Choochoo

Hi everyone I can confirm that the culprit is France Telecom. When we first had our phone line installed they got our address wrong,putting us down as  number 12 instead of number 14. Guess what ,after a while we started getting junk mail etc. all addressed to number 12 ! Of course the postman delivered them to us as he knew they were meant for us. The amount of junk mail here still astounds me,compared to UK. Regards to all   John & Sue (50)

Hi jonzjob Chickens, Sheep and eventually a House Cow. We would like to feed Organic if we can because we get Organic Eggs,meat etc. then . Any ideas ? Thanks   John (not Sue)

Hi everyone I know we have had this before but cant find it. Can anybody recommend a flour for Bread making,both Wholemeal and White ? Also Gluten free flour,or if not Gluten free bread to buy ? Thanks to all   John & Sue (50)

Hi Sabina We asked a French builder to do some work for us about 18 months ago.He came,looked at the work,sort of nodded,took a copy of the Architects plans and drove off. Thats the last contact we have had with him. No Devis has been received yet nor a possible commencement date.Sent him numerous letters,no reply. We were about to give him up as a bad job and look elsewhere when somebody told us "whatever you do dont contact another Builder,word will get through on the grapevine ,  nobody wants to take another builders job and you will get blacklisted and wont get the work done at all". This may or may not be true but I dont want to take the chance and am sticking with my original builder,for all his faults. We had some other work done by him and know his work anyway,and were not in a great hurry to get the work done. I know this posting is probably not of great help to you but its something to think about. Anybody else heard of this blacklisting thing ?   John & Sue (50)  

Hi everybody Hope everyone is enjoying the lovely weather. Does anybody know where we can buy Organic Animal Feed ? Thanks to all   John & Sue (50)

[quote]choochoo . What difference does a high limit stat have on the boiler pipeing if you have no control on a multi fuel boiler.It is not going to shut down the fire.The cly is not designed for a pressure ...[/quote] Hi Michael The high limit thermostat monitors the outgoing water temperature from the Rayburn. Should this rise above 80c it automatically turns on the CH circulation pump,thereby ensuring the water never boils and things get nasty. Contrary to what our antipodean friend thinks I have a lot of experience of Rayburn systems for CH and HW. I am also experienced in electrical installation (UK) and have an Electronics qualification, being a service engineer in one of my previous lives. Best wishes to all   John

[quote]o.k. lets go back to the original question :- you say you have no room above for a cold water tank but have you room for a hot tank along side your rayburn ? if yes you could then use the room above f...[/quote] Hi Dave Thanks for your input. Sorry but the cylinder goes above the Rayburn on the first floor to give a proper working head. I have purchased a reducteur de pression  which can go down as low as .5bar so I am going to give it a go. I feel that a normal system, such as I had in my UK house, a 50 gallon tank sited 8 feet above the cylinder must surely exert quite a pressure. Wish me luck. John

Hi Michael Thanks for your advice. I am installing a normal vented system with heat leak radiator and high limit thermostat on the boiler piping. All I am trying to do that is extra to this is to get around the problem of not having a loft space big enough to put a large water tank in. If I could supply the Cylinder with water from our main supply (which comes from one of those big metal tanks fed by a well pump) which is normally at about 2 to 2.5 bar , reduce this pressure somehow to the normal working pressure inside the cylinder in a "normal" situation,then I have solved my problem. Unfortunately I cant find out (a) how to reduce the incoming pressure (b) what the final working pressure should be. Any ideas Thanks   John

Hi Dave & Olive Thanks for the replies. I already have the cylinder left over from a previous life so would like to use it. As the Rayburn is burning anyway, might as well use it to heat water saving electricity costs,at least in the winter. As I said I have room above it for a small top up tank.What is the expansion tank you referred to ? and in Dicks reply I have never seen a pressure valve as you suggest,any pointers to what it is and where I obtain it.? I thought I had solved the problem of lack of a supply tank but obviously there are problems to be overcome.      Any more suggestions would be welcome. I see you are flying the Welsh flag,I lived in Wales for 5 years in the seventies in a place called Pumsaint, just outside of Lampeter. Thanks again to all   John & Sue (50) 

Hi everyone We have a wood burning Rayburn with back boiler. To make use of the boiler for hot water I need to install a UK type indirect hot water cylinder,this is no problem except I have limited room above it for the cold supply tank. Because of this I was thinking of taking the normal cold water supply which is at 2.5 bar into the inlet but using a stopcock in the line to reduce the pressure. Does anyone know the safe working pressure of one of these cylinders, obviously I would like it as high as possible to give a good pressure at the shower.In the Summer when the Rayburn is not in use we will use the Chauffe eau we have in use at present. Thanks to all   John & Sue (50)

Hi Cat46 Actually were both Garden Railway fans (get it -choochoo) so its whoevers on line, it was John that time. I have tried to save and then open,that doesnt work either, I will try Baz Idea. Thanks to all for your help. John

Hi everyone Thanks to all for their helpful replies, I think i have got the hang of threading the wires now. Thanks for the invite Anton,we are near Gorron just where 50 meets 53, I think you are too far away, anyway the missus is in England with the car so certainly too far to walk ! Can anybody tell me the difference between a Type A and a Type AC protector diferentielle and which one is used for which type of circuit. Also one other point, can I feed one RCD from the output of another or is this going to upset things I was also reading that low voltage supplies, e.g. for 12v Ceiling lights, must use a thicker wire than would be normal for lighting. I have a run of about 5 metres from the transformer which means I must use 6mm wiring ! is this right.? I am reluctant to mount the transformers near the ceiling lights in the void as most ones I have had before seem to burn out transformers at least once a year. Thanks to all   John & Sue (50)

Hi Bobc Sorry,I was just letting off steam. I had had a bit of a hard day with the wiring, it kept jamming in the gaine and it took most of the afternoon to wire one 4 metre length. I was using pre-wired gaine but it would seem it needs two people, one to pull the wire and one to feed the cables through and I was having to do it on my own. She who must be obeyed is away at the moment. Re. the Fuseboxes, I have 4 Socket circuits and three lighting circuits coming into it, thats 7 wires of each colour to push into the hole, is there something like a multi connection which I can use inside the fusebox to connect them all ? I am using a Fusebox already in place but never wired up,is it missing something internally ? Thanks for the advice, I feel much better today !   John & Sue (50)

Hi everyone Nothing to do with France but suddenly I cant open any attachments within Hotmail. I get a message saying" cannot find site 12.3.45.678, it may be busy or have a fault. Please try later"    This has been happening over a week or so now. Anybody got any suggestions. Thanks John & Sue (50)

Hi Everyone We have a vanload of belongings to fetch from UK. We would probably need something bigger than a Luton Transit but not as big as a 6 tonner. Can anyone recommend a suitable van we could hire in France and where we might hire one ? We live in Manche. Thanks John & Sue (50)

Hi everyone I started on the wiring today, tell me they are having a laugh or that I have gone back in time to when Electricity was just discovered !! Whatever happened to fully sheathed 3 core cable for wiring a house,it exists but youre not allowed to use it for rewiring your house. Pourqoi ?              What a wind up trying to feed three wires down a corrugated tube specially designed to be awkward and trap the wires as they travel along, and dont mention the fusebox,rubbishy plastic thing with nowhere to put all your wires. I need a stiff drink ! or two ! I feel totally clapped out and I`ve only done one circuit. Small wonder a lot of people use UK stuff,wish I was. John & Sue (50) 

Hi everyone Just an observation, we thought we got a lot of junk mail in the UK, but since we moved to France  have been astounded by the amount of junk mail we recieve ! Does the facteur give everybody elses to us or is this the norm. Good job they have recycling points over here.   John & Sue (50)

Hi Everyone Does anyone know of a source for Dorset Down sheep in France ? Also Dexter Cows. We could import them from UK but would prefer to obtain in France. I know it sounds improbable but we thought that about our Chickens, found them in France ! Thanks to all.   John & Sue (50)

Hi Everyone Can anyone tell me the regulation size for piping to carry Toilet waste to the fosse septique ? I have been told it is 100mm, this seems a bit small to me so before I put it in the trench and concrete it in I would like some confirmation. Also how do you connect Basin waste etc. I dont seem to see a strap type fitting that you use in the UK. Last thing, can somebody repeat the name of the one way valve which can take the place of a vent pipe sticking out of the roof. Many thanks for all your help. John & Sue (50)

Thanks to all for replies.As the last poster describes ours has just an air pocket and a simple drain off of excess water did the trick. Unfortunately for some reason the names of people does not come up,probably something to do with Norton again ! John & Sue (50)

Thanks for all the advice Sounds like it may be a split bladder (sounds nasty !) It was on our list of renovation projects to renew the tank so I think now may be the time.I think I will renew the pressure switch at the same time. We are only 15k from Mortain so we would have a similar iron problem. Will let everyone know how it works out.Might be useful information for someone else. Regards

Sorry if I seem a bit dim. We are thinking of buying a large plasma TV and would prefer to buy in France. As this is the 21st century will the TV bought in France be able to decode PAL and SECAM ? We mainly watch Sky and our collection of English DVD etc. Thanks to all John & Sue (50)

I bought a small farm in Wales in the seventies when the same thing was happening there.Loads of people were making the trip over the Severn Bridge to buy second homes in Wales when word got around how cheap it was (but,like France,not for long).We went to live there so for us it was not so bad,but the bad feeling toward, and downright hatred of, second home owners was quite something. The older ones amongst us will remember that quite a few houses were burnt to the ground or vandalised. I dont think it will get that extreme over here but I can see their point. At least the rise in house prices is caused by ordinary buyers and not parasitic property developers as it is in the UK. During our wait to move over to France house prices in the UK had risen so high that we had to use over half our renovation budget to assist our Daughter to get a small step on the property ladder,somewhere out there are loads of property developers who owe me some money ! Do you rember the old John Seymour adage, Lesser bugs have lesser bugs upon their back to bite em And lesser bugs have lesser bugs and so ad infitum. John & Sue (50)

Hi everybody A happy New Year to one and all. Our water supply comes from an artesian well with a pump operated by a sort of float switch which sits on top of a large steel water cylinder. Does anybody know anything about these sort of systems. They seem to be pretty common here. Ours cycles on and off much too quickly, if you ,say,flush the loo the pressure drops on the gauge and the relay clicks in,the pump operates for a second,the pressure shoots up and the relay clicks off. The pressure then drops fairly quickly and the above cycle is repeated, this cycling on and off can occur up to six or seven times before the loo cistern refills. If someone has a shower and there is a demand for cold water for the shower and to refill the chauffe d`eau the thing goes bananas and sounds like a machine gun ! Any advice would be appreciated. Also the names of the various components would be useful. Many thanks to all John & Sue (50)

Bonjour tout le monde We have just had our slate roof renovated by a French artisan,a very nice job and a reasonable price for eight days work. He gave us a Devis,which we agreed before work started and he started work on the day he said he would (that shocked you didnt it!-shocked us when he turned up on the day he said he would at 07.30 and we were still in bed!) Anyway the question is this,the work finished over 4 weeks ago and so far no final invoice. Do we get one or is the Devis also the invoice and we should send him a cheque? Thanks for any advice Joyeux Noel John & Sue (50) (wish we were!)