We were lucky in that way with our old boiler.
When our guarantee expires on our new boiler, I think we’ll probably wait and see how we get on with just annual services. That’s what we did when we first moved in here. When faults started to happen, we then took out the annual maintenance contract which included repairs as well as servicing. Hopefully, it could go on for years before any faults begin to crop up.
That was good of him:-)
Did look at fitting a Hive (or equivalent) control system, but it would have been too expensive IMHO.
When we (as in “I”) installed the heating pipework in our house (a GasSafe fella I knew installed the boiler at a friend’s rate, as I’d done a bit of work for him in the past), I installed two zones. One feeds the rads for all of the house apartfrom the bathroom, which I installed as a separate zone. The idea being that during the summer, when we don’t need to heat the house, it would still be nice to have the rad on in the bathroom to take the morning chill off and also to help dry towels.
Works well for us. But makes it a ballache in terms of installing smart controllers. In effect, it would cost double!
Worcester-Bosch and Vaillant always seem to come out on top when you look for recommendations. Of course, DIYnot experts each have their own preferences, as do most fitters!
I don’t like jam. I just thought I’d mention that.
I hope so too.
With luck, utility companies will find a way of incorporating differentiated fees to run different types of electric appliance. For example, if an electric boiler could be run for the same price as a gas boiler (using a separate circuit so that other “normal” appliances maintain the usual higher tarriff), then replacement of a gas with an electric boiler would be a no brainer.
If this is already in progress, they’ve kept it mighty quiet. If not, then they should consider it pronto!!
What a surprise! 
I suspect it was the religious types who got me the ban. You know, the ones who talk about forgiveness, but never actually practice it ;-):twisted:
But, we digress…
Tbh, we’ve heard lots of bad reports about wb boilers, from people in the trade, we went for viessman, a company that make industrial/commercial boilers who branched into the domestic market, it’s been good in the 11 years we’ve had it, although it’s had a couple of faults over the years, although one was with the digital thermostat, but it’s like anything they all have their good and bad stories.
Are you talking about the General Chat section of that forum?
I don’t bother with that section; OFF is better!
The ONLY reason that PV panels have to be replaced after time is that the glass/plastic cover over the PV element becomes “hazed” and the reglazing would interfere with production of new product.
As for nuclear waste, that is a red herring swimming in a lake of pure BS.
The BIG issue where spent nuclear fuel is concerned is 100 political.
Only a tiny portion of nuclear waste is REALLY nasty 'orrid stuff and that us usually “glassified” which makes results in the really nasty stuff that is an alpha emitter being nailed down safely. Really safely. I mean REALLY REALLY safely. Even if dumped into a volcano it wouldn’t be a big issue.
The problem arises when the question arises where can we dump this stuff that will not create merry hell from nearby residents. Any politician who didn’t fight that tooth and nail would be toast - in spite of the facts.
Other waste is mostly low level stuff and with a short half life and isn’t a source of any significant alpha radiation (which is bad because although it can be stopped very easily being a particle creates merry hell with the DNA of cells if ingested). Instead it’s a source of mostly gamma radiation (think X-rays) which are still very nasty in the extreme.
In the case of Pripyat (Chernobyl) indications are that in about 400 years it will be perfectly habitable again but that depends very much on what elements were released and their isotopes.
Being an erstwhile physicist (before realising where the money was) I could rant on about this until the cows come home!
The bottom line is that nuclear fission produced power really isn’t the horror story it is presented as being to Joe Public.
No they don’t, they are wired individually as radial circuits. The total load of a few storage radiators connected to a ring circuit would far exceed the current rating of the cable and be in excess of the standard 32amp MCB protecting the circuit.
Exactly this. Even if electricity supplies could be guaranteed (highly unlikely if using wind-turbines/solar arrays), the price would be jacked up as soon as everyone went to electricity as their sole source of energy.
And still no mention of natural background radiation, with which man has lived for millennia.
Here’s a simple explanation showing proportional contribution:
Apart from the nuclear waste issue, there are other somewhat noticeable problem which suggests that great care needs to be employed.
Think Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi.
The first was caused by poor installation and maintenance, the second by an earthquake and the subsequent tsunami.
The first could have been avoided by not using poor materials in its construction and by having better safety controls/measures in place.
The second was a freak of nature and could not have been predicted. Even though the built-in safety features detected the earthquake and shut down the reactor core and dumped the excess heat from the fuel rods, the site was engulfed in a huge tidal wave which swept over the walls of the site and flooded the safety measures allowing the fuel rods to melt down causing an explosion.
I agree with this. Plus, W Bosch are good for the guarantee too. I recently had to call them out to replace the fill valve and PRV. They replied within minutes and sent a fitter the next day.
Personally, I wouldn’t go for an electric boiler just yet, just like I wouldn’t buy an electric car just yet, not until everyone else has them and they become the norm.
I’m aware of that, but many thanks for saying it.
The trouble is that this sort of occurrence does raise natural considerable concerns when considering the use of nuclear power plants.
Personally, in the absence of anything else which can produce electricity to that degree of magnitude reliably, I’m all for the use of nuclear fuels. But I’m not entirely convinced I’d be happy having one at the bottom of my garden, partly due the potential safety hazards if things went wrong.
I think that there may well be better ways of generating electricity (and which don’t rely on sporadic wind power, nor involve burning things to induce turbines to turn), but these have yet to be determined fully. It would be lovely if these came to fruition within our lifetimes, but hopefully they will for our offspring to utilise.
Agreed. There are also other teething problems related to current (no pun intended) electric car design - one of which being that when they break down, they can’t be easily pushed off road nor towed, nor pulled onto a car carrier. There are also issues pertaining to excess dangers after a collision.
Further tomy post above, I quite like the idea of hydrogen fuel cells which can be used to generate electricity with the sole by-product of waterbeing produced.
At present, hydrogen is very expensive to generate. Maybe, over time, it will become more cost effective.
And our electricity generation infrastructure has been expanded sufficiently, preferably with nuclear power stations. If we had as many as the Frogs (who, incidentally, don’t seem to have had any of the problems I hear people continuously threatening us with), we’d be much better off and far more independent regarding power supply.
Perhaps that’s why most of them seem to be sited at remote coastal areas.
It has also been suggested that, as our submarines these days all contain a nuclear reactor, siting new reactors underwater off our coast might be a good idea.
