An Example Of Jerry’s Wiring
We found what was wrong with the heating this morning. Jerry or more possibly a tenant, has bypassed the controls and wired the underfloor heating valves permanently open.
In other words, they have been set to give someone a good boiling.
An Example Of Jerry’s Wiring
As the picture shows, it wasn’t even wired up properly. Note that the junction box was just screwed around the jumble of wires.
With the valves permanently open, the temperature will of course just rise and rise, as the individual zone controls can’t switch the water off.
Note for safety reasons, I’ve swirched the whole system off, using the big red knob on the right. Once boiled, twice shy.
The Downside of PFI
I found this little story tucked away on the Internet. In 1998, London Underground entered into a PFI contract with a consortium called Powerlink to provide power to the system. Although, they have no issues with the consortium, London Underground have decided to exercise a break clause, that should save them £220m over the thirty year life of the contract.
Sounds like good and sensible business to me, unless you’re a member of the consortium.
Supposedly, New Buses for London cost about £330,000 each. If you divide this into £220m, you get approximately 667 buses.
Didn’t Transport for London just buy 600 New Buses for London?
It makes you think!
Tilbury Burns
One of the news stories today, is one about a fire at Tilbury power station.
It would appear that the wood pellet storage used to fuel the power station has caught fire. The wood pellets come all the way from Georgia in the USA by ship.
Surely, there must be more efficient ways of generating electricity.
What A Load of Old Wind
I’m not a lover of large wind turbines, but smaller ones part of a fully-integrated power-generation system are a lot better.
This article in the Daily Mail shows some of the problems with large ones, especially the fact that if it’s too windy, they have to be shut down.
The problem we have in this country, is that when we have too much electricity, we have no way of storing it, so the power generation has to be stopped.
So let’s solve the storage problem first before we ruin the countryside with wind turbines and the power lines to connect them to the National Grid.
A Working One Hundred Year Old Power Station
You may think that it is a bit unusual that a power station commissioned in 1902 is still generating electricity.
Greenwich Power Station
Greenwich Power Station is quite small with the chimneys just fifty-five metres high.
Admittedly, it is only a standby power station these days and uses modern gas turbines to generate the electricity rather than the original steam engines.
There’s some more information and pictures here.
Building The Revolution
I went to the Royal Academy to see the exhibition on Soviet Art and Architecture entitled Building the Revolution – Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-1935.
It was fascinating and sad in equal measure.
The former because some of the buildings were spectacular and ground-breaking. It was all rather sad to see the state of decay that some of them are now reduced to.
But then some of our best buildings from the era have suffered a similar fate. Although, it is from just after World War II, I once went over Cliff Key Power Station in Ipswich. That was a real pleasure and it was a pity that it couldn’t have been transformed for a modern purpose. But then those power stations, were built to last thirty years and often the foundations weren’t of the best. Just look at the state of the iconic Battersea Power Station today.
In the Courtyard of te Royal Academy, there was this tower.
It is a modern reconstruction of Tatlin’s Tower; a giant tower that was never built.
Good Riddance To The Sixty Watt Light Bulb!
People have a lot of misplaced love for the old sixty watt light-bulb, as this story on the BBC shows.
It doesn’t bother me, as I won’t have an incandescent bulb in the house because of the safety risk, when they fail. An A & E doctor once told me, that they’d had several people come into hospital after falls, where an incandescent bulb had failed and this had tripped out all the lights, which meant they had fallen over the cat, dog or whatever.
But the lights I hate are those halogen MR16 and GU10 bulbs. There average life span is very short and the light they give out, used to give me headches until I went gluten free. I have a lot of those size of bulb in this house and all have been replaced with LED versions, which are brighter, use less energy and rarely fail.
My real problem in this house is finding some lights to replace some of the awful ones that Jerry installed to boost his profits.
Some Truly Hideous Lights
They really are truly hideous. Some of the lights he used were even worse and when I left them on the front patio for someone to take if they wanted, they didn’t remove one. But they did take a couple of old incandescent bulbs!
How To Manage Dormant Accounts
This afternoon, I got an e-mail from William Hill, the bookmakers.
It said that I hadn’t used the account for some time and would I like to use some of the money there to have a bet.
Quite frankly, I’d clearly forgotten I had the account and I think the last time I used it was well before 2007, as I know C was still alive. I think she had asked me to put money on a horse in the Grand National.
They said there was about £50 in the account, which let’s face it, buys a reasonable meal around here for two.
On trying to login, the site told me the account was locked and would I contact them through the on-line chat button.
I did this and after about an hour of patient chat, I got a new password and they unlocked the account so I could log in.
I then updated the account with my new address, phone number and credit card and then duly withdrew the balance.
Perhaps after the good service I’d got, that was a bit mean.
But it does show how if you manage your customer support well, you can get customers pleased with your company.
So thanks to William Hill, I’m now going to have a free meal.
How many other betting companies or financial institutions would have left the money there earning them interest?
I should also contrast this episode with the service, I’ve received from a well-known energy company (Not nPower or British Gas!) who supplied electricity and gas to the tenants of this house, before I bought it.
When I took over the house, I felt that it might be easier to stay with this company. But after waiting on the phone for twenty minutes or so to contact them, I gave up and went elsewhere.
I did owe them a small amount for when they supplied me until nPower took over, but they did try it on a bit and I still haven’t received what I consider to be a properly audited bill. E-mails to the company are unanswered and I have spent quite some time trying to phone them. I have spoken to friends and most feel that this company has a miserable standard of cutomer support at best.
So if I haven’t heard by Friday, I’ll probably pay the bill in a manner that A P Herbert would have approved of.
I of course advise anybody who uses the company to seriously think about getting an alternative supplier.
Osama Bin Laden’s Wiring
I have just been looking at some of the eletrical wiring on the latest Osama Bin Laden’s video, where he is seen watching himself.
He certainly didn’t choose his electrician with care.
A Call From 08000562422
I had a strange call from this number on my mobile phone. It told me my address and said it was from EDF Energy and asked if I was responsible for paying the bill, in which case I was to press 1. If I wasn’t I was to press 2. I hung up, as EDF Energy are not my supplier and anyway I pay by direct debit to another company, who did me a few favours when I moved in and were very professional. That’s not to say they are not professional too, as they have dealt with the writs sent to previous non-payers at this address with no hassle to me.
But I smelt a rat, as I have nothing to do with EDF Energy.
I checked the number on the Internet and this is what I found. Some items mention the number as a possible telepest.
I did try to phone EDF Energy, but their call centre was busy. This was one of the reasons, they didn’t get my business in the first place, as I couldn’t get through.
So if you get a call from this number, I suggest you do the sensible thing and hang up. I can’t find anything on the Internet to link it to EDF Energy.
What worries me is that someone had got my mobile phone number and linked it to my correct address. The only people who have that link are credit card companies, my bank and companies like John Lewis, IKEA and Dixons. I’m not accusing anybody, but it strikes me that there is a leak somewhere. But then these companies have my landline and I’ve never had such a call on that number.
The Anonymous Widower 