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Poolguy

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Posts posted by Poolguy

  1. [quote user="woolybanana"]Does anyone know if there are thermal imagers in France and if so, how much they charge to check out a house? Thanks[/quote]

    If you contact Nick Trollope in 22 he can do that for you. He is a contributor to this forum.

     

  2. John

    you dark horse you are...

     

    I didnt know that you were also a 'woodie'.....

    but to also be a rotary polisher owner now that is special. I'm getting envious now!

    I've always hired even though I would have owned in a heart beat. But these puppies are so dear

    W.

    If you use a tung oil derivative then you can rest with that but you still need to burnish with the above doova lackki!

    Waxing is only obligatory in high traffic areas.

    [IMG]http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss285/andrewhenderson/AUT_0521.jpg[/IMG]

    Above is a simple oiled finish - medium patina (satin if you like)

    A+

     

  3. Sorry to be late with the response.

    Answer is that it depends on the oil and the wax.

    My formula is well know, Tung oil to seal and burnish the surface and Diamond wax (bees wax and tung oil base) to follow. Then.....;

    Vigorous rubbing....

     

    more rubbing

     

    more still.....

     

    then beer!

    [IMG]http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss285/andrewhenderson/ElmOilOLeary3sm.jpg[/IMG]

    Ahhhh  good job.... just about bullet proof.

    A+

  4. [quote user="Théière"]If you have insulated pipe, insulated pool walls and floor and a good heat retaining foam cover then yes otherwise you'll need a big unit as the losses are considerable but it's do-able[/quote]

    John You are eternally the optimist, certianly one of your many admirable qualities.

     

  5. Iceni

    If we stick to facts then its OK to say what’s what.

    Europools are a Franchise, so its not the brand but the reputation of the Branch which is Important. I know for example that the Franchise in 17 La Rochelle has closed the doors and gone, for over a year now.

    There are others such as in 85 as still going.

    Do you have a spec for the project yet or still dreaming, as budget is often the deciding factor?  There are no 'bits of string' amount is pools, it all depends on the spec, and that even can vary wildly from expert, to wannabe, to cowboy or DIY to oriental and back again.

    You'll need ot get specific, but as John will no doubt agree there are some very definite 'No don't go there' offers about;

  6. Its true.....

    What I find dificult to understand is why anyone would continue to invest in that slippery slope of rising prices.

    When does it become too much? I've passed that point but it seems others are still prepared to pay and pay an pay and pay and pa

    Doesn't make sense ....!

     

     

  7. Can I suggest that anyone considering this heed the warning so far posted and add another.

    To make fire any Pompier will tell you that you need 3 things; Fuel, oxygen and heat; (self evident isn’t it!!)

    But if you remove one of them then you don’t have a fire. So in this case if you are getting a nice fire going and then you start to circulate through the back boiler with a forced pressurised system then you will soon strip out the heat of the fire it will labour producing masses of soot and eventually go out.

    The results are many including: cold house; wife on the warpath; p$ssed off husband, chimney nicely sooted up in preparation for the next raging burn which might result in a chimney fire, and so on and so on.

    There are several clever remedies to this as the problem is by no means new. The first clever devise is a laddomat to control the circulation of the water though the radiators based on a critical temperature base line over which the pump is turning under which it stops to let the fire recover.

    that this thing..

    [IMG]http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss285/andrewhenderson/Solar/LADDOMAT21-100ISOLERAD_Mindre.jpg[/IMG]

    The second clever thing is a Accumulator, to store heat produced by the stove when its burning to be re-circulated when its not. I think the use of this storage is pretty self-explanatory, but it surprising the number of installations, which don't have one. Its making the most use of the energy the so rooms don't get too hot and still the fire can burn efficiently and still the excess heat can be used later. It’s really a no brainer.

    that would be one of these...

    [IMG]http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss285/andrewhenderson/Solar/AKVAir2000Connected-1.jpg[/IMG]

    Anyone who is interested to see a schematic of how that works, send me a PM

    Andrew

  8. For the sake of the poster above and a few others besides, I would state the bleeding obvious.

    Solar radiation hitting the ground in France ranges from 3.2kw/m2 up to 4.8kw/m2

    In Britan the range 2.1kw/m2 up to a massive 2.8kw/m2 (source: NASA - Surface meteorology and Solar Energy Data Set)

    Which goes some way to explain why there is a difference between this solution in France v UK now wouldn't it. If you don't know what that means then I have nothing further to offer.

    Incidentally, I recall mentioning that PV was unviable in France in my opinion.

    Good luck to the orginal poster with choosing alternative heating sources what ever they may be. Hope that its not Oil or LPG.

    I agree with John (as usual) Insulate and then Insulate some more.

     

     

  9. [quote user="Quillan"]Well from what I read on the Energy Trust website and others the type of heating system (and we are not talking just water heating but house heating as well) will cost anywhere between 250 and 650 Euros (using today's exchange rate and rounding down) a square metre to install. The 'average' system costs around 450 to 500 Euros a square metre (of house size) and then, as suggested, will require a secondary heating source. To make a claim that the costs of such a system would be paid back in seven years is extremely dubious at best. To be honest if you are over 40 I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. I read an article online a year or two back from Cambridge university who claimed that just generating electricity for your home via solar panels would take an average of 80 years to get it's money back so I dread to think how long a system like this would really take.[/quote]

    Here is an example of what I'm complaining about

    Another doubter who is happy to call me a liar without any facts of to back it up.

    Have any of those English organistations actually done any research in France?

     

  10. WJT

    I apologise for the assuming a gender without clear evidence. Bad mistake.

    To be clear/

    You may be confusing Solar PV with Solar Thermal - common misconception.

    There have been lots and lots of poor installations of Photovoltaic to be sure. And I would add to that the arithmetic doesn't arrive at a break point, its not a good bet at this time in my opinion.

    Solar thermal on the other hand, is relatively simple and much less likely to suffer such trouble. There are a number of reasons for that to do with basic physics.

    The warning you have read probably had no facts whatsoever to validate the claim and so should be taken with more than a pinch. Whereas the results of my system and those of a few others, are published on the net for anyone to see for themselves and to analyse. This is live data not the Bulls£$t which is published by other promoters and the uninformed opinions from doubters. As you can clearly read from the previous poster, most people read what they want to hear and not often what I have said or written. You will never hear me say for example that Solar thermal is a 'complete' solution.

    I can say this because I have the data, others cannot because they don't.

    I'm sorry that you did not get a satisfactory answer from me when you inquired - I get a lots of requests and usually I refer them to the nearest expert installer, as I have said, I can offer very little relevant advice until a site survey is done and some information is know about the situation. So if you care to repeat your question then I'll try to do better.

     

  11. Yes I've stirred it up again, and that's how it should be.

    Does anyone actually think that UK oil prices are nolt linked to French prices and that the trend is not similarly upwards.

    The more times this is debated the more the general populous will get to question to conventional solutions because they are just unsustainable.

    If anyone looking at oil heating cannot see how their pocket is going to be assaulted by ‘Big Oil’ then they deserve to be fleeced, I fear. There have been warnings and information available for decades for folk to prepare and to choose.

    Anyone obsessed with 'payback' looking at 'whole of life cost' will have their question answered, by doing their own research. Incidentally, what is the 'payback' on oil - pollution, wild weather changes, what does that all cost- ('oooHHh its not my fault' says joe average, its all industry and government’s fault.....;;;yeah right!)

    As to what ARE the ALTERNATIVES.....  well

    There are plenty, but every situation is different needing a different mix of energy sources. So I'm not offering free, 'fits all' advice here, that's a job for an expert to design a solution to each situation. What I will say is that the ‘ideal’ solution is nearly never OIL and just as never LPG.

    As for my situation, I do in fact heat my house with solar (WJT hasn’t a clue what he’s saying) assisted by whole wood burning. I’m more than happy to say that I will be enjoying the fact, that in a bit more than 4 years I will have reached the point where I am ahead meaning that it took about 7 years to amortise my investment. It has to be said that this is the situation for me and in no way will resemble the situation for another design at another place. There is no standard solution so there is no standard outcome.

    If anyone really wants the answers then the first step is to ask….. but, an answer cannot be offered until a specific site study of the situation is done. Anything else is just hot air, and not the type required.

     

    edit. Chris ad Julie, seem to be happy to gamble the future of everyone based on the lack of precision of prophecy. Dear me I'm unhappy to say that I don't share your scepticism nor optimism. I'm certain that 'peak oil' will arrive in my lifetime as I have a more than competent grasp of arithmetic. Comes in useful when multiplication meets division.

  12. I don't know how many times I've raised this point but it’s a lot -And it obvious that I will just have to keep on raising it.

     

    'Why on earth would any thinking person buy into oil fired heating at this stage in the 21st century with 'peak oil' less than a decade away.'

     

    its sheer madness. Didn't you see the price of fuel oil nearly double just less than a month ago..... Obviously not.

    http://www.boilerjuice.com/heatingOilPrices.php

    Why don't you look around at the alternatives?

  13. [quote user="Quillan"]Where can you buy them at these average Eastern European prices, I mean it's not the sort of thing you will find locally?[/quote]

    Quillan

    For anyone who wants details on these types of burners or Accumulators to send me a PM or email and I'll be happy to forward on the details.

    Andrew

  14. As a recommendation, which I submit is valid for nearly any multifuel system, an accumulator tank is a tremendous addition, as it smoothes the heat cycles and gives the most out of your heat generation source. It also makes it plausible to add solar if you want DHW or even something more- free energy. Such Accumulators can be 300lt up to 5000lt or more and will over their life time which is virtually indefinite, give a lot to any heating system in control and efficiency.

    An Accumulator is a 'modern idea' it seems to many but that's not true, Accumulators have been used effectively for millennia particularly in Northern Europe. It’s just that nowadays house design has been minimalized without the thought of provision for these types of needs. Past generations have caused a great many buildings to be built with provision only for instantaneous heaters, which as catastrophic for energy use and therefore cost - but that wasn't a consideration when they were installed. So now, adapting a building for efficient energy use can sometimes be hard or even expensive but it is nevertheless worthwhile. Naturally it should always start with Insulation, and draft proofing.

    But for the choice of active heating system, no can refuse the obvious that our heating preferences have to change enmass. Oil burning systems are 'on the nose' in more ways that one, that is; continuing to install them from new is social unacceptable if there is an alternative and there certainly are many good alternatives. Anyone driven to analyse just the costs of these alternative will certainly see that 'whole of life cost' of a oil system is unsustainable - unless that is, one is mathematically challenged. Morally and practically there surely can be no arguments.

    Bu t to refocus, an accumulator makes sense which every system you employ.

  15. [quote user="Nearly Retired"]It's good to hear a real second home owner's experiences of a pool - thank you. If possible could you enlarge on what you need to do before you leave the house and return to UK and what, if anything, happens when you are away. Simply put, the second home owner's ideal situation is to turn up one day in mid-summer, take the cover off and dive in to a perfectly clean pool. Then, when leaving, just pull on the cover and go home. I'm sure it isn't quite like that though ![/quote]

    Yes! It's possible.

    But it can never be guaranteed, just the like the electricity supply in France is never ..........;;;!!!

    But equipping a pool for this is objective very doable, and is done for many owners like Simon every year. His experience is not untypical of the pool owners who takes pool ownership and water quality, seriously. Learning how to do it is not difficult, but its also not published on the back of each Corn Flakes Packets - it has to be learned from someone who knows how to do it in the first place (which rules out most pool shops in France).

    I'm not really sure why Simon thinks that the subject is ‘contentious’; there has been a lot of discussion about it over the last 5 years to be sure. But nearly all obfuscation has come from sources where real knowledge is not in abundance, whereas the more learned comments from Teapot, Chemgeek, mine a few others are all treading the same path by an large, albeit with some minor technical skirmishes over minuté.

    Still I sure we are all grateful to Simon for presenting his valuable experience.........which is on the whole correct I pleased to say,.......... makes a change!

    Andrew

     

  16. Roy

    You've got the wrong end of the stick I think. Modern Evacuated Tube solar collectors use Ultra Violet light as well as Infra red spectrum to gather energy which is why they are so revolutionary. It means that they (Evac Tubes)can still work on dull days unlike the EPDM matting which is pury ornamental in these conditions.

    Also as almost anyone who has owned EPDM mats will tell you that they eventually leak at one or all of the vast number of little connections and also have to be drained down in winter, which makes them a bit  of a pain in my view. Its a difference between low tech (take lots of space) or high tech (takes less than half the space for the same Kw)


    Andrew

     

  17. Pete

    If you want to contact me by email I can send you some proposals for solar systems for pools and show you a clever trick to heat the house as well during winter. Its a significnat investment and I think that it should be in use all year rather than just the swimming months. But your comment that your 'thinking cheap and cheerful' doesn't really sit well with geotherm/ground source heating - that game is researved for the well healed players, its spendy enough to make your eyes water. So consequently I'm not sure what your budget is so its difficult to advise you properly. Certianly I can tell you for definate that Solar thermal is the best bang for your buck by a country mile- I can easily prove that no other investment in renewables comes close (€/kw).

    Drop me a line and we can chat - Oz style.

    Andrew

  18. Ozpete

    I guess the 'Oz' part of your avatar eludes to your origin. If that’s so then, as one Aussie to another I can tell you plane.

    Geothermal no matter how you’re doing it is a very long investment for the cost of it. Most systems never reach break even if you equate current electrical prices. Biggest problem is not the finding of energy, as many will tell you there's plenty underground there for the asking. The big thing is the initial cost v. the life of the system - I've not seen to many Ground source, or geothermal installers give more and a few measly years warrantee on the system because (specially if its under powered and so you make it work hard) the life of the compressor and exchanger are by no means infinite. I normally encourage potential purchasers to factor renewing the heat pump after 10 years -most of the time that turns out to be true. All of that being true, then its very expensive energy indeed.

    Solar thermal on the other hand is so simple (only one moving part) that its life could be construed as virtually indefinite. Couple that with a cost per watt of around 10% of Geo and heat pumps and it’s a no brainer to me. Many others disagree primarily because they cannot accept that the sun doesn't shine every day and therefore you cannot get heat out of a solar system every day. The people who can accept that in exchange for free heat are the ones who have already installed a few solar tubes and can be seen with the permanent smirk on their face.

    It is now possible to link the pool heating to heat the house in winter as well. By this method its possible to get a return for your investment for 12 months of the year instead of just 3 months of the swimming season and much more such as lower TVA, credit impot and other benefits. Again.... no brainer.

    Concomitantly, you can choose what you want for your own reasons, but renewable energy has come so far that for anyone to install fossil fuel based systems from new is sheer madness, verging on vandalism, in my view. So if to be renewables then ther are good, better, best as with everything. Even a single panel to get some hot water for a shower once in a while is a start. But for your Pool OZ me ol mate, go Solar thermal and you'll get a result you can see for yourself.

    Andrew

     

     

  19. Yes well yet another Customer gets the bum's rush from Waterair! Not at all surprised, as it is the norm for this company once they got your money- that's all she wrote.

    I'm with Another on this issue,  as flocculant will not help but rather hinder your pool performance as it will further slow down if not stop altogether their already feeble circulation system, as so your pool will go green - even quicker.

    So if you have 'dust' on the bottom, be it white, brown or what ever colour, then vacuum it to waiste is the best solution.

    Of course you can always change your system of filtration all together to make your pool water always transparent clean clean clean.

             [IMG]http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss285/andrewhenderson/Internalsteps.jpg[/IMG]

    I realise that this is a bit unfair as its certainly water clarity that you will never see with your system, but I just wanted to show you what's possible.

    Good luck

    Andrew

  20. Kate and Nick

    What you ask is possible, however its also possible that it will not be an easy matter as with many concrete pools, the fittings are not meant to take liners; that is that they have no facility to accept a gasket and pressure plate for water proofing. Sometimes this can be forced into place but that practice is very risky and often ends up with leaks which kind of defeats the purpose of putting a liner in in the the first place.

    More often in this situation, all of the fittings; bottom drain, returns, skimmers and prise balai have to be changed to accommodate a liner being put over the top and to make a seal. Needless to say that this is usually a very expensive exercise and very disruptive.

                [IMG]http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss285/andrewhenderson/Pools/DugUpPool.jpg[/IMG]

    Taking out the old fittings

             [IMG]http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss285/andrewhenderson/Pools/WorkSkimmers.jpg[/IMG]

    Putting in the new fittings

             [IMG]http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss285/andrewhenderson/Pools/P6272267.jpg[/IMG]

    After the new liner is fitted

    However coincidentally, I have a new product which has just been granted its European patent to avoid the need to replace these fittings as all that affair is taken care of inside the pool and as a bonus, it's performance in terms of water circulation is vastly superior to the old way above. It too cost money howevedr, (its not for free) but not nearly as much as the old way. So if you want to explore the possiblity further then please send your contact details and then email a pic or two of the pool.

    Andrew

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