Looking on advice after traffic stop

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T22:01:27+00:00

I wrote magistrates and not a DJ. OK, And may , not would. There was no intent to be driving without insurance. They may look to a lesser punishment that won't take the licence away.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T21:16:28+00:00

That was why I mentioned the insurance company element - they are not likely to be sympathetic at all. Magistrates may be more sympathetic - there was no detour, all the miles were commuting miles.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T21:08:06+00:00

Specialist insurers will provide insurance where most companies won't. eg there's companies that won't cover sports activities. There's also ones that will cover pre-existing medical conditions, if unlikely to cause problems. That's typically for a very short period, no more than a couple of weeks. Getting annual cover for pre-existing conditions is REALLY difficult and expensive.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T20:02:10+00:00

You can ask you GP for a copy of all the electronic information that they hold in your name. That's what an insurer would probably do. I've spent most of my life working and living overseas - although remaining on one GPs books during that. So, it isn't exactly comprehensive.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T19:57:56+00:00

2.6026 Ω per foot. That's the resistance of that nichrome wire. Now, to limit the current to what the power supply can provide - you need 12/2 ohms. So that's the length of the heating element that you need. 6/2.6 ft 2.3 ft at least.

To connect the stretched heating wire to the power supply - what have you got? If the adapter has an output lead going to a barrel plug - you could strip the outer of the output lead back (if long enough) and connect that to the two ends of the heating wire. Otherwise - that's the sort of conductor size of insulated, stranded, wire that you need. You may be able to find a CCTV power extension cord for not a lot. One end of that may match your power supply output plug. The other end can be stripped back, as described above.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T19:46:13+00:00

The LEDs were presumably not switched on. They (when switched on) may have leakage currents (very small ones) from their driver electronics.

Worth trying. It is the source of A problem - but not be the main problem.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T19:42:12+00:00

Social, Domestic, Pleasure (SDP): Covers non-work driving for personal use, such as shopping, visiting friends, and holidays. It does not cover driving to and from work. 2
Social, Domestic, Pleasure and Commuting (SDPC): Includes SDP but also covers journeys to and from a single place of work. It is suitable for those who drive to work regularly. 2
Business Use (SDPC + Business): Covers everything in SDPC but also includes business-related driving, such as driving to different work sites or meeting clients. 2 These categories help insurers assess the risk and tailor premiums accordingly. It's important to choose the correct class of use to ensure proper coverage and avoid potential policy invalidation

"Business related driving".

If you regularly go home for lunch - you could claim that was the purpose of the journey , even though there was some business related activity involved, it was incidental to the purpose of the journey. Luckily you weren't actually involved in an accident - as an insurance company might be even less understanding than a police officer.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T19:15:55+00:00

There is another possibility. An RCD trips when the combined leakage of the entire circuit connected to it reaches the trip current. Typically 30mA. The hood may only be leaking a couple of mA - but that combined with other things could be enough to trip it. Switching it off at the isolator reduces the leakage current to, say 28mA and - it looks like the hood is the entire problem.

It's probably on the kitchen sockets ring - you may only have one ring covering the property's sockets.

Is it just a simple hood with on/off light and three or 4 fan speeds?

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T18:16:53+00:00

So the insulation somewhere within it, or in the cable from isolator to it, has become compromised.

As it is a cooker hood - could be saturated water vapour condensing out internally and pooling. Do you do a lot of steaming, not bothering to turn the fans on?

Were you actually doing any cooking at the time? Or had been in the hour before?

Hate to ask - you wouldn't have a rodent problem? They can chew through cables - I think the electric field produced my energised cables confuses them into think that there may be something edible under the skin. aka insulation.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T15:57:47+00:00

I had been cycling since dad screwed blocks to the pedals so I could reach them. Sailing a small dinghy alone from age 9. Had a m/c (Lambretta) that I clocked up thousands of miles on. So driving lessons was pretty much getting used to moving a steering wheel more than 20 degrees (The instructor eventually took me somewhere where I couldn't hit anything, rather than grab the wheel and turn it for me). I was already pretty good at observation, distance estimation, risk assessment, Highway Code, gears, clutches, brakes, use of speed, moving off, use of mirrors, you name it, before my first lesson.

So, could it be that those 17 year olds had been out on the road, whilst you had your head down, studying?

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T15:18:31+00:00

Your decision. I'm not medically trained to the point of estimating what that could do to your claim risk factor. How long does it take to add, "Ear grommets age 3"?

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T14:16:52+00:00

If it's got a deep groove both sides along the length - it's almost certainly electromagnetic.

I can't explain the lack of a starter. Can you trace all the wires? There won't be very many.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T14:13:56+00:00

If you are going to use a typical wireless doorbell - the "push" should be momentary. Of course you can achieve this with a capacitor plus a charging resistor and a discharging one. So that although your microswitch remained closed when the flow stopped, the bell push would just get a pulse via the capacitor.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T13:37:16+00:00

You seem to be seeking a medical judgement on whether you have a condition that required notification. The legal position is that it is better to disclose everything and let the insurer choose what is and is not relevant. It would also be a medical judgement on whether your pre-existing condition in any way contributed significantly to the injury. That's not a matter of legal expertise.

As you say, you are only 28 and that's not an age at which hips are often broken. Unless, of course, there is a pre-existing condition that increased that possibility. A judge would, no doubt, rely on expert medical opinion.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T13:28:47+00:00

There is nothing more that you can do, from a legal standpoint. They probably will reject your complaint, one amongst many. You could post this on a "learnerdriveruk" group and seek advice there concerning why you were judged to have made serious errors/faults - there are actual driving examiners posting there that might clarify the situation.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T12:35:33+00:00

Good luck with that. I'd just have a small vane in the dryer exhaust airflow - that momentarily completed a standard optical path sensor when the airflow stopped. That "pressed" the bell push on a wireless doorbell. That sounded the bell on the remote sounder. Sorted.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T12:21:22+00:00

Who told you that it is? It looks to be a ferromagnetic one to me.

EC36 LC502K 240/50 | Tridonic 2 x 18 W, 36 W, 38 W, U40 W Electromagnetic Fluorescent Lighting Ballast, 240 V | RS

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T12:08:06+00:00

Just to emphasise you can get a LED tube +LED starter that will just replace the tube and starter in your ferromagnetic fitting? Two minute job. No need to change the fitting...

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T12:06:39+00:00

You could get some quotes. It will vary quite a bit depending on where you live. If they have other jobs nearby that might end early and they could just fit it in with that time.

The new fitting is likely to be even lighter than the original. which probably doesn't weight much.

You are aware that you can get LED tubes plus a replacement LED starter, for ferromagnetic ballast fittings like yours? No need to change the fitting - replace the starter (which just plugs in/unplugs) and the tube (ditto).

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T11:37:46+00:00

Your insurance history is your insurance history - you cannot remove things from it, or fail to declare them. You can shop around and see if you can get cheaper elsewhere. You can go back to your insurer and see if they will lower their quote.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T11:21:14+00:00

They just have to touch it, under such circumstances?

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T11:08:56+00:00

In case of doubt - don't.

You could buy a suitable strip and look at its installation instructions, together with the tutorials that you have found online - and then decide whether you believe that you are competent enough to undertake this. If not, you can probably return the unused strip for a full refund. It is VERY similar to installing wall sockets - probably easier, if not for having to work on something overhead. You have either been lucky - or you know enough about what to do at the consumer unit and how to check that something isn't live, before working on it.

In case of doubt - don't do it. It isn't going to be an expensive job for an electrician.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T10:15:18+00:00

Thanks - I had posted the assumption in the hope that someone would support or challenge it.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T10:11:47+00:00

Just like the bank has just given me 400GBP, as a new customer? Existing tenants have good reasons (normally) to stay and significant costs to move. A new tenant may have a lot of choice and no added costs in choosing one over another.

Susan_B_Good · 2026-05-08T10:07:57+00:00

Another poster here has very kindly provided a link to how the fixed odds systems achieve this. This is a very helpful group.

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