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I've been thinking of setting up solar panels on the roof of my shed (the house roof faces the wrong way) and having batteries and an inverter inside the shed. Before the Part P police leap in, Yes, I know this is a special installation! But I want to plan how I'm going to do it before I get...

It's nothing to do with the weight, only the value. The strict legal situation is that anything over £18 (or £36 if it's a gift) is subject to VAT - the Import Duty rules are much more complicated, but in all the dozens of times I've bought stuff from the 'States I've never had to pay...

Why not extend the ring, rather than adding spurs? Cheers, Howard

I know of a couple who bought a Mooney (single engine 4-seater) in the 'States, had it fitted with a ferry tank (took up the rear 2 seats), an HF Radio, and an in-cockpit oil topup system, and flew it back themselves. It took 19 hours! I didn't know them well enough to ask the obvious...

BAS, I know you don't like those, but my house has one and it's fine! I've been here 23 years and I'm sure it wasn't fitted just before I moved in. The lead hasn't seeped, the clamp is still tight, and I get an EFLI of less than 0.4 ohms at the sockets (I'll do one at the CU next time I'm...

Ah, youngsters of today! :) The White Meter was a meter that they introduced when cheap overnight charges were brought in (I don't think it was called Economy 7 - that came later) and it was white as a marketing gimmick. It measured the usage on the off-peak tarrif, which was controlled by a...

OK, someone owes me 50p - it still happened with the Immersion Heater isolated! :D I've just done some tests on the disconnected RCD (isn't that a pain to do? Why are the finger-guards on the probes just too wide to allow both probes into the screws without my having a black belt in the use...

I did! The readings were all fine then, but that was two and a half years or so ago. There hasn't been a problem until this week. Understood. I assume the functional Earth needs to remain connected, though? Right, thanks a lot. I do know what you mean, but I wasn't sure what would...

I must say I hadn't considered that! I do have an RCD tester, so I can have a go with that and see what level of imbalance trips it. Thanks! Cheers, Howard

I didn't get where I am today by only doing the usual things! :) Can it still cause a problem when it's switched off by the timeswitch? It's single pole, so I suppose if the leakage acts between N and E it could, but I'd have thought it would be more persistent than just 2 incidents 12 hours...

I replaced the old rewireable fuse box in my house back in December 2004 (obviously!) with a Wylex split consumer unit, with the immersion heater and up and down rings on the RCD side. All has been well since then, but yesterday evening I had a nuisence trip of the RCD. I turned off the...

Is this diagram accurate? You haven't swapped the bottom sequence of terminals round? You'll often find that the two switches' connections are arranged in two triangles, inverted with respect to each other, like this: COM L1 L2 L1 L2 COM And what catches people out is...

I'm thinking of doing this, but it's a bit more awkward because I need to dig through the concrete patio (it's cracked and knackered anyway!) - can I just lay the new concrete around the SWA "naked", or should there be some sort of pipe running through with the SWA inside that? If the latter...

LOL! :D No, the ends glow only when the unit is off (a gentle orange glow) - when it turns on the whole tube glows as you'd expect. There is no starter - it's all electronic. It could be that the filaments are kept warm so that the tube lights instantly when it turns on, which is just what...

Oh come on now, it must be there somewhere - you're just not looking hard enough! :D It shouldn't be squashed much - is there insulation closing the gap? If so you need to make a gap in it for the duct. As long as the duct isn't narrowed below a couple of inches, it should work fine...

Several things here - the "main switch" you mention is probably an RCD (have a look, it should say so) in which case as well as acting as a manual switch it will switch off automatically if there's a fault which causes 30mA or more of the current from the Live wire to go somewhere other than the...

I recently bought a "maintained" emergency luminaire, which has battery backup (obviously!) and an 8w fluorescent tube. I've noticed that the tube's filaments are glowing gently all the time the power is on (can be seen when the room light is less than bright) and feel slightly warm. Is this...

Sorry, I must have missed something: "ordinary cable is now only grey"? When did this happen? Cheers, Howard

The house cabling shouldn't affect the speakers unless the cables are running close and it's picking up noise by induction. It's much more likely that the power supply for the speakers (assuming they are powered?) is letting glitches though from the mains, which are then being emitted as...

Just an aside... It seems to be really difficult to find white clips for T&E these days - surely the regulations haven't banned white clips along with red&black cable? If not, why have they disappeared from the sheds and Screwfix? (TLC still have them, but they are more expensive than B&Q!)...