Jackie

We, because we live in France, opened an off-shore account with Nationwide Isle of Man see http://www.nationwideinternational.com/. Similar interest rate to the e-bond but has to be declared to the income tax people here in France..............................................J   PS Don't know if off-shore accounts have the same Govt protection as mainland UK, maybe some knowledgeable soul could comment.

Have run it for several evenings of late now the colder nights have come and all is well, no smoke and no smells. Ben carries on with no repeat of his previous problem...........................J

Point taken but I don't underestimate the virtual reality effect. The box in the corner (TV) has images of people who are not real are they? I think our conscious mind knows that some are and some are not but we are isolated from them therefore are they real to us? Likewise text on the computer screen, so lacking in aspects of human contact, not really real then! I think it does take some effort to remind ourselves that it was placed there by real people....................................J     http://www.scienceclarified.com/scitech/Virtual-Reality/Which-World-Is-Real-The-Future-of-Virtual-Reality.html

It could be that they are trying to be helpful and know that for every person posting a question there are several readers who also want the question answered. Or, being unkind, they are on an ego trip and like seeing themselves in print! This, of course, applies not to anyone here................................J 

I think we are all guilty of this from time to time. However if you scan the info in the topic listings one piece of data given is who entered the last reply. This is sometimes in error as an earlier poster making a correction will register as if they were the last poster when they were not thus masking the fact that there has been another reply. Demonstrated here by my adding this! Another site similar to this one makes edits impossible once another reply has been added. Another issue is that to often folk start a heated discussion between themselves often going off topic and ignoring the original question put. You can therefore hardly blame the original poster for doing the same thing as the odd sensible reply can be buried in the fracas...............................................J

Ok folks and thanks for the information. I await the letter referred to....................................J

Sorry my fault I should have said it was in connection with our taking my E121 into the CPAM recently. I just wondered what the significance of that was. I take that the UK now makes a contribution for health care so we don't have to so I assume we don't pay a contribution now. Is this why they have said this?..........................J 

Letter from CPAM contained the following. Votre compte au régime general de securité sociale sous condition de résidence (CMU) est radie avec effet du 30/09/08. Can anyone explain the significance of this?..................J

Yes it does and thanks but would it not be better for the heading "Last post" to read "Last post entered or edited" . Anyway ta for the gen...........J PS Have now deleted my post on this subject in Swimming Pools

Re: http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/ShowPost.aspx?PageIndex=2&PostID=1404301 I note that the last post listed on this thread was in fact several posts back from the actual last post until I posted this message there. This is not the first time I have noticed this. Also I have found it impossible to delete a post a few seconds after posting. On trying to delete I get the time expired message but waiting a few minutes then enables me to delete, weird?.............J

If you are serious Ernie it might work. I have an old log burning stove, having had it replaced recently, and a large number of fir trees that need shortening so plenty of wood for next year should I use the stove to heat the pool water. Problem is the metal chamber proposed might not like the pool water with, in our case, salt and chlorine so a circulating pump and heat exchanger would be needed. What to use as a heat exchanger, a length of acier inox? Would the pool chemicals attack it I wonder?..........................................J  PS Current price of 20 litre paraffin bidons at Bricomarché just over 26 euros so not cheap!  PPS It would only be a wind up Jonzjob if I suggested using my atomic egg to heat the water! Come to think of it that ain't a bad idea!!

A most interesting reply, thank you Richard. Yes we have noted that the pool water rises in temperature much more quickly with the floating cover removed. I note your comments about a clear bubble cover and will consider one when the current one, black on the underside and dark blue on top, wears out. I don't think we are going to get anymore use out of the pool this year sadly so no more experiments for a bit. Air temperatures quite low here at night now. Wind screening on the pipes could be achieved by letting the grass grow in the field around the array of pipes so I may be more selective when mowing.  Lots to think about however....cheers...........J  

I would agree that glazing will protect the solar collector, pipe in my case, from heat loss due to wind but unglazed solar collectors have potentially high efficiency by comparison to any other type when each is used in its intended operating temperature range i.e. only a few degrees above the temperature of the pool. The elimination of glazing and case reduces the losses of incident energy otherwise caused by absorption in and reflection by the glazing, and partial shading by the case. The question is however academic in that glazing 184 metres of 100mm (4 inch) pipe is just not on. The pipe array could be fitted into a smaller space but only at extra cost as 90 degree bends are expensive and you would need a lot of them. Smaller bore pipe would give a smaller surface area to collect radiation, hence the plastic web between the small bore pipes used in commercial mat type pool heaters. A small bore system would need a separate pump to give a reasonable flow rate which is not possible on our system, with less than 50mm pipe, using a part of the pool pump output saving extra electricity running costs........................................J 

Ok and a ref for the thread is http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1337731/ShowPost.aspx Rightly or wrongly these are my thoughts. What we want in a pool heating system is a large quantity of water heated by a small amount whereas in a house water heating system we want a small amount of water heated by a large amount. Glazed solar collectors are most suitable for the latter as the glazing reduces re-radiation losses from the surface of the collector which is at a relatively high temperature. Where the collector is at a relatively low temperature re-radiation loss is minimal. Further a system using old radiators or metal pipes secured to a metal plate cannot have the pool water passing through it as the chemicals in the pool water, in our case salt and chlorine, would attack the metal. Therefore a heat exchanger and secondary circulating pump would be needed. Placing a metal plate on top of the plastic pipes I am using would prevent direct radiation reaching the black surface of the pipes and one would be relying on re-radiation from the under surface of the metal plate and somewhat iffy contact between the plate and the pipe, also sheet metal seems quite expensive when bought in small quantities. I have already tried the pipe buried in black concrete technique which did not work as well as the open trough I described in my earlier post. Immersing the pipes in water might give the potential for a large collector area but there is still the inefficiency of the heat exchange as well as the practical problem of stagnant water and the muck there in like dead leaves, worms etc. I don't think increasing the thermal mass of the system further than it is and in my opinion may already be almost too much, 184 metres of water filled 100mm pipe currently, would make for a responsive system. The commercial black mats with their small bore pipes must be better for that reason. What I am trying to do is develop a system that anyone could build with ease from components available cheaply at any brico depot. I am not trying to compete with commercial kit which is great if you can spend the cash. However I must say that it is helpful to have comments like yours if only to make me re-examine my own theories so thanks...........J  

Hi and yes they do in the case of electronic components like semiconductor power devices which are warmer than the heatsink. But in this case the pipe is cooler than the fin so the direction of heat flow will be from the object at the higher temperature, the fin, to the object at the lower temperature, the pipe. The problem is with a small area of contact and the pipe being plastic and not too good a thermal conductor heat is not flowing fast enough from the fin to the pipe. The one fin I glued on with a greater area of contact does not get as hot as the others. This used rather a lot of the thermal epoxy resin to do it however...........................................J 

Further to my last post on this subject I now find that the pipe system still produces an input of plus 4 to 5 degrees Celsius at 36 litres/min at the solar peak. Sadly this is only just keeping pace with the loss at night so unless we get a really sunny 4 or 5 days I don't think there will be any overall gain. Night time temperatures have been very much lower of late, as little as 5 degrees which does not help with the  loss during the night. With the sun now lower in the sky the orientation of the pipes seems more critical producing a maximum temperature rise when the pipes are at 90 degrees to the sun. Ideally running East West though in fact they are more North West and South East  facing South West and therefore are at 90 degrees to the sun in early afternoon. Metal fins glued onto some of the pipes with thermally conductive epoxy resin get quite hot which is a bit disappointing as the pipe they are fastened to runs cool and therefore one must assume not much heat is being sucked out of the fin into the pipe. A larger area of contact helps but given the difficulty of fastening a flat object to a curved surface and the cost of the resin I think funds would be better invested in a longer run of pipe. I will consider extending the pipe run with pipe running East West in the Spring. Meantime it will be soon time to close down the pool for winter. I write this only to keep anyone following my humble experiments informed....................John

My experience is that the other forum has some folk who for reasons best known to them do not look at this one. This then ensures a wider range of opinion to be potentially available. I would also think that anyone not interested in alleged time wasting would not offer responses on either or both. If opinions from different sources agree then one might come to the conclusion that they have some validity and, as always, I am grateful for those received so far. I am also happy to consider the topic exhausted for the time being................................J  

OK I think that the penny is just beginning to drop. What you are saying is that the box TI figure is only being used to calculate the RFR and not the actual income tax owed although I assume from what you say that the RFR figure might affect the tax bands used to calculate income tax on that income which is taxable in France. I have tried the Govt tax calculator at http://www3.finances.gouv.fr/calcul_impot/2008/simplifie/index.htm but you cannot fill in box TI on this site as it comes up with a too difficult message. The figure it gives for tax due on all the other figures however is significantly less than that they are demanding but maybe this is why! Is there another tax calculator available anywhere? It would appear that the only mistake I have made is in filling in UK income tax paid on 2042C and it would appear that were this taken into account it could only reduce and not increase the tax demand. Since no reference is made to that on the Avis D'Impot I can only assume that they have ignored it! Have I got the measure of this yet?...............J PS One thing I would say is that this site is really tolerant of those who need help and reading what might appear to be stupid  questions and their friendly replies should be of help to others less well informed or robust!

Yes that is at the top of 2047. My point was that if they were in a rush or could not be bothered to look at 2047 then they would not know to give an allowance for tax paid in the UK. The result would be that I would pay more tax than I should and if not picked up and brought to their attention by me then they would be in a win win situation and one suspects the penalty for charging too much would not be as great as for charging too little, if any, or am I being cynical?...................................J

It is strange that there is nowhere on the 2042 to write the tax paid in the UK which would mean that they would have to look at the 2047 as only the net income is shown in TI. Maybe they are not doing this in my case, could it be as simple as that or am I being simple?...........................J

Oh sure thing, I ain't got a clue when it comes to finance and I guess that applies to other things too. Nice to have chums who can set me straight!................................J[8-)]

Well thanks for that. Someone in another place thought that too and said "You may have confused them by filling in TA on 2042C, this is not what it is intended for. It is for tax credits on Dividends paid in UK. Everything else you did was correct. But you should never underestimate the potential incompetence of the french junior fonctionnaire!" I do hope they don't mind me quoting verbatim but it does get to the point rather and it looks as if you both have put the proverbial finger on the problem, thanks again folks..........................................J  PS I only did this on 2042C as twas done by the accountant the first two years we made a tax return and I have copied what he did since. Maybe then I don't to fill in anything on 2042C at all?  

I must be doing something silly on these tax forms. Last year and again this year they have not taken income tax paid in the UK on my teachers' (Govt) pension into account. The important line missing on the Avis received this am is "Retenue de la source ou impôt payé un l'étranger et crédite d'impôt sur les le revenu étranger"  followed by the amount of tax paid in the UK. Last year I had to write a letter pointing out the problem and got a refund so I will do the same again this year however someone has suggested that I am putting the data regarding my teachers' pension and tax paid in the wrong place and would value others opinions. I have been putting the net teachers' pension in box TI on form 2042, the tax paid in the UK in box TA section 8  2042C and the gross, net and tax paid in section VII  on form 2047. I did fill in the forms on-line for the first time this year but I don't think that has anything to do with the problem as the same thing happened last year. So where am I going wrong folks?...............................................J

I use Glyphos on ground that I want to replant and Sodium Chlorate where I don't like gravel driveways. Glyphos is very much like Round Up but cheaper and works for me, kills anything green down to root level but can take a week before they appear to be on the way out. You need 6 hours with no rain after spraying with Glyphos..............................J 

Find this stuff works from the local chemist providing I remember to put it on. http://www.monguidesante.com/cinq-cinq-tropical-lotion-antimoustiques-spray75ml-prID=895.html  Not sure if it supposed to repel other bugs but it seems to...........J