[does your electricity cut out]

Sorry to disagree again, but we are on three phase and had problems with it cutting out. The problem was imbalance on the phases, i.e. an overload on one phase. We had plenty of power.

We solved it by rebalancing (moving some appliances nto a different phase).

So it could be 3 phase, OR lack of power.

Check your EDF bill to see your power rating, and/or 3 phase.

[Documented move to France]

Why not start a blog ? I started one here for fun and it ended up being quite therapeutic.

[UK Twin & Earth Cable]

Why do you want to use UK wiring in a French house ??

Would you use UK wiring in Australia, or Japan, or USA ? I suspect the answer is no, so why here !!!

When in Rome...

[French wiring regs]

I can recommend this book on French electrics L'installation électrique, it's my bible at the moment.

Regarding the regs, try www.promotelec.com and I think you can buy from their library. I've a feeling they where very expensive (100's of euros). The www.legrand.fr site also has lots of useful info about NF C 15-100.

I quick search on Google of "NF C 15-100" reveals quite a bit but nothing for free !

[Getting a bit of winter warmth going]

An example installation with links

http://radio.weblogs.com/0136203/2004/08/15.html

[Mail on Sunday Property Section]

If anyone has a scanned copy of the article (+ the OCR text would be fab) I

would be more than happy to put a copy on my running

gites blog.

[Inserting links into message]

<a href="http://www.livingfrance.com/instantforum/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=25&MessageID=42517">http://www.livingfrance.com/instantforum/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=25&MessageID=42517

</a>

which comes out as

http://www.livingfrance.com/instantforum/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=25&MessageID=42517

or alternatively,

<a href="http://www.livingfrance.com/instantforum/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=25&MessageID=42517">click

here</a>

which displays as:

click

here

 

[Gite renovation grants]

See previous discussion.

[Using black electrical U 1000 R2V cable without gaine ?]

Thanks,

Based on the answer it looks like I am OK behind the wall (i.e. the void between the external wall and the placo), but not within internal placo walls if they have 48mm of insulation in them.

Can anyone confirm ?

Regards,

[Using black electrical U 1000 R2V cable without gaine ?]

Can the double insulated black cable, U 1000 R 2V, be used within cloisons

seches (plasterboard studding walls) *without* ICTA gaine ?

I trying to stick to NF C 15-100 using the excellent book L'installation

électrique but I'm stuck on this one point. Page 164 talks about installing

cabling behind insulated walls and (as most of the book does) shows examples using

the grey ICTA gaine with the individual wires. I've scoured the book looking for

even a paragraph mentioning the eligibility of U 1000 R 2V cable.

Thanks,

[Help! Very tall tree?]

EDF trimmed our trees that were touching the overhead lines. They wanted to chop them down (easier?) but I asked them to remove the tops and they did, Free of Charge.

I did have to remove the trimmings tho'

[Changing French Windows XP to English? How? Easy?]

It depends on the price, but to save the hassle factor DELL.fr offer English XP and manuals and keyboard (remember a french keyboard is AZERTY) as an option when buying new.

[Buying 2nd hand car in France]

Should also have mentioned http://www.argusauto.com/

[Buying 2nd hand car in France]

Depends where you live, but I bought from auction in Rennes and most cars were very good value especially non French models.

The website list past sales and prices and future sales on Fridays.

[internal walls]

Is it the same mix for render as pointing 3:1 ?

I've got some unwanted stone walls to cover with placo/metal but I thought it might be wise to cover the worst holes/gaps etc. before hiding for good.

[Lightweight concrete flooring upstairs]

I gather then, that PolyBeton might be a bit 'old fasioned'. What is aircrete ? I have a vision of a chocolate Aero bar made of concrete.

Any suggestions for covering the existing floor if polybeton is a non-starter ? I expect the final finish to be tiling for the bathrooms and most probably wood laminate the remainder.

Thanks,

[Van Carte Grise and number of seats]

I'd like to buy a van (Peugeot Boxer) from our local garage but only has two front seats. The carte grise also says 2 seats. So I can collect the two children from school I need a three seat model. The garage has offered to put in the three seat configuration free of charge, but the carte grise will still say 2 seats.

The garage says, No Problem, (but he would).

Anyone have any experience, good or bad, about this kind of discrepancy ? Should I worry (insurance implications?)

Regards,

[Lightweight concrete flooring upstairs]

In my house I have large oak beams, old oak floor boards and then a 5cm thick lightweight concrete mixture full of polystyrene balls, then a thin self-leveling coat ? and finally covered in floor tiles.

What is the lightweight concrete mixture called ? Can you buy it by the lorry load ?

I have a building I'm renovating and the upstairs floor is oak beams and very tired oak floorboards. I was thinking of using this stuff but I was not sure about the weight, esp. with tiles on top. The floor feels a little springy, whereas my house does not. Could the covering have stiffened it up ? esp. if a wire mesh is buried in the floor ?

Thanks,

[My water heater]

The heaters do work on cheap overnight electricity, Heures Creuses (HC) and Heures Pleines (HP). Your meter should have an HC and HP dial. The times are printed on the bottom of the EDF bill, usually approx 23:30 - 07:30.

To override the heater there should be a switch somewhere, either on the heater or possibly the fuse box, with N/J (Nuit and Jour) marked on it. Press J.

[Permission needed or not?]

It's possible that adding a bathroom may change your Taxes Foncieres. More rooms often means more tax to pay.

We knocked some rooms together and removed a bathroom after moving in to our house. A visit to the Hotel D'Impot reduced our tax bill.

[uk e-mail address question]

There is no reason why you can't keep your email address in the UK, the only problem is ensuring it remains active. I'm assuming you have an address like [email protected] and use Freeserve to dial up. You can still access your mail via the Freeserve web interface using a local French ISP, e.g. Wanadoo. The only danger is if you don't dial-up your UK 0845.... Freeserve number for 30/60 days they may delete the account and address.

The best solution is a buy a domain name e.g. helen.com and then all mail sent to [email protected] can be redirected to your current ISP in whatever country you are in. You keep your domain name for life(?) but can change ISP's and still retain the same email address.

Clear as mud ?

[Walnuts]

We just had an Apple and Walnut pie for lunch using walnuts and apples from the garden. This note and a lazy Sunday prompted me to add an entry to my blog about walnuts with some pictures of the fruits in various stages. Click http://radio.weblogs.com/0136203/ to enjoy.

[Filling gaps between slate roof and stone walls]

Hi,

In a barn I'm renovating for gites where the slate roof meets the stone walls (click for a bigger picture) there is a triangular 'gap' between the top of the stones and where the rafters rest on the wall. Also you can see daylight through the gaps on the gable ends.

I wanted to plug the holes to help with sound and heat insulation before plasterboarding. I considered filling the gaps with expanding foam but was concerned it may lift the tiles.

The other option was to mix up a lime mortar and chuck it in the space between the tiles and wall, but I was worried that it may draw moisture and rot the timbers or cause a damp problem. Do I even need to bother ?

Anyone have any experience or suggestions that would be helpful.

Thanks

Ian http://www.brittany-holiday-gites.com/

[Forum text size]

Here is a useful doc on font sizes that I found from the QA section of the W3C web site.

Basically let the user choose.

[Ride on Petrol Mowers]

It may also be worth mentioning rear or side ejection of grass clippings + the add-on mulcher option.

I've found that on damp grass that a rear ejection system clogs more often than a side ejection system. It's a pain sticking your hand inside a mower (switched off) to extract wet grass. Also some rear ejects do not allow operation of the mower without the grass collector because of the safety microswitch. If you like to live dangerously you can jam a sponge in it.

The mulcher on my mower is just a spring loaded flap to 'contain' the clippings within the deck for an extra whizz round and chop. On damp grass you just end up with clods but on dry grass in the summer you don't need to collect as the clippings just 'disappear'.

BTW - I couldn't live without hydro gear on my 22HP 48" monster :-)