The grumpy thread

[SiC]

I went for a good old wander around (I knew the back ways to get around the deep bits to the action from growing up there, and after a few hours of wading in my wellies I had a massive stomach upset for days afterwards...)

 

How does that work? Did you lick your wellys clean or something?

[beko1987]

How does that work? Did you lick your wellys clean or something?

I dunno. I didn't touch the water, must have been in the air some place, but that night I did a few burps that smelt of fried eggs (which is the 100% sign I'm gonna be sick) and boom, throwing up everywhere and a painful stomach. Was very odd

[angle]

I'm never going to worry about driving a V8 and its impact on the environment again, just watched the grand tour, they're in China, they've pulled a graph up showing car production worldwide in 2017

Japan 8.35m

Germany 5.65m

India 3.95m

South Korea 3.74m

USA 3.03m

China 24.81m

I wonder what emissions controls they have

Um, actually probably stricter than you think. At the moment, it's roughly Euro 5, it'll be Euro 6 by 2020.

 

Oh, and they're massively pushing electric - for example to register a new car in Shangai costs about £12k. Unless its electric, then its free. China sells more electric cars than the rest of the world combined....

[LightBulbFun]

IMG_20190216_155559.jpg

 

I can offer this posted for free if you like? Could challenge you to get it working again!

 

im good there thanks LOL 

 

but I could probably make it light up again for a while* if so inclined

 

*about 1 to 5 minutes before it explodes in a shower of hot quartz

[DodgeRover]

For extra bonus it doesn't work and I had to pay another £5 commission to find that out , it is a swiss watch from WW2 era though so not all bad , it just wiped the grin off my face when I read AMIDA

Next time shout 10 rather than starting at 20...

[anonymous user]

How does that work? Did you lick your wellys clean or something?

Floodwater will most likely contain sewage from surcharged sewers, if you're wading about in it just think of all the airborne droplets you will be inhaling. Also if messing around near water don't forget all the rats that will be living there giving you the chance to get leptospirosis.

[richardmorris]

Apparently the reason that Bagshot has been gridlocked for the last four days is new traffic lights on the red road/maultway. Scheduled until the end of April! Great. We’ve just finished five years of m3 works, and ar just starting another 5 years of m4 diversions.

[Richard]

water risks can be reduced , how ever the maintenance , or lack of it over many years has to be considered ...as a possible risk increase

 

our storm water course outlet has not been seen to in donkeys years , but they see fit to load it up with more water risk in the form of harder run off surfaces !!

 

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lost its safety gate years ago and has never been seen to in the last 12 years I can think of , yet the same people who maintain the system allow more building..

 

if I ever had to buy another house I would consider the maintenance ( or lack of ) of the water risk system ..... as mentioned , buy a house on a hill !!

All this damage, which closed the road for three years, was because nobody wanted to spend a few minutes clearing debris from a sluice now and again.

[anonymous user]

Not sure how it works in Scotland but in Wales the maintenance of watercourses is generally the responsibility of the riparian owner, if it is bridged or culverted to allow a road or railway to cross or go on top then the highway authority or rail company have the responsibility. If it passes through land then the responsibility rests with the landowners. Whoever constructs a flood wall generally has the responsibility to maintain, although this can be passed on to other parties/new owners. The Flood and Water Management Act 2010 gave new responsibilities to Local Authorities and the Environment Agency (NRW in Wales) to know and record the location and condition of culverted watercourses. This was a big task as there had never been any duty for anyone to record these details before. During the industrial revolution many watercourses were diverted and piped, some to take water where it was wanted, for things like ironworks, some to take it away, from things like mines and some to build on top of. It is very difficult to explain to someone that they have a culvert under their house which legally they have a responsibility to maintain, particularly when it was built a hundred years ago and nobody knew it was there until now. Sadly there is no comeback on a long bankrupt and disappeared ironworks and at the moment little access to public money to improve or upgrade such structures. The Coal Authority do have some residual responsibilities, but that is another matter.

I know too long, don't read, I did warn that I'd bore everybody.

[MarvinsMom]

Today's grump: the first bastarding ice cream van of the year is currently prowling around the neighbourhood, raising my blood pressure with its crappy, tinny redition of "Greensleeves".

 

don't you know?

 

when the chimes are playing it means that they have sold outta ice cream.

 

accroding to my mother......

[Tamworthbay]

Not sure how it works in Scotland but in Wales the maintenance of watercourses is generally the responsibility of the riparian owner, if it is bridged or culverted to allow a road or railway to cross or go on top then the highway authority or rail company have the responsibility. If it passes through land then the responsibility rests with the landowners. Whoever constructs a flood wall generally has the responsibility to maintain, although this can be passed on to other parties/new owners. The Flood and Water Management Act 2010 gave new responsibilities to Local Authorities and the Environment Agency (NRW in Wales) to know and record the location and condition of culverted watercourses. This was a big task as there had never been any duty for anyone to record these details before. During the industrial revolution many watercourses were diverted and piped, some to take water where it was wanted, for things like ironworks, some to take it away, from things like mines and some to build on top of. It is very difficult to explain to someone that they have a culvert under their house which legally they have a responsibility to maintain, particularly when it was built a hundred years ago and nobody knew it was there until now. Sadly there is no comeback on a long bankrupt and disappeared ironworks and at the moment little access to public money to improve or upgrade such structures. The Coal Authority do have some residual responsibilities, but that is another matter.

I know too long, don't read, I did warn that I'd bore everybody.

Not at all its a fascinating subject, even more fascinatinng would be to get access to explore some of these. Possible?

[anonymous user]

Many of them are 18" diameter or smaller, although we did find a lovely brick arch one that was near 5' high from a former ironworks, that then went into a 2' pipe downstream. A good way to find possible ones is to look at the old 1895 OS maps and compare to current ones. You will quite often pick up where a watercourse used to be, finding out whether it follows its old route and in what size/shape/format can be more difficult. My confined spaces entry certificate has expired and I'm not sorry, I was never the right size or height to be comfortable.

[Wack]

Um, actually probably stricter than you think. At the moment, it's roughly Euro 5, it'll be Euro 6 by 2020.

 

Oh, and they're massively pushing electric - for example to register a new car in Shangai costs about £12k. Unless its electric, then its free. China sells more electric cars than the rest of the world combined....

I have a friend who's an engineer in the nuclear power industry , 5 years ago they were building a coal fired power station every week, 86,000 miles of roads with 6000 a year planned

 

Theres no way they're going to be running electric cars over the distances involved, if they are pushing electric it's only because they can't see for the smog in the big cities, remember the Olympics when the smog was really bad, like London in the 50s

[Parky]

Motors and battery technology will improve over time, and hopefully with a proliferation of charging points (hopefully) popping up over the next 20 years the situation will become more “acceptable”. Electric will therefore be a perfectly viable option.

 

There was once talk of battery exchange where you pull up and some bloke slots in a charged pack. I wouldn’t be happy with that, after all if you pull up in your brand new Lexus and some bloke shoves in a worn out pack from an ex Uber Prius you wouldn’t be happy would you?

 

Oddly the government used to encourage solar and wind investment through the Enterprise Investment Scheme. It led to a lot of fields being converted to solar stations but they have dropped that incentive now which is slightly at odds with a green future. But we will have a dilemma soon where we need to choose between using the field for agriculture, housing, or power generation.

 

Personally I think tidal needs more development, it’s the one source where we know when the power will kick in. The sun might not shine when it should, the wind may die down when we don’t want it to, but the tide is something we can predict pretty accurately decades in advance as we know what the moon will be up to.

 

The only risk there will be if we use the moon for nuclear waste storage as viewers of Space 1999 will testify...

[Pillock]

 

 

There was once talk of battery exchange where you pull up and some bloke slots in a charged pack. I wouldn’t be happy with that, after all if you pull up in your brand new Lexus and some bloke shoves in a worn out pack from an ex Uber Prius you wouldn’t be happy would you?

 

 

Depends. Different battery chemistries like different charge/discharge styles so that Prius battery, if it's been charged little and often, might be in better nick than a Lexus battery that's been almost totally discharged and then sat for a week at a time.

 

Think how much better a well used and maintained car is compared to a low miles giffer owned one that's never seen a service, cracked tyres, perished hoses etc.

[Parky]

Depends. Different battery chemistries like different charge/discharge styles so that Prius battery, if it's been charged little and often, might be in better nick than a Lexus battery that's been almost totally discharged and then sat for a week at a time.

Think how much better a well used and maintained car is compared to a low miles giffer owned one that's never seen a service, cracked tyres, perished hoses etc.

Yeah, this is a fair point as batteries do need to go through proper cycles for long life. It’s just me.

 

Another advance is a road where the car charges wirelessly as you drive along it. Like a big scalextric track. Hopefully they will have lane changes and a massive sofa by the corners so the emergency services will know where to find your car when it comes off the track

[Tamworthbay]

And you may not even own the battery pack, you would pay a deposit on purchase of the car then pay every time you swap them over, similar to paying at the pump. It would require an industry standard for the packs but has some merit.

[Parky]

Already I gather Tesla have different charging plugs to others. That needs nipping in the bud.

 

I don’t want to walk about asking if anyone has an adaptor for a Chery or a Nanjing or a Samsung*

 

 

 

 

* assuming the Pitcairn Islands aren’t the major industrial power by then

[somewhatfoolish]

Lithium cell chemistries don't seem to care about cycle depth or being left unattended for long periods; as long as the charge state is kept between 10% and 90% they're proving to be very durable, the original maker's life predictions being quite conservative.

[wuvvum]

And you may not even own the battery pack, you would pay a deposit on purchase of the car then pay every time you swap them over, similar to paying at the pump. It would require an industry standard for the packs but has some merit.

Doesn't Renault do that with their electric cars?  It's why the purchase price looks so cheap compared to Leaves and E-Golfs - until you read the "batteries not included" small print.

[Timewaster]

Doesn't Renault do that with their electric cars? It's why the purchase price looks so cheap compared to Leaves and E-Golfs - until you read the "batteries not included" small print.

Yep. Battery rent for a Zoe is about £40 a month.

More than my Mrs spends on diseasel.

 

Was considering one before discovering that. Leaf is likely to be "to big"

 

We will be belching smoke for a few more years yet.....

[anonymous user]

 

Another advance is a road where the car charges wirelessly as you drive along it. Like a big scalextric track. Hopefully they will have lane changes and a massive sofa by the corners so the emergency services will know where to find your car when it comes off the track

 

Somehow I can't see them ever putting an electric road anywhere near my dead end valley, it's possible, but given the lack of investment in highway infrastructure construction and repairs I doubt it would ever spread beyond selected routes. I love the idea of big sofas though, there are some nice viewing spots on some of our twisty mountain roads which would be a nice place to sit and wait for recovery

[AnthonyG]

Jeepers. I often feel remarkably lucky, but reading this thread, even more so than usual. I rented somewhere for three months as a temporary thing when we first moved to Cambridgeshire, so that's my entire exposure to the rental market. I do have serious concerns about an economy that seems to be propped up only by getting people in ridiculous amounts of debt. The housing market would not be as ridiculous as it is if banks were still stingy about how much they'll lend someone for a mortgage.

Couldn’t agree more. I was in my last (rented) flat for nearly 6 years, rented off someone at work, he only went with a agent for the last 18 month period as he was working away, rent started at £525 PCM and finished at 575 for a 2 bed in a suburban bit of Cheltenham (not the best postcode by any means but perfectly safe and acceptable) with a parking space. Flat was a bit tatty at the end as maintenance was basic but nothing actually broke, and I didn’t care for the last year, as was saving for the mortgage deposit on my new flat, so put up with ratty carpets etc.

 

Got deposit back in full last week, which neatly paid for the move costs which were on a credit card.

 

I guess the moral of the story is try and rent privately (without agents) and be prepared to sort little things (cupboard doors, new toilet seats etc) yourself. It probably helped that the flat was only 12 years old when I moved in, so never had to worry about rotten windows, damp etc.

[Tamworthbay]

Doesn't Renault do that with their electric cars?  It's why the purchase price looks so cheap compared to Leaves and E-Golfs - until you read the "batteries not included" small print.

Yup, it’s a bit a different as the batteries aren’t removable simply to get a fullly charged set but yes you lease them at about £100 a month which kills the whole idea unfortunately.

[DodgeRover]

Lithium cell chemistries don't seem to care about cycle depth or being left unattended for long periods; as long as the charge state is kept between 10% and 90% they're proving to be very durable, the original maker's life predictions being quite conservative.

What they absolutely do care about though is cold, witness 5 lipo dewalt battery packs discharged on a Monday morning if left in the van for a weekend of sub zero temperatures. My AEG and Hitachi packs are just the same.

[Parky]

I read that, how Tesla owners are finding their range is noticeably lower in cold temperatures.

 

Of course you could always fit battery warmers for the winter months. Maybe kerosene ones so the warmers don’t use up all the charge while attempting to improve the charge. Or something.

[SiC]

See that blue glow on the houses behind?

 

That's the glow of fire engines. 4 in-fact, plus 2 fire Marshall cars. Smoke Janeen billowing up from a house just over there for a while. They've been there a good 2 hours now and smoke is still billowing up.

 

Had a quick wander/nosy past earlier. The house has no windows now and the crew were just suiting up with breathing apparatus. No police or ambulances, so fingers crossed no one is hurt or injured.

 

The smoke was foul tasting and nasty, even from a distance. Given the age of the house, I dread to think what noxious chemicals are in the air.

 

Fingers crossed it's only property damage.

[somewhatfoolish]

George "Amaaazing!" Clarke's hipster hat wearing mockney irritant sidekick eulogising about some painfully pointless modular wendyhouse decorated externally with multicoloured nylon webbing. Cities do not need this shit, they need sensible high density housing that can be put up for a fraction of the 30 large per unit the wendyhouse supposedly cost.

[somewhatfoolish]

What they absolutely do care about though is cold, witness 5 lipo dewalt battery packs discharged on a Monday morning if left in the van for a weekend of sub zero temperatures. My AEG and Hitachi packs are just the same.

 

They definitely won't be discharged(unless they were discharged when you left them on Friday); low temperature will result in poor performance mimicking a drained battery though(especially at high discharge rates), the act of recharging may well heat the battery enough for it to appear like a miraculous recovery.

 

[DodgeRover]

According to the onboard battery level sensor they were way down, will try sticking them in front of the fire along with the paslode gas when we get another cold snap.

 

It'll make a change from is that a gas canister in your pants or are you just pleased to see me.

 

For those still reading and not in the building trade the nail guns that work by exploding gas just don't if the gas temp gets too low. The usual remedy is to put the canister somewhere next to the skin to warm it up..you can buy winter gas but nobody does.