BXProject

[Philhod]

He'll be fitting chains next

[Way2go]

Man has had a lot less impact than the global governments would have us believe.
In short, it's all bollocks.
Ok, yes, without doubt we have had *some* impact, but the tiniest amount imaginable.
Global Warming was a myth, so they changed he name to Climate Change.

I watched that programme series "Catastrophe" narrated by "Baldrick" again last week. The interesting thing is the turbulent events from the formation of the Earth to now has been "time adjusted" to be 24Hours. Mankind therefore has only been about inside the last minute (Each minute equates to approx 3 million years) and although he/she arguably has generated plenty of polution, this is minor compared with prior natural or extra-terestrial events. How many minutes can we have anyway before a Super Volcano blows (like below Yellowstone) or we're hit by a NEO which statisticall happens every hundred years? If that NEO strike was a big one then most if not all of mankind will be eradicated by the aftermath before equilibrium returns. We are probably not looking at mankind being forever on the Earth as we know it anyway.
Probably the best policy for the majority is not to worry about it and enjoy it for as long as we can. Clearly in any major disaster plan this will only include the polititians and necessary support/service personnel being saved for later. Dr Strangelove fictional plans could well form the basis of this in terms of fact!

[Father Ted]

Probably the best policy for the majority is not to worry about it and enjoy it for as long as we can.

Yup, thats what I do - I recylcke because I dont like being needlessly wasteful if stuff can be reused and no t go to landfill, and I have shit loads of home insulation because £50 a month on heating and lectric is fucking expensive IMO. But apart from that I do tend to think, "fuck it". Believe me how many hydrocarbons a car throws out has never been an influencing factor in me buying one.

I wonder if we are heading towards regular power blackouts again though. One of the reasons I want to install a wind turbine and bank of batteries, but s***h Ribble Borough Bastards will hear nothing of that sort, if onlt to power a couple of lights and the central heating (pump, ignition cct and gas-valve are all 240v) in the event of a blackout. Currently I have a couple of 110ah leisure batteries and some photovoltaic panels, but its not ideal. I may also invest in a better inverter as the two I have are both modified sine wave and cfl lamps dont seem to like them.

[Fish_Botherer]

Could have sworn there was even more alleged bollox when I posted what's above - unless I've been deemed far too long-winded & snipped (ooh, the pain... but I won't need the bromide any more).

As it happens, I'm very prepared to take the sceptical line on global warming - and definitely when it's presented as a marketing opportunity and yet another excuse to tell the general population what's "really" good for them and how they should behave.

The sea actually recycles shit with consumate ease

Plenty of excellent fishing marks used to be be near old-style sewer outfalls. Apart from the really small marine life, shrimps seem to be particularly good at that kind of recycling - they gather in places like that in great numbers and hey-presto, before you know it there's a food-chain thing going on, though the chemical side of things is a different matter.

One of the reasons I want to install a wind turbine...

Someone I know bought what appeared to be a home-made wind-generator from a slightly dubious and untraceable source recently on the off-chance it might be modifiable to his needs, only to find it contained a completely unmodified mains-power motor inside....

[Way2go]

Someone I know bought what appeared to be a home-made wind-generator from a slightly dubious and untraceable source recently on the off-chance it might be modifiable to his needs, only to find it contained a completely unmodified mains-power motor inside....

Tom?

[Philhod]

That Grand Designs programme showed a geo heat thingy that looked good. A pump bringsheat up from below ground, runs the whole central heating system for the price of the leky for the pump.
He was looking to fit solar panels the size of his roof for free leky

Now I'm no environmentalist but I sure agree with free stuff

[Vanny]

is it free stuff or resource management? I'm none too bothered about the environment ending, its unlikely to happen in my life.

But resource running low, population over crowding, greed, prices through the roof, thats already happening and only likely to get worse unless something significant changes in the near future.

[Philhod]

That's what he was saying more or less. The price of solar panels has apparently dropped by 1/2 over the last 5 yearsbut whether that is due to increased production or improved technology, he didn't say.
I must sat replacing my welsh slate with cool panels would be an improvement

[Vanny]

cheaper production, they make the panels out of lesser quality solar cells, 1/3 of the price, half the energy derived, but then they double them up (ie put two layers together). It also helps in the UK as the higher quality panels only work properly in high solar levels, and we dont get much of that!

[Father Ted]

The ground source heating is something i have considered, but yu need a lot of land to bury the pipes, and whilst I have a fair amount f land its riddled with underground drains, cables and pipes already. But for about £3K then your yearly bill for running the pump its not bad at all. Similarly the new breed of air con units can be rigged to work the same way, so turning them into a heater in winter.

What I need is a mahosive plot of land. I wonder if the council would let me bury pipes on their field at the back of me???

[Philhod]

If they say no......then start to bury councilors instead. The amount of gas and hot air they produce will probably suffice anyway

[Way2go]

Too true! If you could only tap that!

[Fish_Botherer]

Someone I know bought what appeared to be a home-made wind-generator from a slightly dubious and untraceable source recently on the off-chance it might be modifiable to his needs, only to find it contained a completely unmodified mains-power motor inside....

Tom?

Strangely enough........... no and no. Someone I know who drives a BX on the moon may find a use for it to generate lunar wind.

[Father Ted]

?
You speak in riddles mr Fish Botherer.
I do know its possible to modify a car alternator to use as a generator for a wind turbine, but it is a lot of arsing about really and TBH it would be better to buy a ready made one from B&Q who flog them for £1500 a throw...
Just been looking at new gravity fed boilers as the one at my mothers has started to throw a wobbly and is over heating the water - I cant get a thermostat for it anywhere (its a 30 year old GloWorm). And apparently I cant buy a gravity fed boiler now, some shite about them not being energy efficient and what not it has to be replaced by a bloody combi or condensing boiler with fullt pumped system. What a crock of shit. I know primatic tanks are difficutlt to get hold of, but this is silly.

Any plumbers in our midst can shatter t his nasty rumour?

[Father Ted]

Oh hang on.. Moon reference - who went rummaging around NASA recently looking ta the Apollo things...

[Vanny]

Its not a rumour, like regular light bulbs storage/gravity fed boilers have been banned for quite some time. Why anyone would want one is beyond me, the only bad point of having a decent boiler is having to face the old water tanks every time you go in the loft!

That said i spanner for a plumber semi often, he might be able to get a replacement unit, off the back of a lorry, in liverpool.

Its pretty bloody easy to swap to a condesing though. Close some tanks off, link input and output on others, enjoy full mains pressure.

[Vanny]

Right, have spoken to my mate Pete the Plumber.

Two answers, firstly dos the system have a back boiler? If not then its probably not a gravity fed boiler. I must admit i had the wrong idea, gravity fed is not a system with water tanks in the loft.

Second answer, yes all boilers are now 'efficient' but a boiler is a boiler, very few are actually tank or mains fed but simply piped up to do which ever is required.

Oh if you have a pump in the system (either side) then its not gravity feed.

[Philhod]

The change over is not that straight forward, I did mine 3 years ago.

Technically you are not allowed to fit a normal heat exchanger boiler, only a condensing one as a minimum.
There are some still available though and are considerably cheaper.

The new boilers are very much more efficient and can save you 50% on your bills if programmed correctly.
The older type boiler used a 4 pipe system, 2 pipes up and return to the coil in your hot water tank and 2, feed and return to your central heating manifolds, this latter being a pumped system.
The other part is sometimes erroniously described as gravity feed, it's actually expansion fed.
The 2 pipes are fed direct into and out of the top and btm of the boiler, as the water gets hot it travels up the pipe, falls through the coil and back in the boiler.
Venting for overheat in the normal way.
The other 2 are fed by the pump on demand from the thermostat (s)
On a condensing boiler there are only two outlets, which means that your existing HW pipes have to be cut off somewhere and cross over pipes fitted to join them to your existing CH pipes. the system is now fully pumped but now needs a diverter switch fitting to share the demand from HW tank stat and room/rad stats.
More modern control boxes are also more accurate and worth fitting whie you are at it.
No info on this as I had to get an electricker to do it

[Father Ted]

The older type boiler used a 4 pipe system, 2 pipes up and return to the coil in your hot water tank and 2, feed and return to your central heating manifolds, this latter being a pumped system.
The other part is sometimes erroneously described as gravity feed, it's actually expansion fed.
The 2 pipes are fed direct into and out of the top and bottom of the boiler, as the water gets hot it travels up the pipe, falls through the coil and back in the boiler.
Venting for overheat in the normal way.

^^^WHS.
Both mine and the mothers system is like this. With teh added complexity of being run entirely by thermostats running through a crude solid state "Nor" gate device - if either the room stats or cylinder stat call for heat the boiler fires up and serves that untill the stat says its happy and clicks out. The upshot is that the heating system pretty much constantly cycles, mostly for hot water - now that may sound wasteful but is in fact fairly economical by keeping the house at a constant 16 degrees and topping up when needed, and the hot water at 55 degrees uses about £25/pm of gas - which for five of us isnt bad. The hating system has only the pump really and a relay to worry about and last time I had the front off to clean it out there was barely anything inside crud and soot wise.

I just keep hearing reliability issues with modern combi boilers and even the neighbours 4 year old example has broken down - my 14 year old Baxi has not broken down once. Fine, I might have a tank in the loft feeding the primatic tank, but again there is very little maintenance needed for it.

[Philhod]

Err yes they are all worked by stats???
The Combi boiler is another animal altogether, but fitting one of these means you have to fit a new incoming gas feed of at least 20mm, preferably 25. The reason is, the gas is force fed by fan and with a smaller feed (mines only 16mm) if you had say a gas cooker lit and the fan cut in, it would suck the light out on the cooker, then let unlit gas back on when it stopped.
I've not had any adverse reports with regard to reliability on these, but they are only slightly more efficient that condensers and a lot dearer. My old Baxi heat exchanger lasted 29 yrs, 3 pumps and 2 thermocouples.
My new condensing Glow worm is now over 3 years old, no issues.