Metr0Land

Hmm, I have 6 earlier panniers (plus 2 x 64xx and 1 x 97xx condensing) and was thinking that the Baccy model wasn't that bad. However, at £139.99 a pop am tepmted but fortunately for my wallet there's 'nothing in it for me' in the first wave of livery/numbers. Phew!

Just noticed a typo, ghost of IKB should be R5069

A section from a grainy long shot of Do31 at Paris Air Show July 1969

It looks genuine but needless to say I've not clicked on anything. Personal details correct on the email which I've redacted

Strangely I've had notification from UPS they'll be delivering my D6700 tomorrow despite having had it since Monday......

Just a little update to say I've had a pack of £140 worth of figures posted on trust, for approval, which of course I've paid immediately. Always a pleasure dealing with Martin and I always have a smile on my face after talking on the phone, he's such a gent. I've used plenty of ModelU figures and they're a great product. However, they're supplied unpainted and are also a bit taller than Falcon Figures making them a bit tricky for some cabs, so I keep a supply of both handy.

Likewise, no notification D6700 had been shipped and UPS man has just been. Can anyone beat 20?

Only a couple of drawbacks after changing 18 months ago. a/ I later found they'd extended contract to 1yr from date of new box - didn't matter in this case but was a bit sneaky. b/ For various reasons I used to find it useful on old box to record manually from eg 1am-4am on given channels - this option seems lost now on Sky Q. (Ref losing old saved progs - this seems to be a given with any set top box - Freeview, Sky, Youview etc)

Hands up those of you who thought electric might be becoming the cheapest option for heating. I live in west Wales and there’s no mains gas in a lot of places. If you have LPG you don’t own the tank and have no option to shop around, meaning for most of us the options are oil, wood or electric. My friend who’s worked in electric and gas supply industries and is a data junkie has just installed a 2nd Tesla powerwall and converted his Rayburn from oil to electric. That means he has 26 kWh of electric storage to charge at the 4 hour night rate + solar collection. He’s done the calculations and his property will allow that level of charging (though the 1st night of switch on of 2nd powerwall was probably the night of the max current draw). He and his wife are keen to have peace of mind for future guarantee of supply of energy and to move away from fossil fuels. As with all these things, projecting a financial outcome over say 10 years is fraught with ifs and buts, and small changes to pricing assumptions can magnify over 10 years. He can’t say for certain that electric will turn out to best the best financially. They’ve decided that if they’ve made the wrong choice they will accept a small penalty for foregoing fossil fuels, and from the numbers they believe that if it wasn’t the best financial result, it won’t have been a terrible decision. Food for thought.

At the same time as installing the Tesla powerwall I decided to fit a zappi car charger. A little over a year ago when I ordered my Ford Kuga PHEV, I investigated the cost of ‘proper’ chargers versus the granny charger you get with the car and decided that it wouldn’t pay for itself and would live with the inconvenience of 2 kW charger. In the event, there haven’t been many occasions when I could really have done with a more powerful charger but they have been frustrating. Once I’d decided to install the powerwall I knew there would be an amount of upheaval and decided to install the zappi at the same time to get all the building work done at the same time as there’s a 50/50 chance I might end up with a BEV before I shuffle off. Although the zappi and Tesla powerwall should integrate easily I also felt it prudent to get one company install and commission them both at the same time. I didn’t want to get 2-3 years down the road and find 2 different installers pointing the finger at the other if they wouldn’t integrate. With colder days and nights coming I’ve found the usefulness much greater than I thought. Even though it won’t pay for itself the utility value is quite high. I can get a full charge in the 4 hour cheap window at night. With colder days coming I’m more frequently needing a bit of a charge in daytime if I go out twice the same day. Topping up can now be done by taking power from the powerwall which in turn has been charged by either electric at 9p kWh or solar. Also, something I hadn’t planned: Occasionally the powerwall is quite full and the sun comes out unusually strongly. If the car isn’t charged I can divert power to the car rather than dumping it to the grid, and capture more solar.

OK this will be quite long. We moved here in 2014 and the old lady before us had committed to the short-lived ‘rent a roof’ scheme from the late 2000’s. When solar was VERY expensive relative to peoples’ means and payback was uncertain, and also the life of inverters was uncertain, some entrepreneurs offered a scheme whereby you ‘rented’ roof space for eg 25 years. There was zero outlay for the householder but the providers took a 25 year charge on the property, with a schedule whereby you could pay them off. At the time our solicitor had been reading up on such schemes and said our contract was one of the better ones ie not one-sided. Basically the householder could draw off whatever power they wanted from solar and the provider could sell the excess to whoever. At the time there was plenty of discussion about how long inverters would last and it was by no means infeasible that they would fail 12-15 years in so I didn’t want to pay the ‘ransom’ and possibly be saddled with the expense. Also, I misunderstood the rate at which the ransom declined – my bad. I lost my wife in 2018 and just let things ride; the charge on the property runs from 2011-2036 and I’ll be 75 soon so had been thinking whether to get the monkey off my back or continue to let it ride. I reasoned that all I would get would be the same as now, plus the ability to sell some of the production at (to me) not very exciting rates. By now, storage devices had become a good deal more attractive but still quite an outlay upfront. In the interim I’d moved from a petrol car to a mild hybrid to a PHEV (NO reason to buy BEV in west Wales!) I’d been a refusenik with smart meters until the PHEV but of course my stance changed and am now on Octopus Go and assoc smart meter. Since the rent-a-roof contract allows me to draw off whatever I want/can there’s no change there if I get a storage unit. My system has ~4kW of panels with a Fronius IG TL 3.6kW inverter. I had a couple of potential installers for additional solar panels for me to own and also install a storage until and the consensus was that the Fronius inverter was good quality ‘cos the installers don’t want to be back in 25 years. One thing that always puzzled me was exactly how the meter could tell how much was coming off the roof and how much I’d used to determine how much excess was available for the installer to sell. It turns out that it’s just a dumb meter despite the digital display and they can’t tell how much I’ve drawn off and the contract between the installer and whoever pays them simply has a guesstimate of much the householder uses and applies a set pct to determine their payment. I realised that additional panels wouldn’t do much for me and storage would be the way to go (for me). A friend of mine had recently installed additional solar panels and a 13.6 kWh Tesla Powerwall – pretty much a Rolls-Royce solution but he has spent a lifetime in gas and electricity production/distribution/use (was working on electric buses for the Sydney Olympics) and is a real data junkie. Anyway, I had a look at this setup as it’s always nice to see something actually installed, and not just listen to the sales patter. He’d gone into a lot of detail with competing storage devices (and car chargers) and determined that going large was the way to go, and that Tesla had by far the best software, along with zappi car charger which has good s/w and integrates well with Tesla powerwall. I only really needed a powerwall. If it’s part of a new system it’s free of vat whereas on its own you pay vat. A system can be as little as 2 panels. Since he was happy with his installers I got a quote from them for powerwall + 4 panels which turned out to be more than I’d hoped or expected. I had a budget in mind of £12k which could be stretched for good reason. The ‘vat free’ powerwall was £11.1k. Hmmmm, I got another quote from another Tesla appointed agent who came up with a quote just below £10k for powerwall-only including vat. Guess who I went with? (I also got a zappi charger which I’ll explain in another posting as it’s related to this but this is already getting long). Before I was ready to commit I went back for a 2nd look at my friend’s system with detailed questions in mind for how I would use it in my own lifestyle. It seemed to confirm to me that bigger is better (if you can afford it). I live in west Wales with overhead power lines everywhere. Back in 2014 there were endless outages when posts blew down. It’s a lot better now but I can still expect a few (generally short) outages each winter. One advantage of the Teasla powerwall is you can hold back a set pct/number of kWh for outages. I’m currently holding back 10pct which is prob unnecessary and will reduce it except when bad weather is forecast (and this week is bad). That would give me 3 hours of background usage - the Tesla cuts in instantaneously and you wouldn’t notice it apart from getting a message to the phone. If you have a smaller system then holding back the same kWh just in case, means you have less available in the day and are likely to draw full price electricity from the grid (I average 7-8kWh per day excluding car charging). The system has been operating for 2 weeks now and I’m becoming an evangelist. I won’t have a bill from Octopus until about 11Nov and that will only be part month so have to wait to 11Dec to really see in £’s what’s happening. I’m not forecasting anything at this stage. I’ve been impressed that my modest system is now grabbing approx. 5kWh a day solar in pretty rubbishy conditions (but they’ll be worse this week). The Tesla software is impressive and you can geek out on it all day long. Will it pay back? There’s a few different angles to this. Worse case is prob 12 years and I may not have 12 years. It’s likely to be somewhat less but until we get through winter (and maybe a full year) forecasting solar capture isn’t practical yet. What I can say is virtually all my electricity now comes at 9p overnight rate or from solar. (The powerwall can only output 5 kW max and I still haven’t quite got the hang of using kettle and 2-3 cooker rings + oven (or grill) when I make dinner so the load sometimes exceeds 5 kW). However, I’m in the fortunate position of having funds from when we downsized and moved to Wales which as you all know have been paying absolutely zip interest for years now. As rates have rocketed up I’ve had to quickly move money into cash ISA’s where possible and longer term fixes so the interest is paid in future tax years whilst I organise things. I had no plans to use this extra money so I can use these funds to rebuild the capital I’m spending on the powerwall. In fact in less than 3 years I should have rebuilt the capital meaning I won’t care if the powerwall pays for itself in electric savings. This of course is dependent on me not needing the same funds for medical/care stuff. For me it’s principally about peace of mind for the future. Hopefully I can pay for it whether or not it generates enough saving in my lifetime. I now have a backup supply for outages which will happen here. Every winter there are mumblings about enough supply and electricity rationing – will it happen in my lifetime – prob not. Will pricing by time of day happen in my lifetime – 50/50 – but it will happen in many of your lifetimes, and if it does I’m protected by buying at night/grabbing solar. Will electric prices rocket up again? Who knows, but even if night rate goes up 50pct that’s still only 15p kWh. Phew, quite a bit there, further notes to follow about zappi and about getting multiple powerwalls with an interesting angle.

Thanks for this, finally managed to speak to Martin today and he's sending me a list.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67232823

BOAC and later BA had the union flag different on either side of the fuselage. Every so often some know it all 'discovers' the flag is upside down on the starboard side of the fuselage - except it isn't. The convention is that the staff (flagpole to most of us) is at the front of the aircraft and so the flag on starboard side is the reverse side of the flag.

Amazingly the 2 times I've used the online system here (Carmarthenshire CC) they've been here the next working day. There's an online map and you click where X marks the spot, attach a pic and that's it.

I had an email this afternoon from Locomotion saying much the same and asking for balance of payment so they can dispatch once in hand.

A candidate for 'prototype for everything' with the wonky numbers

I've passed on it now, and have a W10 machine coming

I upgraded this pc from Win7 to W10 a couple of years ago long after the 'free offer' had expired as people had a found a link that still worked ok despite MS saying you couldn't after 2016(?) Am looking to buy a s/h laptop with Win7 on it and wondered if anyone can advise on the link (which might have been on an earlier iteration of the board) and if it's still viable?

AIUI one of the earlier reports said the transponder wasn't working. A complete no-no for civil traffic but the military are exempt from such things even in civil areas?

Ever since cdc models announced the Chesham set I’ve been pestering Charlie to do them in brown as well as teak – and now he’s done me a set and I have to say I’m very pleased with it. rev Ivatt leading set by Sarah S1ddons, on Flickr rev Ivatt pushing set - bay by Sarah S1ddons, on Flickr

Mastermind contestant knows more than Stephan Merchant who actually co-wrote Extras: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0gd8h76

3 of my pivots had fallen out as well, but I pushed them back in and so far they've stayed. IMHO great value for money.

I'm sorry I seem to have missed this post. It is indeed 3D printed and RTR from cdc models (Charlie Connor). https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_dkr=1&iconV2Request=true&_blrs=recall_filtering&_ssn=cdcmodels&store_name=cdcdesign&_oac=1