its an interesting one…

people are generally pretty good, there are just so many EVs now. As an aside, I also learned that the bank of chargers will load share if they are all occupied – meaning that then everyone gets around 1kw, so they are pretty much useless!

Thats the other part of the infrastructure puzzle – work would install more chargers, but the network cannot handle it without significant upgrades. The building, lights, computers and canteen all need the same power.

Another issue that has developed is that the work chargers are only 13p/kwh, so as its substantially cheaper than most peoples domestic price, everyone with an EV wants to use the chargers at work. I believe this is because (as a major utility company) our electricity was hedged a long while ago. when this stops it may well alter behaviours.

If you plug into a fast charger and don’t have to queue (the lack of a queue big is really important here) then 20-30 mins later you’re back up and running. As said above that’s just part of normal stopping regime for a long journey.

I agree. But…
The problem is increasingly the lack of queue, or having the chargers actually all working. In the 18months I’ve had an EV this has got noticeably more of an issue. The quantity of fast chargers has not increased anywhere near fast enough to keep up with the extra EVs now hitting the market. This is also an issue at destinations – my workplace has around 15 chargers at one office. This was great up to about last September / October – i could do a long journey in the EV, get enough of a top up to get home while working and then drive home. Then the new replacement company vehicles started to arrive and i was then only able to access a charger by arriving before 8am (i live 2hr from the office) and even then, not guaranteed. This means I now take a petrol car to these meetings (personal not company car) as I need to be able to get home without another 30 to 40 min stop on the way back.

It will get there, but my view on EVs for longer journeys has really changed in the last few months, simply due to the extra numbers on the road and the infrastructure not being up to the job yet.

We are off on holiday to scottish islands this summer, and despite our EV being much nicer and a bit bigger than the petrol car, petrol is what we will take so we can avoid charging queues and the added stress of fighting for a charge.

how do you all manage such long service intervals? Are you doing very low mileage and doing on time rather than mileage intervals?  We went for an EV as live in small village so do quite a bit of mileage doing dull daily tasks like school run.  I wouldnt mind the service intervals if they at least changed the oil, but as has been pointed out above (and come in essential a couple of times already) I need to do it to keep the manufacturers warranty in place.

The bonus is that they are at least fairly low cost for the most part, and the big coolant one is hopefully going to be at the same time as recall / warranty work on the coolant so I am hoping that can knock a chunk off the price.

I’m guessing you havent had the 40000 mile service yet then Molgrips? That was quoted to me at £500.  Replace coolant, brake fluid and do the normal ‘checks’ that they charge £80 for every 10000 miles.  I get that it needs some checks but the 10k intervals are way too short, although it does mean it gets a proper wash every 6 months or so.

Agree with condition. Driving wise, it’s quite hard to be unsympathetic with the cvt hybrid system – I think you’d get fed up with it revving all the time! It doesn’t really need more planning, it’s just re learning how it works.

The hybrid system gives an extra shove from standing, but maybe not quite as much as desired when overtaking. Living in a rural area this want much of an issue for me, and suits the cruise at 50 plus mph style of the backroads, with the rewards of great economy.

I had one with the 1.8l engine as a company car for two years. Only changed it as moved to a job without a car. We really liked it and looked to get one to buy but couldn’t find one I was happy with at the time (last year when prices were mental).
Real world 50+ mpg minimum. Better on steady / longer runs. Massive boot and good passenger space and with the right model well spec’s too.

If you’ve not driven one, the CVT gearbox can take some getting used to as the devs never seem to match the road speed – but does encourage a chilled driving style which also helps the mpg.

Had the best headlights of any car I’ve driven too. It came originally with eco tyres on, and don’t realise how poor they were until work made me get STW approved cross climates fitted, which just made it better with no reduction in mpg.

The 1.8 boot is a bit bigger than the 2l, as it also has underfloor storage. Also discovered (after several months of ownership) that it had a pull up net behind the rear seats to allow loading up to the ceiling with passengers in too.

Only negatives I can think of were that the seats could have been a bit wider, and that it sits really low to the ground and the long wheelbase can mean it may ground.

If going over a car park speed bump too fast it could catch the underneath, and I managed to ground it on a deeply potholed road to a remote beach (but it didn’t get stuck and is smooth underneath for better aero).

You can probably tell I really liked it!

It does sound odd, but a while ago I tried a polar grit x – which has electrodes on the bottom to determine skin contact I think. I had the sensation you mention and returned it. I am also the person though that finds the hr bump on the back of watches uncomfortable so am not typical I think!

as said above, because they aren’t all part of the watercourse. As mentioned above, Rutland and Grafham Water for example are filled from nearby rivers – this has to be pumped up to them and can only be done if there’s enough water to take, and then if there is they can only pump as fast as they can pump (and also within abstraction licence limits).

Its an added trouble that pumping needs to happen as much as possible when its allowed now, but this then means having to run energy intensive pumps when electricity is at maximum prices :(

The benefit is only if employer requires you to work from home. I still mostly work from home, but business said we can come in again and because it’s now a choice rather than enforced, am not eligible to claim any more. I save far more by not buying expensive coffee or sandwiches etc and not driving in too.

For horrible sticky clay – conti xc 1.5″ Generally only deployed for mountain mayhem / SITS where anything wider means that your wheels wont rotate.

I used Bonty muds all year round, then replaced with Maxxis Beavers which IMO are better all round, sadly none of these available any more.

i just googled for conti xc, and found the continental cross king – that looks a bit like a bonty mud / beaver but with a slightly closer centre tread. might be worth a look?

It left me wondering why they haven’t just got on with it..

Regulators – OFWAT

Everything is tied up with them. If there’s a proposal to increase bills, they have to approve the business plan. Politically this has not been acceptable in the past. Combined with 5year funding cycles it has been very difficult to get approval for long term investments like reservoirs.

Hopefully this will be changing in the next cycle.

The regulation and current politics droves what happens – investment is effectively still government controlled, but with the option for the government to criticise when they choose.

Wow. Just seen that octopus go is now up to 12p/kWh off peak and 41p ish peak. 4 months ago I was laying not far off the off peak price in the day! Still cheaper than it could be but starting to chip away at the running cost differential.

No spending cuts could also be taken to mean no increases. So no increase on benefits, public wages, pensions, department budgets, councils etc. Effectively still reductions that will impact many.

As above – its not the topic of the day.
There is definitely a lot being made of it within the industry. Yes levels are low, but there is a real concern that without a lot of rain across the winter this will be a significant issue next year. Soil moisure deficit is very low (certainly in my company’s area) so any rainfall is either soaked up quickly, or if heavy rain events it runs off and causes floods rather than finding its way back to aquifers and rivers to take it from.

Also – the public and news outlets quickly forget when it has rained for a couple of days and the grass goes green again.

Because the real issue is leakage in the system rather than lack of water going in

Only if you believe the red tops etc. THe real issue is that it hasn’t rained enough. Leakage is in many places less than in the past. The difficulty with all the water company news stories is that they are over simplified. Companies are tied by the regulator in what they can spend on what items. If more is spent on leakage for example, this is because the regulator approved the company’s business proposal for this (with customer support) and bills then have some extra on to pay for this.

This is why you may hear about ‘economic levels of leakage’ – from a purely financial point of view, customers have to pay to reduce leaks. Beyond this point it costs more to fix than the cost of the water saved. Of course this changes when resources become scarce and get reported about. Some companies operate at a level of leakage beyond this, because it is (rightly) important to their customers who are prepared to pay to fund it.

I run my hot water at 40c,

so don’t need to worry about bacteria as much.

Just around body temperature- yum.
Even without a tank that’s a recipe for building a lovely biofilm inn the pipe work. As above, wants to be much hotter to prevent growth. Appreciate that it’s not potable water, but adding the aerosol from a shower head it’s not ideal. HSE advise 50c or higher on hot water distribution systems. Of course if the pipe runs are long then would want hotter at the source to allow for heat loss.

The cap is on the average rate applied, so if off peak is lower and that results in cap or less then it’s ok. Our octopus go is the same, so with 39p peak and 7.5 the average price is 15.8 p/ kWh, so better than cap. This will go up as it gets darker and our balance shifts a bit, but still much less than cap.
They emailed us and explained this at the end of last week. I had been holding a small flicker of hope that the peak rate may drop a bit!

@molgrips – you mention you are on intelligent octopus- from the EV thread I believe you have an Ioniq – how does this work with the Hyundai? I was not aware it was available for Hyundai currently. This could work well for me as often have the car at home during the day and could take advantage.

Mines been playing up missing traffic and closed roads for a few weeks. I just checked through my app settings (iOS) and found that the location access needs to be set to ‘always allow’ for live traffic updates. Not sure if it needed this before but maybe has an impact?

Have you tried the YHA there? They have availability showing for private 1 and 2 bed rooms. They also have accessible facilities there. Nice place.

+1000000 for the Achray ice cream. We were up there a couple of weeks ago on the forest drive and the well trained cute goats held us up enough so we stopped for an ice cream. Best I’ve cream I’ve had – my 12yr old daughter who doesn’t like any ice cream anywhere even had some and said it was great. Which was a big shock- need to find some goats milk ice cream in Lincolnshire now.

Currently £60 a month using Octopus go tariff from last year, however that expires October so been fretting what to do. Taken a gamble on renewing now on a higher rate GO tariff in the hope that it’s cheaper than what would be available when the fix ends. Will cost a bit more over next month or so, but hoping better over long term as we use majority of electric for off peak car charging.

Hopefully this keeps bills to £80-£100 rather than £200+

The gamble has caused a little friction in the house, so I am also hoping to be proven right for the sake of general harmony at home!

Then there is the heating oil problem to come – hopefully got enough to see out the winter…

In glasgow today and saw the moonSwatches in real life for the first time. Really like the look of the earth model but can’t get past the snapped buttons and £200+ for a swatch. Went to the omega shop and my 9 yr old daughter wisely advised me that the speed master was £5700 and ‘what if the strap breaks, it’s not worth it, let’s go’. That was the first time I’ve been in a shop like that where I was being taken seriously but was brought back down to earth quickly 😄

Said daughter was quite keen on a shiny swatch though…

We went off Octopus Go and ended up on their standard. You have to be doing enough miles to offset the higher normal leccy cost with lower car fuel cost, and I don’t think we are, at least not currently.

Agreed.

We calculated before we moved tariff and it didn’t take much to tip the balance. We do 30miles a day just in school runs, and have switched to trying to use the EV for everything else too, hence the 20k miles in a year and this definitely works out better than standard rate. It’s also substantially cheaper than the fuel costs on the petrol car.

Most of our journeys are within range of home charging so works out ok. If not then it’s most likely I’m going to an office and can take advantage of the current 13p /kWh charging there. Have a long drive to Scotland this week, so that will dent the costs, but that’s a rarity and what tipped us to an EV to begin with.

We don’t really use a lot of electricity, it’s heavily weighted to the EV charging.

The last bill we had averaged out at 11p / kWh with both rates combined.

Have you looked at a variable tariff like octopus go? That’s currently 7p /kWh off peak which makes a big difference in fuel costs. Balanced out with the higher day rate that is averaging 11p / kWh for us.
However, we seem to manage nearly 20k miles a year, mostly running around local very rural roads, so the difference is more significant.

I love my dryrobe for this, but they are becoming a fashion thing and so I hate it in equal measure. They are very expensive but great for what they are meant for.
In our house we also have Charlie McLeod ones for the children which seem almost as good as dryrobes, but then the adult ones now also cost the same as dryrobes. We also have an ‘anti-dryrobe’ like these – Poncho Which is much cheaper and TBH about 70% as good for the summer. Also packs much smaller.

Dryrobes are massive even when squashed down too

From torksey you could go towards Bransby then across to sturgeon by stow, Thorpe Lea fallows to Brattlby. Then up the horrid (fun?) steep sharp hill, past the runway at RAF scampton on where you may see the red arrows. Then cross a15 through hackthorn and out through cold hanworth, friesthorpe and onto route 1. Not sure about bike routes once you get to barnoldby le neck, it gets more built up there.

The above isn’t gospel, most of the small roads on those bits will be quiet. Just avoid the A1500 as cars tend to blast down it.
I live on route 1 between nettleham and market Rasen, so if you plan a route that goes that way let me know and I can provide you with a refuelling stop.

9 months into EV ownership and the public charging network still disappoints me. As mentioned above, even new ‘good’ chargers are over complicated to operate. Trying to get an ionity charger to start took nearly 10 minutes as it decided to eventually talk to the internet and then the web page on my phone. Why can’t they just work with a contactless card like InstaVolt?

This was after not being able to use another location because the elderly gentleman in his new car still had ‘50 mins to charge’. Yes, that’s because you are already at 86% so it’s now charging slowly- can I use it as I am part way through my journey home and have another 150miles to go and no charge? He was very nice but didn’t ‘get it’. He did helpfully suggest the free Tesco charger across the road.

There need to be guides to etiquette posted on chargers to help with stuff like this.

I am now much more confident getting near home when the tortoise appears on the dash 😆

Ah. GoPro 8 onwards will livestream so could do that. Depends if you want the content on Facebook I guess!

GoPro Quik app will do all you need. Connects to camera with Wi-Fi and can preview on tablet. Only issue will be the range – might be too far away if y’all building

As above – perhaps stop in Lincoln and take the train to Nottingham to visit? Newark isn’t a place I would ever think to stay. Southwell is nice as mentioned.

Had my first use of an ionity charger last night, as the 2 grid serves (at 39p / kw) were full. Bit of a shock at the price but needs must. The cost of power from these at 69p a kw takes away the fuel runnning cost benefit (assuming 4 miles / kw), also meaning company mileage payments don’t cover it! Being on octopus go insulated from this most of the time (and makes up for the ‘loss’ on mileage payment)but that can’t last forever.

It was however quick to charge, but I can’t take full advantage of the crazy fast charge rates with my vehicle .

Really want a black moonSwatch, sadly live in rural Lincolnshire so a bit too far to go to get one

It’s much more painful as generally needs to be paid for all at once.
No it doesn’t. Only if you choose to do it that way. It does how ever have to be paid for upfront.

Yes sorry – I meant paid for upfront, not as in having to get 1200l at once. An increase of hundreds of pounds on a purchase like this is a big hit.

Oil prices are crazy, somehow hasn’t hit the media though- perhaps because none of the papers are based in rural locations without gas.

It’s bad enough ‘normal’ fuel prices are going up, but how are people struggling going to be able to pay 100% more on heating oil? It’s much more painful as generally needs to be paid for all at once.

Does seem that the prices have ramped up more steeply than the crude oil though. If petrol diesel had done at the same rate it would be over £2.50 a litre (obvs taxes are different).

I think this will hit struggling families harder than the gas – as those locations on oil are also likely to be rural with greater reliance on cars too.

My work surface laptop does this every now and again. The solution I was given was to hold down the power button for ages to force a shutdown – has to be this not shutdown from the menu. This apparently clears some retained setting and then on restart the wifi appears again. Last time it happened it needed two shutdowns but it fixed it.

Newspapers reporting all Covid restrictions to end in 10 days.

Based on the Trafford centre yesterday a large percentage of the British public already think this is the case. I was surprised at how normal it was. In lots of places mask wearers were the minority and zero social distancing anywhere.

Instinct will do OS grid as the ‘position format’ I think it’s part of the nav settings. Been looking at these for a while but have to consider if want the ‘new’ versions out in new year. But this price!

Do any of you worry about having several thousand pounds strapped to your wrist?

I still remember back in 1996 watching my dad ride into a gravel trap on Mammoth Mountain and go slow motion over the bars into the deep gravel. He came out unscathed but with a heavily scratched (couldn’t see through it)glass on his Speedmaster moon watch. He wasn’t bothered and it cleaned up fine with a bit of a polish. Still has it now and wouldn’t know.

I’m not looking for any sort of guru to skim my disposable income

No need to spend any money, all the info on how to try it can be found for free.

The ice Bath is the media grabbing bit. The breathing may help op and is free to try.

Researching around it, Wim Hof is a long time yoga student (50+ yrs) and has developed what seems to be an accessible method of breathing practice. This has been promoted a lot on socials etc and become ‘cool’ in the last couple of years.

I’ve been cold water swimming for a few years, and doing the wim hog style breathing in and off for a bit less time.

I came to the swimming as an extension of ‘normal’ open water swimming.

Stumbled across the breathing method and it definitely makes me feel better. The cold and breath are two very different things.

I would suggest trying the breathing excercises to see if they help. The Wim hog app is very helpful and available at no cost.

There do seem to be an increasing number of ‘devotees’ and Wim hof ‘fanatics’ but if you ignore the Insta noise and try it out you may be pleasantly surprised.

As a professional ‘scientist’ I did a lot of reading around it all as it can seem a bit daft.

I would also recommend James Nestors book ‘breath’ – a science journalists investigation into a number of different breathing techniques etc. gives a good balanced insight into different methods.

I would say that personally, I have found regular breathing exercises to be beneficial both when I was off work for several months with post viral fatigue, and more recently when I was experiencing severe anxiety.

Key for me is to ignore the ‘hype’, but try it as there’s nothing to lose by doing the breathing.

Cold is another thing though, now is not the time to start swimming in cold water, but again 30s of cold shower is worth a go.

Edit: just seen the above post about social media. Have had a few discussions with friends about the worrying and incorrect info out there – also the whole doing it for the ‘gram culture. But then that’s everything now I suppose

I’d like to see a press conference beforehand between Tyson Fury and Tom Daley with them trash talking each other like those before a big boxing match 🤣

Actually ‘personalities’ this year. Like this show as it’s some pre Christmas positivity