Caussenarde

Ave Andrew, many thanks for taking the time to give your reply. A couple of questions arise Do you really mean 2200 litres  (ie contents of 2.2 tonnes?) steel cylinder ..what did it cost approx I wonder ? I still haven't got to your site yet so apologies if this is covered there:  So, what are you going do you do with 120kW overheat in mid-summer? or how do you avoid it collecting it?  I have looked at the Navitron site (also problems with screen size!) and using their estmates I get your store to have a capacity of approx 100 -120 kWh, so on a 'bad' day in August you might be dumping heat for most of the day...plus what to do with the 100kWh storage when it is 30 degrees outside at night ?  They talk about steam ...not good !! Running hot water to the drain is also not very enticing. I guess these three points are the key problems or stop-points for me, with respect integration of solar into new CH system ie, hail damage (already covered), heat store capacity and overheat.  I can see a small capacity array for DHW would work, but for CH, I do not see how to harvest enough energy in winter without severe problems in July/August. Am I missing something? hope so because, en principe, it is an excellent solution for me. cheers

Some more queries for Andrew; Firstly I am very interested in installing a solar collector as one source of supply for a new CH and DHW system, chez nous. For that reason I am very interested in the metrics which Gluey has requested, so hope you can supply the necessary. Plus two other queries: 1. Hailstorms;  it is very common for very intense summer storms to produce golf ball calibre grellons hereabouts, easily capable of denting cars and breaking roof tiles. Can you give some guidance on the hail hardiness of the evacuated tubes pls Andrew ?  I have seen some tubes, similar to those you supply, in Leroy Merlin and I immediately thought of the risks of hailstorms.  If the tubes were covered by my insurer, maybe Ok but I am not sure they would be ?  2. Plus, what have you used for your 2000l heatstore ?  Hope you can help, best regards

Re 3 Phase: First of all, note that a monophase installation is just one phase of the 3 phase supply supplied to the EDF local transformer.  The other 2 phases are distributed to other properties or areas so that EDF gets an approximate balance in load between the three phases.  This is done for technical reasons:  look at Wikipedia '3 phase'. This is a para. from Wiki which appears to map onto your problem: If the supply neutral of a three-phase system with line-to-neutral connected loads is broken, generally the voltage balance on the loads will no longer be maintained. Lightly-loaded phases may see up to sqrt(3) as much voltage as rated, causing overheating and failure of many types of loads. For example, if several houses are connected to a common transformer on a street, each house might be connected to one of the three phases. If the neutral connection is broken at the transformer, all equipment in a house might be damaged due to over voltage. When we lived in the UK, just this problem occurred and the Electricity company forced entrance to get access to the cable feeds to all the houses on our road, if someone was out they dug up the gardens and cut the cable.  No-one was allowed to go to bed until they declared the supply safe. They made it safe by replacing the neutral. This explained strange voltages in our earth, burglar alarm malfunctioning and all the transformer supplied lighting going caput.  They paid for replacements. If you have this problem, ie there is a problem with your neutral, then you have a dangerous problem:  sqrt(3) times 230 gives 400 volts in  live cables which is lethal. You should get EDF in quickly if you have any doubts. Explaining these wierd occurences to them should immediately alert them to a neutral failure.

There is an interesting article in the Guardian today which can give us some perspective on the situation of the UK inactifs and actifs here France. It gives some insight into the Euro migrations taking place, and how the recipient host countries are able to deal with the changes required, both from a political and logistical point of view. It depends upon how things develop in the UK but there are some clear signs of problems ahead: "No wonder the press, and now the BBC, are tacitly questioning the right of the non-British born to use the NHS." says the Grauniad at http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ros_taylor/2008/02/earn_your_labour.html Given the ructions we have faced here over the past few months, we can imagine the tribulations possibly being cooked up for ressortisants in the UK.

Andrew, I am very interested in a diverse water heating system and I am looking at heat store with heat sources being: wood boiler, elecricity, gas and solar (via panels and/or heat pump),  outputs being DHW, CH, UFH. I am very interested in the evacuated tube solar heat source which you promote but having seen similar, or even the exact same in Leroy Merlin I have concerns about their fragility in the weather which we experience most summers:  specifically severe hail storms (sufficient to dent cars and break roof tiles) Do you have any thoughts ?  best regards

Well I can figure it out... Worrying misinformation presented as fact. Something to do with executions at dawn of all english pussy cats, as I recall ?? Nothing personal.

Hi there, Our neighbour had similar problems with his washing machine drum. He is a competant bricoleur and was able to deal with the drum, bearings and all. He put the finished results to very good use for his Soiree Chataigner for 12 guests. Here he is below, toasting his nuts in comfort. Next year he may even reattach the motor, for even more spectacular results!! [IMG]http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj247/caussenarde/roasting-his-nuts.jpg[/IMG]

Hi Coops No different currencies will be involved cos the E in SEPA stands for Euros...it is a Euro payment platform.  See below  from the FT: SEPA, a private sector initiative by the banking industry but heavily backed by the Commission and the European Central Bank, aims to make euro payments across borders - whether by credit transfer, direct debit, or credit/debit card - as straightforward as domestic payments through the introduction common payment protocols and systems. The Times says From today, companies and consumers will be able to make and receive cross-border transfers in euros on the same terms as domestic transactions as the European Union takes another step towards removing national barriers. The arrival of the Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa) is seen as a logical extension of the creation of the EU’s single market and single currency. So those still determined to remain in the backwoods, the Pounds Sterling world for example, can only involve SEPA via payments in Euros.[:(]

The material you are looking for is called (la) castine.  From the german kalkstein - limestone For a boulodrome the particle size is 5/0 (ie 10mm max down to nothing) For drive 20/0 is ok, 10/0 better. The 0 particles aka dust is required to bind the castine and stop it all moving about when you drive on it.  This will happen if you get a single size stone or gravel. To put it in place you need to spread the stuff, then srpay with water whilst you compact with a vibrating plate compactor. If it isn't already dug out, and/or if you don't fancy moving many tonnes of castine about, thinak about calling your local terrassier....much easier and not expensive. If you buy it and have it delivered, be prepared a for a very large tipper truck.

@ Gluestick " For myself, I have to cast aside the shackles of emotive knee jerk reaction and carefully consider the various truisms here involved." Absolutely!  Couldn't agree with you more;  you can't say fairer than that in my view.[Www]

First an old bat, now a gibbering wreck  !!

David, I have lived in France for some years and we have top up insurance. I am 58 and like you I have never been ill, nor been in hospital..........until that is, I 'tombeed en panne' last year with an hernia  [:(] Surgery cost about 7000 Euros;  consultations cost 50E a go as well.  That was for a small procedure and 3 nights. Think of the cost of something serious. Total cost to me without Top Up:  approx 2200 Euros Cost to me with top up :  12 Euros for the tv in my room.  [:)] You might take the risk, but the fact is you actually cannot afford to cover the risk yourself.

He said the place grossed 120k pa. Well if it is the one in Morvan, then no wonder...there is a credit card charge of 500 euros per stay....[I] It is refundable, so no there impact on nett income, but think about the gross turnover...... If you look at a business, do take note of the turnover, but  look hardest at the margin.

Heat pumps for domestic heating do attract tax rebates. But I think you will find that air-conditioning units, which are reversible and so can heat the interior as well as cool it, do not......

Primeur. Just kidding...builders merchants have a primer for plasterboard which is a PVA solution suitable for keying the concrete. Is just a dilute water soluable glue.

Ron You need a screed (chape) to level it. If you are expert you can get the chape dead flat and 'nickel', then you can lay the tiles direct, you don't even need glue if you are up there with the pros. However, in the real world..... pull a chape, well dosed with liant and not too wet, panique pas if it is not brilliant because you always have recourse to the magique self levelling gung....but it is very expensive and that's why prof. carreleurs don't use it or need it. Above all don't try variable thickness glue/ciment unless you like sticky mucky wonky disasters ! You could always try your local carreleur if your courage fails...best answer if you are not sure and if the result needs to be 100%.

Ron, you need a chape (aka screed en anglais).  That is, a layer of sand and liant laid not too wet, minimum thickness say 5 cm.  Get the liant from a builders merchant (a mixture of cement and lime). Proportions of the mix are usually stated on the bags of liant. Not sure of the area, but set up level lines around the perimeter or use level rails made from wood set at the finished level and use a straight edge to 'pull' the chape. You can embed gaines in your chape if you need to. If the results, once it has gone off, are iffy, don't worry, you can buy ragreage form the buliders merchant to cover your sins. It mixes into something akin to custard (remember custard?), you pour it on to your chape and it sets dead level. Then you tile using ciment colle (source as above). Don't even think about using tile cement of varying depths...you'll be sorry... Does this help ?

Sorry Coops but I really disagree. I do not believe that the great Jim has done anything at all to help us. I think he had a jolly in Paris last year (on a Friday...did he stay the weekend?)  and got briefed that all was Ok . Since then ...nothing. Where is his plan to help us ?  What is he saying to give anyone hope that he actually understands the problem, let alone  is following an action plan (actions, timescales, outcomes etc - see previous post by Thomas on Murphy's blog). I think that punchy letters to the EU , based on your templates, have forced legal changes to the plan, but that maybe nothing has changed to la principe. This is what it looks like. it seems that nothing has changed in practice,  despite political announcements. Do not count on Murphy or the Uk Government for any proactive help at all, in my view. We await the next crisis in March.......

[quote user="ChrisintheNoir"]Hello all, I'm hoping you can help.   Having now completed the renovations on my property I have realised that the power supply I'm currently receiving from EDF is not going to be sufficient for my needs and was hoping that someone would be able to give me some idea of what may be the best level to move up to e.g 9kva, 12kva   The property consists of 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and open plan living space of 10m x 5m for the kitchen and living area. Perhaps naively I am totally electricity dependant other than a wood burner in the living room so the water is electrically heated along with the following: Cooker and hob Kettle Microwave 4 electric heaters at 2kw 8 light fittings   I realise that the above does not provide all the details for a very accurate estimate and I may also need the capacity to add the odd lamp etc but I was hoping that it would provide enough information for someone to provide reasonable advice.   Thanks in advance.   [/quote] Crikey Chris, no wonder you are in the noir, If you switch that lot on all at the same time you might need a supply of: oven  say         2kW hobs  maybe     10kW !! kettle                 2kW microwave         800W heaters              8kW let's say, around 20kW.... but if you kept an eye on the load you might keep to say 12kW If you considering moving up to 9kW (9kva) then maybe you are still on a 3Kw supply from EDF  ???  you can check by looking at your bill to see what the max load is. You need to ask EDF whether they can uprate your supply (may not necessarily mean any physical changes to your existing supply, just reprog. the meter). For a supply sufficient to carry your entire installed load, you might need to ask for 18kW supply and then you might have problems with the capacity of the existing EDF network, depending upon your local physical supply - might need 3 phase. Best bet is to get rid of your electric hobs and get gas hobs if you really have a problem. BTW; did an electrician do the work or yourself?  have you still got a provisional supply and has the installation been certified.....if not problems with changes to the connection. Hopefully in the noir, not on the noir !

Deimos, La fouine is not protected anywhere in France and is chassable, by chasseurs. One does not have the right to kill them by poisoning. cheers

Hi, Well I said I wouldn't come back, because I do not want to get into the dreaded 'my pool system is better than yours' syndrome. [:@] However, I am happy to clarify and add more facts that I can gather (via Google) : for example see below. I believe the electrolyser does in fact release HOCl (hypochlorous acid) into the pool....but it does not add any stabiliser (cyanuric acid) and it is this, I understand, that actually causes the smell and possible irritations associared with 'chlorine pools'.  Cyanuric acid is in the chlorine tablets commonly used, but not in the chlorochoc tablets which have short life. The stablilsier is necessary to prevent the HOCl disappearing too quickly. Cyanuric acid is used as a stabilizer in recreational water treatment to minimize the decomposition of hypochlorous acid by sunlight in outdoor swimming pools and hot tubs. It achieves this by absorbing UV radiation. Chlorinated derivatives of cyanuric acid, such as trichloro-s-triazinetrione and sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione, are used as algacides or microbiocides in swimming pool water and large scale water systems in industry.  and: What's the difference between a saltwater pool and a pool maintained with packaged chlorine? Salt water pools used to be the exception, but now they are becoming a widely accepted method of water treatment in swimming pools. A lot of builders are now making salt water systems standard on their new pools.  Most equipment manufacturers have also become aware of the fact that salt water pools are not just a passing fad.  They are here to stay. Lower Chlorine Levels - Saltwater Pools - 0.5 to 1.0 ppm chlorine Traditional Pools - 3.0 - 10.0 ppm chlorine No "Chemical Bath" Feel NO packaged chlorine needed. NO algaecides needed NO soda ash or baking soda Better Swimmer Comfort By eliminating the need for the harsh chemicals, you eliminate the source of the irritation that plagues swimmers in most pools. Controlled Stabilizer Levels If you are using chlorine tablets, you are adding 1 lb. of stabilizer for every 2 lbs. of tablets you put into your pool.   Your stabilizer level rises to over 100 ppm and your chlorine becomes ineffective and yellow algae and poor sanitization results.  With a salt system, you add stabilizer as needed and are able to keep the level low.  Your chlorine remains VERY effective and you need much less in the water to do the job (see above). On commercial pools, state code requires you to drain pools when the stabilizer level exceeds 100 ppm.  The salt system avoids this problem. Superior Algae Control Saltwater pool systems virtually eliminate algae problems.  This is because the chlorine in the pool is not inhibited by high stabilizer levels. I am no pool expert, but I can use Google and Wiki:  go forth... and search for yourselves and make up our own mind!!

You will need a Permit de Construire as follows: Travaux sur les constructions existantes  Les travaux sur constructions existantes sont en principe non soumis à permis de construire.  Un permis de construire est notamment exigé pour :  l'agrandissement d'un bâtiment lorsque l'opération vise à créer plus de 20m² de (SHOB). C'est le cas par exemple lorsque le projet de construction nécessite la création de niveaux supplémentaires à l'intérieur du logement, augmentant ainsi la surface habitable,  le changement de destination d'une construction (par exemple le changement d'un local commercial en local d'habitation) lorsque ces travaux sont accompagnés d'une modification de la structure porteuse ou de la façade du bâtiment,  la modification du volume de l'habitation lorsque l'opération nécessite de percer ou d'agrandir une ouverture sur un mur extérieur. You will need an Architect if the total Nett Surface Habitable is already 170m2, or will be 170m2 when finished.  This area includes the house and habitable areas in all its dependancies (ie barns, gites) The form itself is at http://www.urbanisme.equipement.gouv.fr/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=302 the second one down, ie the Formulaire.   Then you will find information regarding an architect in The Notice d'Information, on the same page. It says you do not need an architect to submit your plans provided that the new total surface of your works, including the old surface, is less than 170m2 : Une extension de construction à usage autre qu’agricole dont la surface de plancher hors oeuvre nette, cumulée à la surface existante, n’excède pas 170 mètres carrés Hope this helps

No misconception at all,  the electrolyser does indeed produce chlorine which kills bacteria, but this happens in the electrolyser, and  not in the pool. The electrolyser breaks NaCl molecules down into Cl ions, these attach to bacteria and kill them. As soon as the ions leave the electrolyser, they recombine to make NaCl (salt) again. See   http://piscinekitdirect.fr/catalogNEW/product_info.php?products_id=398&osCsid=bc0e8c18f8c3b6cddc98db47e6b7   which explains it simply. or to quote: "L'électrolyse s'effectue dans une cellule inserée sur le circuit de filtration. La solution d'eau salée se décompose et purifie l'eau en d'étruisant les algues et les bacteries, puis se recompose pour reformer le sel." That's it, accept facts or not, I do not mind, but I am now gone from here.

Hi, Our experience is just the same as Lileloise. The whole thing works automatically, uses little acid, say 4 bags of salt per year to replace water flushed out when cleaning the filter. The electrolyser needs to be turned up in hotter weather and is self cleaning (reverses polarity each time it starts). It did scale up badly when we firts installed it, we thought we had insufficient salt, but the problem was overcome once we turned the pump off and the electrolyser cell itself cleaned the scale off. SE wind brings dust which produces algae sometimes: we kill it with Chlorochoc and pump/flush/sweep for a day or two. PAC gives the temperature a boost at the beginning and end of the season, and electric volet keeps heat in and kids out. Robot cleans the bottom/sides and margins every couple of days. We like the pool:  no smell, no bleached cozzies, no goggles, no skin problems and practically no intervention from us. Hope this helps

Thanks for the clarification. It will help all cat owners who may have read your previous post and who may have been unfortunately misled. What you saying then is that this aside is in fact wrong : As an aside, did everyone know that all cats can be shot in France if they are more than 200 metres from a house? This is regardless of whether they are domestic, wearing a collar etc. Something to bear in mind.