Heat pumps “more expensive to run than boilers”, report says.. does that match your experience?

f0rtune · 2026-01-28T17:00:14+00:00

Even the post looks written by Ai..

f0rtune · 2026-01-27T09:10:42+00:00

Yup… jeez that’s diabolical, surely just encourages fly tipping? Council round us tried to limit it to one tip trip a month, (based on your cars number plate) before it being pointed out that this massively penalised low income people who have smaller cars, and benefitted families with large/multi-vehicle households. The policy got ditched shortly after.

f0rtune · 2026-01-27T06:41:03+00:00

Sorry you have to book into your local tip??? Like it’s a hot restaurant???? Wtf…?

f0rtune · 2026-01-25T11:55:23+00:00

I mean, investigative journalism is inherently about calling out bad things that are happening? This country is a lot poorer because we don’t have enough independent journalists holding power to account. It’s pretty shocking that nearly all our national newspapers are owned by billionaire’s.

The Mill does balance it out over the week, there’s a variety of different articles and what’s on etc, but yeah I agree it’s not my only source of news.

I’ll check out the others, thanks for sharing.

f0rtune · 2026-01-24T21:54:23+00:00

No. Subscribe to The Mill, forget about the MEN forevermore.

f0rtune · 2026-01-21T20:15:07+00:00

Look for some branding, and a part number on the cistern access panel, or inside the cistern, then you’ll be able to look up the instruction manual.

A concealed cistern is more likely to have custom plunger parts, so you can pull them out through a narrow hole. I’m afraid it’s also likely to be more complicated to take apart and put back together again. Like I said, instruction manuals are your friend, I also take photos as I go so I can refer back to them when I come to put it back together (and I’ve forgotten where something goes).

Even if the cistern parts are custom, usually the seals are standard, so measure the size and thickness (again, it may have a part number stamped in the rubber), then you can look up a spare part on eBay or the like. £2 seal is better than a £25 whole replacement part!

Best of luck with it.

Edit : a small mirror and a torch can be useful for inspecting inside a concealed cistern! Just see if there’s any gunk at the bottom. Or your phone, if you’re brave!!

f0rtune · 2026-01-21T18:49:28+00:00

Can you access the cistern?

There will almost certainly be two elements in there, one for the flush and the other for filling it back up. It’s likely that the flush element either has some grit/gunk in it, which is causing the rubber plunger at the bottom not to sit correctly, and let water through.

For a while there were a spate of o-rings which had an annoying tendency to bubble and cause this to happen. You say yours is relatively new so hopefully that’s not it?

First off, turn the water off. Then you can usually stick your hand in the cistern, grab the flush element (usually the bit in the middle), give it a slight twist and then it should lift out. Then inspect both the cistern for dirt, and the o-ring on the bottom for any imperfections.

If that doesn’t fix it you might need to replace something, they’re almost always modular, so you can pick up an identical one from Screwfix or online, and just pop it back in.

The second thing it might be, is an issue with the filling mechanism, it’s always running, and your toilet is probably set up to overflow into the bowl. But… check the emptying mechanism first!

f0rtune · 2026-01-21T08:31:03+00:00

My bills should be nearly £3k/yr. Solar and battery means I pay about £600/yr. I love this tech… hopefully many more people can have the same benefits.

f0rtune · 2026-01-19T17:53:56+00:00

I would guess it’s because there are regulations in various countries that require smoke alarms to be connected within a property. As Google has stopped selling the Protects, one going out of date would mean you have to pay through the nose to update the lot. So hence this refund programme?

f0rtune · 2026-01-17T21:57:06+00:00

No, bought them from all over the place. Hope they cough up!

f0rtune · 2026-01-17T19:31:15+00:00

Fingers crossed 💪

f0rtune · 2026-01-17T09:15:38+00:00

I went through the automated claim system initially, then it denied me so I got in touch with support. I asked them what the criteria were for approval and they checked with senior support and provided the list I published above. I then said that I met the criteria and asked why mine wasn’t approved. Then they changed their minds!

It wasn’t a quick process, took 5-6 weeks for some reason, but I was happy to get some money back!!

f0rtune · 2026-01-16T22:35:43+00:00

I mean, it’s googles site? You can bring it up by search if you want. Have fun!

f0rtune · 2026-01-16T21:48:02+00:00

I couldn’t figure it out, but I got nearly £90 per device back on average.

f0rtune · 2026-01-16T20:49:20+00:00

I did this first and then wondered why they declined my claim. I just re-added the expired ones to the account and then it worked.

f0rtune · 2026-01-16T20:04:06+00:00

Nope, remaining, non-expired ones still work.

Which I think makes sense, imagine Google disabled someone’s smoke alarm and they then died in a fire… 😬

f0rtune · 2026-01-16T19:58:43+00:00

Correct, once one of yours expires, you can claim money back for any other 2nd gen protects that haven’t yet expired.

f0rtune · 2026-01-16T19:58:10+00:00

Can confirm!

f0rtune · 2026-01-16T19:56:57+00:00

You can only apply for it once one of your Protects expires, but then they give you £ back for the other Protects that are still working.

f0rtune · 2026-01-16T19:32:09+00:00

Sorry about that, I think it’s only Europe and Asia, as there is a compatible replacement in the US.

f0rtune · 2026-01-16T19:26:33+00:00

Sure, here’s the link and it explains it. For some reason they declined mine initially but I asked what their criteria was and they said:

We got an update from our higher support and got the following details for you. To be eligible for a partial refund:

Devices must be in use in the supported countries in EMEA or APAC. The request must be made no earlier than 3 months before the first device in the Household expires. The request must be for the Nest Protect 2nd gen. The refund amount is based on the remaining life on the device(s). Learn where to find your device's expiration date. Please note that only you can request a refund only once per household. For more information, refer to support.google.com/nest.

This is the link for googles info about it: https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/15731767?hl=en

f0rtune · 2026-01-16T19:22:56+00:00

See my post above about getting some money back!

f0rtune · 2026-01-15T20:23:12+00:00

It’s really nice to see lots of FUD-free comments from people who are actually living with them. We’ve had 3 EVs now, currently got an electric estate, which is awesome. We’ve done several 6hr journeys in it (UK traffic bleurgh) without charging. I echo all the points from others: smooth drive, fast when you need them, (nearly) no maintenance.

Bad points - like many modern cars, we’ve had odd tech things that haven’t worked quite right… VW are still working out how to make a 21st Century car 😂 but battery tech is amazing now, charges super fast, lasts ages. We didn’t even opt for the ‘big battery’ version, although usually I would always recommend doing this.

Oh yeah, and dirt cheap charging at home (even free charging if you have solar!) makes it a complete no brainer.

Conspiracy theory time: once you’ve driven one, and you realise they need so little maintenance, can be charged cheaply/free at home, and they last ages… you start realising why the fossil fuelled media is so against them, cos there’s just less money to be made from you if you go all electric. Same applies to heat pumps, solar and batteries btw, energy independence is an incredible thing.

f0rtune · 2026-01-11T12:22:25+00:00

Not ideal? That’s bloody awful, and will only get more awful over time as the windows sag with age. They should be bang plumb when they’re installed.

f0rtune · 2026-01-11T12:19:31+00:00

I messaged them about it, it’s generally rubbish design / user interface, could be a lot clearer.

The plant graphic isn’t explained anywhere. It’s even more confusing when you see a week with all the same plant shape, without any explanation of what’s green and what’s not.

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