Search results

I am a Radio Amateur and want to run an antenna cable through my house's tiled roof up by the chimney (length of cable run is important and running it down over the tiles, over the gutter then up and in through the soffit is too long - and there's no way to fix the cable on the 5m run down the...

A few years ago I installed a Stelrad Doulton close-coupled loo, and the syphon that came with it was dual flush (quick push = short flush, hold down = full flush). Recently it's been doing only the short flush even when you hold the handle down. Peering inside the cistern I can't see...

I have a Polystel unvented hot tank (ancient, but working OK!) and I had to replace the immersion heater thermostat. To do this you have to remove the expansion tank and the tee that connects it to the cold feed. Unfortunately I managed to damage the tee. I unsoldered the connectors and...

I'm a Radio Amateur ("Ham") and I want to run cables to antennas on the chimney, in the middle of the pitched roof, which is tiled with red (Marley?) tiles and has a 45 degree pitch. I have some flexible conduit which is 32mm o/d, so what I'm thinking of doing is drilling a hole (35mm...

A friend is living abroad, and rents out his UK house. His tenant has reported that the bath hot tap has intermittent flow - it runs OK for a while, then pauses "to catch its breath" and then resumes again. He's asked me to look at it, and either fix it or diagnose the problem for a plumber...

I'd been a bit worried about my electricity bill, so got one of the monitors which has a current-sensor clipped around the main Line cable to the Consumer Unit, and sends its data by radio (bluetooth?) to a display. Well, it's showing that I never consume less than 700W, and turning off the...

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...

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...

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...

(This is the second time I've posted this - the first one disappeared in a cloud of "Could not insert new word matches" :( ) I had my gas meter changed a few days ago, and having dug it out of the jun... valuable stuff under the stairs, I found there is no Earth bonding to be seen. I...

My gas meter was replaced yesterday, and having dug it out of the stuff under the stairs, I find there is no Earth bonding in sight. As I understand Part P, I can install this without falling outside the law! Now, the only bare metal is on the incoming pipe - everything past the meter is...

How are the various brass "ends" of a fish-tape or access rod set used? They seem to come in various flavours, and I can't see how most of them would be used, especially the one with the small rectangular hole in it. Any hints and tips, chaps? Cheers, Howard

I want to put in a new circuit (let's take Part P as read) to supply a new split Airconditioning unit in my bedroom, and sockets in the loft. The Aircon has an indoor unit high on the wall of the room, and an outside unit on a stand on the ground outside. I presume because of the latter...

I spotted HiTuff cable on TLC's web site, and it's billed as tougher then PVC and easier to work than SWA, but it says it's suitable for use where SWA isn't needed. Now running outside, for example, you need either SWA or something in steel conduit, so from the above it seems HiTuff wouldn't...

Am I the only one who can't see something obvious, or is there a knack I haven't discovered? I'm talking about this: Specifically, it doesn't seem to "clamp" onto the pipe because the clamping screw just tightens up on the strap in the slot - how do you get the strap tight around the pipe...

I thought that modern Consumer Units with DIN rails were designed to some sort of standard measurements, so you could use any MCB in any CU. However... I have a Proteus split load CU with Proteus Incomer and RCD, and DETA MCBs. This CU has only the top half of the DIN rail - where the...

I presume I'll get a "Don't do it!" from ban_all_sheds, judging from his ID, but here goes... I'm planning to run power to my workshop/shed, using 4mm2 Steel Wire Armoured (SWA) cable, and putting a small consumer unit in there, with an overall RCD, and MCBs for lights (6A) and sockets (16A)...