Nothing In Particular

[chris661]

This is worth playing with: http://kazuyanagae.com/20220103OrchMIX/

Click "Play" to start the music, and then choose which mic(s) you'd like to hear.
Classical recording requires rather different approaches to close-mic'd stuff I usually do, so it's interesting from a sound engineering perspective.


Chris

[pre65]

A week or so I got a phone call from Mums hairdresser to say she'd found traces of mouse shit in Mums kitchen.

So, Jean and myself came over to clean up the mess, and put some traps down. I got 4 traps (£1.50 each) and baited them with chocolate wafer tit bits.

Today I found 2 dead mice and the tit bits missing from the other 2. I've reset them and see what happens.

And, joy of joys, I had to package a poo sample from Mum for the hospital to check for salmonella or pathogens in case she ingested any droppings. Her eyesight is so poor she could not see the droppings.

[vinylnvalves]

Heard an amusing story, Work colleague had no heating, waited 2 days for plumber. “Nothing wrong with your boiler mate - it’s the meter” was the diagnosis. That was changed in 2 hrs, from making the call. It turns out that “smart” gas meters are fitted with a battery, that has a life of 10 years at best. So there will be a tsunami of work for transco ( that was) changing meter, after they have life expired.

[simon]

Even though the meter was plugged in at the wall? That sounds like a bit of a design flaw.

[vinylnvalves]

The incoming meter and Bluetooth transmitter, not the “smart meter”. The gas used to turn the dial via a paddle that measured flow, so some would say a retrograde step…

[Nick]

Seems like this is known and expected (and not only the case for smart meters)

All gas meters (Smart and traditional) have an internal battery that power them. This is designed to last for up to 20 years, with a meter recertification (exchanging the meter to replace it with a new one) scheduled every 10 years, so it’s unusual for this issue to crop up so soon. If your gas smart meter is making a beeping sound, it indicates that the battery is low and the meter will need replacing. If the battery fails this can affect the supply, as in your case, so it’s important to reach out to our Support Team if you do ever notice that your meter is beeping.

[shane]

Mine ran out after two years. The bloke who replaced the meter said that wasn’t unusual. He also said that it’s perfectly possible to replace the battery, but they’re not allowed to. The only reason he could think of as to why not was to increase profits for the meter manufacturers.

[vinylnvalves]

Wonder if they do a check of the system when they change the meter, it used to be the case ( back in the 80’s) when I worked for BG transmission, the last person who touches it is liable - Paul will put us right

[Nick]

The only reason he could think of as to why not was to increase profits for the meter manufacturers

It may also be because they think it would be better if all the meters in the UK were at most 10 years out of date when it comes to new features. I can understand that that would be a worthwhile target.

[pre65]

I found an interesting quote,

“Logic will get you from A to Z. Imagination will get you everywhere.”

— Albert Einstein

[pre65]

Carmakers may be using aluminium made by Uyghur forced labour.

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2024/fe ... ium-uyghur

[Paul Barker]

Wonder if they do a check of the system when they change the meter, it used to be the case ( back in the 80’s) when I worked for BG transmission, the last person who touches it is liable - Paul will put us right

Yes last engineer on site is the only liable person. So purge and relight is a very serious role.

When I worked for bg so in a bg van and uniform, the gas grid was updated in my street. Everyone had a letter we are coming to turn on youre supply please be in . (The gas fitter has to go into house do a visual of the appliances, go back to the meter, purge the supply of air water or anything else most domestic properties that would be 0.01 meter cubed run through based on a calculation of the system volume. This involves running appliances, yo stop a few times through the time until you reach the 0.01 m cubed. By the end for that system volume you know all air water or whatever has been purged and the appliances should remain lit, and not go out because a pocket of air renained.

Then you do the final checks on the appliances for ventilation fluing signs of stress signs of spillage flame picture. The grid guys are usually not appliance trained, so they arent responsible to the full extent of appliance safety. If they encounter anything they arent trained in, they cap off the gas to that appliance only and tell the customer to get their own gas man to check it and take the responsibility to put it back on.

Anyway, cut a long story short. I got home in my BG van, and the grid were driving out of the street. I chased after them and said “ oi, what about mine?” …. “0h, you can do youre own”.

That means connect the meter supply to the meter and then connect it to the house gas supply, do all the appliance tests and a full purge and relight followed by a tightness test which has to be perfect. So I said to myself, I’ll do it as if its a job and do it right. My 30 year old Ideal Mexico had a fracture of its bundy tube which carries gas over to the pilot. I looked up the part. Obsolete. I condemned my own boiler. Its nothing more than the grid guys would have done.

I bought a 2 year old Potterton combi on ebay for £270, drove to Manchester to collect it. Serial number showed its factory date was 2006, so I must have done this shenanigans in 2008 which was in the period I worked for bg. Its the potterton badged Baxi Duotec. Its still going strong and all its required is a fan which I bought for £40 on ebay. Its saved me fortunes in gas bills as a band A boiler. Well and truly paid for itself the Mexico wasnt efficient enough, it was time. Now with utility bills through the roof I would have been crucified if Id been able to buy that bundy tube.

The grid also gave me the opportunity to bypass my gas supply. Which I thought about I must be honest. But A I thought, this might be a test, and B as a gas man I would rot in jail for that, finally C, its wrong! So I didnt bypass it. Noone came to check, so it wasnt A so B wasnt a risk but C, better not to carry skellitons in the cupboard through life.

Sometimes you feel like the only person doing youre job right. Standards are poor in the service sector today. But its always worth doing youre job right.

[pre65]

"Sadiq Khan says he will monitor effectiveness of Paris plan to raise (parking) charges on SUVs."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -indicates

[pre65]

"Sadiq Khan says he will monitor effectiveness of Paris plan to raise (parking) charges on SUVs."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -indicates

Seems, in France, the 300% parking charge for SUVs also applies to EVs over 2000Kg.

[andrew Ivimey]

Prince William has come out with '... too many people have died in Gaza...' I wonder how many people, in his dim witted naive mind, is the right number to have died ( on both sides).

Neither his mum or even Prince Philip would have made such a cbadly worded comment. The media are grumbling but not shouting about this and suggesting that the Foreign Office, hence the Govt, are cynically using him.