Phil-E

You're only option would be the auxiliary heater that runs on diesel/petrol. No idea if it's even an option offered in the UK. I know in Germany it's an option offered on most VAG vehicles and comes standard on some models. It can be retrofitted but it's expensive.

Yeah my boss has gone with Homematic and he's pleased with it. He was tempted to go the Home Assistant route but couldn't be bothered tinkering himself. Obviously Homematic is a little pricier but it's good and just works. I previously had a Google Home mini that we just used for putting the radio on for dog really but sounded terrible to actually listen to music through. We had been using the TV via the Soundbar for music but that wasn't a great solution. Toyed with Alexa speakers, the big Google home or even Sonos. In the end I came across the Xiaomi Mi Smart Speaker. With Google assistant/Chromecast integrated. Looks like a Sonos. Obviously not quite on par with Sonos in terms of audio quality. But I bought two and have them set as a stereo pair and honesty I'm amazed by how good they sound... especially taking into consideration that they only cost €50 each!

I wish our bills were that low! Although were three adults and my other half works from home full time. But we do have triple glazing and the building is super well insulated. All under floor heating fed via ground source heat pump (it's the law that all new builds from a certain date have to have some sort of renewable energy source so ground/air source seems to be the most common and then solar of course).

No. Mainly for privacy and/or blocking out light. As well as providing extra insulation for winter and blocking out sun in the summer. They're actually not secure at all since you can just lift them up even the electric ones (safety I suppose in case of fire). But they do provide some security I suppose since you have to open them first to get to the door/window and they're pretty noisy when you just push them open like that.

If you're running a Pi I highly recommend a USB to SSD enclosure and getting a cheap 64gb (or more) SSD. I've gone through several SD cards due to corruption as they're just not designed to be constantly written to and it was a pain having to restore backups etc. So I now have an SSD and automatic backups to Google drive. And as for the light switches. Thankfully most of them are either not used anyway (the hallway has no ceiling lights and we just use a lamp on a table for the motion lights), or I've swapped the bathroom for a WiFi touch switch. Those that are exposed, this is my solution:

Just had a look on the Lidl.de website. It seems it's being properly stocked here with no suggestion of a one-off thing. You can order online here. Not sure if it's the same in the UK? And yes it's silvercrest. The hub has silvercrest stamped on it. Prices are pretty good to be fair. €20 for the hub and less than €10 for the motion and door sensors. I'll have to look if they're compatible with Deconz yet. More than likely since Deconz is also German.

Yeah I have a few sonoff in-line switches that I use for the Christmas lights since they were so cheap so don't mind that they sit in the cellar in boxes for most of the year. Also handy as I was able to fit one inside one of the kitchen cabinet lights (and the other with a gosund SP111 also with tasmota) so they come on with motion. The hallways lights and small bathroom are also with motion. Have a look at Lidl. They have also brought out a line of ZigBee smart stuff that should be Hue compatible. I have some garden lights too (Osram Gardenpoles, GU10 spots with Müller Licht bulbs - which were sold under the brand of Lidl Tint and sold off cheap).

With the WiFi stuff it's not so critical that they support 5ghz. They don't require a high bandwidth and as long as they have a strong enough signal then 2.4 is fine. Obviously for streaming music and video 5ghz is advantageous. I have a mesh WiFi network with the repeaters connected via ethernet since I'm lucky enough to have ethernet in all the rooms. This also means I have connected as much via ethernet instead of WiFi which leaves the WiFi free for our phones etc so no slow downs. The problem, of course, with too many WiFi devices is that most cheap routers aren't able to cope with so many and you can experience slow downs or lags. I've never bothered with the built in smart TV functionality as it's usually outdated and limited. I instead have Xiaomi Mi TV boxes in the living room and bedroom (they run Android TV). Highly recommended for the price.

Hey folks. So for a few years now I've been into my Smart home / Home automation stuff. It all started with a Philips Hue starter kit. I then added more bulbs and remotes etc (including Ikea and Osram stuff as they were compatible). I eventually got fed up of the terrible reliability of the Hue hub, poor range, lack of functioniality etc. So I bit the bullet and bought a Raspberry Pi and deconz Zigbee dongle and moved everything across to Home Assistant. I've now got pretty much everything running offline (apart from Google Home) but it's all still remotely and securely accessible. I also have a Z-wave USB dongle for a few door sensors that I got cheap. I have a few WiFi devices too but they run on Tasmota firmware using MQTT (mostly chinese stuff that I re-flashed to get rid of the cloud based firmware pinging off to china all the time! lol). In Germany we have shutters on the outside of the windows. The more modern ones are electric and so I've swapped over one of them to a wifi switch to test but it's not very good so I need to invest a bit more (Shelly do one that does auto calibration etc). So, anyone else into this stuff? Or just me that wastes (probably way too much) time on this stuff?

I honestly would always do fixed servicing. It's just better for the engine. In my opinion variable servicing was only brought about to save the dealers money when a car has a fixed service plan.

So you do have the coming home fog light option or not?

Ah I see. Then you won't be able to change it with VCDS I think. I'm almost certain that option is only available with xenons coded. And needs to be done via VCP or Odis I believe.

That's a clone cable then. So when you click on coding there is no Long coding helper option?

On my 2012 car I changed those options via the long coding helper. There were tick boxes to enable and disable the options. I've honestly no idea what you're trying to do or under what menu you're doing it but it seems wrong.

I now realise just how harsh they are the UK with speeding. I've driven in the UK for approx 15 years and never once had a speeding fine. I've lived in Germany 2 years and had 3! The difference being that you don't get points. Points are only issued for major speeding and/or motoring offences. For minor speeding offences it's just a fine. My last one being €15 for doing 36 in a 30 zone.

All depends how much bigger you want. If it's for more legroom etc then the obvious choice is an Octavia. If it's just for more load carrying then a Roomster would be the way to go. Or a Fabia estate. I personally don't like the smaller Fabia/Ibiza/Polo platform cars. Just a little too cramped for my liking. The Octavia is based on the golf platform but bugger than the golf. If you want to stay with petrol then there is a good of engines in the Octavia. 1.0 TSI, 1.2 TSI, 1.4 TSI and 2.0 TSI. As well as the older 1.6 FSI and 2.0 FSI available. It all comes down to your budget really.

I honestly think you have some grounds for some goodwill from Skoda then. Have you contacted them?

Why not do away with the loft tank and hot water tank? Don't know if this has an impact on the power shower though? When we moved in our old house it had a loft tank and hot water tank along with a power shower. We replaced the power shower anyway as it was broken. But we also had a new Combi boiler fitted and the water and hot water tank were removed during the installation. Which also meant we gained some extra cupboard space and weren't heating up a tank of water all the time. Our energy bills fell dramatically.

I'd honestly recommend some all seasons of some sort. As long as you're not expecting track day performance in the summer they are the best all round tyre. And especially good for the wet winter months. You'll also appreciate them should you have any snow or ice.

I'm pretty sure the only way to check the fill level is to drain it and refill to the correct quantity. I've always changed gearbox fluids 9n my cars and always noticed a massive improvement to the shifts.

That's definitely a possibility. While having the wheels turned then outer wheel is more likely to spin freely due to the open diff. They have then a fake limited slip diff where the brake is applied to the spinning wheel to force more torque to the other wheel. This combined with the spin and the traction control could have felt like tramping.

I've got Osram cool blue intense in my Facelift. My standard xenons were still ok but I had them fitted to my previous Saab before it was scrapped and the fitment was the same. The difference is still noticeable even from good working standard bulbs. Just a nice white light without any blue. So still look standard and are still road legal.

They've fitted those tyres to a lot of Skoda's for years now. Had them on my previous 2008 Octavia 1.9 TDI DSG. They were awful. Grip was terrible and they were really noisy.

Not a bad idea. I'd been looking at the Heko for my Octavia. €29,90 each for the upper and lower covers (luckily with free postage to Germany). I also have a short commute.