Nev

OK guys, I take your point. It was a very brief piece of information and I gave a brief reply. Perhaps we could have a further explanation of this forthcoming exchange of registration details? I still can't see how it would affect us. No, I'm not interested in clocking up my 'post count', and I only look at the forum in between my frequent trips to the outside world. [:)] I find the forum VERY useful; for me particularly the Renovations threads and it has provided much useful information. I'm not so interested in messages from the "pc thought-police".  

... and this will affect us, how? Surely not a problem for law-abiding citizens, or have I missed the point?  

Thanks Gay, it looks fine now.

Of course! As I said, a free country, and I have a right to my point of view too. It's a pity you made such a mess of your earlier posting, it completely screwed up the end of my page 2, a link to the relevent news item would suffice. Anyway, Joyeux Noel.    

Ooooooo! Sticks and stones..... Chris pp... I thought you'd already made your point?!! Do you have to have the last word? OK Chris, or is it Christian. So you're not British. The idea of protesting about hunting, on one day or every day, is VERY British nonetheless, and I got sick of it in UK and was relieved to leave all that namby-pamby stuff behind. There always someone telling us what's best for us; I prefer to fit in with current practices. If you're not British, I do find it odd that you would contribute to, or even be interested in, a forum aimed at (mostly) British ex-pats living in France, unless it's to drum up support for a protest perhaps. There's nothing to stop you of course, it's a free country here too.  I live here too, permenantly, I don't work here.... I'm retired now. I also belong to various associations. I don't have to defend my lifestyle, I'm defending the right of the French to live how they have done for many years, and I certainly wouldn't presume to tell them what to do. Vive la France and the reaseon I came here in the first place.

I can't understand why so many of you want to convert this country into another Britain. Why can't you just accept it as it is? We came because it was (and still is) different to the life we had in UK. I'm happy to accept their hunting etc etc if they're happy to accept me. Nev

I've got the drilling guide; it's a "gabarit de percage"; from LaPeyre, 4,40€, and I reckon it's worth it's weight in gold! It bolts into the hinge to give the correct position for the hole. I've got a picture of it but just realised I can't insert images here, doh! I can see what you mean about being slightly out, but with the guide it'll be correct, although I'm in two minds now... I've had a look around the house at the existing hinge pins and they're all at 90 degrees to the wall. I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure. Nev

Thanks Chas and Dave [:)] The idea of going in at 45 degrees never occurred to me. I've 3 more to do so I'll try that. Nev

Dave I presume you mean at an angle left or right? Anything other than perfectly horizontal means that the pin wouldn't be vertical. I looked at the chemical ones and decided that they were meant for beton blocks. Although I've had no splits so far, I think you are right, and I will try those for the next set of shutters. They work out a little more expensive with the tube of resin. How long do they take to set? Nev  

We bought a Renault Megane Estate inported from Germany form these people http://www.automobileimport.fr/ Very satisfactory service and much cheaper than I could find locally. Nev

It wasn't a problem in the end. Drilled the hole with my new super-cheap SDS drill (Castorama - 29.99€), inserted the hinge-pin and tightened until firm.  

Deimos Tuffeau?? I have the Charente limestone. You're right about the vertical load, except when the shutter swings open, in which case the top hinge pin will, I guess, have an momentary outward pull when the shutter is 90 degrees to the wall. Nev.

If you telephone FranceTelecom support they will tell you quite categorically that you mustn't use a 'ralonge'. My connection wouldn't work initially (Livebox or NetGear) with the extension lead, but once I had got it working at the main socket I tried again with the extension and it was fine! Doh!

I've got some new shutters to fit and I've been supplied with hinge pins (gonds) with an expanding bolt fastening. This requires a 16mm hole for which I've got the necessary SDS bit etc but my question is how tight do you fasten them? They need to be inserted to a fairly accurate depth in order to get the correct vertical alignment with the face of the wall, but I can't decide how to do it. I haven't actually tried yet! I was assuming that I'd insert the gond and then give it 1 (or 2 or 3?) complete turns to tighten. I forgot to mention, this is into nicely dressed stone around the window aperture, so I don't want to split it or damage it!  Nev 

Marc No, I haven't seen those, but it's too late for the current job; I'll bear it in mind though. Is there a danger of splitting the tiles? Nev

les chenauds Couldn't agree more! My boiler is running smoothly again. Nev

To all recent posters... If you read the earlier posts you will see that it doesn't matter what adjustments you make to your mail settings, NTL will bounce ANYTHING originating at an IP address belonging to Wanadoo. So, it's nothing to do with email addresses, it is simply the address allocated to you when you connect to your ISP (Wanadoo). For a long time it has been felt, and in fact this is backed up with real evidence, that a large amount of spam originates in France. Recent statistices put France as SECOND in the world for volumes of spam. There are publicly accessible databases which show whether particular IP addresses are blocked; Wanadoo addresses are ALWAYS shown as blocked on these lists. This is because Wanadoo consistently refuse to address any abuse notifications. NTL are unique in that they primarily use these lists to determine whether to accept or reject email; other ISPs take a less hard line and thus your emails will get through. This applies to Tesco.net too as that service is hosted by NTL. The only resolution to this is for Wanadoo to take some firm action to reduce spam which originates on their accounts and then they will (eventually) get their blocking lifted. They do not seem inclined to do anything. As previously stated you can subscribe to a relaying service and this will solve your problems. Two sites have been recommended; see earlier posts. I hope this explains it in simple terms, and for those sceptics out there, there is plenty of information available in the internet if you care to look for it.  Nev

As a result of seeing the prices on here I telephoned the fioul distributer this morning and asked them to verify the price becaue I had seen the much lower price in Intermarche. She said there's a new tariff today (is this a coincidence I wonder!) and the price is now 0.622 a reduction of 0.04 or a total of 40€ for my delivery. She also pointed out that the Intermarche price is for 'ordinaire' and I've ordered 'premier'. Our chauffagiste told us to use Total Premier, it's a little more expensive but is cleaner and burns more efficiently. I don't know how true this is. I understand that the premier grade is better in the cold conditions.

Blimey, I'm glad I've seen this thread! I've been quoted 0.663 per litre for 1000L (Total Premier) for delivery on Monday. I think I should cancel it and phone my local Intermarche instead. Nev

Resonance - that describes it exactly! So far it's been OK so I'll see how it goes over the next few days. Thanks again Nev

OK here's what I found... not very much! I did as you suggested, removed the filter bowl and cleaned it out; a few particles in the bottom, and a greyish fine sludge (not much) on the gauze of the filter. I wouldn't have said it was blocked based on my previous DIY experience with car carburettor filters etc.  Re-fitted it and fired up. Interestingly the filter bowl is now full to the top with fuel (it had a 1 cm space before) and the vibrating noise was considerably quieter. When I opened the viewing hole to look at the flame the noise increased. To my mind this means it's an air-related problem?? (maybe). With my usual tinkering hat on I tried adjusting the air valve thing (technical term) by a notch each way. It was set on 4; when I turned to one click to 4.25 (approx) the noise stopped! Turned it back and the noise started again. So, naturally I've left it at 4.25. Do you think I still need to get it regulated properly? It was quite expensive last time, around 100€, or is that normal? The most recent chauffagiste recommended that I always buy Total Premier Fioul, he said it was a little dearer but made up for it with more efficient running. I've just ordered 1000L but I'm told the price is 0,663 per litre which sounds expensive compared to prices mentioned in the recent thread. Is there a difference in fuels? I've read many of your posts Opel and must say you've been very helpful, thanks very much. Nev

Thanks Opel. Looking at the filter bowl (which I must admit I've never really closely examined before) I can see that the oil level is about 1 cm from the top. When the boiler fires, this drops to between halfway and two-thirds full. The filter is a kind of gold colour and looks clean at the top but may be a bit blocked lower down; I'm sorry if I sound a bit vague, but it's hard to tell if it's just the effect of the oil. Anyway, I'm confident enough to take this apart so I'll do that later this morning. You mention in another thread that there is another filter, at the inlet to the burner unit I think. I've got the installation manual and documantation somewhere so I'll see if I can locate that too. As I said, the boiler is only just over a year old. I have to say that I'm not overjoyed with the workmanship. You note in you excellent 'heating funnies' thread that many installations are not correctly set up, and that was certainly the case with ours. By April this year it had become completely full of soot due to incorrect burning. I got a more reputable (hindsight is wonderful) engineer to set it up correctly, but we didn't use it much over the summer. I had the flue swept (belatedly) on his advice and everything seemed fine. It has definitely been running more economically. The whole thing reminds me of the engine room of the QE2 and there's a lot of manual intervention required to get just hot water for example. Vanne Melageuse - some sort of mystical French apparatus! Anyway, I'll let you knowwhat I find. Nev

Thanks Michael. I'll have to get a service guy to look at it, I realise that, but was wondering if there was anything obvious to check first. The whole installation is only just over 12 months old so I wasn't expecting major replacements yet. It seems coincidental that this starts when the flue has been recently swept. After posting my query I noticed anothe thread a bit lower down 'banging old boiler' and Opel Fruit' mentions a dirty filter, maybe I should check that first because it doesn't sound too difficult. Nev

Our oil-fired boiler is not quiet at the best of times, and I suspect this is why they're usually located in outhouses etc as ours is, but lately is has become VERY noisy, especially when it just fires up. It makes a vibrating sound as though it's trying to shake itself to pieces! There aren't many moving parts, an just injector pump probably, but I'm worried that it may be a flame problem. Any ideas anyone? I'm hoping Opal Fruit will come along with some suggestions! Can I check the flame colour? It was serviced earlier this year, April I think, and we've recently had the flue swept (4 weeks ago). No fuel delivery since January (but we will need one soon). When it makes this racket, if I turn it off and then on again it usually fires-up and runs correctly. Nev

Hi Shutters have just been discussed if you look a little further down the list of topics. www.lapeyre.fr and look at the e-catalogue page 120 onwards for specs and prices. Nev