The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[rafletcher]

Blimey thoubut, motor insurance seems to have gone up. The meerkat is returning quotes that are in line with the 33% hike in my renewal notice.

Yep, mine was well up this year across the board. My wife’s, however, I got for the same price, with a different provider.

[andrewc]

As said elsewhere I've not owned a car for over 23 years.    I've just run an imaginary quote through Swinton using a car pulled from Autotrader. 


£1688 based on a 2009 Nissan Note priced at £2,265.  That's fully comp with my sister as a named driver.  TPFT was considerably more ! 

[rafletcher]

TPFT is only for the feckless poor, hence being more that comp.  £1700 isn’t bad with no NCD and no insurance history.

[Diver300]

UK wiring (old):

BLACK: Neutral
RED: Live1
YELLOW: Live2
BLUE: Live3
GREEN/YELLOW: Earth


UK Wiring (new, EU-harmonised):

BLUE: Neutral
BROWN: Live1
BLACK: Live2
GREY: Live3
GREEN/YELLOW: Earth


Leftpondians:
WHITE: Neutral
BLACK: Live1
RED: Live2
BLUE: Live3
GREEN: Earth


Any sane car:
BLACK: Chassis ground (battery negative)
RED: Battery positive
YELLOW: Positive when ignition on


Vauxhall:
BROWN: Chassis ground (battery negative)
BLACK: Battery positive
I've recycled the neurons after that, but by that point you're swearing in German and buzzing things out with a multimeter anyway.


(This list is not exhaustive, and it's the official colours, not Kim-vision)

In the doors of some cars:-
Black:- ground
Black:- battery +ve
Black:- anything else

supposedly for security.

The "black = security" breaks down when the obviously added on as an afterthought pair of black wires can be easily traced.

[Diver300]

We are three phase here in this house in Germany but I can’t say I notice anything special.

The VW e-UP! will only charge at 3.6 kW instead of the rated 7.2 kW because we've had to cheek to charge it not in ze fatherland on single phase electricity.

It only uses 2 of the 3 phases and will charge on 3.6 kW on each.

[Feanor]

The VW e-UP! will only charge at 3.6 kW instead of the rated 7.2 kW because we've had to cheek to charge it not in ze fatherland on single phase electricity.
It only uses 2 of the 3 phases and will charge on 3.6 kW on each.

Eeeew! Nasty, eh? Lumpity-Lump goes the phase load balancing...

Wonder if it can be fooled by simply jumpering a single phase supply to all phases, and letting it draw 7.2 kW from the single phase.
My oven has that option: there are 3 live input terminals where the cable comes in, but for UK spec, they just have a jumper between them all.
Or if it checks for the 120 degree phase shift to stop such shenanigans.

[Pickled Onion]

Blimey thoubut, motor insurance seems to have gone up. The meerkat is returning quotes that are in line with the 33% hike in my renewal notice.

My quote this month was up >50% on last year. So I looked around for quotes, and got on to the chatbot to tell it I wasn't renewing.

CB: I'm so sad. Tell me your other quote and I'll beat it!
Pickles: £119
CB: . o 0
CB: Great News!!!
CB: I can knock £50 off our quote!!!
CB: Shall I go ahead and process your renewal at £255?
Pickles: No.
CB: Awww, why not???

[Diver300]

The VW e-UP! will only charge at 3.6 kW instead of the rated 7.2 kW because we've had to cheek to charge it not in ze fatherland on single phase electricity.
It only uses 2 of the 3 phases and will charge on 3.6 kW on each.

Eeeew! Nasty, eh? Lumpity-Lump goes the phase load balancing...

Wonder if it can be fooled by simply jumpering a single phase supply to all phases, and letting it draw 7.2 kW from the single phase.
My oven has that option: there are 3 live input terminals where the cable comes in, but for UK spec, they just have a jumper between them all.
Or if it checks for the 120 degree phase shift to stop such shenanigans.

3.6 kW on each of 2 phases at 230 V is 15.6 A in each phase and also 15.6 A in the neutral. It is a lot more even than 7.2 kW of charging (or a shower or whatever) on a single phase which is 31.2 A in both live and neutral.

On that point, we haven't tried putting a single phase onto both live inputs of the e-UP! as that would put double the design current through the neutral conductor, so four times the heating, which doesn't sound like a good idea, on a bit of cable that would cost £££££ to change.

The battery on the car is only 32 kW, so a full charge is 4.4 hours on 7.2 kW or 8.8 hours on 3.6 kW, so either is too long to sit and wait for and both are less than an overnight, so there's no real-world advantage for home charging on that car by going up to 7.2 kW.

[SoreTween]

Bah.  I've been planning a not too ambitious tour for the upcoming BH weekend taking in the Heart of Wales line on the Sunday afternoon.  They've just announced bustitution Ammanford to Llandrindod so that's the weekend bolloxed :-(

Need a new plan.

(Gumble rather than rant as I recognise that shit gotta be done and I was making my final check before booking accommodation)

[Mr Larrington]

So my blood test appointment today is at 14:35, no?

(Checks confirmation e-mail)

No.  No, it is at 16:25.  And the accompanying form says “Fasting”.  Bugger.

[robgul]

Perhaps a criticism rather than a grumble . . .

I needed to change my British Cycling membership email address . . .   you can't do that online from your "dashboard" (in this day and age that's strange) - tried to message with the form, that crashed the system.

Phoned and spoke to someone - explained what I wanted to do - "What's your number?" - gave that - "What do you want to change email to?" - gave that . . .  no checking, ID validation etc .  Seems a bit lax to me.


By contrast, today I needed to change my details at an organisation familliar to Mr Zilla and had to go through about 4 steps with my card/card reader - a comforting process 

[MattH]

A couple of minutes walk from us a new supermarket has been built. We've put up with road closures since before Christmas (!), traffic going through our estate as the only way to avoid a several mile diversion etc.
But it is now open. So for the first time I walked over there to grab some food for tonight. Except I couldn't find a way to walk in. There is no pedestrian access from the side that faces the village. There is from the adjacent side on the main road, about as far as you can get from the older housing where I live as possible. And you can't get to that without walking the wrong way around a rounabout and crossing three busy roads to get back to pretty much where you started as the pavement is closed.
So the only way to get there on foot without a long and irritating walk is to go down the curved car access road into the car park, where there are no pavements so you are literally walking in the middle of the road.

Brilliant bit of design there, and way to go to encourage locals to walk rather than drive.   

[SteveC]

Our local Asda was similar. There was a pedestrian way in, but it was a long way from our office and the housing around it. The problem was eventually solved by repeatedly tearing down a bit of fence until they saw sense and put in a second pedestrian only entrance.

[andrewc]

I spent 3 hours on my hands & knees yesterday, pulling up weeds in the parental garden.   Now I'm sneezing & my nose is running.  Pah!

[Polar Bear]

Supermarkets don't want people walking there.  You can't carry enough shopping away with you for them to make a tasty profit on you.

[T42]

I spent 3 hours on my hands & knees yesterday, pulling up weeds in the parental garden.   Now I'm sneezing & my nose is running.  Pah!

Put your foot on it.  As me da used to say.

Nah, sympathy: I was besnotted then bunged up for hours earlier this year after riding through a short stretch of forest.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Our local Asda was similar. There was a pedestrian way in, but it was a long way from our office and the housing around it. The problem was eventually solved by repeatedly tearing down a bit of fence until they saw sense and put in a second pedestrian only entrance.

Sometimes direct action is the only way.

[perpetual dan]

How hard is it to get a certificate to say you can work on domestic electrics / plumbing? (Without upsetting the inswerants or solicitors when we sell.)
I had a plumber round today, who didn’t seem to understand the difference between a flow control (basically a tap, on a cheap electric shower) and a thermostat - or at least claimed that what we have is a thermostat when it patently isn’t. He also needed reminded to come and see us. The previous one just seemed untrustworthy. I could have replaced the shower in the time I’ve spent trying to sort out a tradesman.

[rafletcher]

Maybe things have changed, but it used just to be “a competent person” rather than a formally required certificate. Which meant I did my own.

[Beardy]

Maybe things have changed, but it used just to be “a competent person” rather than a formally required certificate. Which meant I did my own.

Unfortunately, in this case a competent person has a specific legal interpretation which does not include a homeowner of competence.

[Pickled Onion]

I'm fairly sure you can work on the plumbing whether you're competent or not (in either sense of the word).

For electrical works, you can diy if you get someone with the correct certification to sign it off for you. Personally I'd be happy changing an existing fitting like-for-like on the basis that no-one will ever know (assuming I'm not cack-handed enough to burn the house down) but would get actual alterations to the wiring signed off.

For gas, I'm not sure, but ISTR someone OTP (MrCharly?) has posted about doing similar to the above, getting sign-off from a registered gas fitter.

[perpetual dan]

I had a look, and I think that where electricity meets water (a power shower) there’s a higher expectation than simple stuff like changing a light fitting. I’ve done basic plumbing and changes to wiring before.

[Beardy]

From recollection for DIY plumbing for water and waste is unregulated, all gas requires registered fitter sign-off and electricity is mixed. You can change sockets, light fittings nad the like (because, as you say no would know anyway) but alterations and additions to circuits have to be signed off by a registered person.

For the regulations, a competent person is a qualified, registered and regularly checked tradesperson. Of course, part P makes a mockery of all of it all.

[jsabine]

If you're working on gas for money, you need to be on the Gas Safe register. If you're DIYing, you merely need to be "competent" - which is carefully undefined in the legislation (though my working assumption is that if something goes bang, the courts will assume you weren't).

[Beardy]

If you're working on gas for money, you need to be on the Gas Safe register. If you're DIYing, you merely need to be "competent" - which is carefully undefined in the legislation (though my working assumption is that if something goes bang, the courts will assume you weren't).

I’m sorry jas but a ‘competent person’ is very clearly defined by the HSE
 

A competent person is someone who has sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities that allow them to assist you properly. The level of competence required will depend on the complexity of the situation and the particular help you need

It’s nice to think that a competent person is someone with sufficient intelligence and common sense, but in this regard it isn’t.

That said, it’ll be a cold day in hell before I allow a tradesman to undertake work,I considered myself capable of. My lack,of faith in the same is only reinforced every time I feel obliged to  allow one of them into my home.