The new news 24 thread

[captain_70s]

  On 03/12/2024 at 18:21, reb said:

There's two asteroids in close proximity to earth right now. One is 70cm across, the other is the size of a football stadium.

Which is due to hit us, do you think?

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Fingers crossed for the big'un...

[richardmorris]

  On 03/12/2024 at 18:48, captain_70s said:

Fingers crossed for the big'un...

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Something to look forward to isn’t it.

[reb]

  On 03/12/2024 at 18:48, captain_70s said:

Fingers crossed for the big'un...

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I regret to inform the reader that it was the weeny one, which plopped down onto Siberia a little while ago, mostly harmlessly burning up on the way in.

[stuboy]

Mclaren GT ?

 

Spotted whilst driving out the hospital

[richardmorris]

  On 03/12/2024 at 19:11, stuboy said:

Mclaren GT ?

 

Spotted whilst driving out the hospital

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They all look the same to me. 

[richardmorris]

Turner prize 2024. Oh well, it’s not exactly Matisse is it

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/dec/03/jasleen-kaur-38-wins-the-turner-prize-2024
 

[artdjones]

  On 03/12/2024 at 20:06, richardmorris said:

Turner prize 2024. Oh well, it’s not exactly Matisse is it

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/dec/03/jasleen-kaur-38-wins-the-turner-prize-2024
 

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And Matisse wasn't exactly Rembrandt.

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 03/12/2024 at 21:44, artdjones said:

And Matisse wasn't exactly Rembrandt.

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And Metisse is better looking that either of them? No, not the bike

 

[bunglebus]

Last Thursday night my mum heard odd noises outside and saw two blokes by the front of the house, so told them to get lost. Popped round there today to do a couple of bits and noticed this

So for the last four or five days, some scrotes have had the keys to the house and garage. There's absolutely nothing worth stealing, but like fuck was I not getting all the locks changed this evening, and upgraded to insurance approved ones over the standard ones that came with the doors. She said she'd found the garage unlocked over the weekend, but thought she'd just forgotten to lock it.

What I didn't realise until today was that the incident the other night wasn't my mum opening her bedroom window and shouting at the low-lifes, she was downstairs and opened the door, and had a brief conversation with one of them, before a second popped up as they both scarpered. 

 

[catsinthewelder]

Thats why I always hide those things when I fit them for customers.

[catsinthewelder]

  On 03/12/2024 at 12:01, danthecapriman said:

Any plumbers or knowledgeable heating engineers or even boiler enthusiasts… @paulplom???

Just moved into the new house and started looking into stuff, but found a few weird things about the boiler and heating system. 

This is the boiler,

And this contraption is next to it and part of it!!

 
Im no expert but I have never seen anything like this thing before! 
The boiler itself looks reasonably normal but the mass of pipes and tanks/gauges etc etc is all linked to it and a radiator type thing up on the roof outside. From what the house survey said it’s basically a solar water heater on the roof to help the boiler heat the water (a joke in a country that sees about 5 mins of sun a year!). 
Weirdly though, when you run the cold water it can start off cold but almost always then gets hot until you run off a considerable amount of water before it gets cold enough to use. We’ve also noticed that sometimes when you flush the toilet the water from the cistern is actually hot water!

This can’t be right surely!? 
Seems incredibly wasteful and inefficient to me.

Anyone know anything about these things?

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I wonder if the solar water heater is heating more than just the water its supposed to heat?  If the pipe feeding it with cold water is heating up too that might give you warm water from the cold tap/toilet cistern.  Theres been some clear skies over the last few days and they can be suprisingly efficient. 

[bunglebus]

  On 03/12/2024 at 23:16, catsinthewelder said:

Thats why I always hide those things when I fit them for customers.

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It's pretty tucked away, I'll be looking at a different type to replace it as that one has an obvious weakness

[Wibble]

  On 03/12/2024 at 23:59, bunglebus said:

It's pretty tucked away, I'll be looking at a different type to replace it as that one has an obvious weakness

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I’ve fitted loads of these over the years to fire and flood damaged houses. Always tried to make them less obvious but not sure there’s a better alternative.

[bunglebus]

Drive past this place today, website is just bog standard garage stuff, but there were plenty of interesting cars outside. Pic off Google

[bunglebus]

  On 04/12/2024 at 00:09, Wibble said:

I’ve fitted loads of these over the years to fire and flood damaged houses. Always tried to make them less obvious but not sure there’s a better alternative.

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I was looking at the neighbour's one, it doesn't have the sliding cover they've prised out, looked more like this

 

[Wibble]

The ones we fitted were specified by insurers, if they want to get in, they will. I don’t think that one would be much harder to bust.

[High Jetter]

  On 04/12/2024 at 00:25, bunglebus said:

I was looking at the neighbour's one, it doesn't have the sliding cover they've prised out, looked more like this

 

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A couple of my customers have ones very similar to that. They're OK to open, but a real pain to close up after you - even with the plate out, you have to re-press the code then hold the opening lever then put it back in place (assuming you've put the key(s) back with the key-ring in the rught place for the cover to close).

[danthecapriman]

  On 03/12/2024 at 23:49, catsinthewelder said:

I wonder if the solar water heater is heating more than just the water its supposed to heat?  If the pipe feeding it with cold water is heating up too that might give you warm water from the cold tap/toilet cistern.  Theres been some clear skies over the last few days and they can be suprisingly efficient. 

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Could well be. I did wonder if it was just dumping excess hot water it’d heated but wasn’t being used? I assume if the roof panel heats the water its not actually costing anything from the gas boiler, so doesn’t matter if it gets dumped?

It’s actually quite annoying though as you have to run off quite a quantity of water sometimes to get any cold. Sometimes you start accidentally brushing your teeth with warm water! The toilet water being warm is an odd one though, you get a rush of warm air blowing out the bowl!!

[3VOM]

  On 02/12/2024 at 21:00, Yoss said:

She also buys cheap bigger dolls from charity shops and gives them the Mexican day of the dead treatment. 

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Woah, thought she was a Broken Peach fan for a moment.

 

[Westbay]

  On 03/12/2024 at 19:07, reb said:

I regret to inform the reader that it was the weeny one, which plopped down onto Siberia a little while ago, mostly harmlessly burning up on the way in.

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... passing observation - why do these things always end up in Siberia ? 🤔

[loserone]

  On 04/12/2024 at 10:08, danthecapriman said:

Could well be. I did wonder if it was just dumping excess hot water it’d heated but wasn’t being used? I assume if the roof panel heats the water its not actually costing anything from the gas boiler, so doesn’t matter if it gets dumped?

It’s actually quite annoying though as you have to run off quite a quantity of water sometimes to get any cold. Sometimes you start accidentally brushing your teeth with warm water! The toilet water being warm is an odd one though, you get a rush of warm air blowing out the bowl!!

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Could it just be the cold supply for the bathroom is next to the radiator flow and returns?

[danthecapriman]

  On 04/12/2024 at 10:45, loserone said:

Could it just be the cold supply for the bathroom is next to the radiator flow and returns?

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I wouldn’t have thought so as it’s the same at the kitchen sink. You run the cold and it gets hot for a while then turns cold. 
It’s not always just lukewarm water though, sometimes it’s hot enough to be steaming hot!

Trouble is, I’m not sure we should be drinking it though! We’ve got some big bottles of water from the shop until we can figure out what’s going on. I’m sure it’s not dangerous but I think there’s a refrigerant type liquid in the system that works similarly to air conditioning systems etc, so can’t be too careful! 

It’s a bizarre system. I’m no expert with heating systems and boilers at all but this thing is nothing like what I’ve seen before. It’s massive too, quite a bit bigger than those old fashioned floor standing boilers you used to get.

[richardmorris]

  On 04/12/2024 at 10:26, Westbay said:

... passing observation - why do these things always end up in Siberia ? 🤔

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There's an awful lot of the northern hemisphere that's sibera. That or Canada. Inclination of spin possibly tilts the north towards the asteroid's orbit?

[Zelandeth]

  On 04/12/2024 at 11:11, danthecapriman said:

I wouldn’t have thought so as it’s the same at the kitchen sink. You run the cold and it gets hot for a while then turns cold. 
It’s not always just lukewarm water though, sometimes it’s hot enough to be steaming hot!

Trouble is, I’m not sure we should be drinking it though! We’ve got some big bottles of water from the shop until we can figure out what’s going on. I’m sure it’s not dangerous but I think there’s a refrigerant type liquid in the system that works similarly to air conditioning systems etc, so can’t be too careful! 

It’s a bizarre system. I’m no expert with heating systems and boilers at all but this thing is nothing like what I’ve seen before. It’s massive too, quite a bit bigger than those old fashioned floor standing boilers you used to get.

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The kitchen tap is usually fed straight off the rising main.  So hot water definitely shouldn't be getting in there.

My gut feeling is that - assuming it's all piped up right and has at some point worked right - would be that heated water is getting forced back along the supply as it's heated.  Most likely due to failure of a backflow preventer (check valve), a flat expansion vessel (looks like you have plenty of those), and/or things are getting too hot.  It's a pretty complex system though, I'm not actually trained on any of this stuff, and it's probably not the easiest thing to remotely diagnose.

Might be worth asking on the plumbing thread in the open forum section over here:

https://autoshite.com/topic/34667-confessions-of-a-plumber/

The glycol solution is usually in its own circuit and just brings the heat from the solar side inside and then transfers heat to the water in the tank via a heat exchanger - it's just to prevent corrosion and the panels freezing up in the winter.  It shouldn't ever mix with the hot or cold water than comes out of any of the taps.

[danthecapriman]

  On 04/12/2024 at 12:27, Zelandeth said:

The kitchen tap is usually fed straight off the rising main.  So hot water definitely shouldn't be getting in there.

My gut feeling is that - assuming it's all piped up right and has at some point worked right - would be that heated water is getting forced back along the supply as it's heated.  Most likely due to failure of a backflow preventer (check valve), a flat expansion vessel (looks like you have plenty of those), and/or things are getting too hot.  It's a pretty complex system though, I'm not actually trained on any of this stuff, and it's probably not the easiest thing to remotely diagnose.

Might be worth asking on the plumbing thread in the open forum section over here:

https://autoshite.com/topic/34667-confessions-of-a-plumber/

The glycol solution is usually in its own circuit and just brings the heat from the solar side inside and then transfers heat to the water in the tank via a heat exchanger - it's just to prevent corrosion and the panels freezing up in the winter.  It shouldn't ever mix with the hot or cold water than comes out of any of the taps.

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Brilliant, thanks!

Ill post up in that thread later when I’ve got some time.👍

[somewhatfoolish]

  On 03/12/2024 at 18:21, reb said:

There's two asteroids in close proximity to earth right now. One is 70cm across, the other is the size of a football stadium.

Which is due to hit us, do you think?

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I'm hoping for the big one and that it splits in two on entering the atmosphere, one half destroying the building containing the Mail Online and the other further bifurcating and flattening all of Lord Rothermere's homes. Because it's an act of god the tax-avoiding bilge-hawking prick won't be able to claim on his insurance.

[Metal Guru]

  On 04/12/2024 at 20:01, somewhatfoolish said:

I'm hoping for the big one and that it splits in two on entering the atmosphere, one half destroying the building containing the Mail Online and the other further bifurcating and flattening all of Lord Rothermere's homes. Because it's an act of god the tax-avoiding bilge-hawking prick won't be able to claim on his insurance.

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If a big asteroid hits and creates a load of dust that blocks out the sun leading to a massive drop in temperatures, will we be encouraged to return to fossil  fuels to get the temperature back up a bit?

Tax breaks for V8s?

[somewhatfoolish]

  On 05/12/2024 at 02:35, Metal Guru said:

If a big asteroid hits and creates a load of dust that blocks out the sun leading to a massive drop in temperatures, will we be encouraged to return to fossil  fuels to get the temperature back up a bit?

Tax breaks for V8s?

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I hadn't considered the upside of it possibly destroying the Murdoch empire also; well spotted.

[barefoot]

Idiot phishing phone call earlier, 'can I just confirm your name?' It's Bob Harris I replied. 'Can you spell that for me?'

F U CK O, F F

[Rust Collector]

For the princely sum of £5 posted, I managed to pick up the correct adapter pack to use my spare set of Thule roof bars on the XM.

That feels like a bit of a result. Picking up the Christmas tree at the weekend should be much easier now.