ssomon
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Posts posted by ssomon
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In the past it has been most economical to heat with the pellet stove once the weather gets too cold for our heat pumps to perform efficiently.
However, as pellet prices have risen this year by up to 90% compared with a hike in electricity prices of around 25% I have decided to rely solely on electricity, using our heat pumps, together with oil filled radiators when necessary, until the price of pellets becomes viable again.
At least I won't have to clean out the pellet stove so often
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52 minutes ago, Judith said:
I thought it had been quite lively, and polite, as well, recently.
That's seems to be what he with the addled brain dislikes.
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The wood pellet supplier gives the following information on paying by bank transfer (in fact, a payment to an unknown entity, with no possibility of reversal)
Notre paiement sécurisé
Avec SSL
Le paiement par virement bancaire
Vous êtes nombreux à nous avoir fait part de vos réticences à payer par carte bancaire sur internet. C’est pour cette raison que nous avons mis en place le paiement par virement bancaire.
En utilisant le mode de paiement par virement, vous êtes doublement protégé :
1/ Vous n’avez plus à utiliser votre carte bancaire. La transaction se fera directement entre votre banque et la nôtre.
2/ Avec un paiement par virement, nous pouvons vous rembourser aussi facilement qu’un paiement par carte bancaire en cas de problème.
Enfin, c’est aussi rapide qu’un paiement par carte bancaire. Vous recevrez votre produit immédiatement.
Comment payer par virement bancaire ?
Il vous suffira, au moment de la validation de votre panier de choisir le mode de paiement par virement bancaire. Après validation de votre commande vous recevrez les informations du compte bancaire sur lequel vous devrez procéder au paiement votre commande.
Pour plus de facilité de traitement, vous mentionnerez sur votre ordre de virement le numéro de commande.
La commande sera définitivement validée à réception du virement. Vous recevrez alors un mail de confirmation.
A noter
Les produits commandés sont réservés pour une période de 03 jours. Passé ce délai, et sans réception du règlement, les produits seront automatiquement remis en stock et la commande annulée.
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5 hours ago, Le martin-pêcheur said:
Yes, lots of scammers, spammers and hackers out there - damn them!
Here is a useful site though.
Always worth a look if something seems too good to be true.
Thanks. I put the site address into their system. The analysis, while not saying it is a scam site, was far from reassuring.
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As pellets have become difficult to get this year and prices from my usual suppliers have gone rather high, I looked for alternatives.
I found a company offering pallets of pellets at similar prices to last year, with free delivery - from Haute-Savoie!, so went through their ordering process for a 66 bag pallet.
When it came to payment the only option is to pay by bank transfer to an IBAN and a BIC, and an email arrived shortly repeating these details.
As I always pay for online purchases by PayPal if possible, with Credit Card payments as my second option, I didn't go ahead with the purchase right then.
Today I checked the IBAN and BIC, to find they are for an Irish prepayment card company with an office in Paris.
I also found THIS among other information, and decided to look elsewhere for pellets.
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Never mind, ET. There will always be people who complain, and criticise what others do, without actually doing anything more constructive about their grievances.
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3 hours ago, Harnser said:
............... cutting trees down solely to make wood pellets is just a waste of good timber. And then there is how much transport is involved to get it to where it's burnt. ......................
Your kiln-dried, palleted firewood normally comes from hardwood trees such as beech and oak, which take many years to re-grow.
Pellets are made from resinous wood such as pine, which is fast growing and easy to replace.
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Make my day!
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We ignored the advice that firewood heats you up three times, bought a pellet stove in 2008, and get our pellets by the ton.
Since January 2011, the average cost per 15 kg sack is €4.55, and we have burned an average of 50 sacks per winter. They are very clean, and easy to store and use.
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I'm all for UN FOB!
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Could crevette be derived in some way from the verb crever?
Most car drivers in the UK seem to call the remote control gizmos to open car doors etc. simply "fobs", so I think that would also be used for similar devices in general. Try referring to them as fobs to your colleagues. It might catch on. "Un fob" may sound appealing to the French.
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Tu t'as mal dans la tête, non?
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30 minutes ago, alittlebitfrench said:
Petit Bateau is a very very expensive brand of kids clothing. Well out of our league anyway.
So basically rich Parisians will drive into central Paris in their gas guzzling SUV's or sports cars to buy their kids eco friendly clothing. 😀
Something is not quite right here 🤔
You still working on your campsite ET ? Or has it burnt down ?
I see they have gone beyond simply having the labels on the outside to show off what you wear, they plaster the name all over the clothes.
And the prices are beyond ridiculous!
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We freeze soft fruit which doesn't spoil with freezing, when it's cheap - particularly cherries, and use it in fruit salads with whatever is in season, which we eat every day for pudding.
We don't grow any of our own in our garden, which is large, but arid and baked hard for most of the year, so that even the herbs and garrigue bushes struggle.
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15 minutes ago, anotherbanana said:
Thank you everyone for reporting rogue posts. One does get to spot potential culprits sometimes when they join but they seem more and more inclined to try and hide the nature of their message by having an interesting(?) message as well as their gloop.
Anyway, we seem to be posting more and more which is excellent news, but we could do with more and more, and more and more, so please feel free to blather and blather if you like.
Do I get the feeling that the edit function for posts is insufficient? If so, please describe the problem in detail so that I can report it to central command.
And any other problems,msvp?
Often they copy and paste a bit out of a previous post and stick their link somewhere in it. Maybe there is a 'bot which can spot key words and do this.
It would be nice if editing were allowed for, say, 10 minutes or so after the original post, to correct errors or add information which was omitted, provided no-one else has posted on the topic.
It's very confusing to see posts responding to something which has been deleted.
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I understand that summer storms are very localised and unpredictable.
All the forecasts for this area have said "Risque d'orages". We have heard and seen nearby thunder and lightning, but only had a few spots of fine rain here.
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Northwest of Carcassonne, we had some rain during Saturday night, didn't hear the forecast thunderstorm, everything was bone dry before midday.
The Aude is too poor to get proper weather, we just get what's left over from the other Departements.
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Double post
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Olimpia Splendids are available on Amazon France. 1.8kW (6,000 BTU/Hr) is €999. Largest, 2.3kW (7,300BTU/Hr) is €1,369, both with free delivery on Prime.
Actually a bit expensive for me, as I do our AC&R installation and repair myself, so split units cost us less, but they are probably good value for someone who has to pay for professional installation.
The Splendids are also a bit small for us. We manage with two ancient 9,000 BTU/Hr split units, possibly installed in 2000 or even earlier, which were in this house when we bought it in 2010. I have replaced the compressors and some electrical parts in both units, but I can't keep them going for ever, and I dream of two slightly larger new split units, which might even provide enough heating in the winter.
With the current outdoor temperature well into the 30's I have the thermostats set on 24º, and the units run probably 50% of the time, cooling an area of about 110 sq m. The rooms containing the units are at 24º all the time, and the furthest away, the office and the kitchen, are quite habitable.
This house is extremely well insulated, plus there is only one small window on the south side (and the north), none on the west side, and the shutters are kept closed on the east side of the house until after midday.
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If you look at the installation videos on the site I linked to, you will see that the unit I mentioned above is simply hung on the wall to line up with the two 20cm holes, and can be unplugged from the mains supply, moved away from the wall to disconnect the condensate drain, and taken to a repair shop just as easily as a portable unit.
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If you can get two holes drilled in your wall with reasonable accuracy, you could install a very efficient unit which is self contained, and does not have a separate outdoor unit.
The holes are used for 20 cm ducts, one of which brings cold air in, the second exhausts the hot air.
Search "climatiseur sans unite exterieure"
I was considering installing an Olympia Splendid, but it is a bit too much work, as we have very thick walls (250mm parpaign+50mm airspace+100mm brique+80mm insulation+placo).
There are several YouTube videos on the site showing installation.
They would also be quite easy to install in a mobile home or caravan.
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I'm sure no-one on here is affected, but, just in case .......................... BETTER CHECK THIS
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An update on my bank's system's being unable to understand 2SV codes input either by voice and keyboard:
I called the Orange helpline a couple of days ago, and had a similar problem when their system asked me to key in my telephone number.
I was told the number does not exist, but there was a clue when it was repeated back to me: 00 44 66 88 77 88 ... etc.
It seems that an echo generated by the router is causing the problem, but it is not noticed by people I talk to, although they say my voice sounds slightly distorted.
I can put up with this for a while, as I'm saving €40/month over the fibre contract offered by Orange, but when I have time I'll ask Huawei's service about it.
Beware firewood and pellet swindles
in The Complete France Post Bag
Posted
We have two ancient air/air split units, each consuming 890W, one at each end of the house. They came with the house, in 2010, and were installed well before that. Their nominal output (cool/heat) is 9000/9500 BTU/Hr, nominal COP is 3.25. I have replaced many parts during the last 5 years, including new compressors in both, and they still perform well. More modern, larger units, with inverters to vary the compressor speed would perform much better, as would units providing underfloor heating, either air or ground source, but we have what we have.
As with all heat pumps the COP falls with the source temperature, and by the time it drops to 5º outside, the lack of heating is very noticeable. Also, heating stops for a few minutes whenever the units go into defrost mode, which occurs more often as it gets colder.
I have no way of measuring the heat output, but we switch the units off when it is about 8º outside. Possibly the COP has not yet fallen to 1 (the same power out as in), but the units are not providing enough heat for us.
At this point we normally fire up the pellet stove, but given the huge rise in the price of pellets, it is probably more economical to use electric resistance heaters, which are all 100% efficient, for the near future, as all the energy they use is released into the space they occupy.
Calculations in 2008, before we bought the pellet stove, showed that it would cost about 25% less to run then electric resistance heaters. Using very rough calculations, the stove would now cost 25% more, with the inconveniences of that type of heating, so we will use electric resistance heaters this winter when the heat pump outputs fall, probably just in the rooms where we sit still or sleep. Maybe we'll have a mild winter anyway.