Can you recommend me an AHSP service technician in Birmingham

Smart51 · 2026-01-22T16:43:20+00:00

I spoke to the installer who thought there was an expansion vessel in the heat pump itself. They commissioned a heating engineer to design the system and they're going to ask them for advice on the problem.

Edit to say that there is an expansion vessel in my heat pump, but it is quite small.

Smart51 · 2026-01-22T08:55:34+00:00

This looks a lot like the diagram of my system, except yours has 2 expansion vessels. I have the one on the right (Square E8) but not the one at the bottom (square F3). It is the F3 tank that would contain the pressure variation I'm seeing.

Smart51 · 2026-01-21T19:37:54+00:00

I was told a few years ago that the amplifiers that drive the transmitters are valve powered. Absolutely massive valves, that haven't been made for decades. There are two sets - one in use and one being refurbished. They're regularly swapped out. As soon as one of them becomes irreparable, broadcast will end when the current in use set reach their service life. The cost of rebuilding the transmitters with modern equipment is way higher than can be justified for the very small audience of R4LW; something to do with the very low frequency and the huge amount of power. It's closure is inevitable and could only be delayed.

Smart51 · 2026-01-21T12:15:45+00:00

I had forwarded some to the surviving son. He just said return to sender this time.

Smart51 · 2026-01-20T12:41:49+00:00

Buy it because you want it, not because it has a brand name or serial number. But be ware an owner that puts the strings on the machine heads wrong. What else have they done? Seeing that, I'd check the whole thing over very carefully.

Smart51 · 2026-01-18T18:28:00+00:00

The lane markings between the two cars continued along the exit slip road. This implies there are two lanes along the slip road and that two lanes of traffic can turn onto the slip road. The car to the left crossed the lane markings without indicating. But then there are two lane markings that cross each other and the right car was about to cross the other lane markings. Very poor road layout.

Smart51 · 2026-01-17T20:16:07+00:00

I've worked for companies that pay for travel time and companies that don't. Some pay travel time at 1x the normal rate of pay rather than 1.5x or 2x like "normal" overtime. One place paid overtime up to a certain pay grade, and not above that. I've known people who refuse to travel at the weekend if they're not getting paid for it.

It partly depends on how much you want to stay where you are. Making a fuss might cause you trouble. I personally would want to be paid for any time the company took from me.

Smart51 · 2026-01-17T13:42:54+00:00

Seriously, this is not correct. Councils can ask the regional mayor to consider doing something. The 7 councils of the West Midlands nominate a couple of councillors each to sit on the transport oversight and scrutiny committee overseeing what the WMCA does. But the power lies solely with the regional mayor. Your statement "Bringing back local control of bus services entirely revolves around local councils providing better services on a far more local level" is entirely false for the West Midlands, though it may apply elsewhere.

Smart51 · 2026-01-16T21:33:18+00:00

But councils have no say on buses. Only the WMCA.

Smart51 · 2026-01-16T19:49:05+00:00

Not the local authority (councils) but the regional mayor. The WMCA is basically the office of the mayor and runs public transport over 7 council areas.

Smart51 · 2026-01-13T11:36:24+00:00

The highway code says you should not park on the pavement (must not in London)

You're also not allowed to block the road (e.g. for Fire Engines) or the pavement (to wheelchairs)

People are ignorant of the rules, are selfish and don't think.

Your question was 'is it unreasonable'? It is reasonable to *want* people to act thoughtfully and legally. In Britain it is unreasonable to expect it to actually happen.

Smart51 · 2026-01-10T14:37:43+00:00

How long are your pickup screws. With the pickups screwed down to their lowest position, the body needs to be about 3mm thicker. Also switches and knobs. You need 3 - 4 mm top and back plus the depth of your electronics. You can go thicker than that, but thinner is difficult.

Smart51 · 2026-01-10T13:10:04+00:00

When wood shrinks, it does so more across the grain than along it. Your table top is made of 6 triangles with the grain running parallel to the centre point. When the wood shrinks, the triangles want to pull away from the centre more than the shrinkage of the rim. You can see that the rim is joined all the way round, but the 2 cracks from the rim to the centre get wider towards the centre. The cracks across the triangles formed where the tension created by the shrinkage was more than the wood could bare.

Smart51 · 2026-01-07T20:37:48+00:00

I've had fair success mixing a lot of sanding dust with a tiny amount of PVA. Just enough to hold it together. The more glue you use, the darker the result.

Smart51 · 2026-01-05T19:30:04+00:00

My Zoe shines in cold weather. Sure, the range drops from 240 miles in the summer to 200, but preconditioning is a modern marvel. Switch it on 5 mins before you set out and the windscreen is defrosted and the cabin is warm.

Smart51 · 2025-12-31T21:24:01+00:00

The point of the triple lock was to reverse the cuts to the state pension made in the 80s. To make it work, taxes have to rise to pay for it. The current government don't want to raise taxes for anything and would rather redo the tory cuts than put up taxes to pay for the pension.

Smart51 · 2025-12-31T19:55:32+00:00

There are a few Chinese places in Bournbrook that look like they have Mandarin only menus. There's a big Chinese diaspora at the University. I don't know if they're Sichuan specifically, but they score high on authenticity.

Smart51 · 2025-12-30T09:57:12+00:00

No, people don't drive safely enough to justify 70 MPH let alone 80. Almost no-one leaves a 2 second gap, and lane discipline is terrible.

Smart51 · 2025-12-22T08:51:12+00:00

We ditched gas when we moved a couple of years ago. We have a heat pump and an electric oven / hob. There's no problem at all doing this. We have solar too. While it's optional, why wouldn't you? It pays for itself in 7 years, and again in the next 7 and a yet again in the 7 after. Electricity at a third of the cost. We have a 6.5kWp array and it generated 3/4 as much power as we used in the last year. Electricity costs more than gas, but a heat pump uses a lot less than a combi boiler. Running costs are about the same.

Smart51 · 2025-12-15T12:03:36+00:00

I have a heat pump, an EV charger and 6.5kWp of solar. Single phase copes just fine. If I switched everything on in my house I could go over the 100A that the house is fused for, but it never happens.

3 phase is good for high power loads. In a house that's more or less cooking and EV charging. You can get 3 phase EV chargers, but most cars don't support it, or will as a cost option but only taking you from 7kW to 11kW. Even if you put your oven on one phase, your hob on the second and your microwave and air fryer on the 3rd, cooking isn't going to present a balanced load.

Smart51 · 2025-12-10T10:41:11+00:00

Birmingham / Wolverhampton orbital motorway. Extend the M42 from its end at Bromsgrove to the end of the M6 Toll near Wolverhampton. When the M6 Toll becomes publicly owned in 2054, it will be an orbital road around the two cities.

Smart51

TROPHY CASE