I believe there is a legal requirement to run the last train or provide a suitable substitute. If it’s only set down, then it’s not technically the last train so if they terminate it short they don’t have to run a bus.

Rich.

Pembrokeshire Falconry[/url]

Great day. Just the wife and I. Flew loads of birds (Eagle, Red Kite, Hawks, Owls etc.)

Rich.

The mortgage company are not allowed to specify NICEIC – it can be any of the governing bodies.

Could be a servo failure or maybe just a vacuum leak. Check for splits/breaks/etc. in any vacuum lines.

Rich.

Climbing wall in Tenby – good fun.

Walk the Preselis – various circular walks – ask if you want suggestions.

MTB the Preselis (just done that).

Llys-Y-Fran – walk round or hire an MTB (good value) then either lunch there or at Tafarn Sinc in Rosebush.

Happy birthday!

Rich.

We have kmx karts at the bike mobility place I volunteer at. They’re ok but I’d describe them as being towards the bottom of the better stuff. If you’re serious about a recumbent I’d speak with Kevin Dunseath at D-Tek in Little Thetford, Cambridgeshire (01353 648177). He’s the guru and will sort you out. Difficult to get hold of sometimes but worth the effort.

Rich.

There’s plenty of fire rated downlighters available. No link showing so don’t know if you’ve got something in mind. Robus or Click are two well known manufacturers. A good electrical wholesalers should be able to help.
Rich.

Bee Keepers Association – Do You Have A Swarm?

Becoming an electrician is relatively easy but the difficulty is more to do with gaining experience.

My background, ironically, is in IT, latterly as a Java Developer (which was a career change from Systems Analysis etc. as I got fed up talking pure bullsh*t and went back to my roots).

Having moved to West Wales there’s no IT jobs so I retrained as firstly a driving instructor (I had started this before quitting IT) and then as an electrician.

I was probably around 46 when I decided to become an electrician (almost 53 now).

I had a mate who was a sparky and I went to the local college with him and did the 2nd and 3rd years of the 3 year City and Guilds 2330 course. Another guy on the course and I decided to set up an electrical partnership and we registered with one of the governing bodies (NAPIT) who if I remember correctly only required us to have done the wiring regs. exam and to be on the 2330 course. We also needed to pass the Inspection and Test exams (C+G 2391) within 12 months of registering. We passed, but we know electricians who haven’t.

Steve and I were both reasonable DIY types and were quite academic – I have Maths, Physics and Geography “A” levels and a logical mind. We had no problems with the technical stuff, although there is a lot you don’t realise you don’t know. As we weren’t doing an apprenticeship it was very much a case of relying on each other to verify what we were doing and assuming you’re able to pick up the technical bits, this is going to be where your problem will be. I was extremely lucky to have a good bloke to work with, but if I’d have been on my own I would have struggled big time.

You’re not necessarily going to need to do college – NAPIT require 2330 (or the latter day equivalent) but will accept you if you underake a test of competency. This enables people with experience but no qualifications to become registered. You will however still have to do the wiring regs. exam.

You could teach yourself – there’s plenty of books to help – and then get yourself registered. Getting experience is the difficulty, but you could do small weekend jobs to build up your knowledge before going full time at it.

The reason I suggest electrician or plumber is that if you’ve got a trade, you’ll always have work. However, trades are generally very price sensitive and it’s sometimes difficult to make good money. Electricians are two a penny and to be able to command higher rates you need to differentiate your business somehow.

Where I live there is the “Pembrokeshire Promise” – it makes the Spanish mañana seem like a rush job. 9am Tuesday could be any month and often any year. The amount of people who said to us “…but you turned up!” was just phenomenal. Add in good customer service, specialism in green energy stuff, the ability to wire central heating systems – whatever it takes to be “Marks and Spencer” rather than “Lidl” and you can crank up the day rate.

I’ve stopped doing “electrical contractor” stuff now as I’m getting too old for crawling around lofts and breathing dust. I now specialise in Inspection and Test work and fault finding. I do a bit of easy domestic stuff but my circumstances mean I am only looking to do a couple of days work a week now at most.

If you’ve got any questions, I’d be pleased to talk it through with you on the phone.

Rich.

Retrain as a plumber or electrician. Find a niche market by building a reputation for turning up when you say you will and doing high quality work for good quality customers. You’ll never go hungry.
Rich.

Can you drop the car down tonight and then have it waiting for you tomorrow?

Is this any help?

VHF Course Notes

Ten Minute Rule. Babies cry as per TiRed above. Put them down. Walk away. Shut the door. Have a cup of tea and time for yourself. If they’re still crying 10 minutes later, check and repeat. That 10 minutes can be a lifesaver when you’re totally knackered. I understand why babies get shaken/battered. It’s not necessarily lack of love, it’s lack of being able to cope and time for yourself can give that breathing space.

Use real nappies – dead easy.

Don’t pick your nose after you’ve changed a nappy.

Babies are much more resilient than we give them credit for.

Don’t listen to any advice. You’ll get constantly changing opinions and you won’t know your a*se from your elbow. Do your own thing and you won’t go wrong.

Time flies. Enjoy it. There’s always another day for painting the skirting boards.

Get plenty of cute/embarrassing photos to use as a bit of an “incentive” regarding getting then to coming round to your way of thinking when they get to 15.

I did a system for a lady who’s house had a pump to drain a sump in order to prevent flooding during heavy rain. The power was prone to dropping out when the rain came, rendering the pump useless.

We fitted a Victron Energy Multiplus Compact inverter with a leisure battery. The inverter keeps the battery charged and automatically switches over in the event of a power failure. On resumption of power, it automatically reverted to mains operation.

If you want further info. I can let you have it. Email address is in my profile.

Rich.

Firstly, ensure they are a bone fide driving instructor. All driving instructors are regulated by the DSA so they should have a green badge showing they are allowed to teach for money. A red badge is a trainee which doesn’t mean they aren’t any good, just that they are in training and being remotely supervised by a qualified instructor.

I would choose based on the pupils ability to build a relationship with them. You need to be relaxed, feel you can make mistakes and not be embarrassed to swear etc. when you do. Recommedation is probably the best way for initial selection, but don’t be afraid to bin them if the relationship doesn’t work.

I also think the “pass fast” type of instructors should be avoided. The test is just one stage of really learning to drive. A few lessons around test routes and teaching tricks to pass is not proper instruction. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the real objective is to give the pupil the skills to keep them alive (and their passengers) once they are out on their own. This requires time, practice and a wide range of driving experiences in different places and conditions. It’s not a cheap option but what price the life of your child? My mantra as an ADI was “it isn’t the first to pass that’s the winner, it’s the last to have an accident”.

Rich.

I read ParisMatch online – there’s a bit of gossip but a lot of high quality current affairs stuff and the “royal watching” pages are good because I can relate it to what you see in the UK news.

ParisMatch.com[/url]

Rich.

I agree with steveh. 1.6 TDCI can be a turbo eater if not looked after.

The insurance company is going to mullet over but they think the lorry’s haddock. It’s going be a few squid to fix.

You could extend the ring into the garage. Provided you fused down the lighting, which is easy enough, you’d be fine. There are however design considerations with ring circuits and depending on the loads you’ve currently got it may not be ideal. The optimum solution is to run a separate feed out to the garage. When you say spare RCD slot, I assume you mean MCB slot? A photo of your consumer unit would be useful and I can advise.
Rich.

Shutter priority will be better for action as you can choose the shutter speed. This allows you to freeze the action easier, although you may want to use a slower speed and pan the camera, thus freezing the subject but not the background.

Aperture priority is better for static subjects where you can use the depth of field to blur stuff behind the subject if necessary.

Program mode will choose the shutter/aperture settings for you. A good camera will allow you to change the combinations.

In my less than professional opinion, the key at this stage would be the ability to manage over or under exposing the picture in order to compensate for differing lighting conditions, rather than getting too heavily involved in the various program modes. Once you’ve sussed getting good exposure, move on to varying the shutter/aperture settings.

Obviously this is very simplistic and others with more experience may have a different view.

Rich.

I generally consider 9am as an acceptable start time and probably no later than 8pm of an evening for noisy activities at a weekend.
Rich.

Just to address the “earth” issue. You’ll find that almost every stat. is double insulated and thus doesn’t require an earth. What a lot of people do is cut the earth off in the cable. If you look closely at the stat. end of the cable, you’ll probably see a fourth conductor which is has no insulation around it and which has been cut back to the outer (grey) insulation.

You don’t need to do anything with the earth.

Rich.

Ok Pook, this is easy.

Firstly, ensure the power is off. This requires you to either turn off at the switch or set the dial knob to H+W Off. Either of these options will ensure the stat. cable is dead at the stat. end. There are live terminals inside the Danfoss box so do not touch anything in there. (There is no need).

Looking inside the Danfoss box, you’ll see the three core from your stat: this is the wire on the left. You’ll see that the blue/red/yellow wires go to terminals 1, 2 and 3 respectively with the terminals being numbered from the left.

The cabling is correct at this end. You can reassemble the Danfoss box.

At the stat end, put the red wire into terminal A and the yellow wire into terminal B. The blue is NOT REQUIRED. Trim any exposed copper off and tape it up. It’s a neutral and is not dangerous but I wouldn’t cut it off in case it’s required in the future.

Ensure the connections are tight, insert the batteries and switch the power back on. Ensure the Danfoss is set for the boiler to come on (ie H is on) and everything will be fine.

My email is in my profile. If you want to drop me a mail I’ll let you have my phone number and I’ll talk it through with you.

Rich.

Connect 2 in the danfoss controller to “A” in the stat. Connect “B” to the boiler. Which wires are which will depend on how it has been done in the controller which is why I need a picture of the inside.
Rich

that is also not the boiler guide. it is the guide for the programmer (Danfoss 3060).

misread early post. boiler isn’t a combi. System is an ‘s’ plan.

is the cable on the left the three core from the stat? Turn off the fcu (switch) on the right and take the cover off. post me another photo of the guts.
Rich

I’ll keep an eye on the post tomorrow. We’ll crack it.I’ve got no-one else down here to talk to. 🙂

Rich.

OK. Boiler is a combi with built in timer etc.

Stat. is battery powered so doesn’t need a permanent live.

Connection C isn’t required. Only A and B.

A is the connection from the boiler which goes live when the central heating timer switches on.

B is the return from the stat. which goes live when the stat. calls for heat.

The 3 core is a legacy from a previous boiler that had a mains powered stat.

You need to look at the boiler installation diagram and identify which is the output from the timer and where the switched live goes to inside the boiler (which will fire the boiler and run the pump).

The wires may already be connected, or you (I) may need to work it out.

What is the boiler make and model and I’ll look up the manual online.

I may need you to take the boiler cover off and take pictures. 😯

Rich.

Rich, that’s a very kind offer, but is anyone anywhere near Pembrokeshire?

😆

Are you anywhere near Pembrokeshire? I’ll come and look at it for you.
Rich.

MS 181 -CBE with a 12″ bar

Rich.

Take a look at learner driver insurance. Runs in parallel to an existing policy. Adrian Flux did a policy for my son whilst i taught him to drive. 3 months, £200.
Rich

not good practice. I would break this ring to keep it conventional. Assume you mean a 20a rcbo, which would protect the cable ok so it is safe.
Rich.

I charge about £170 for an electrical inspection of a property, depending on size/complexity.

I cannot issue a certificate for other people’s work, nor notify it, but I produce an Electrical Inspection Condition Report which some building authorities will take in lieu of a certificate.

Rich.

email me pics (email in my profile) and I’ll advise.
Rich.

It’s 51 miles, not the race across America. Take a jam sandwich, mars bar and a can of coke.