I would just like to say

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Hippo said:
Have bin finking about a water meter fer some time but not got round to it. Me water tastes orrible. Run the tap ferrabit and its ok. Leave a cup wiv fresh tap water innit fer 5 hours and the water tastes bad.
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Thai's very weird, well maybe not considering the age of the pipes feeding you. Hopefully changing the pipes might make a difference. In any case it'll taste however it tastes meter or not.
 
DanClarke said:
.... Smart meter? Well, why does the Gas one report 3 x the amount of gas per day more than the old meter?
Is a bit fishy I think. I have daily records going back 2 years so my usage is pretty consistent.
I need to keep a close eye on this. :rolleyes:
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And get the flipping thing tested. If you can show the records they ought not to be able to object, or charge you.
I once got the electric company out to test the meter in my last place as I seemed to be deffo using much more leccy than usual. They tested it, it was OK.
Eventually found an old florescent lamp in the garage which wasn't working was leaking current direct to earth. Which explained why my neighbour and I got electric shocks when we waterd our gardens! :eek:
 
Back in now having taken the bits of W's car off so I could get back in to check the tensioner's position on the noo cam belt. Still a bit of a pain but didn't have to take off quite as much stuff as I did to change the belt.
Anyway, it hadn't moved from the position I left it in so I tweaked it until the position was perfect then put it all back together again.
Am I OCD? Maybe!
Been flipping warm here today, I was working in the sun and sweating quite a bit.
W STILL hasn't finished spring cleaning the lounge/diner. She's like a dog with a flipping bone.
I told her I thought she should stop she said "Yeah yeah" and when I told her she was being rude she stuck her tongue out!
Good thing we both know neither of us means anything by it!
Off to empty the DW and feed the mutts.
Have a good evening folks!:):):)
 
Hippo said:
Leccy supplied to yer castle is AC alternating current type. The voltage follows the path of a constant sign wave. 0 to 230 to 0 to -230 to 0 to 230... Hence alternating. It does this 50 times per second. Tis why they refer to it as 50Hz hertz. While this is happening the current flows in pulses, timed to the rise of the peaks of the voltage sign wave. Hence yer castle is supplied wiv constant pulses of electrical energy.

In leccy terms yer castle is a load. It loads the leccy supply, meaning it uses the power delivered to it. There's 3 types of load in leccy terms:

- Resistive where the current and voltage are said to be in phase. They match each other on phase angle. Meaning there's no phase shift between them.
- Capacitive where the current arrives earlier than the volts, so theres a bit of an offset. We say the current leads the volts. There's a phase shift between them.
- Inductive where the current arrives later than the volts, so theres a bit of an offset. There's a phase shift between them.

We remember this using CIVIL. CIV capacitive load current leads voltage. C before V. VIL inductive [L] load current lags voltage. L after V.

Yer typical house is an inductive load because of the type of leccy appliances yer have. Leccy cooker, washing machine, hoover, leccy shower etc are all inductive appliances. Office blocks wiv a lot of flourescent lights are typically capacitive loads.

Yer typical house has a supply current lagging the voltage by about 10%. This is factered into the normal cost of a leccy unit, to generate and supply the energy. Houses which are much more heavily inductive will see their power factor value shift more. Fer arguments sake a guess of 20% if they have a big lathe running or 20x henry hovers. With a normal old style leccy meter excessive power factor wasn't measured. So yer still paid the same unit price for the power delivered in watts. Volts x amps = watts. This is not the same for smart meters. They can measure phase shift which allows them to charge for excess phase shift.

In a purely resistive load, the energy delivered (voltage and current) is in phase. So the demand on the network is considered fair. Yer use of the energy network is what you get. For a typical castle where the power factor is offset by 10% because its an inductive load, yer placing a slightly greater demand on the supply network for delivery of the energy yer need, because of it being an inductive load wiv a phase shift. More demand than what whould be needed if it was a pure resistive load wiv no phase shift. This is factored into the normal leccy unit price for say 10% phase shift. Fink of it as putting a bigger strain on the energy supply network, for what you need. The greater the phase shift, the greater the strain. If yer phase shift drops to the above example of 20% because yer run a lot of henry hoovers at the same time, this would put an even greater strain on the supply network, to supply the same energy with a greater phase shift.

The short answer is smart meters measure phase shift and charge yer more for it, because yer putting greater strain/demand on the leccy network to supply the same amount of energy, if the phase shift is greater. Lots of peeps online argue against this as some sort of foul play. Its not. Its a fairer way of charging those who put excessive demand on the network supply. Yer never got charged this way before because they split the cost of energy generation and supply equally across every unit of energy used. Smart meters allow charging of users with greater phase shift due to what their powering in their house.
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Electric is very cheap in Frogland for us despite having a Smart meter, (called a "Linky").
Now we do have a particular tariff that favours peeps like us who aren't there in the winter but all the same.
So is our underfloor electric heating an inductive charge or a resisitive or what, please? All the elements are straight heating elements, no machinery, pumps or whatever involved, just dirty great wires as far as we know.

This is all very fascinating!
 
DanClarke said:
.... Smart meter? Well, why does the Gas one report 3 x the amount of gas per day more than the old meter?
Is a bit fishy I think. I have daily records going back 2 years so my usage is pretty consistent.
I need to keep a close eye on this. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Could it be yer old meter wasn't recording enuff.

Find the gas flow rating of yer boiler and let yer house go cold. Then put it on and time how long it burns gas. Compare this the the m3 on yer meter. The demand for gas will go through cycles of on and oft but yer should be able to hear it.

edit m3
 
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Stanleysteamer said:
Electric is very cheap in Frogland for us despite having a Smart meter, (called a "Linky").
Now we do have a particular tariff that favours peeps like us who aren't there in the winter but all the same.
So is our underfloor electric heating an inductive charge or a resisitive or what, please? All the elements are straight heating elements, no machinery, pumps or whatever involved, just dirty great wires as far as we know.

This is all very fascinating!
Click to expand...
Eye would guess resistive. Like a resister. Yer can get impedance which is AC resistance where there's a certain amount of inductance wiv the resistance for AC circuits. Measuring the current flow when first switched on would prove either way. If there's an inrush current then its not purely resistive. Eye has never played wiv underfloor heating.
 
Me first draw is complete. Screws and dowls. Eye has also glued in the back board. The reviews said there were missing holes. Pine is soft wood so there are holes yer make yerself as the screw goes into the second piece of wood. No wonder they fell apart if there were drilling oles.
 
Hippo said:
Could it be yer old meter wasn't recording enuff.

Find the gas flow rating of yer boiler and let yer house go cold. Then put it on and time how long it burns gas. Compare this the the m2 on yer meter. The demand for gas will go through cycles of on and oft but yer should be able to hear it.
Click to expand...

Some peeps were charged at m3 when their meter is actually ft3 or tother way around
 
Hippo said:
Me first draw is complete. Screws and dowls. Eye has also glued in the back board. The reviews said there were missing holes. Pine is soft wood so there are holes yer make yerself as the screw goes into the second piece of wood. No wonder they fell apart if there were drilling oles.
Click to expand...
Nuffin wrong wiv drillin a tiny pilot hole, less chance of splitting it.
1.5 mm maybe?
But again you may have some of those lovely screws that cut their own holes. They is good.
But pine splits for a pastime.
And there was me thinking that price was for a ready built thing. :rolleyes:
 
Stanleysteamer said:
Nuffin wrong wiv drillin a tiny pilot hole, less chance of splitting it.
1.5 mm maybe?
But again you may have some of those lovely screws that cut their own holes. They is good.
But pine splits for a pastime.
And there was me thinking that price was for a ready built thing. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
So far not one split. Screws are quite thin with a good thread fer gripping. All done by hand. Eye is quite pleased wiv the finish on the wood. They were well packed. Tissue paper between draw fronts. 3mm mdf lenf's around the box to stop it all splitting said box.
 
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