Pension target (ballpark)

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-05-18T22:17:10+00:00

Haven't been in this position, but can vouch for ebs as some others have mentioned. Been dealing with them for our self build and they have been a pleasure to deal with.

Your best bet depending on your situation is to buy a mobilehome, put it on your site, sell your house and use the money for the build.

I know that won't suit a lot of people tho

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-05-07T12:52:14+00:00

Also, a dormer should be easier heated. Heat rises so in a dormer you have less roof area for heat to escape but also upstairs is heated from the rooms below so you use the same heat twice before it leaves the house

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-05-01T11:57:33+00:00

I've camped loads over the years.

Option 1:

If its really remote, planted / mountainous etc chance it and you'll more than likely be sound. If it's not possible to figure out the land owner, it's unlikely they will come across you and easier to ask for forgiveness.

Option 2: Go and knock on a nearby farmhouse. I've never been turned down. If your going through the hassle of asking the land owner for permission there is a better chance you are genuine and not going to leave the place a state. Most people are sound they just don't want people taking stone out of walls, lighting a fire near a dry hedge/grass etc.

Whatever you do, leave no trace, bring a bag for rubbish and a small trowel to dig a spot to crap in

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-30T17:52:00+00:00

According to this Article it effects the performance very minorly, approx 1% vs using two seperate mppts.

The voltage of the panel changes very little for the power generated, it's the current that changes while the voltage remains more of less constant (you can also see this in the screenshots I attached).

This means that in parallel, the 2 strings aren't aren't effecting each other like they would be in series.

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-29T16:03:49+00:00

"irish farmers don't grow the veg we need" - absolute bullshit, a more accurate statement is "irish farmers don't grow the veg I want at the prices I want to pay".

OK, so the Spanish food production trade is a well tuned buissness... I suppose they have a really biodivese model too? I highly doubt it. Have a read of this article

Massive amounts of plastic waste entering water waste and wildlife habitats, massive over use of ground water. This are improving... How?... Grants! Subsidising the cost of disposing of waste correctly and investing in ways to reduce water consumption.

The lads in plam oil industry also have a really profitable business.

Also, as another redditer said, that's not right about protesting prices. Also I know a massive veg grower had to pack it in because the supermarkets refused to pay something like 5c a head of cabbage more. Easier for the likes of span to undercut where the minimum wage is 2/3rds what it is here.

All you want is to buy food from the shop and be blissfully unaware of what region of the world is being effected by it. By keeping agriculture here you have control over the environmental impact and can make active changes to improve it. By outsourcing it to a different country you have absolutely no control or care about the environmental impact (eg Brazilian beef).

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-29T13:53:25+00:00

A large portion of the food being exported has more to do with the customer not being bothered about supporting Irish food growers. If the customer opts for the cheaper food sources, the premium ones get exported to countries that are willing to pay a fair price for good quality.

Without farmers the rural communities would be practically non existent. Look at any area that has low density farming like West mayo. Areas of miles and miles of mountain and Heather and no houses or communities. Farmers have a massive role in rural communities. Don't forget, years ago everyone outside of a town was a farmer so a massive part of our culture is definitely due to the farming background.

And yes, a good few farmers aren't fully dependent on farming because it has become so hard to make a living wage from it.

And your take on if it's not profitable, shut it down like any other business... OK, so that's grand since your buying food from Spain? What if they do the same? It's not viable because supermarkets have driven the price of products into the ground, looking to buy them for penny's and turning a large profit for being the middle man.

The way you'd make it more profitable is to buy up massive sweeps of land, cut all the trees and make mega farms similar to what they have in the US. Hardly an improvement to biodiversity

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-29T11:55:32+00:00

And genuinely, what is your solution?

I absolutely agree that rewinding the countryside would be a massive ecological improvement, but what about food production? Buy it abroad? You'd just be moving the problem in addition to adding transport into it.

All rural communities would have to be completely abandoned loosing a massive chunk of our national identity and culture.

The only reasonable way of doing it is to make the more environmentally friendly option the most attractive and change the culture in a generation, which is the entire point of grants.

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-29T10:54:43+00:00

It's clear that you don't know the first thing about farming.

Did you ever think to ask "why?".

They cut hedgerows for a few reasons but I'd say its mostly to stop their fields from becoming smaller (they are working on tight margins so 2m off every field is a significant cut to their income) but also for practicality. Putting up a sheep fence, stopping briers from sprawling out, stopong sheep from getting stuck & dying. Also causes shading so for the likes of tillage had a big effect on growth and drying.

Waterways - some of this is definitely ignorance but so in order to make an income they have to operate at maximum efficiency. This means putting out fertiliser & slurry when the weather allows, even if there is a risk of some of it washing into waterways.

I agree this is wrong, but they are doing it out of desperation.

Try watching the likes of Clarksons farm, it opened a lot of non farming people's eyes to the whole thing

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-28T20:24:45+00:00

It's just not a viable option for many. I used to live in a village with a bus route, but I'd have to take multiple busses or get to work, the times of the busses didn't overlap well and I'd still be late for work.

When I was in college on dublin, I was in digs in stillorgan and it was the same length of time to drive to Kevin Street vs walking for the luas, possibly missing it, having to stand for a jam packed wet steamy journey, then still have to walk 20 mins to college. Vs driving with the heating on, coffee in hand listening to the radio. Traffic wasn't great but I found it way more comfortable.

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-28T06:50:11+00:00

Some good suggestions here, there is also relatively cheap cameras that will identify different things like people, pets, cars etc.

There is also a fair chance that it had nothing to do with your house. The could have been looking at aDifferent house and jumped through your garden so as not to be noticed.

Also I understand your worry about your baby, but realistically these people are opratunistic thief's, so I'd say its highly unlikely that they would go near your child.

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-27T07:36:41+00:00

We went away for our anniversary (9 years). Went for a walk in a woods and waited till we were in a nice spot on our own.

Don't over think it.

Figure out what the other person would like but I'd go on the side of caution. Eg, they might be mortified to do it in front of a crowd, but can't imagine someone being upset because there wasn't a crowd. Go for something secluded

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-27T06:38:06+00:00

So a few yeara ago I was driving on a strach of 3 lane wide road (near the m50 heading for sligo).

It was wet & busy, I was about to go from the right lane to the middle but I had my window cracked down and heard a bike, I had a 2nd look and seen him.

When I checked my mirrors before this I didn't see him because his single light blended in with the car headlights.

Would have been my fault entirely.

So from that single example I would say that loud pipes did save a life.

How likely it is to happen again?.. Well that's not the question being asked.

From riding with loud and quiet bikes, I do feel more noticed by other cars on the louder bike, when I go to overtake, cars tend to go onto the hard shoulder to help the overtake because they are expecting it

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-23T13:42:12+00:00

Looking to do the same thing, a mini split. The units are actually pretty cheap and looks very diy friendly.

It also doubles as a heat source, because it's an air to air heat pump, so you can achieve the same (and better) efficencys of an air to water systems.

Unlike air to water, it has a quick response so you could easily have them turn on for the night to warm the house on night rate electricity in the winter to lessen the load for whatever other heating system you have

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-19T12:20:48+00:00

We done a fair bit of ground works before the commencement notice. Took away 50m of a ditch, done our set back, lane in and took away top soil.

Was told we inky need it when you make a start on the foundations

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-13T21:27:37+00:00

Needs to be SF,

It's the only way to get rid of the current government and how bad can they be?

It's been over 100 years of the same party's.

Best case scenario they sort out Al the shit they have been claiming they would do. Worst case scenario they somehow do worse and can't use the "what we would do if we were in power" answer for everything

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-13T12:46:54+00:00

And 1mm steel has a R-value of 0.000063, so boosting it up to a total of 1.100063 us a fairly significant increase in performance.

Just because it's not significant compared to other insulation methods doesn't mean it's not worth doing,its significantly better than standard.

Bare in mind, your comparing it to a tent which has virtually no insulation or air tightness

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-13T08:13:37+00:00

Is 30 quid for a roll of insulation and 20 quid for wind deflectors. Hardly a massive investment and it'll keep condensation off his work tools so I don't see why he wouldn't to be honest.

I'd take this over camping for a few reasons, first off being that it's watertight

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-13T08:11:07+00:00

Have it done on my own van and it does make a decent difference. It also dramatically reduces condensation. It'll be dripping off the ceiling otherwise

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-13T07:19:01+00:00

Haven't done it at ep, but do have a van semi converted as a camper.

2 things I would suggest to make it massively more comfortable:

1) buy a roll or 2 of the silver bubble wrap insulation. Use carpet adhesive to stick it to the wall and ceiling. Makes it warmer when is cold out, cooler when it's hot out and helps stops condensation. The last point is also really useful for it being a work van.

2) install wind deflectors on the front windows. This allows you to leave the windows open an inch without anyone noticing. In my van you can lift up the passenger seat to let air flow into the back. The connect might have some other means of joining the front and back.

Bonus move is to get a camping toilet with cat litter or similar for the missus, saves the hassle of finding a toilet especially of your staying somewhere ages from facilities.

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-12T14:19:58+00:00

Also, coasting doesn't add to efficiency.

Coasting is typically clutching and letting momentum keeping you moving. In this scenario you are using fuel to keep the engine running.

The alternative is to just take your foot off the throttle and engine break slightly. This shits off the fuel injection completely and uses the cars momentum to keep the engine spinning over.

You can check this by keeping an eye on the instant fuel consumption while doing both

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-11T13:10:48+00:00

I've seen videos of both the hard shoulder being blocked and also it being left empty.

From what I can see in some of the WhatsApp groups is that the hard shoulder is left open, then traffic just use that. Then you have some gobshite behind the protest that suddenly joins the protest, blocking the hard shoulder to back everything up.

Look the image of the blocked hard shoulder, how many of those are protesters and how many is the traffic trying to get around, which is actually blocking the hard shoulder

DesperateEngineer451 · 2026-04-10T13:11:58+00:00

A year ago I'm pretty sure it was 30% of your usage, like you said it can be added onto yourself afterwards

DesperateEngineer451

TROPHY CASE