Punch
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Posts posted by Punch
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Ernie Y - yes you are correct.
The law states that you need three clear years from the date of payment of the fine of the last offence so in the case of the OP, he/she will have to wait three years now until all points will be re-instated.
So for instance you could be days away from your threeyear deadline in getting you points back on you licence, and then lose it all for another three years if you commit an offence which requires the deduction of points. Seems a bit unfair to me ?
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Yes ditto here in Mayenne (53). There is a large timber yard at Laval that has about 7 huge sprinklers running 24/7 on their cut oak running from a large reservoir that just recirculates the water. I never knew that it was to draw out the tannin though.
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[quote user="Anton Redman"]The exterior box is about 6 cms say 2.5 inches in size and requires a small hole, to take some telephone gauge wire through the wall. The meter remains inside the property and the box is read via an induction pad and computer.[/quote]
It's called a "boitier téléreport " and is linked to the new kind of white electronic digital meters. Cost for EDF to install used to be around 200€ from memory of the last one I organised ,( free/included) on new installations.
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Yes it's quite true that enough use has to be made of the off peak hours to offset the higher standing charge levied for the HC abonnement. This can be easily recouped by the use of a water heater and a washing machine and or dishwasher on a 9KW abonnement that are used in off peak hours. These hours, as has been mentioned are usually at night, but some ( like mine) are 6 hours at night and 2 hours between midday and 2pm which is very useful.
However, I have never heard my local Pompiers, or any one else for that matter mentioning high proportion of callouts at night due to washing machine/dishwasher usage. My local pompier and friend says that more fires in France are caused by faulty un-lined flues from badly installed woodburners and that electrically caused fires these days are relatively rare. I think that the statistics from the fire service show this. So how many people put their stoves and inserts out before they retire to bed ?
In fact if you think about it logically, most people would be in during machine usage at night, and possibly more likely to discover a fault/fire if (like most sensible people) they have smoke detectors fitted in their homes . I am sure many people put their washing machines on and then go shopping/ do some gardening/ go for coffee at the neighbours etc, which is probably more of a risk.
However the risk is still there no matter what the appliance is that is on at night and most French homes with modern decent wiring and circuitry are resonably well protected by the overcurrent and earth fault equipment that is installed, but of this does not mean everthing is 100% safe. This brings me on to say that it would be unadvisable to leave appliances on unattended for long periods unless you had up to date wiring, and do not in any situation have washing machines and similar appliances plugged into wall adaptors or extension leads, only directly plugged into proper fixed 2 pole and earthed 16 amp NF approved socket outlets.
Safety first ![:D]
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Yes, I have personal exerience of this as I have bought a few vehicules (4) over the last 10 years or so at auction in Rennes and also Nantes and have insured them all for 24 hours to get them home. I have since found out that my current insurers would also do this at a cheaper rate than the companies that provide the service at auction.
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I have some for sale ( 3/4) rolls of Wickes Bitumen shed felt but I think that you are probably too far from me here in Mayenne (53) ?
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Yes that is sad. I have been a subscriber since the early/mid eighties and was invited down to Monbazillac a couple of years ago for their 200th edition celebration dinner/dance evening. We had a great evening and met the Editor Miranda Neame and the team, as well as Sir John Holmes the British Ambassador. I also have a good friend here in Mayenne who writes a regular column for them. I must admit that I was surprised at the size of the team when I went to the dinner and wonder whether the high cost of social charges and employment costs was a factor in their downfall ?
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Odile - It actually is quite a story that I may elaborate on if I find her. Thanks!
Crazyfrog - thanks - I hope that I can find her. My father (and her's) died when I was 11 so she could help me with lots of missing links in my life.
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Hi, Can anyone help me with a problem that is very important?
I have recently had an email (via facebook) from someone who I think may be my half sister and who I have been trying to find for over 30 years .
The problem is that the email says to reply to this message click on the link in the email which takes me to my facebook login page. When I login there are no messages . She gave me her name in the email but when I try to find her by her name in facebook there are over 400 entries worldwide for her, so short of sending all 400 a message I seem to have no way of replying to her! I have no idea which country she is in and have no email adress for her as her email came via facebook.
I have no idea how to reply to her message - can anyone help please?
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That's a good point - On a single phase electronic meter I think it is either N°4 or N°5 to see what the maximum demand has been, but I have no idea if a start up current would register or not.
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[quote user="Cathy"]
Oh Punch, that has made me laugh. So we are all going to be Arthur Daleys (he was a "car contractor", wasn't he?). [:D]
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Cathy - Naa - I think the Arthur Daleys of this world were more suited to the old micro regime. This new car contractor system is much more up market and way out of the league of even T.I.T.s ( Trotters independant trading ). Probably more suited to the middle class gite owner who wants to supplement their income when times are quiet and there are no part time gardening/cleaning/ house minding jobs left to do [:)]
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That's worse - small entrepreneurs [:)]
It seems like this new scheme is only for people who are vertically challenged and can sell dodgy vehicles [:)]
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Well let's hope an official translation comes soon because there are going to be a lot of people becoming car - contractors and "taking their destiny in hand " [:D]
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The EDF disjoncteur is in fact a combined overcurent and earth fault protection device ( disjoncteur differentielle), with an earth fault trip current of 500 milliamps.
This means that not only will it trip out in the even of exceeding it's rating of 45 amps, but it will also trip out if there is an earth fault leakage over 500 milliamps, no matter how much power you are drawing.
Does your tableau electrique have a interrupteur differentielle (RCD in English) fitted which is rated at 30 milliamp trip ? It should have but if the answer is no, then the above could be the answer to the problem - ie; A leakage to earth is tripping out the EDF disjoncteur. If the answer is yes then the problem lies elsewhere.
If your supply is a three phase supply then the maximum power that you can draw from any one phase is 15A per phase. So although the EDF disjoncteur is rated at 45 amps you could easily trip it out by drawing over 15 amps on any one of your circuits.
It could of course, as has been sugggested be the start up current of the geothermal heat pump - if it is single phase then these are notorious for high startup currents, which is why the companies that supply them prefer to install three phase units.
I recently had a customer that had a single phase geothermie installed and they cannot use it as the EDF incoming lines are so old and small that the volt drop when the pump tries to start is so large that the pump will not run. The EDF are going to upgrade 1km of line tosolve the problem.
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The Laval connection has taken up a full page of this weeks Courrier de La Mayenne and although I have not read the full article, it seems that their researcher in Genealogy, Jeanne Duval had already done reseach into her own tree and that is where she uncovered the link to Obama.
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Our local paper has a front page article this week about the great-great-great-great-great-grandmother of Obama , Mary Duvall, who was a slave owner in Laval (53). A bit of a tenuous link but neverthess interesting .
A google search came up with a few other snippets
http://dowdellresearch.blogspot.com/2007/03/tracing-that-family-tree-barack-obama.html
http://www.duvallsociety.org/notables.html
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As well as the obvious SIRET check, probably one of the most overlooked checks you should make is to ask your builder for a copy of his attestation for his decenelle insurance to see if he is actually registered for the trades he claims he is, and wether he has public liability insurance (responsabilité civile) - then ring the insurance company to check.
As in the above post, your Devis should also be quite detailed listing everything you are getting, so at the time of completion there are no nasty surprises.
I run a building and renovations company and we pay insurance premiums of around 3500 euros per year just for this alone . Not many insurance companies cover multi trades anymore and any new companies who boast to do this, you should be wary of .We have a track record of 11 years no claims so at our renewal this year we were accepted again.
Many of the "builders" I come across in my area ( and yours too I think), don't even bother with this insurance although it is a legal requirement. Do not be embarrased to ask for this paperwork, I happily would show it to anyone who asks and welcome these questions, and you may regret it later down the line if you run into difficulties with your builder. I will gladly help you and look over any paperwork completely free of charge and without obligation - I can also tell you if your Devis is legal and at the market price. PM me if you are interested. By the way I am not looking for work - we have enough for the time being. I am just tired of competing with non legal and non registered businesses.
Just make sure that everything is agreed beforehand to avoid problems further down the line .I wish you the best and hope that all goes well.
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The two boards would not comply with French regulations for various reasons so you cannot us them. The circuit breakers will be only single pole and therefore also non compliant as French ones need to be double pole and NF marked.
For your outbuilding, you can run a seperate sub- main from your existing supply or get the EDF to quote you for a seperate supply box and meter.
www.punchardrenovation.com
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I'm no expert but I had the same problem - I solved it by pushing the association button on my livebox so that it could recognise any devices searching for an available network.
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[quote user="Meg "]
How much did you win Punch? Are you sharing it out? Can i have some?[/quote]Only half a ton - Can't yet say I'm a "milweaonaire " [:)]
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Why don't you just ask the Pharmacien in the chemist - they will know the local infirmière and their hours ? Alternatively get you doc to give the jab, that's what I do.
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Tut Tut !
Fancy forgetting the accent grave in the word bière [B] - Na Na Na Na Na [:P]
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Further to my Premium Bond win this morning .......
A black cat crossed my path yesterday whilst driving to work so I am sure this is why I won the PB this morning [:D] , I thought that in France it was the opposite meaning if that happened ie; bad luck ??
I have also been told that horseshoes should be hung the opposite way to the U shape that most Brits hang them. Does what country you live in have a bearing on it - I mean I'm English but should I hang my horsehoes upside down because I live in France ?
What about walking under ladders ? What superstitions exist here ?
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Coincidentally I've just opened an envelope sent to my address in France this morning with a £50 Premium Bond win. Now I had a black cat cross my path yesterday - was it coincidence ?
What needs to be done?
in French Legal Issues
Posted
A few more items that may help;
1. Get your UK mail redirected directly to your address in France.
2. Check how much validity is left on your passport - It can cost almost double the amount to get it renewed in France via the British Consulate at Paris, and you can apply up to nine months before the expiration of your existing passport, without any loss of that nine months.
3. If you have access to a photocopier, make copies of all important documents at least twice and keep in a safe place.
4. Take lots of handy items such as 3amp and 13 amp fuses, adapators and such like for the Uk appliances that you take to France. Until you have the time to swap everything over to French plugs, these will come very much in handy !
5. Buy a large filing cabinet - you are going to need it !!!! (They are quite expensive here ).