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Post by pinkie on Oct 2, 2016 7:59:54 GMT
Hope that goes well Martin. As our builders keep telling us "you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs"
Actually - the view to the south will become pool and decking, and the East and North vistas were 800m2 of communal land we purchased in addition to the main plot - so they have never been garden. Mostly they are room for the extension, garage and my office, and since it is mostly rock, we will run a gravel drive down to it, and only have a few areas to try to "green up"
But next year before we can even think about cleaning up and landscaping.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2016 9:21:50 GMT
My garden looked like that a few years ago when I brought 160 tonnes of soil in to finish landscaping around the pool.
You could not tell now.
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Post by pinkie on Oct 8, 2016 10:47:51 GMT
The seasons change. We were out shopping for log burners yesterday And today is the first day it is too cold for shorts and bare feet  |
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Post by MartinT on Oct 8, 2016 15:18:02 GMT
I had to put the heating on last Thursday. Comes of having two women living with me now.
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Post by pinkie on Oct 8, 2016 17:41:44 GMT
On the subject of putting the heating on, does anyone know anything about electric heaters? We have cheap convectors wall mounted in every room. We are about to install a 8kw log burner stove in the living room, which in a very well insulated house is going to be doing most of the work. The very nice man in Mr bricolage keeps talking to me sincerely about how my fuel bills will reduce with better (clay heating) devices but surely this is well meaning bollocks. Energy tries to change to a more chaotic state (2nd law of thermodynamics), heat is the most chaotic state, and any resistor in any electric heater converts 100% of the electricity to heat. Ignoring storage heaters and multirate tariffs, they must all cost the same. Or have I missed something? I fancy changing to oil filled radiators since they can be covered (dry my ski kit) but that's it. More expensive clay filled ones cannot save energy  |
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Post by MartinT on Oct 8, 2016 18:05:35 GMT
Within close approximation, I agree that the power consumption for different types of electric heater should be the same for the same output. However, distribution efficiency is very different. Fan driven heaters distribute better, convection less so and those horrible bar radiators least well. Conversely, fan heaters may cost you more only because they are better at getting the heat around the house.
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Post by pinkie on Oct 8, 2016 18:13:15 GMT
No I get the fan bit.that makes sense,but isn't one of the features of the expensive heaters. In money saving terms a fan helps more with poor insulation since it moves the heat away from the wall and stops the heater heating the great outdoors. .but we have awesome insulation.
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Post by pinkie on Oct 9, 2016 15:03:29 GMT
Back to the AV theme, I finally (I hope) fixed the Blueray from switching off problem. This is one of these desperately frustrating problems which once you have solved it, sound trivial and simple. But while they are bugging you... The problem is I don't understand half the techno-gizmo stuff about video - and have been trying hard not to. "Auto" does very nicely for my option However, devices can control other devices if suitably enabled via HDMI connections. I didn't expressly enable this. The problem manifested itself as the TV turning on, uninvited, when deliberately powering up the AV amp, projector and Blueray player. Turning the TV off, with its own remote then turns the Blueray off. Unplugging the HDMI to the TV was a short term fix, but I wanted to be able to switch easily between the 2 viewing screens I found a setting on the AV amp for "HDMI control enable" and set it to "No". But this didn't stop the TV powering up with the Blueray - even though they are only connected to each other via the AV amp. The TV, not being fed a signal, would then power down and the Blue ray would power down with it. 10 minutes into a film. I haven't actually resorted to reading the manual yet, but diddly-squat in the way of HDMI control options on the TV. However, yesterday I cracked it. Buried deep in the bowels of the Blueray options menus was the HDMI control option "Allow standby linking with TV?". I couldn't find the "no f***ing way" option, so settled for "No" Hopefully, we are now cooking with gas -and fully functional, although I may do a bit more tweaking of some of the Darby and other projector video settings. Now that the bloody thing has stopped gratuitously turning itself off Score one for the good guys!  (Still want my Guinness glass Martin!!) |
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Post by pinkie on Oct 14, 2016 12:53:03 GMT
Home cinema is working well  The pool is starting to look recognisably like a pool And my parents are out for the week. Dad is loving the records - although due to his Parkinsons I have to play them for him. Should have got an SL1200...  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2016 4:40:29 GMT
My SL1200 was sounding sweet yesterday through a Firebottle set up and a pair of ESL57s.
One of the fully automatic linear trackers would probably be very good for your dad.
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Post by pinkie on Oct 16, 2016 6:44:29 GMT
Have you bought ESL's Kevin??? Or was that a visit to Alan? Dad doesn't really listen to records chez lui. It's a treat when he visits me -and I don't mind putting them on for him. (He could probably manage - his Parkinsons is quite mild and well controlled by Sinemet). Mostly they watch a lot of telly. He is missing UK sports TV more than records. We have lunch at Quillan rugby club today - and watch the match afterwards, and the forecast is warm and dry so that should be a success We had a result yesterday too, when I took them across the plateau de sault to view the Pyrenees big peaks - they had snow on them!!!!!!!!!!! All that rain in Quillan last week was pesky white stuff at 2000m and above. So pretty  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2016 8:30:20 GMT
Not yet...  ESLs in France are way too expensive. I had a thoroughly enjoyable day trip to "Chateau Firebottle", which I have just posted details of on AoS. |
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Post by markgrant on Oct 16, 2016 17:18:37 GMT
On the subject of putting the heating on, does anyone know anything about electric heaters? We have cheap convectors wall mounted in every room. We are about to install a 8kw log burner stove in the living room, which in a very well insulated house is going to be doing most of the work. The very nice man in Mr bricolage keeps talking to me sincerely about how my fuel bills will reduce with better (clay heating) devices but surely this is well meaning bollocks. Energy tries to change to a more chaotic state (2nd law of thermodynamics), heat is the most chaotic state, and any resistor in any electric heater converts 100% of the electricity to heat. Ignoring storage heaters and multirate tariffs, they must all cost the same. Or have I missed something? I fancy changing to oil filled radiators since they can be covered (dry my ski kit) but that's it. More expensive clay filled ones cannot save energy The only way to heat with electric and get more heat out than you put in with electric is to use an air conditioning unit in heat pump mode. The more recent and energy efficient models have a COP efficiency of more than 4, that means that for every 1kw of electric used you get about 4kw of heat. It's not magic, the heat is drawn from the heat in the atmosphere outside, even when it is really cold outside. Best brand is Daikin, I have installed hundreds of them and we have a few at home that have been heating and cooling for nearly 10 years and have never gone faulty. |
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Post by pre65 on Oct 16, 2016 18:44:43 GMT
Interesting.
What would you suggest for a 3 bed bungalow living room, as my central heating does not quite cope in really cold weather.
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Post by pinkie on Oct 16, 2016 19:28:39 GMT
Yes, I agree that heat pumps are the only way to get more heat energy out than electric energy put in, because they use electricity to move heat from one place to another. I have reversible air conditioning in the office and may end up adding a heat pump to the pool.
The efficiencies you quote are optimal ones based on small temperature differences between the two zones. When it is below zero outside and I heat my office to 25 degrees the electricity used will be closer to the heat generated.
I am pretty sure that the only way to save money with one resistor element compared to another is via a heat storage system and cheap rate or daytime solar heating. Not for me at the moment. Maybe if I install enough solar later.
For now I think I will maybe replace some open convectors with oil filled to enable me to cover them. Mostly I am looking forward to the log burner being installed
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Post by pre65 on Oct 16, 2016 19:36:19 GMT
Log (wood) burners are ace, much more so if you have access to free wood.
I ran mine on old pallets for many years.
One tip, don't get too big a wood burner.
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Post by pinkie on Oct 16, 2016 19:37:01 GMT
Not yet... ESLs in France are way too expensive. I had a thoroughly enjoyable day trip to "Chateau Firebottle", which I have just posted details of on AoS. I took a brief look, and it soon reminded me why I don't miss aos. Looks like a fun day though. It would be nice to hook up with Alan sometime. Pity the distances are so far. Owen is talking about buying a place down here (not entirely flippantly) so they could fly their paramotors while talking amplifiers. Let me know when you fancy a trip to the mountains |
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Post by MartinT on Oct 17, 2016 9:14:19 GMT
Richard, what was the reasoning in having a 'surface' pool rather than a sunken one. Cost?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 9:54:43 GMT
I know there is less tax to pay with an above ground pool.
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Post by pinkie on Oct 17, 2016 12:33:48 GMT
It is certainly less expensive, although not much. The lie of the land suggested it, the fairly steep slope and terracing. When it is finished with decking at pool level and paved area in front it will seem in ground from the house. On top of that we are on solid mountain rock in a seismic zone. There are a lot of cracked in grounds round here
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