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Firstly, sorry for the delay in replying as I have been working non-stop on my bathroom project! I would agree with Bernard about adding a resistor into the circuit as he has indicated. However I doubt that a large value capacitor will 'overload' the circuit as such, as once charged (in a...

As I explained above, LED controllers control brightness by switching the 12 Volt line on and off at high frequency. (Reducing the voltage to an LED lamp has little effect on brightness, as (unlike an incandescent bulb) the colour temperature of an LED is constant.) The output from the...

Hmmm. I assume you are using the DC output controller? LED lighting controllers adjust brightness by switching the DC supply on and off at high frequency. This may well cause a problem with an inductive load such as a relay coil. This could easily be resolved by connecting a diode between the...

From your pictures I strongly suspect the soil pipe angle and offset is the problem. It looks to me that the plumber has used an angled Tee (probably 87.5°), which is why the black soil pipe 'kicks up'. He may also have run the soil pipe over a joist, hence its high position. I would try to...

John is correct. Coils are inductive devices, which can create a high reverse voltage when the current is interrupted. (This is how spark ignition coils work in petrol engined cars.) The diagram you have shown should be fine. Use a bog standard 1N4004 or 1N4007 silicon rectifier, not a Zener...

You may well be right Seb. If the lamps are intended to work on an AC supply (having a bridge rectifier built in) then they should would work perfectly well on a DC supply too. It is also possible that any such rectifier is only half wave, (i.e. a single diode) in which case the lamps would...

Firstly, 3.3 bars sounds slightly low to me unless it is measured with water flowing. 4 or 5 bars is more usual. At a guess, if there is a non-return valve somewhere in the system, (the water meter has been mentioned), a sudden stoppage of flow by (say) a washing machine or dishwasher inlet...

LED's are diodes, so they will rectify an AC voltage without an additional rectifier. HOWEVER, LED's tend to have a very low reverse voltage limit, (Vr), so they could be destroyed by connecting to an AC supply unless specified for such use. I would also expect some flicker at mains frequency...

All sanitaryware is 'bog standard' so to speak, (BS 5503 I think), so if you were to change the pan the outlet spigot should be exactly the same size and in the same place. (102 mm OD, with a centre 190 mm from floor level.) A new cistern is likely to have different mounting points, but they...

Our last house was built in the late 1960's/early 1970's. I could never work out what had happened to the downstairs 'ring main', except that it wasn't a ring. Then one day I lifted some floorboards in the kitchen to replace the steel alloy central heating pipes, which were corroding and...

If you want a good, powerful flush you cannot beat a traditional cistern high up on the wall. Unfortunately, low level and direct coupled cisterns will never give a really powerful flush, especially now that the flush volume is restricted to save water. I am not an expert on this subject, but...

OK, thank you for your help. :)

OK, thank you. Probably best done with the bath full of water for best effect. Would it be worth adding an external, self adhesive sealing strip - assuming that I can keep the silicone away from the tiles and the bath surround?

I am currently re-tiling our bathroom and will be fitting a new bath in the next few days. What is the current 'best practice' for installing a reliable seal around the bath? The old tiles had quadrant sections where they met the bath, which had worked remarkably well for around thirty years...

I agree. The boiler is heating the water in the primary circuit, but the heat isn't going anywhere. I know the London area suffers quite badly with hard water and scaling on heating elelents. If you can get the immersion heater out you can have a look inside to see if we are right! NN

Part-closing the cold supply valve WILL NOT reduce pressure at the taps when they are closed. but it will restrict flow when the water is running, and will stop your thermostatic tempering valve form working properly. NN