I got my tubes in March and the boiler has been totally switched off ever since. It's amazing how much energy is there for the taking.
I have 2M^2 of Ritter tubes and 220 litre hot tank. There have only been a few days when there wasn't ample hot water. We are 2 adults and 1 child.
The cloudless days have been capturing too much, and the system has been saturating by 2PM. We have been deliberately running it off steaming into paddling pools and stuff. I have the tank set at 70C. If I had TMV installed I might run it hotter, but I also have some plastic pipework from the tank so it's sensible to leave it there.

I'd expect to run without any additional water heating for about 8 months of the year at the rate it's going now. A sucession of cool cloudy days will see the tank unspectacularly hot, but so far I haven't experienced that.

For anyone interested, I also got 2.2KWP of PV just over 3 weeks ago, and have already generated 250KWH, 2/3 of which has gone back into the grid. My electricity meter runs backwards..

Anyone who likes shrimps ought to be fine with Scorpion. – Locust is not such as step away.

But perhaps they really do need eyes on stalks to make good eating?

I have been looking at the Dual Drive, it actually gives then more than I need, but could be good.

If 39-53 can shift OK, I may be able to keep that tooth count and look for 30..44. That would give 17.6..80. Only a little shy at the top, but maybe a go-er.

Thanks

Triple is out of the question – in this example.

Rohloff is lovely idea (my other bike is a Rohloff – yes it is), but I can't justify that for a runabout.

I don't need huge range, but 85" top end is not unreasonable for a following wind, especially on a tandem, and that would soon get quite spinny down hills. – . 17.5" is pretty much MTB bottom end and we want that (particularly Mrs MC who will be returning home solo up a steep hill)

Hi Realman,

I'm looking hard at a small wheel tandem for the school run and family trips. Circe Helios, but drive is all on one side, so the stoker has just the two chainrings available. I'd like about 17.5..85" gears, and can't see how to approach that range without going silly with the chainring ratios.

Very pleaased with the little Charnood I put in 3 years ago. Glass always stays clean.
I also know for a fact that some HETAS installers won't necessarily follow part J to the letter. It's not a hard one to read through, get your copy from from .gov.uk

Hi MrSalmon,
You don't do work without movement. Power = force x velocity. The rotational velocity of your feet is effectively zero, so you don't do any "work". The pedal does the work by rotatig the crank. All your foot does is act as a fixed torque arm – which must indeed feel strange.

Hi DT78. You aren't by any chance in the Farnborough area? The army trainees are a good source of naked flames. Last summer I had to stamp out a growing fire in the scrub, alongside still-glowing fag ends. – 100M down the lane slinking away was the furtive line of squaddies, – just off their break.
I suspect the army may be responsible for quite a number of the fires round these parts.

People who think those wooden things you put things in are called "Draws". – No, they are Drawers you dolt!

Gorgeous half hour through the woods. I stopped once just because the Honeysuckle filling the air was just so fantastic.

Personally I'd say that "ankle support" is mostly a myth. The only boots which give ankle support are ski boots, and hey you can even twist your ankle wearing those. Lots of boots LOOK like they might support, but they don't stop you turning an ankle, and they lead to poorer posture and weaker joints.

If it hurts don't do it. Boots won't fix your tendon.

Yes, I'm a skeptic and after years of heavy duty walking boots, have come to the conclusion (like may others) that lightweight shoes are mostly the way to go – unless you really need the boots for protection.

2 years 8 months, my daughter was hurtling round on her Lidl scooter bike. The key thing was to modify it so her feet would reach the ground! (Drop the minimum saddle height by an extra ~ 10cm by re-bolting the rear wheel "swing arm" plates, and hacking out a big lump of wood. – Easy to do on a cheapo wooden bike with a jigsaw).

I'll second backahnder. Glucosamine sulphate. Also add MSM, and take a couple of DSP of flax oil a day. – or fish oil if you really must, (but I wouldn't touch the stuff:). It'll take a few months to really work so stick at it.

You can smell it here now in Surrey. A faint bad egg sort of smell everywhere, and the viz is rubbish.

You're bloody lucky to be taken in at all by NHS. I tried with my (ex) dentist after a gap, and they would only sign me up again if I had all problems fixed first on their private service (=£££). Only then would they put me back on their NHS books (=more £££ from government).

I've never heard of a poor dentist…

Hi Oldgit.

"5W warm white ones in the hall stairs and landing and they are superb"..

What brand have you been using on the 5/6/7W GU10?

Forget evergreen, just fill it with raspberries, Bit of sun, bit of shade. Ideal. You won't regret it.

Coopersport 1. Way to go. I did that years ago. 6 miles off road to work now. We do have the 1 car, but diesel. These days I get satisfaction by accelerating tediously slowly and trying not to brake.

Fuel prices? – Higher the better as far as I'm concerned. If a Government with some balls doubled the price and fired all the new tax into energy conservation and renewables, then we'd have something to smile about.

13 years for the last one.

Very comfy for me – and yes they squeak.

Reason for me it that Fizic sensibly ignores the trendy "slot in the middle" thing which has made so many other saddles flat, and so puts all the pressure on two very small parts of sit-bones (which very soon gives me arse boils..).

The other really comfy saffle I have is 1989 built solid plastic factory spec GT. It's got no padding, and is narrow but a very similar shape to the Gobi in cross section.

It's the cross-section which is important, and irritatingly that's one thing which is very hard to get without measuring and trying. Before I found my Gobi, I used to go into shops with a cardboard cross-section template modelled on my ancient GT saddle.

It was soon clear that the Gobi was the only one with the necessary "hump", that didn't compromise itself on the trendy altar of the perineum.

It's very well known of course, but I couldn't resist posting it. I took this photo a few years ago from my hang glider over the middle of the Severn:

When I go out for a picnic, my kitchen knife is a locked blade.

I use it to cut cheese. – Are you allowed to cut cheese with a locking leatherman?

When I bought my TDCI Focus (with 100K miles) It was "OK", it ran fine but only averaged about 45MPG, and 50 on long trips, which was very disappointing.

It failed it's first MOT on emissions, and the garage blasted a load of that cleaner stuff directly through the injectors. I immediately got a really big improvement in MPG. Long trips were 10MPG better, and running about was 5MPG better. Nowadays I use if every few tankfuls and it's passed all it's last 3 MOT's with no problems, and will give me at least 65MPG on long trips with a light foot.

I am a (previously sceptical) convert.

Hi Dr_Bakes

"Has this ever caused problems when your daughter goes to friends or to birthday partys etc.."…

Well not really. Kids parties are not generally known for their healthy options anyway. So if she comes away having eaten only white cheese sandwiches and crisps, that's something we have to put up with. I can't say it's a problem. She's often the one eating rather more of the grapes and carrot sticks than the others, but if she wants the turkey twizzlers she knows she's free to go for it (but she doesn't)- it's up to her!

Hi Miketually

My 7 year old daughter has never eaten meat or fish. If she wanted to, we wouldn't stop her – but she won't ever get it in our house. I stopped about 30 years ago.

Because kids can be a bit fussy (our girl is actually getting loads better these days) , we got very good at deviously slipping in extra nutrition without her realizing. Particularly handy when she was a baby/toddler.

For instance, always 100% wholegrains and organic if you can justify it (I always can). She then won't expect bread or rice or pasta to be white. Get a little grinder and add in ground nuts or seeds (almonds or sunflower are great) to loads of things. You can even loose them on a slice of bread beneath the honey :). Shelled hemp seeds are a brilliant thing to keep also, we never eat "just" rice, but I throw in a sponfull of shelled hemp seeds into nearly any rice dish or pasta/pesto. They disappear amongst mottley brown rice and add a lot of essential ois and minerals.
Pasta is never wheat, but always Quinoa, more protein and less wheat to eat (which we get plenty of as it is).
You can use almond butter on her rice cakes, she might enjoy dipping her bananas into tahini. Lots of good fats and oils that way. Also keep a bottle of flax oil in the frige to get her omega 3's. Get her to enjoy salads by dipping her lettuce into dressing (nice olive oil and balsamic). Don't over prepare anything, they'd rather eat a raw carrot then a cooked one, and it's better for them anyway. Same goes all other veg.
Soya yogurt avoids excess dairy if that's your thing (cheese is handy stuff, but we do keep the dairy at sensible levels). She has always only had rice milk for similar reasons. (And don't let the Milk Marketing Board blind you with their calcium nonsense).

Lentil burgers kind of sum up the sandal wearing thing, but take them very seriously, and anything else to do with pulses. My little girl loves a great pile of kidney beans with a strong dressing of ginger and garlic.

For conveniance foods, which you do need sometimes with a child, most supermarket brands are awful, so don't bother at all. One to look out for is "Taifun" brand, they make really good smoked tofu, brilliant sausages (for school dinners etc).
Avoid processed cereals by letting her make her own. We got a oat flaker recently, and the novelty of turning a big handle and rolling her own oats has meant that "oats and raisins" is now a great staple. – It avoids obvious processed/salty/sugary alternatives (breakfast cereals) and gets round the museli problem (not many kids would eat museli – at least not ours!)

Nett effect is one very fit happy little vegetarian cyclist.

501's. I buy then secondhand. They are tight in the thighs for cyclists, but they stretch out after an hour or so – I haven't bought new jeans in years.

Detached house, 3 of us in here. £170 per year for water, sewerage, VAT and all standing charges.

I want to do it more, but it's less efficient than sitting. It is faster, but I end up so whacked I'm sure I go slower for the next 5 minutes when the hill goes flat, just recovering.
My "shadow" self who was calmly spinning up in the saddle, probably then overtakes me on the flat part at the top of the hill.

The Maul is brilliant when you get a knarly twisted lump with knots. For most other stuff it's a waste of time.

I've bought my last 3 cars at auction. It's a nerve wracking rush, but apart from that, it's never been a problem for me so far. I recon it's easily 20% cheaper. Nice thing is you are normally bidding mostly against dealers, so it's easy to get almost any car you want by just bidding up when they are forced to stop.

What brakes as a matter of interest? (My LX are terrible for it when it's wet and gritty). o–oops just saw your first line!

I've just got 100Kg of lead off my roof. Is that good?

There doesn't need to be a "normal" bedtime for a toddler. She has nothing else to do, she will sleep in the day if she get's tired. We gave up with our little girl at that age, when she normally went to bed only when we did (10..11PM). It doesn't matter, they catch up at other times. -Go to Spain and you'll soon see that the English approach is very .. "English!".

No, but some years back near Nottingham I caught a guy lifting someone elses bike. What amazed me was this scumbag was in broad daylight outside a supermarket. Loads of people were looking and going by. No one said a word or did anything as he carried it off with the rear wheel lifted. It was just shouting to me "I'm a bike thief" but NO ONE did anything! (Fool who left it only locked it through the wheel).

It was before I had a mobile, but I followed the guy kind of discretely. He dumped it a couple of hundred meters away in a pub car park, and went away to fetch his mates. I called the Coppers with full description, and they had him rounded up within ten minutes.

What was staggering was the complete lack of interest from loads of people from daylight robbery right under their noses.

The bloke who's bike it was never quite worked out what happened. I met him at the police station later (he had his bike back by then), and he thought I was some sort of undercover cop!

The new Gobi has gone flatter and wider. – They lost the plot a little IMO. It used to be one of the few saddles about in a proper old-school humped shape without daft cut-outs, and it worked very well for many.

The spoon is a little flatter agin isn't it, so not really a fair comparison.

I rode my derralieur bike again for 2 weeks over xmas, and it was brilliant to get back on the Rohloff afterwards.

The resistance of a well bedded in Rohloff one is very low. For me, the accurate fast gear changes more than makes up for a miniscule bit of drag which I don't notice anyway.

I find I can get more power down to the trail out of the Rohloff than than I can with D'ers. Gear changes are so reliable, I forget I'm doing it and am always spinning at the right cadence. On the d'er I find a I'm spending a much larger percentage of the time backing off the power to munch through the cogs, or switching the front end in a tricky spot, or fixing ghost shifts. None of that happens with the Rohloff, and I definitely go faster on it than on the d'er bike.

Years ago I did 2 lengths (50M). I was imagining I was one of these freedivers soooo..relaxed.

My mate pulled me out of the water at 50M because I'd passed out and was floating face down! –

I haven't tried it since!

Charnwood Cove 1.
Note the hole in the ceiling which warms the bedroom above. (The other bedroom being heated by the flue)

Hi Ski.

It's quite literally a nose test. They come round (A 30 mile drive), sniff, go back. I'm told that in a court case it would also be a nose test.

I think they have a bit of a problem. I'm not saying we are completely squeaky-clean, (like I said, there is no such thing as a clean burning biomass system – Carbon neutrality being irellevent to that argument it seems). More stoves will mean more complaints. It's going to become a bit of an issue for councils, and it creates a very embarassing conflict right at the heart of their own sustainability policies.

The law needs to change, or people's attitudes. Better the latter IMO but that's not much help for those caught up.

The Environmental health Officer gave me that line. – Just because it's legal doesn't stop a court from banning it's use.