Metr0Land

Denmark

Last week (Mon-Sun) was the first where standing charge was more than electricity I'd bought. Am not exporting, imports are 7.5p kWh on Octopus intelligent go, or free from solar with Tesla powerwall. It was quite sunny and I'd been using car less as I'd been ill, so by careful husbandry of charging car a bit at a time so as not to deplete powerwall too much, and no overnight car charging (powerwall makes its own mind up what to import overnight) managed to only buy £2.25 of electric all week for which I had the privilidge of paying £4.20 standing charge.

They walk among us

Hard to believe it's 13 years since the first run!

Bronwydd Show probably 1st June, the team aren't quite ready to publish details yet.

You beat me to it. Judging by eye, it would seem to be 2/3 of the dimensions of the small window by both width and height.

Thanks that's really useful. In the episode, fighting takes place where something has been recently demolished, and there were lots of stubby concrete supports in the ground and I couldn't make out what would have been on them. Looks like they were the remains of supports for those 8 'funnels' in the pic

Aren't we spending a fair bit of dosh on 'BBC Verify'?

TPTV (Sky 328) have been running the Manhunt series from 1970ish. This Sunday's episode is about an air raid on a factory and I think this is the one with associated rail depot alongside. The writers orginally wanted to do an entire episode with no dialagoue but in the end it has just 12 lines of dialgoue to set the scene, and the rest is 'all action' as our heroes infiltrate the factory and steal the goodies. AFAIK this episode has only been aired once since original transmission (40th anniversary of this particular episode). There's nothing online about locations for any of the episodes but am pretty certain they didn't go outside SE England for filming. My recollection is that the depot looked like it was on the Southern but I never could identify it before. If anyone's watching or recording and can have a stab at the actual location I be grateful.

Some while back we had a discussion on an older version of the board but none recently? Ideally I'd like to stay below £75 unless there's a really good reason.

It wouldn't matter a jot if the ship was out of control, but does anyone else agree that the way the containers are stacked it's difficult (impossible?) to see the bow from the bridge?

Where abouts is the Ivy Railway pls?

Our surgery faxes them to local surgeries and/or waits for the pharmacy to come and collect physical prescriptions. West Wales isn't known for rushing into things!

Pedant alert: a lot of people since 1990 when they standardised the name around the globe. Pedant mode de-activated.

The Onedin Lie-in

Very sunny today, easily the best day of 2024 so far. As it happens I had full loads for the dishwasher and washing machine, and put 4 kWh into the PHEV. Unfortunately had to dump 3.8kWh to the grid.

FWIW in the 1980's I lived next door to a guy who was accountant for the Sports Council. At the time (and maybe to this day?) they side-stepped the issue of 'what is a sport' and simply based their criteria on 'is this an organisation we wish to lend/give money to'

I guess it's horses for courses and everyone needs to consider their own situation. I inherited the solar panels with the house and for me I felt the best financial outcome over time would be to install a 13kWh storage battery (bear in mind I have a PHEV and smart charger with it) and not export anything. After several dull days this morning the battery was charged to 91pct overnight at 7.5p - one of the few drawbacks of the Tesla battery pack is it can't read weather forecasts so a sudden cahnge from dull to bright or vice-versa can catch it out a bit. As it happened I had a podiatrist appointment and the mileage 'emptied the electric tank' on the car* As soon as I got home I put it on direct charge (but that comes from the powerwall not from mains) as the storage battery was full (though I'd only lost 1.1kWh to the grid). I put 3.8kWh into the car and I've had 6.2kWh solar today up to 2pm. I've only had the powerwall for 4 months (the worst of the 1 year cycle) so can't be sure but for me I'm projecting I'm better off juggling solar and storage pack rather than exporting. In high summer I'm expecting to go off-grid for significant periods and juggle solar and battery. However I fully admit that until I've been through a summer I can't be sure that's the best outcome. *on other occasions I've put a load of washing on and the dishwasher when I hadn't necessarily got full loads as I hate dumping electricity to the grid!

Not impressed by Ofgem adding 7p per day to standing charge (if that's what most companies will be doing) in April. I'm on electricity only (oil for heating). Surely this just compounds problems for people on dual fuel who will be pay ~£35 pm even if they use nothing? I understand it's in none of our interests for many more suppliers to go bust. However Ofgem are quoting £3bn of debt as the reason for the increase, but without any transparency as to how/when this will alleviate the problem and when we might see the back of it.

Thanks Michael Hodgson for a comprehensive reply. As an aside I think most political parties have recognised/postulated the triple lock is probably unsustainable financially but now it's here any party getting rid of it will be labelled as Scrooge so it'll prob happen early in a Parliamentary term.

For the last 2 years my state pension has risen by more than the stated 'national' percentage. I'm not complaining but DWP are known to come after people for immediate payment in full of overpayments that are their mistake. I'm 75 if that makes any difference. It mostly seems to revolve around pre 1997 additional state pension, and contracted out amounts. Thus my statement always reads something like: Basic state pension £x Plus pre 97 addnl state pension +£y MINUS contracted out deduction -£z Plus Graduated retirement benenfit +£a So from Apr24 my increases are: Basic state pension +8.5% Pre 97 addnl state benefit +6.7% on this portion MINUS contracted out deduction +1.6% on this portion Plus Grad benefit +6.7% on this portion Overall +10.5% (The jiggery pokery of adding pre 97 and taking off contracted out actually adds +16.4% to that portion of the total which is about a quarter of the grand total). So the fact that they're not penalising me as much each year pro-rata on the contracted out portion has had quite a benefit with regards to the 2023 increase and the upcoming Apr24 increase. Can anyone explain this in simple terms?

Just had latest bill from Octopus £57 for 10Jan-09Feb. As per my post 01Feb above solar for month of Jan was 123kWh - doubt I'll get much more than 100kWh in Feb as there are less days and it's so far been less sunny. The £57 for the month breaks down to: £16 standing charge £19 car charging £22 rest of house usage. This was prob some £4 above what it might have been. When I was fiddling with the detail in the myenergi app I managed to put the daytime rate in as 7.5p and didn't notice it for a while - the app thought it was doing me a favour filling up the Tesla powerwall. Also storm Isha and friends triggered storm warning alerts. When this happens the powerwall fills up there and then at the prevailing price, but I guess this a price worth paying to have several hours backup supply (power lines are mostly on 'telegraph poles' here) Recently worked out I'm paying ~£100pcm throughout the year for heating oil as I don't stint on heating so I'm looking at £122pcm to budget for 'energy'