nexus6
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Post by nexus6 on Nov 26, 2021 10:50:59 GMT
It's probably the corpse of a huge trapped spider. Hopefully her eggs hatched and made it to various corners of your house Well hello there! General Kenobi |
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technoish
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Post by technoish on Nov 26, 2021 11:05:47 GMT
It's not the lack of insulation that's the problem, it's the fact it's made of marble. Marble conducts heat very well, and also has a high thermal mass, basically it sucks heat out of the room very effectively and also holds a lot of heat. This is one of the reasons why it was used as a fire surround in the first place, apart from it looking pretty, you can have a fire burning all day and the surround won't get dangerously hot. Is also why pastry counters tend to be made of marble, keeps everything nice and cool. Covering the base with blankets will potentially slow down some of the heat transfer, but you're basically living with a large heat sink... On the plus side, once your room cools down enough at night, the marble will release its heat back into the room. Well now I know why our living room is so bloody cold. I'm not sure this is wholly correct. The marble feels cold to touch due to the conductivity but unless there was a rapid temperature change is exactly the same temperature as the room. Same reason why metal feels cold to touch vs wool - even though it would be the exact same temp. Having a heat sink like that is actually a good thing, but means it can be slower to raise or lower the temp in that room. It's not making the room colder though... |
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Post by Dougs on Nov 26, 2021 11:36:57 GMT
Does anyone have any experience with hanging the IKEA electric blinds (or any roller blinds I suppose) inside a uPVC window trim? We have curtains which we would like to keep for the warmth, but we want to black out the light better for movies/sleeping etc. Is it practical to hang the roller box inside the frame? Yeah, should screw nicely directly into the frame. Easy job if you've got a standard size window |
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Post by henroben on Nov 26, 2021 12:42:57 GMT
Well now I know why our living room is so bloody cold. I'm not sure this is wholly correct. The marble feels cold to touch due to the conductivity but unless there was a rapid temperature change is exactly the same temperature as the room. Same reason why metal feels cold to touch vs wool - even though it would be the exact same temp. Having a heat sink like that is actually a good thing, but means it can be slower to raise or lower the temp in that room. It's not making the room colder though... I was under the impression that the thermal mass of marble is relatively high, so while it's not actively cooling the room like a heat sink, it is effectively increasing the size of the room from a heating perspective. So the room will take longer to warm up than you'd think for a room that size, due to the fact you're also heating a big chunk of rock. But it's entirely possible I have got it wrong, it's been close to 30 years since I last studied this stuff! |
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technoish
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Post by technoish on Nov 26, 2021 12:51:36 GMT
No I agreed it would be slower to heat up and cool down, but that is usually a good thing! It shouldn't actually take long to heat up a room. Also, it can't be all that much marble...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2021 13:03:40 GMT
It's probably the corpse of a huge trapped spider. Hopefully her eggs hatched and made it to various corners of your house There was a spider web in there... |
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Goban
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Post by Goban on Nov 26, 2021 16:28:25 GMT
Roof insulation done. In the process the contractor knocked slates off the dormers, cue me scrabbling around to get a roofer to fix. Not the best weather for having holes in your roof. Thankfully managed to get it sorted. And relax.
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Post by Dougs on Nov 26, 2021 16:29:31 GMT
Hope you billed it to the clumsy fucker
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Goban
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Post by Goban on Nov 26, 2021 16:59:39 GMT
Unfortunately they make you sign away their responsibilities for such things. Probably happens a lot with old houses.
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Goban
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Post by Goban on Nov 26, 2021 17:02:31 GMT
I'm just happy that was all that went wrong. My roof is in pretty good condition considering its age, it has its issues though, so could have been waaay worse.
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Post by Sarfrin on Nov 26, 2021 22:08:00 GMT
Well now I know why our living room is so bloody cold. I'm not sure this is wholly correct. The marble feels cold to touch due to the conductivity but unless there was a rapid temperature change is exactly the same temperature as the room. Same reason why metal feels cold to touch vs wool - even though it would be the exact same temp. Having a heat sink like that is actually a good thing, but means it can be slower to raise or lower the temp in that room. It's not making the room colder though... It's probably just the vent in the corner, the inadequate radiators, the draught down the chimney and the fact that there's no room above it then. ETA I'll be honest, I was hoping for an easier solution. |
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minimatt
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Post by minimatt on Nov 27, 2021 15:44:18 GMT
Anyone installed an amazon ring doorbell? Ordinarily I'd avoid amazon for all the usual ethical reasons and their abysmal privacy practices in the US, but mother of advancing years is getting a bit scared of after dark callers. She's several hundred miles away so pragmatism over ethics, I just need something I can drive up and install without having to mess about. She's very tech savvy for her age, but her age is nevertheless, boomer.
Any gotchas? Am hoping so long as wifi signal reaches front door she's golden.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2021 17:33:04 GMT
Anyone installed an amazon ring doorbell? Ordinarily I'd avoid amazon for all the usual ethical reasons and their abysmal privacy practices in the US, but mother of advancing years is getting a bit scared of after dark callers. She's several hundred miles away so pragmatism over ethics, I just need something I can drive up and install without having to mess about. She's very tech savvy for her age, but her age is nevertheless, boomer. Any gotchas? Am hoping so long as wifi signal reaches front door she's golden. I looked into them myself. There's two types. You can get battery powered or mains. Mains is best as you don't want it dying on your gran, but you need to have a mains source nearby. They can be fiddly to connect to the wi-fi for some people and you have to pay a subscription for them to actually store any information. If you don't, it's all 'live'. I thought they were overpriced, so I got netvue cameras. They have the advantage of having storage on them (SSD) and being cheaper (£24 they cost me) and they just ping our phones when someone turns up and then we can see and speak to them. I like them as well because they're more obvious and they are better for poor WiFi situations. They also work with echo shows.I just fed the lead through the window and closed it. You could get the app on your own phone and check in whenever you wanted to. The rings are okay, but I think overpriced and some people have said they are temperamental. |
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Post by jonsend on Nov 28, 2021 7:29:11 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2021 7:40:33 GMT
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mikeck
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Post by mikeck on Nov 29, 2021 15:05:27 GMT
Anyone installed an amazon ring doorbell? Ordinarily I'd avoid amazon for all the usual ethical reasons and their abysmal privacy practices in the US, but mother of advancing years is getting a bit scared of after dark callers. She's several hundred miles away so pragmatism over ethics, I just need something I can drive up and install without having to mess about. She's very tech savvy for her age, but her age is nevertheless, boomer. Any gotchas? Am hoping so long as wifi signal reaches front door she's golden. You might piss your neighbours off as they're so bloody loud! I'm sure you could turn them down, but my god nobody has told that to our two closest neighbours. We can hear every fucking time someone uses it, and we're in a double-glazed three story townhouse and can hear the fuckers in every part of the house. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2021 15:12:06 GMT
Anyone installed an amazon ring doorbell? Ordinarily I'd avoid amazon for all the usual ethical reasons and their abysmal privacy practices in the US, but mother of advancing years is getting a bit scared of after dark callers. She's several hundred miles away so pragmatism over ethics, I just need something I can drive up and install without having to mess about. She's very tech savvy for her age, but her age is nevertheless, boomer. Any gotchas? Am hoping so long as wifi signal reaches front door she's golden. You might piss your neighbours off as they're so bloody loud! I'm sure you could turn them down, but my god nobody has told that to our two closest neighbours. We can hear every fucking time someone uses it, and we're in a double-glazed three story townhouse and can hear the fuckers in every part of the house. My neighbour has one and I can't hear it at all. They either never get people ringing it, or they don't have it connected to a PA. |
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mikeck
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Post by mikeck on Nov 29, 2021 15:19:40 GMT
You might piss your neighbours off as they're so bloody loud! I'm sure you could turn them down, but my god nobody has told that to our two closest neighbours. We can hear every fucking time someone uses it, and we're in a double-glazed three story townhouse and can hear the fuckers in every part of the house. My neighbour has one and I can't hear it at all. They either never get people ringing it, or they don't have it connected to a PA. Good to know that they can be turned down and our neighbours have decided "fuck that, we want people to know how popular we are". We were genuinely going to get one ourselves until they did and put us off them. |
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Post by DJCopa on Nov 29, 2021 15:38:18 GMT
Anyone installed an amazon ring doorbell? Ordinarily I'd avoid amazon for all the usual ethical reasons and their abysmal privacy practices in the US, but mother of advancing years is getting a bit scared of after dark callers. She's several hundred miles away so pragmatism over ethics, I just need something I can drive up and install without having to mess about. She's very tech savvy for her age, but her age is nevertheless, boomer. Any gotchas? Am hoping so long as wifi signal reaches front door she's golden. Got one for my MiL, in Ireland, so we can help with cold-callers, shopping, etc. Only gotcha we had, was they also sold us a Google Display saying they were compatible - they aren't (as in, cannot chat on the screen - has to be an Amazon device if you want more than a mobile phone to talk on). I went for the battery version - neighbours come and charge it when needed - It is very slow to charge (12hrs for full) but lasts a long time. |
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Vortex
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Post by Vortex on Dec 1, 2021 18:32:49 GMT
Just had a sparky round to discuss our smoke detector needs due to new legislation in Scotland. Due to the regulations & our house layout, it looks like we'll need 7 of the fuckers. Most of them downstairs covering the exit routes.
That 700quid plus. It's comical. We had 3 battery jobs covering the house previously!
Wtaf?
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cubby
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Post by cubby on Dec 1, 2021 18:48:31 GMT
Are you renting or do you own it? The 10 year battery ones should be enough.
Edit: oh wow you need interlinked alarms now, yikes. That's cost us several thousand at work so I'd hate to have to do that at home.
Did the sparky offer wifi ones?
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nexus6
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Post by nexus6 on Dec 1, 2021 18:49:40 GMT
Just had a sparky round to discuss our smoke detector needs due to new legislation in Scotland. Due to the regulations & our house layout, it looks like we'll need 7 of the fuckers. Most of them downstairs covering the exit routes. That 700quid plus. It's comical. We had 3 battery jobs covering the house previously! Wtaf? It can get fucked - it's such a badly implemented scheme. The only people you see advertising it is the alarm companies as they will make a killing scaring grannies into getting loads done. I am not bothering changing anything for now. |
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Post by Dougs on Dec 1, 2021 18:50:53 GMT
Surely they haven't made it retrospective?
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technoish
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Post by technoish on Dec 1, 2021 19:12:28 GMT
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Post by 😎 on Dec 1, 2021 19:13:15 GMT
The bell chime for the Ring is an optional install. You can have it so it just alerts your phone if you want, or just have it ding the existing chime.
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RobEG
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Post by RobEG on Dec 14, 2021 20:19:30 GMT
Looking for some Wi-Fi boosting advice from you lovely people.
I’ve recently converted my garage into an office / kids playroom. For the office side, I asked the builder to run internet in there so I could have a wired connection as the Wi-Fi can be a bit hit and miss especially when the kids are all watching YouTube or Netflix. Long story short, the builder fucked up (thought he could use the tv box to convert the signal from coax when it actually needed to go through the router). Anyway, I now have a couple of issues.
One is a cabling issue. In that to get the wired connection I’d either have to move the router into the new room (which I don’t really want to do for a number of reasons) or run an Ethernet cable halfway around the house. Wouldn’t be an issue if it was done during building but more difficult now walls are all up, plastered and painted.
The second is the Wi-Fi signal is poor in that room.
I think both of these issue could be solved by a booster. I think virgin charge for theirs and apparently you can get better ones on Amazon. I’m a bit confused though - if I use the booster to create a wired connection, surely I’m still reliant on the Wi-Fi connection from the router to the booster?
So - any tips on how best to solve my problem?
Thanks!
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Post by Blackmarsh63 on Dec 14, 2021 20:24:23 GMT
I'm thinking mesh but can be a bit pricey.
Budget ?
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Post by Sarfrin on Dec 14, 2021 20:38:44 GMT
Powerline adaptors? Works well in our living room where the WiFi is terrible.
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RobEG
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Post by RobEG on Dec 14, 2021 20:38:49 GMT
No idea tbh, not sure how much they are. Wanted a fairly cheap option though tbh. It’s probably not impossible to run a cable directly from the router but not easy.
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RobEG
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Post by RobEG on Dec 14, 2021 20:40:41 GMT
Powerline adaptors? Works well in our living room where the WiFi is terrible. That may be what I’m looking for. How does that work though? |
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