The Anonymous Widower

Move Over Handy Andy: Dave Tops Britain’s DIY Leaderboard As Research Reveals The Jobs Best Left To The Experts

The title of this post is the same as that of this news item from Centrica.

These five bullet points act as sub-headings.

New research from British Gas reveals Dave, Steve and John top Britain’s DIY names leaderboard, while Emma emerges as the handiest female name

From fixing door handles to repairing boilers, new research reveals which household jobs Brits are happy to tackle and which they’d rather leave to the experts

British Gas encourages Brits to know their DIY limits with a giant tea-dispensing toolbox as part of its ‘Don’t Do It Yourself’ campaign

These two paragraphs add some of detail.

Forget Handy Andy, it’s more likely to be Handy Dave coming to the rescue, according to new research from British Gas. The study of 2,001 adults found Dave (13%) tops Britain’s DIY names leaderboard, followed by Steve, John and David (all 12%), while Emma (4%) emerged as the handiest female name. Further down, Paul (5%) and Nigel (4%) were among the names identified as least handy around the home.

And it seems British Gas has a few Handy Daves of its own, with 40 engineers sharing the nation’s handiest name. Of course, being handy isn’t just about knowing your way around a toolbox, but knowing when to put the tools down and call in an expert. While Brits are happy to roll up their sleeves for everyday tasks such as painting a wall (68%), hanging a picture (66%) and fixing a loose door handle (50%), they’re far more likely to leave specialist jobs such as repairing a boiler (73%), electrical wiring (68%) and central heating repairs (66%) to the professionals.

It’s only a bit of fun data analysis, but if they analyse the jobs they do with this care, it must be to the benefit of customers.

November 9, 2026 Posted by | Computing, Energy | , , | Leave a comment

BW ESS Puts Europe’s Largest BESS Into Commercial Operation In The UK

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.

This is the sub-heading.

BW ESS has put its 350MW/1,240MWh Hams Hall BESS project in the UK into operation, the largest in Europe.

Note.

  1. Hams Hall is in Birmingham
  2. That is roughly a three-and-a-half hour battery.
  3. Hams Hall’s capacity will increase to 400MW/1,424MWh once a second phase is complete.
  4. Google AI said the first phase was commissioned in late October 2026.

The Hams Hall BESS is certainly not on the small side.

In Manchester and Scotland Highview Power are building two liquid-air batteries.

  • The Carrington battery in Manchester will be a 50 MW/300 MWh battery.
  • The Hunterston battery in Scotland will be a 300 MW/3.2 GWh battery.

I can see a lot of healthy competition developing between the two technologies.

The two technologies can both build batteries around the same size.

But liquid-air technology appears to offer a longer duration.

 

 

November 9, 2026 Posted by | Artificial Intelligence, Energy, Energy Storage | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment