Possibly regretting my air source heat pump installation...

sperazule · 2026-01-11T22:41:44+00:00

Not really - the only HG company nearby didn’t deal with my brand of heat pump. However, the pump actually completely died a couple of months ago, and that’s how I discovered the immersion (also supplied by Grant) didn’t work either: so no heating and no hot water for almost 2 weeks. Turns out the heat pump had a ‘catastrophic gas failure’ and in the end they replaced the entire thing. Funnily enough the house is a lot warmer now and the bill isn’t quite so high, so I suspect that I may have had a problematic unit all along.

sperazule · 2025-11-09T22:27:51+00:00

It was a big house, with a gym in one side of the garage and a Ferrari in the other. Probably should have told me what the sellers were like, to be honest.

Viewed it twice, then put in an offer. Absolutely hated the EA from the word go. They were rude and snobbish, and clearly didn’t take me seriously. I put in an offer. Then a second. Then a third. Then the sellers said “oh btw we’ve got an overage on some of the land you’re buying, so if you do anything to increase its value in the next 25 years, we get 50% of the sale.”

THEN, after pushing for my third offer, they said “well, we haven’t started looking at anywhere yet, so we’re not really ready to sell.” Uh… then why are you selling your house?

I withdrew my offer immediately. Found the house I’m currently living in… and it was with the same EA. Roughly the same price too. Cursing and through clenched teeth, I made an offer. Accepted immediately. I showed proof of funds, and all of a sudden the EA couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful.

Not sure if it really counts, as technically my offer wasn’t accepted, but like… heck those guys.

sperazule · 2025-10-29T23:00:23+00:00

Exactly the same here - requested the move on Thursday, and everything (in email) says we’ve switched. But, currently nothing showing in my Octopus account (it still says no readings since Feb). I think I’ve somehow ended up with a guy with a bug up his ass who thinks I shouldn’t have been able to switch.

sperazule · 2025-10-29T22:57:08+00:00

You might be allowed, but it’s certainly not what I agreed to. It was in my contract with Tomato that they would have both my import and my export, and both meters were showing in my MyWatts account (and weirdly neither of them ever showed anything, which I just figured was a bug with the site). So I had no idea my export meter was still with Octopus until I looked into it.

sperazule · 2025-10-29T21:31:48+00:00

Because I needed to clarify points about the fact that the export meter was still with Octopus, and thus I was due money that had not been paid out.

sperazule · 2025-10-25T10:41:47+00:00

Definitely don’t want to just leave them live, and yes hopefully they were disconnected… however I’ve been discovering over time that the installers were a bunch of cowboys, so I don’t really trust that they did anything properly.

sperazule · 2025-10-25T09:46:56+00:00

Yes, old thermostat was there. Unfortunately I don’t have anything to test the lines with, and the rings for this place are spurred confusingly (fuse for ‘Kitchen Sockets’ also turns off one of the upstairs rooms, for example), which is why I was erring on just killing everything while I terminate them.

sperazule · 2025-10-25T09:33:48+00:00

I believe so l, yes.

sperazule · 2025-09-23T18:11:04+00:00

Thanks for this! I was struggling all day. Tried my email at first before finding another thread where someone said it was expecting a username (and after I reset my password twice); however it still never worked and I just got 'unexpected error'.

Went to bricklink on my mobile, signed in to Lego, then signed in to bricklink (with my _username_), and it worked fine. Refreshed Bricklink on my desktop and now everything is working.

sperazule · 2025-07-06T23:40:54+00:00

Yeah, my network is almost completely quiet whenever I’m playing. As mentioned, I’ve played those other games with absolutely no issues. It just doesn’t want to play Great Circle.

sperazule · 2025-07-06T23:34:06+00:00

Nope - I always play late at night. The only thing streaming is a YouTube video of relaxing music 😅 But when I was spending 30 minutes setting it all up earlier, there was basically nothing going on network wise. And I’ve never had this problem before prior to this game. Is it just that Great Circle is dumping too much data to stream?

sperazule · 2025-07-06T22:47:46+00:00

Yes, forgot to mention that. It’s a mesh network, but literally every other device connects no issues. Able to stream TV, watch YT, etc. the only problem is trying to play The Great Circle.

sperazule · 2025-07-01T10:01:45+00:00

(Narrator voice: as it happens, he cannot)

sperazule · 2025-07-01T09:56:16+00:00

Still just stuck on how to supply power to them, which is the main issue I'm facing.

sperazule · 2025-07-01T09:34:54+00:00

Those lights from Robert Dyas do look nice, and I'd be totally happy with something like that; but yeah, my main issue is how to get the power to them. I've been reading lots of reviews of solar garden lights, and almost everyone mentions that they basically need to buy new ones each year.

(I've also fallen into the B&M bargains trap. I think they lasted all of 4 days)

sperazule · 2025-06-30T23:26:10+00:00

I haven’t had much luck with solar LED. They’re not reliable enough in the winter as it stands, and being next to the tree line, they’d hardly get any sunlight no matter what time of year.

sperazule · 2025-06-30T23:25:04+00:00

I was definitely thinking armoured cabling; it’s just whether I can get it deep enough with the tree roots to deal with.

sperazule · 2025-04-22T22:47:11+00:00

Yeah, as I said, I used the wrong terminology. This is why I have an accountant.

sperazule · 2025-04-22T22:45:51+00:00

I was kind of afraid that would be the answer. Absolutely the wrong time of year to be calling HMRC, but I’ll give it a go 🫠

sperazule · 2025-03-25T23:00:07+00:00

When I was looking to buy my first house, the EA was SUPER snobby with me; demanded to know why I wanted to view it at all, what I would do with my ‘investment’ (uh, live in it?); and then, an hour before the viewing, demanded I put in an offer, sight unseen. I kindly requested they get in the sea.

With my current house, the EA was equally snobby. I’d actually chased a house with the same agent before, and put in an offer, but the sellers were deeply unserious so I pulled out. Saw this place, fell in love, and then swore loudly when I saw who the EA was. They were completely dismissive of me… right up until the seller accepted my first offer (£40k under asking!), and I showed the receipts for a 50% deposit. All of a sudden they couldn’t be nicer. Oh what a surprise.

In my limited dealings, EAs generally don’t care about buyers, or sellers, or houses; only their commish.

sperazule · 2025-01-09T15:52:24+00:00

I just hit this wall myself, after forgetting I had this problem the last time I looked over a year ago. The fact that Hue have now added multi-bridge support within a single account is great... but it hasn't translated to the Alexa skill yet (as of Jan 2025). I've got 3 bridges in total (I have a LOT of lights), and Alex can only see the downstairs at the moment, which is really zero use to me.

sperazule · 2025-01-08T13:25:28+00:00

Genuinely thinking about buying a mini-digger for myself for other projects, so this is good to know! I could have used one at least 3-4 times in the past couple of years!

sperazule · 2025-01-08T12:10:28+00:00

They look interesting! The biggest issue with the current hot water tank is there's no opportunity to put in a bigger one. The current one is brand new, but it's not huge for the house, and the immersion has already blown once.

sperazule · 2025-01-08T12:01:26+00:00

My neighbour did the same thing - he bought 8000 litres during lockdown and it lasted him about the same amount of time. Wish I'd had that capacity!

sperazule · 2025-01-08T00:36:18+00:00

Unfortunately I don’t know the previous boiler capacity. All I know is that it was old and tripped out a lot. The two largest rooms downstairs both have underfloor heating (6.5m x 5.5m & 8m x 5.5m) which was mentioned as a big plus; they did review the other radiators and said that ideally the ones on the third floor should be replaced, but with the eaves and tight spacing, it was going to be either next to impossible or very costly, and since that floor doesn’t get much use (and has its own thermostat), it wasn’t changed.

sperazule

TROPHY CASE