Monkhai

The issue with the sensors in the tyres, is when they get damaged by a tyre fitter or when they need replacing. In both cases the sensors are not cheap. The simple system based off ABS systems doesn't give the pressure, but it does give a lot of warning, so you can pull over. Certainly enough to get you to a suitable bit of hard shoulder/emergency bay. Would pressures be nice, sure, however I think many people don't check a display page regularly and a warning light is likely to be more effective than asking them to look at numbers.

Smaller tank = less weight on the tests (as you have to fill it a certain percentage full) = easier to meet the emissions tests when carrying less weight as fuel.

So keyless entry eats batteries and allows thieves to quietly walk off with your car.... Shame they don't have an option on all specs to not have keyless entry

Fair points... Car is the Octavia mk3 and currently it's running on 18" alloys with Michelin Cross Climate Plus on. Previous cars have been the same as above, plus a MK2 and a few others on a wide range of tyres (Mostly Nokian, 5 sets) and currently michelin alpin6. Tyres are on steelies and 205/55/r16 My issue is that the michelin are great on 14" on a completely different car, but just seem far far too easy to get to lose traction on the 18" in cold weather. Not to the point they're summer tyres, but to the point a slight incline and light but not extra careful application of the throttle = slipping tyres. Compared to the winters where you could pretty much mash the accelerator under the same conditions if you had been that way inclined and have no such problems, I am not really feeling confident in the all seasons. Grip is the most important for me, then the others along with good life are a balance. I don't live on the cost, but tbh I do travel all around (or did) and have had a rasonable amount of snow over the last few years, but far more cold icy road. I'm trying to understand if a set of 17" with one of the better winter biased sets is the right option or if I just give up and go back to summer/winter wheels.

ID net include it with their broadband offerings, which are not cheap, but are good.

FWIW some come preconfigured with your username and password, will work, but the traffic will come from “you” not the business name. Probably can be changed, but make sure you do. I know one company the end user couldn’t access the page, only they could via a connection.

Fridges I agree I wouldn’t pay for one bar the one off £50 to go from 2-5 years. Washing machine, ours had bearing failure and was replaced like for like. Due to lockdown we are massively quids in on that one. I do generally agreee they’re not worth on most thing and even where is is, only if they fix quickly or replaced at no cost if not repairable.

272/138L... Are those numbers right? Ours is 400 + 207L. No idea what to do with all that fridge space, but the freezer space is useful as anything.

I found a steam cleaner excellent for removing large bits of ice as long as you’re not stupid with it. I did try a specialist defrost spray, which was ok but still took a lot of hard work. Daft question, but does the old one still work? If so there are a lot of people who want a second hand fridge/freezer and you can get 50-100 for a reasonable one.

We considered that route too but had enough space by the existing fridge and less where a min would have gone. Our old integrated had approx 50L of freezer space, which was next to useless with the both of us working. A bonus was that nobody was doing disposal during lockdown so when I removed the old one I managed to sell it for a small amount rather than paying to get rid.

I replied on that thread for you (I'd completely forgotten about it tbh)

I went for a samsung American style fridge freezer, one of the RS68N series, a bit like this: https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8588548 There was a massive discount on during lockdown 1 and it works well. Re the store you mention, they were the ones with the very big discount and then an additional coupon code, which made them so much cheaper than anyone else that you basically had no choice but to use them Fridge also had a free 5 year warranty from Samsung, and 10year on the inverter. To be honest the service was very good, and what with the 5 year warranty, I'd do it again if the cost difference was that large. The Liebherr are supposed good (I believe they make at least some of the Miele range), but when we compared the two, the samsung was a lot cheaper and had a good warranty. Ours was in stainless steel and there were no dinks. As for the reat radiator, ours is enclosed in aluminium and there is a fan for if needed (which rately comes on). It's been good and the fingerprints are limited thanks to the anti-fingerprint coating. Anything on there wipes off easily. EDIT: Just seen you went to argos, I've been very surprised by how good they have been of late. Many of the goods we have purchased have been cheaper than the major online retailer with the free delivery subsciption and that includes paying for delivery the same day from argos..

We actually got a one SL that lived in one room, but got migrated into the kitchen when the pure radio was moved elsewhere. I didn't want the amazon integration or other voice control, so quite happy with this. In terms of the sounds quality, better than the echo plus I used for a few months and so much better than the standard echo. There are usually good offers on them at least once a year.

This thread should probably move to tech shed now... I have just discovered that the room TRV notices a large and persistent drop in room temperature (or a window contact sensor) and turns off as it assumes the window is open. Sure enough, you end up with it not trying to heat a room when you've got the door open after moping the floor Nice to see it can be disabled/enabled on a zone by zone basis too

I’m surprised more people don’t look at this system to be honest. Most of the parts even say made in UK which I didn’t expect. I think the marketing of some of the single location smart systems has made people go all “shiny must have”

For your personal enjoyment

You might find the hr91 more your thing, although the hr92 has adjustable stroke 😂

Smart stat was a Honeywell evohome in the end and I have to say it’s much better than nest etc. It doesn’t directly have geofencing, which I never really fancied anyway. That however is more made up for by rooms as zones, optimised starts + stops and weather compensation Wifi controller, pairs with a Honeywell brd91 relay (found in most Honeywell wireless stats) or their opentherm bridge. Controller has a stand and a wall mount transformer which fits in a single gang back box. It’s neatly on a wall looking very sci-fi. 7 smart TRV and a separate room stat for one room where the trv is hidden behind something. The app is pretty good and best of all it works properly bar the app even if there is no internet. The biggest downside is the cost if you buy it all separately, but buy a starter kit and it’s not much more than a single zone nest/hive.

It got done and turned out the wiring when built is the 0.75mm heat resistant 5 core flex between the switch and the boiler, solid 3+ earth to the stat and 2.5mm solid on the power in side of things. All sorted, and all protected by multiple 3A and 2A fuses at the boiler and the isolator. Plumber pointed the fuses etc out and also that the only choices were heat resistant flex for the boiler connection.

I’ve had a plumber suggest using heat resistant 0.75mm 5 core to connect power and switching connections to a wireless thermostat relay. Now 0.75mm is good for 6A , so technically I don’t see an issue as it’s on a 3A fused switch and the boiler has 2amp fused in it. The manual for the stat states 1.5mm-2.5mm and as two separate cables not running next to each other. Currently the 5 core flex carries power to the boiler and the wired stat connections back the the fused switch where the connect to the switch and to the thermostat wiring. Can I ask any sparkles/plumbers if the plumber is wrong, is the manual being OT or something else? looking at the wiring you need to send a permanent live and neutral to the old thermostat location to supply power to the new wireless controller via a transformer in the controllers back box. The boiler itself needs L N and Earth from the switch. The wireless relay needs a permanent live and neutral plus the connection to the pair of thermostat wires on the boiler. So would plumbers use 5 core to the boiler then from the boiler onto the relay, do something with 1.5/2.5 from the switch for power or something else? Also the plumber suggested putting the relay by the switch, but this is surrounded by wire/metal and the boiler is 20cm away. The alternative suggestion was to run 2.5mm and 0.75mm 5 core through the loft to the other wall of the cupboard and put it there. Again is this safe? Thoughts appreciated.

In a rented house we had a set up similar to yours, with a loft feed tank and the shower required a pump, which was noisy and unreliable. This was replaced by a combi, which was fine when one shower was on, but useless as soon as anyone else used water (Tap, toilet etc). That failed very rapidly and was declared not fit for purpose, so was replaced by a new system boiler and an unvented tank. This provided lots of hot water at approximately mains power and didn't require any additional shower pumps etc. I'm not an expert, but I know the cold water feed tank was removed from the loft and I am fairly certain that the mains feed is what pushes the water out of an unvented/system hot water tank at near mains pressure. If I am right, then you have to use a mains feed to the system boiler. The advantage of the latter system is, that since you're choosing your system now, you can pick up a tank that will take a boiler feed, an immersion feed (electric/Solar PV) and also a second feed for a heat pump or solar hot water. Such a tank (or a thermal store) would allow you to use a gas boiler for now, or a hybrid boiler (as I imagine you don't want to go underfloor heating/oversized radiators right now) and have the option for a second heat source in the future. Additionally is you have solar PV, then a suitable controller can use any spare electricty to be used to heat water. The really smart ones look at your export price and decide if to sell the PV back to the grid or use it for hot water etc. I am hoping our gas lasts a few years, so we can then have a look at options on this.

I’ve run various nokian and currently have Michelin alpin6 on the winter wheels over 3 cars, so understand the sipes/tread and compound side of it. Just commenting that it would be interesting to see how the winter biased AS work vs the summer biased ones and a true winter set. otherwise it’s a case of keep 2 sets.

Interesting you say this, as I’ve found the all seasons much better than expected in fresh snow, but definitely weaker on refrozen slush or the cold tarmac. Depending on how travel goes post pandemic I could definitely see myself going back to two sets (I didn’t get rid of the winters as this was a trial) I think a big part of this is 16” winters vs 18” all seasons, but also as you say a specialist tyre is by definition better at one thing. Be interesting to see if the vector4 seasons or other winter rather compare on icy stuff vs summer biased CC+

Looking at Honeywell smart thermostats (Evohome seems best) and individual room heating control/schedules, it sounds a lot like the homematic. Has anyone run the honeywell system? The blinds would be useful too, but sadly I've never seen the external louvre system which is common as in Germany available in the UK in manual or electrical/automated form.

Has anyone tried charging the car battery with a smart charger?