It will be fine. No need for A&E.

My dad used to be a fridge engineer (domestic mainly) The older Freon gasses were toxic only if burnt as they could create fosgene.

As for fridge being toast. It might not be. I spent most summers with my dad fixing fridges where this had happened (always in summer!). Basically you can patch the hole (alu foil and epoxy like a tyre patch. Then the compressor will have a stem  on it where it was charged with gas at the factory. You braise on a short extension with a valve/fitting. Then pull a vaccum on system to get rid of any air/water in pipes and then fill back up with appropriate level and type of gas. Not a complex job and someone local might be able to do it.

I use a SECRID wallet. Fab item and very compact. 

Mostly however I just use my phone. 

Biggest pocket saving was recently getting a NUKI smart door lock. Means no more keys to carry. 

Though I do always now carry a portable battery pack as the thought of a flat phone battery is unimaginable. 

I have never bought a Skoda or taken a job in IT. 

WMF Professional Plus Garlic Press

It’s £40 on a garlic press, but after years of using £5-10 ones this is a joy to use, we get through a lot of garlic here!

Huge fan of the various Makita options here.

The reciprocating drywall saw is ideal for most stuff up to about 3” diameter which is a lot! As said, eats batteries (mine is the older brushed motor one) but fab kit.

The 36v battery chainsaw is brill too for the odd occasion its needed.

My fave and most flexible option however is the mighty DUX60 z with 191T pole saw. That cuts EVERYTHING and allows safe operating distance as you are always 6 foot away from the spinny nasty sharp bits. Coupled with the corresponding pole hedge trimmer it will cut/trim/prune anything in the garden or further afield. Not cheapest option but paid for itself by being able to easily DIY rather than get a person in to cut my mums hedges etc.

Molgrips: Our quote is crazy good, just under £2000 for a Daikin, 4 radiator upgrades (3 layer) and a 180l water tank inc installation and all electricals.

We got the quote when the subsidy was £5000 and then when it went to £7500 and Daikin had a £250 discount added it tumbled in cost. Neighbour go a quote a couple of months ago and his is more like £4000, so I think we were lucky and got in before the rush. 

Octopus will upgrade your rads as needed as part of the install. They are changing all but two of mine in Feb.

We went in 2021 and stayed in the Prati area. Its the bit just up near and NE of the Vatican. Cheaper and good (affordable) places to eat and there are tube stations there (though we walked into the centre… about 20 mins).  We booked a random place on Expedia, which was fine and affordable. 

My array is entirely E/W facing (well 11° towards south on the East side). It works really well. 10 panels on the E side and 8 on the W side on separate strings. Get as many panels as you can, they are cheap. Just make sure they are on different strings where needed.

Ton cruise? Is that his home made go-pro videos of bits of East Leeds?

We signed up over the summer for a Daikin heatpump from Octopus. 

Incredibly good deal. 8kW Daikin, 180l cylinder and most of the radiators replaced with upgrades for £1900 (the £7500 new grant picks up the rest). Install is planned for mid february. 

Well I don’t think we will be getting much solar today… jeez it’s grim out there. 

So far in October we have generated c90% of what we used (217 generated solar vs used 238kWh).

When we went we stayed in Prati which is near the Vatican and the indoor food market. Its less touristy and the bars there do the most amazing free food when its Aperitivo time. Eating out if you avoid the tourist hotspots is less than UK. 

Sticking with Flux here. Charging each night at the cheap rate, sending any modest surplus to grid each 4-7pm slot. Its a simple to understand tariff so I like it.

I did a similar thing. We visited Imil in January this year. I had our guide on Whatsapp. Thankfully he, his immediate family and most of his village are alive, but his house is badly damaged and his mothers village of Moulay Brahim has been badly hit. I was able to cobble together some money from friends via facebook and have sent him a bit over via PayPal to help out as best he thinks. Terrible situation and has now been overtaken by Libya in the news cycle.

I am the weird neighbour.

McVities choc digestives are full size (unless changed in last 3 years). All supermarket digestives (made by either McVities or Burtons with slightly less chocolate on them than branded) are a smaller diameter.

Reason the chocolate is on the bum rather than the top is they are run on a conveyor through the chocolate rather than enrobed like a Mars Bar would be.

Always been a Casio fan here. Growing up in the 80’s they were just better built than others (IMHO).

Did my GCSE’s with this:

FX-7500G SCIENTIFIC FOLDING GRAPHING CALCULATOR 1988

Both kids have done well at maths and being a geek dad have both had Casio top of range (I mean they are about £100… so compared to other crud we spend on an investment) graphing calculators at age 15. My suggestion is buy them in YR11 as if they are mathematically inclined they will doss about and learn the calc ahead of when they need it at A-Level.

Well August wasnt the best month, but not too shabby.

18 panels (10 facing east, slight 15° towards south) 8 facing west (slight towards north)  12.8kw battery set to discharge/recharge to about 25% each day before recharging.

In Leeds we got 677kWh solar, with domestic usage 377kWh.

Combination of surplus solar and Lux/Hanchu battery load shedding we exported 696kWh at an average of 23.81p and imported 477kWh at an average of 17.86p.

Total for the month, about £60 profit even after standing charges etc.

So far in past 7 days we are £18.5 up, mainly due to sun since the weekend.

Likewise, we did the roof first, then added panels.

Hedges, grass, hanging washing out are enjoyable menial stuff. Washing up (not got dishwasher and kids abandoned home!) and hoovering I hate.

muddyjames: thats exactly what I do. Though I suspect that with losses the gap between 0200-0500 buying and daytime selling is close to zero. What it does mean however is full battery every day irrespective of the weather. I also force discharge at 3kW between 4pm and 7pm. So about 9kWh discharge, leaving 3kWh approx to run the house between 7pm and the next 2am slot. Tweaked settings to maximise sale but also ensure enough remaining in batteries at 1901 to last a typical remainder of evening.

Those settings I suspect I will keep all year as the only variable really is solar yield and surplus of that goes straight to flux export.

Edinburgh: Very expensive, full of potholes (even by Leeds standards) and Princes Street needs to be pedestrianised as currently its poor for drivers and shoppers.

Daughter is studying there and this year moved to Haymarket (near the Lidl) that seems a bit cheaper and has some nice affordable places to eat and shop.

Have bought many cars from Ebay. Golden rule for me is judge the person selling as much as the car. Ideal for me is a private sale from someone who just wants a slightly better price than trade in offered to them.

Batteries plus lots of panels plus Octopus Flux working well for us so far.

3800kWh generated on panels in first 5.5 months (since early march) and with flux we have received over £300 credit to our Octopus account since tariff went live late April.

Our installer (recommended on here!) used us for a case study:

Conrad Hart-Brooke - Leeds, LS26

https://p4solar.co.uk/case-study/conrad-hart-brooke-leeds-ls26/

Thanks for comments so far! Look forward to hearing more!

For cutting is circular saw or jigsaw best? Am guessing key to cutting is not letting it get hot/melt and clog the blade?

Anything involving mixing plaster or mortar and a trowel… would love to learn to brick lay and do basic plastering, but everything from getting the right materials, right mix and right technique is a little alien to me.

I have a Makita DUX60 with strimmer, hedge and pole saw and extension pole. If you already have the Makita LXT system its epic.

Have pruned many a hedge and bush over 3m high and the combo of mini chain saw and hedge trimmer is unbeatable. A full set up will be knocking on £1000 but compared with £200 for a half assed effort from a Leeds “gardener” its good value over a year or two.

Its tricky for me to work out pure solar export as we have 12.8kWh of batteries that we charge and discharge on Flux every day.  But so far in july 615kWh solar yeild. My Octopus app tells me that I have imported 369kWh and exported 644kWh.

July has been a bit manky compared with May and June. And our system was only commissioned in March and went onto Flux end of April so only decent data I have is for the late spring, summer which is obviously peak!

Total solar yeild from beginning of March is 3400kWh which I think is slightly better than I expected (estimated annual yield was 5200kWh on their calcs). As my system is AC coupled I assume a loss of c10% of generation vs usable energy (battery losses and AC/DC conversion. But the c1000kWh net generation is taken from my Octopus app so is real and billed as such, and yeah it is pretty much just may-july for export and march-july for import, so if Flux has been active in March and April my export would have been higher.

I think this would pay for itself plus a little wiggle room.

I got 18x 405w longi panels plus 4x Hanchu batteries (12.8kWh)  with AC coupled Lux Squirrel inverters for 15k in Feb this year. From what I read prices are now even better esp on panels?

Since early march I have exported 1000kWh more than I have used and with Octopus Flux am making >£100 a month in may, june, July …. compared with paying £120 a month. Our leccy usage is/was similar to yours, but imminent heat pump will change that!

If you can borrow at a fair rate then it kinda makes sense. Have a look into whether AC or DC coupled makes sense for you. We went AC coupled as though some efficiency loss the flex on drawing lots from battery (7kW) made sense to me.

The smell you have is N-butyric acid (smells of baby vomit). To really get rid you need a mild alkali to neutralise it. Bicarb or something should do the trick. Neutralise the acid and the smell will be eliminated.

Failing that then resort to the obvious petrol and matches.

<p style=”text-align: right;”>Flaperon and Daffy, you are probably right from a profit/loss perspective. However I like the idea with helping with national load shifting (combined with solar if its sunny my system pushes 6-7kW continuously to the grid 4pm-7pm), if we have enough of that nationally then thats fewer gas powerstations revved up. Based on c£1.50 a day extra from having the charge/discharge cycles its c£5000 extra over 10 years. Payback on whole system is c6 years and then £2000+ profit per annum. If I have to spend a few £k in 7-10 years on replacement kit then thats not disastrous. The wear on inverters is a funny one. As its an AC coupled system I have three inverters (one dumb one for panels and twin Lux Squirrel pods that give 7kW flow between them). The panels inverter runs at 3.5-3.6 kw for large parts of the day when sunny, so if any will fail its this. The Squirrel Pods charge at full rate for two hours each night, then sit there doing not much if its sunny till 4pm when they are set to discharge at 45% rate (c1800w)  so they get down to 15% DOD by 7pm. The 15% covers us till 2am when they charge up again.So the squirrel pod inverters have a fairly easy life most of the year as the are dormant whenever the sun is out. Will report back over the years as batteries age, but right now cant see why I would have the capacity and not use it.</p>

Wilard, I think I landed lucky… ordered Jan 2023, fitted end of feb 2023.

Battery size is a funny one. We have 12.8kWh of Greenlinx batteries and with Octopus Flux we fully charge and discharge them each day to max the peak/offpeak price gap. I guess if we had a smaller battery then would still use flux tarif and charge to 100% overnight which is easier (and pretty cost neutral) on set up/management than charging batteries from solar I think. At the moment the solar is making 37-40kWh per day and domestic usage is c10kWh (though doubled this week with portable AC!). So battery usage is low.

Will be curious to see how batteries help in winter. I expect they will just help keep us on the 19p per unit overnight leccy.

Very impressed with solar so far. P4Solar in Ilkley, recommended from this forum.

One week into having Flux export live here in South Leeds. Broadly we are generating 2x what we are using (69kW exported in a week). Taking into account import costs and standing charge, Flux has still MADE US over £19 last week.
If you want more info then pics are on twitter: @chb_leeds

I am selling a 14” One One Inbred bike on Ebay at the moment. It’s in great condition and has full Shimano Hone groupset.

Obviously before you separate off, if at the Armouries have a coffee and pastry at North Star coffee… some of the best pastries outside of France/Italy.
For lunch, highly recommend Momma Thai on Duncan Street (2 mins from Corn Exchange).

Dentist… you were lucky!
We had to bash our teeth out wi t’road!

7.2kW install on an E/W roof in Sunny Leeds… well I say sunny, it wasn’t particularly this month.
Install only went live on 5th March, so not a full months data.
However in the period 5-31st March we generated 307kW and put 170kW into the batteries.
Import from Octopus was 135kW which is a lot less than we would normally use and some of that was me testing our the forced discharge on the batteries.
We are on Octopus Flux import and just waiting for Flux export to go live in the next week or so.
Being new to solar, I am impressed how even with a fair bit of cloud you can generate a lot, and the E/W aspect works really well too, so south facing really isn’t important so much.

Speaking from experience, its hard graft, but very rewarding.
My suggestion is to get known as a person locally, rather than just a party. Quite a lot of folk vote for the party at local elections, but a hell of a lot do look at the candidate first.
If you are out, active, sorting stuff and volunteering then that really helps.
Facebook, love it or loath it, is important.
Councils run best when they have intelligent local folk in them, most councils have a lot of this but also a fair number of councillors from major parties in safe seats who often just coast along.