to the rules currently in place.
I noted that it is a proposed law which they hope to pass in the future so pure puff, we should perhaps adopt the relevant BS standard the BRE developed in about 2005 (with any relevant updates such as sprinklers), for all current and new buildings, but it did give the French another chance of a cheap shot, no surprise there then.
Perhaps we should now review other failed old laws like the Human Wrongs Act and the European Court, (clowns) of Injustice ones; the money saved on legal costs and subsidies to terrorists might pay of all the updates we agree are needed, any takers
I have just seen a report of what appears to be a solar panel induced fire in London, http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/blaze-rips-through-roof-of-million-pound-london-flats-as-picture-shows-solar-panels-on-fire/ar-BBDzAxy?li=BBoPWjQ&ocid=iehp
I wonder what was behind this latest fiasco?
Facebook I find is a place of perpetual depression. People only show the good bits of their life, so others get a bit jealous, and then show their “perfect” life back. So the first is a bit jealous of the second, and the second jealousy of the first. And so the cycle goes, for literally billions of people. Basically everyone is looking at the “greener field”, that doesn’t exist.
Steve, that is all too often my wife’s view of human nature and mine as well, experience can be a harsh teacher. My wife has also taken to blocking those whose dedication is to highlighting the mistreatment of others. She has no interest in mistreatment videos so the posters are banned.
Richard, FB is not the ogre you think, it is the way it is used by people who have too much time and either too little, or too much, imagination, with too little intelligence. If I am bothered by someone, I just block them. The friends and family I contact, are all fine. I did have had occasion to block 2 (not close) family members and they no longer throw foul language and evil gossip around on my page. Without FB, I would not be in touch with my nieces and nephews, giving me news of their doings and their welfare, from all over the world. I am constantly amazed and often delighted at the results from the marriage of my parents in 1926. They would be just as amazed.
I can easily go along with what you said, remember I objected to the faceplant bunch, FB is simply a platform that can be used in good ways or in less salubrious ways. My wife sometimes uses it but get complaints from a relation who thinks she should totally change her life to suit the relation’s view of the world. Having her own mind and shedload of issues to handle she does not agree… Somehow posting views of hospital visits and the like does not suit my wife’s view of great things to post. Since she is largely house bound these days the chance to take other images is very limited. Our attempt at ‘family meal’ was a total disaster due to ‘issues which arose before the three of us arrived’ when daughter had another melt down. Taking and posting photographs would not have improved that ‘ambiance’!
I said that everyone has a hand in the mud pie. I also said that it is a total top to bottom mess that stretches back into the 1990s, possibly beyond that.
Frankly putting greenwash above all else has been plain stupid. Safety in all its forms has to come top of the damned list. I have had concerns about flammable covering ever since I first saw it on low rise buildings, nailed on with a cement rendered covering. I could never see how that would not end in disaster, my first expectation would be for the render to spall off and the inside to burn, compounding the problems.
Yes, someone should have taken the initiative, including sprinklers and fireproof cladding and all the other things that enquiry will show have been allowed to slip. However, defending the probably civil service error that allowed the standards to slip down as far as they have was not the error or one party it was the whole ruddy shooting match. It is time to shoot the greenwash fox, (hunt it if you must).
Sorry Dave to upset you by a reference to that previous government but in the current feverish highly selectively blame game being played out now, seeking to defend Prescot’s ministry’s actions in regard to the EU’s low standard was a pretty low level for which to aim. Selective blame throwing is the preserve of cheap political charlatans. Or are you suggesting that previous cockups should be excused because they are the bunch you prefer?
While I am on the subject, would I like to see more fire people ‘on the front line? No I would certainly not, the total number of fires has fallen a long way, but the technical issues arising from the fires that do happen have greatly increased as new materials are used, (miss-used?).
However, I would like to see skilled and fully qualified fire prevention officers, armed with powers to enter a building at any time and carry out legally mandated searches for bad practice with a ‘force of law ability’ to enforce change. Clearly , this is most cost effective at the build stage, (including any retrofit), but given the mess that everyone has allowed to develop ever since the carp was built we need to start somewhere
However, before that can ever start to happen can someone please set an absolute standard by which things are measured.
I was given a golden rule when reviewing specifications, which in part and relying on distant partial memory ‘tests must be to standards already defined and any and all tests must be as on the as installed setup and be fully repeatable with the same out turn every time. That did not leave much time or space for a highly subjective interpretation – some suppliers did try to object.
I side with the person who said that with every test now failing it is time to stop testing, and start and stripping. So you see on that point Dave we are in agreement.
However that still leaves the issue of establishing what standard should be applied, completely incombustible might be a good place to start, nothing lower. However, I repeat, before you can specify a standard to use, the standard must exist.
Maybe Drezha will be in a position to comment on one aspect of the standards. I understand that the existing fire standard, EN 13501, requires only a “single burn” laboratory test of each separate material used in “cladding” operations. The BRE has long considered this to be somewhat lacking; what was needed, was a much more realistic test of how all the materials involved might behave when installed together. With Grenfell the problem is suspected to be a combination of the 6in of combustible Celotex plastic foam insulation behind the facing, sat with a void behind it which, once the plastic was set alight by the fire from a flat, created an updraught. The BRE had a new British standard, BS 8414, they considered should replace EN1305, but EN1305 had come from the EU, making it mandatory. Thus any new British standard could only be a voluntary (and more expensive) over the top option.
Our minister who should have gone to Brussels to press for a much more effective EU standard along British lines was John Prescott. However, the department was more focused on new regulations to improve insulation required under the EU’s Energy Performance of Buildings directive. The need to deal with fire risk seems not to have climbed far up the scale.
The makers of Celotex appear to claim that its “product” does comply with that British standard, BS 8414. Its website gives details of its self-certified test, but did that self test match the context in which the product was installed at Grenfell Tower? I understand that the brochure emphasises that its test is valid only when it is compatible with the “end-use system”. As far as I can see the BRE point was that only the combined package as installed against building, with framing and cladding should form part of the BS8414 testing and validation, but that was not mandated under the EU’s EN1305 .
There are other hints of short falls in work standards possibly over such as fire stopping, fire doors, gas works and electrical installations at Camden, (also possibly other locations) and these may have prompted the call for mass evacuations in Camden.
While building standards for high rise buildings do now require sprinklers, there was a limited or possibly no pressure for them to be retro-fitted. While environmental performance issues will dog planning applications for building changes as Ed said, so far as I know, apart from a few rules on staircases, fire safety issues are not considered a major planning issue. While some of the so called ‘environmental improvements’ may have a payback period that could or will exceed the projected life span of the materials used or building itself. A sprinkler system, with little or no environmental impact other than saving lives, waste, materials and, yes cash is less sexy and has been actively resisted in some cases. I know one person in the States who opted for a bunch of fire extinguishers for the same marginal cost, rather than sprinklers as his state did not (yet) mandate such systems.
Incidentally, fire resistant materials such as domestic doors and plaster board give rather less protection than many suppose and are only intended to give a few more minutes of ‘escape time’ after a fire alarm sounds.
Yes, the Faceplant generation welded to their false image ‘so it must be right ideas’ are doing great harm to antisocial attitudes. I see one dumbo killed her ‘boyfriend’ because a book would stop the bullet. No dumbo, but reading the book thing not faceplant might have been a better idea.
The dangers for your granddaughter are peer pressure and bullying. In the wrong environment school children can be little horrors in trying to cut down other children they perceive as ‘tall poppies’. Your daughter needs to be very sensitive to any signs of bullying. A change in school may be needed! [edit] It is much easier to address with boys. When my eldest son joined school in the US he was about two years ahead of his year group (better UK education!), and was perceived as a ‘Nerd’ and ripe for bullying, but he is also very sporty (had his red belt in Karate, and excelled at ‘soccer’) so he also passed as a ‘Jock’ and definitely not ‘bully-bait’.
Yes Ed I am well aware of the deterioration in social behaviour. When I started school rationing was still in sway and the ‘less advantaged’ were considerably more ‘disadvantaged’ than most now. I still ache and cringe inside at the sight of class mate 5 and 6 year old girls doing exercise classes in gym knickers that were clearly hand-me-downs. (it was a catholic school) and had more holes than fabric. Yet, I do not remember any sense of class war, or some objecting to those who were brighter or had some other difference.Perhaps these days one should seek a school that has mainly Indian and Chinese children, rather than the dross which afflicts so many of our schools.
I really wonder why the cult of stupid thug ignorance has been allowed to grow and thrive in so many areas of life.
Parental attitudes have a huge impact on children being able to use their abilities to the full. Modern research now shows that educational achievements only have about a 30% dependency on their genetic make-up, the remaining 70% is completely shaped by the child’s environment. Diet and health are reasonably large factors in this, but parental attitudes and educational participation by the parents have by far the larger influence. I guess some of this is probably a post-code lottery. but I have just witnessed one of my grandchildren progressing through the Play School period into the first years of proper schooling. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of materials given to the parents which if properly used could result in the child starting school with a fairly sound idea of both reading and numeracy. Obviously those parents who are too busy/tired after working all day have to find a ‘second wind’ to do all this, but the primary school teachers say that there is a visible educational gap between those who do and those who do not take this time to encourage and support their children.
Ed, I pretty much agree with you except that in my granddaughter’s school’s case most of the other mothers did not work and had no interest in school as other than as a warehouse for their kids, in short it was less ‘I don’t care’ and more ‘stop expecting anything from us’. Our daughter, who had been surprised at what the school wanted to achieve and how they prepared to work for it, is now wondering if the school’s support will be enough to overcome the negative influence of such parents. Her daughter can already read simple text, write a little, count and has a basic grasp of numbers.
He has had that one. Or one like it The £10 tesco nokia. He has old eyes, old ears, and a touch of white finger from his days in the pit. What he does need is that oap centric phone that has huge buttons and does phone and text, but he would be highly insulted if I handed him that. He is a keen MMA and boxing enthusiast, so I can’t insult him to much. He may be old, but still fit, ran marathons for year, and an ex Reme, the tho old guy has still has a bit about him. He is also one of the few people with wider shoulders than me. Like me he is almost as wide as tall. I hear the 3310 is just one of the cheap Nokias in a new frock. So I may be wasting my money on that too.
Steve, He clearly needs something he can buy into and find to his tastes. Is there anyway he can review things on offer for himself and at least guide anyone who helps him? Buying blind and giving something is never going to rate highly. I wonder if perhaps dealing with any underlying issues, e.g. an eye issue via better glasses could be a starting point? If he has hand trouble, (been there done that; different cause and different solutions) asking him what would make life easier might be a way to ease him into a more tailored solution that he could/would accept since he would have bought in along the way. For example, I use a ‘touch wand’ or pointer thing on the phone as it ignores my fingers much of the time.
That is a better deal, Richard. I have the £9.98 deal I mentioned, but my missus does not/will not email or use a browser from her phone, therefore does not have a data deal. And still on Pay as you go, probably pays out about as much on average as I do. This week, though, I am using the phone more, as I am ferrying about my dyslexic 18 yo grandson. He is at the point of almost getting another year at college and another two courses. <snipped>. I love him to bits.
Bob, first an admission, a typo in the price for three mobiles, it should have been less than £29, (i.e. a £9+ deal for each) I hit the ‘0’ not ‘9’, oops. All have some data allowance, but my wife having seen the complexity of both our daughters Samsung and my Moto has vowed, Never! The finality of that can be inferred.
I envy your Grandson’s position in life, I have seen many like him progress through life driven by just that strong attitude, it helped our eldest gain her degree and professional qualification. In contrast our younger daughter has had a continuing melt down period. A new neighbour had a house warming last weekend my wife went along to have a break while I did ‘watch-keeping’, things have continued at a low ebb since.
On Thursday our elder daughter took her 4 year old to see her soon to be ‘big school’. Our daughter, was shocked at the lack of interest in their child’s education shown by the other mothers. Many had never worked and no one else had any interest in their offspring getting any sort of qualification by the end of their schooling, what a contrast which makes your grandson’s drive really ‘glow’ in the most positive way.
Bob, it is not a bad deal, I made some changes so now have three phones for less than £20 per month and broadband with phone service for less than £30. This is > £50 less than I was paying before for the package. Since I have had the phone my chance to use the data has been next to zero, either chasing from pillar to post or dealing with another (human) breakdown often both. I had hoped for better things, but hope always dies with me. I get the bonus data as I started the new package off so was bumped from 500Mb to 5.5Gb. Currently the phone is pretty locked down to stop carrier tricks over downloads. So it is a lifestyle thing, I would love to have the time to just wander about, e.g sight seeing or the like but it is not to be. I do find web shopping on a mobile very hard work due to the screen size, a 23 inch monitor is a little better…
Steve, please let’s keep civil. I responded to your suggestion that shed loads of data being moved meant that my phone was being tracked. I am well aware that cell site and other data is available on the network, I worked with such data (and others) years back, but it would not require access to the mobile set. Frankly that is a ‘do not care’ item for me. Spend money via almost anything except cash and the same thing applies, it can and probably will be tracked back to you but who cares?
Perhaps rashly I had assumed that knowledgeable mobile users might know the solution to the Android <> BT issue. However an explanation came from other contacts saying that frankly the Google implementation of BT leaves a bit to be desired – it was not one of their priorities. I now know from web searches that it is an issue with almost every make of mobile, not just Moto, Sony, LR and others.
As for the BT devices I have two that I use; I am not sure about the headset which is old. It works fine when kept away from the car. The car based one is recent, the same as the ‘phone (4.1 I believe). I tend not to use that car for local journeys to the supermarket, tip or to shopping or hospital car parks> The car BT is not much use the moment I step out of the car…
In short the modern ‘mobile’ can be more like a hammer when I need a drill, so currently it has reduced usefulness to me. I will investigate the use and availability of a wired headphone, it may be more reliable.
The Moto 4g play os a very decent device. About on par, maybe a little better than bobs swift, he loves so much. So I’d say it’s probably user error, rather than dumb software engineers If you haven’t got many apps installed Richard, which you shouldn’t as you don’t use it, it should use anywhere near 1gb in monthly updates A major os update will take 1+ gb but that is once a year, and the monthly security patches are usually 35mb. (give or take). I’d look very closely to what that phone is doing. It may know you don’t like it and is sending all your ambiant data back to its creators in China. We have 3 moto g4, the one above that you have Richard , and one below what daves daughter has, there is about £40 between the 3 devices, all are decent devices. Your Bluetooth /speaker issue can be fixed in the main settings, it asks you if you want the BT mic to over rule the loud speaker, or somthing to that effect As I only use BT buds these days I set it all to yes. I’m yet to have an issue. The issue I do get, is my ear buds will be connected, as I set them to auto conect. But don’t have my Earphones in, so I say hello with the hone to my ear, before realising I need to toggle the earpiece setting, to override BT. You can do the same for speaker to. The quick buttons are on the call screen. Fantastic what these coders think of. Maybe your first reaction shouldn’t be to jump straight to belittling people when you can’t operate something, or have no intention of learning to do so. It’s not the other persons fault your ignorance of the product, and lack of will to learn it. Most of the times, you moan about your phones, the answers are simple. A hell of a lot more simple than say windows, and you learnt early versions of that. Probably even earlier computing crap too. Much easier to get your emails on a phone or tablet, even if it just to triage them. Also in this day and age, if you deal in emails, you need to have instant access to it, as it is used today like a sms service, between business, more and more.
Steve, I can see that there are lifestyle issues in play. I understand that some want 24 hour connectivity. For me there is no substitute for voice calls, via the house phone, as mobile is usually crap at home.
Frequently I cannot dig a phone out to look at what it might show; when I need hands free it is because I do not have both hands and eyeballs available to deal with a mobile. I am not alone in having a problem with using Bluetooth for call origination during or after travelling in a car. Over the past three months I have trawled the web for answers; no one has been able to solve the riddle of why it will start off the call correctly. I speak via Bluetooth and say, e.g. ‘OK Google call Fred’, it responds via Bluetooth with ‘Call Fred on loudspeaker, why? I need hands free because I am driving or otherwise busy and don’t have spare hands available and cannot look at it either. It is sat in a pocket, probably under an item of clothing.
When it has not been near the car, the hands free is more predictable. Why not all the time? Nokia did it years ago but in 2017 it is not possible?
Diverting email from several different accounts to a phone may be useful to many but gives me no gain, the PC sorts them anyway. There is no way to do that hands free on a phone…
The answer is that whatever clever programming has given to you and yours with their lifestyle, the flexibility you benefit from does not extend to me with my odd and perhaps peculiar (to the programmers) usage patterns.
ps If my usage and movement patterns are being reported to anyone (a) they would not take 1kb of data and (b) blink and they would miss the devious details (none).
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