New Grump of the Day

[88v8]

.... the shonky work done by the "Part P qualified" sparky ...

Bits of paper. Certificates. Means nothing. Lipstick on a pig.
Had the (new) garage minimally wired by a blooming expensive qualified electrician and his mate to get the Building Regs signoff. Then did the rest of it myself. Lights. Switches. Sockets. In the process discovered why one of the new light fittings kept going off - wire not pushed fully into a spring terminal.
Spring terminals - what idiot invented those.

Ivor

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Love Zebra's story about the Tumble Dryer!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Satisfactory resolution to my Grumps---- Brand new Aga City 60 Replacement being delivered on 6th December, Builder sweetened with a cup of tea and then told his standard of tiling is rubbish and needs re doing---which it will be, plus some free re painting and making good where 0ld tiles were removed---- more artex being removed early december so all i need now is the missing quotations for the downstairs cloakroom.

 

[88v8]

all i need now is the missing quotations for the downstairs cloakroom.

Have you decided on a theme?
Erudite? Political? Amusing? Mark Twain left us some pretty good quotations.
And then there's always Penners. I bet he could polish up a few.

Ivor

 

[parkview094]

My grump of the day is with Affinity Water.
Some bright spark (pardon the pun) decided, in years previous, to install a water meter directly above our consumer unit. The shutoff tap drips slightly when turned, directly onto the housing of the CU.
The water company inform me that they alone are allowed to relocate the meter and that it'll cost me £240.
That is all.

 

[88v8]

The shutoff tap drips slightly when turned, directly onto the housing of the CU.

Ionised water. Some people pay good money for that

Ivor

 

[paulc]

The water company inform me that they alone are allowed to relocate the meter and that it'll cost me £240.

If they were responsible for the original installation, I'd be having strong words with a senior customer services manager. If it was a previous water co that carried out the installation, I'd instruct Affinity to send the bill to the old Co.

 

[plasticpigeon]

all i need now is the missing quotations for the downstairs cloakroom.

Have you decided on a theme?
Erudite? Political? Amusing? Mark Twain left us some pretty good quotations.
And then there's always Penners. I bet he could polish up a few.

Ivor

:lol:

 

[plasticpigeon]

The shutoff tap drips slightly when turned, directly onto the housing of the CU.

Ionised water. Some people pay good money for that

Ivor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zXDo4dL7SU

 

[Feltwell]

Ionised water. Some people pay good money for that

Ivor

:lol:

 

[a twig]

So, a load of Supaloft insulation was ordered, and was delivered today. Instructions to courier clearly state, "If out, leave in shed at rear".

Despite me being in all day, courier decides to not even bother knocking on the door, and instead dumps it all in the middle of the garden, whereupon it starts to chuck it down with rain. By the time I realise what has happened, the insulation is somewhat soggy as the plastic packaging had been torn to shreds in transit as well.

So I now have to dry out all my insulation before I can start putting it between the joists. Meaning no work for today. Joy...

 

[Flyfisher]

A very worthy grump :evil:

If you didn't sign for the delivery you could probably refuse it, citing the damaged nature of the goods, get a refund and order again. I know that's more hassle but it would annoy me to let the courier get away with this sort of thing.

And breathe . . .

 

[Tony.]

I agree, drying out the insulation is a pain, I would get them pick it up , too many times I have specified shed at the side of the house and it's left at the front door!

Advertising that no one is home. Very annoying

 

[Penners]

the cheque book and the heart pills are packed for an outing to look at new ones today.

Despite this, I do feel a certain sense of achievement at having managed to put off this expenditure for seven years. When it comes to prevarication I have few equals.

Is it possible that the prevarication contributed to the need for the heart pills? I find giving in early is so much more relaxing! 8)

Well, I've taken Matthew's advice - the new cooker is ordered. And Matthew, I can tell you that the price was anything but relaxing!

However, it arrives next Wednesday, so I've been trying to check that the existing cabling and fusing is sufficient to support the load. Anyone got any comments on the following, please (e.g Zebra, FF, etc.)? :-

Total power consumption of all the cooker's heating elements: 13.8kW
I believe the diversity factor for cookers suggests a load calculation of 10A plus 30% of the remaining total load.
I calculate the total load as 13800/240 = 57.5A
57.5 - 10 = 47.5
47.5/3 = 15.8 + 10 = 25.8A nominal load

Based on that I'm assuming that a 40A minibreaker in the consumer unit and 6mm^2 supply cable will be a proper spec. I'd be very grateful for any comments to agree or disagree with that, please!

 

[a twig]

However, it arrives next Wednesday, so I've been trying to check that the existing cabling and fusing is sufficient to support the load. Anyone got any comments on the following, please (e.g Zebra, FF, etc.)? :-

Total power consumption of all the cooker's heating elements: 13.8kW
I believe the diversity factor for cookers suggests a load calculation of 10A plus 30% of the remaining total load.
I calculate the total load as 13800/240 = 57.5A
57.5 - 10 = 47.5
47.5/3 = 15.8 + 10 = 25.8A nominal load

Based on that I'm assuming that a 40A minibreaker in the consumer unit and 6mm^2 supply cable will be a proper spec. I'd be very grateful for any comments to agree or disagree with that, please!

Why 40A and not 32A?

From a dusty regs appendix I had lying around from when I did my kitchen:

The rating of the circuit is determined by the assessment of the current demand of the cooking appliance(s), and cooker control unit(s) in accordance with Table A1 of Appendix A. A 32A circuit is usually appropriate for household or similar cookers of rating up to 15KW in modern appliances due to intelligent power sharing technology.

A circuit of rating exceeding 15A but not exceeding 50A may supply two or more cooking appliances where these are installed in same room.

IEE Regs Appendix H4

So, 6mm T&E with 32A breaker would be my recommendation (and fits with your calculations as well). Obviously you have a 30mA RCD in your CU anyway...

 

[Penners]

Thanks a twig.

I decided that this question might get overlooked, tagged on to the end of eleven pages of grumps! So I've given it its own thread.

But thank you for responding. I did originally consider leaving the existing 32A minibreaker in place, but - like you - something on the dusty high shelves at the back of my memory muttered that a cooker exceeding 15kW should have a 40A breaker, so I thought I'd uprate to that, even though ours is 13.8kW. However, there's so much rubbish on those shelves that I don't really trust anything up there. Would you be happy to leave the 32A in place?

 

[jocelyn plummer]

WhewPenners, a NEW cooker---may the appliance be blessed with super efficient performance, leaving a calm, Mrs P singing happily as she prepares delicious feasts----or, of course, maybe the cooker will respond to your gentlemanly persuasions----

 

[Flyfisher]

Dishwasher repair time

With typical German thoroughness, our Bosch dishwasher has an 'anti-flood' feature that very effectively switches everything off when it detects a build up of leaked water in the undertray of the machine, thus preventing water from flooding the floor. If only they had spent more time on designing things such that the machine wouldn't leak in the first place! :evil:

 

[a twig]

Ah yes, a great feature until the float switch that does the detecting gets stuck and causes your dishwasher to permanently think it is flooded... Played that game a couple of times...

I have to say, as much as I like our Bosch dishwasher, our cheapy BEKO was a third of the price and performs better on heavily soiled dishes...

 

[Feltwell]

Hmm - always difficult to know what to go for with appliances. We had a cheapy hotpoint washing machine that only lasted 18 months, replaced it with a decent Bosch one and it's still going 12 years later - apart from 1 set of motor brushes and unclogging the pump once it's had no attention, and with 3 kids in the house (who all wore washable nappies as babies) it gets a LOT of use.

But on the other hand my parents had a Zoppas washing machine (yep, I've never heard of them either) that failed because the drum rusted through - after 25 years of family use. Again apart from the odd set of motor brushes and a door seal it was reliable.