And now we go again...

joedenise

girlatplay said:

Happy New Year EH and friends.

It's definitely chillier here now (east central Scotland) and I'm not noticing longer days yet.

I remember as a teenager being at a friend's house and her Mum went to get a pair of jeans in from the washing line. It was so cold they were standing up in their own! We got a picture, although I don't know what ever happened to that.

I hope you're feeling better now EH.

I remember when I was a young mum and my kids thought it was hilarious when I bought in jeans from the line and stood them up in the kitchen because they'd frozen although I don't really remember it being any colder than it was yesterday with the snow!  Maybe it feels much colder now because I'm much older!!!

rtandon27

We had snow too, here in the west south-east - OH thought it was the end of the world and refused to drive to pick up eggs and a bottle of wine. By the time I found the phone to take a picture of the white stuff, it had started to melt and was most unimpressive!

While it's still not feeling brr to me, I have happily pulled out my sweaters and winter dresses which rarely get worn!

VintageHistorian

We had snow in my corner of Essex too, although it never settled on the roads or pavements.

EssexHebridean

Oh MaB I'm sorry you are still feeling rough - hopefully you'll be back fighting fit again very soon - and testing negative, too! 
RT that made me laugh - as soon as you said differing opinions I knew where you were going! I don't mind it too much today as it's a far drier cold - yesterday was damp cold and that I don't like - as LaPlan mentioned, even London got snow yesterday, and the bit I work in quite often does, but not so much in the centre, no!  it did make me chuckle about MrRT and the refusal to go out though - I'm not a fan of driving in snow I have to say, but in good part because there are so many other folk on the roads who have no clue how to cope with it! 
SH the rugby match did indeed make both our weekends, although for rather different reasons!  
Rosa I am entirely delighted to say that in the new house we have a cupboard which has a couple of drawers in it which are perfectly sized to take all the wrapping stuff - even the plastic basket with all the ribbons etc! It's very nice to have it all out from the draqer under the bed where it lived before, I confess!
HNY to you & LMG too GAP - I'm afraid we decided against sticking washing out today as MrEH reckoned there was no chance of it drying - as he said - it will just bring a lot more cold dampness with it when we bring it back in! he broke some ice on a bucket of water first thing to see how icy it was, and it had re-frozen when he looked at it again a short while later! 
Joedenise it does feel colder now - you're right, maybe we're all getting older?! (Well, clearly we are, but you know what I mean!)
VintageHistorian the first mention we had of snow yesterday was when a client on the phone to my boss mentioned it was snowing in Thurrock where they were - I think it was pretty widespread across the area wasn't it. 

In spite of it still being Brrr we've had sunshine all day today which has been lovely! I ended up spending more time in the cold yesterday than I at first anticipated too, we were working about busily in the office at about 4pm, and suddenly there was a sort of a popping noise and all the lights, computers and everything went off. I popped outside to see if it was just our building or anywhere else, but couldn't get a clear picture as some places I would have expected to be lit up weren't, but then there were others which logic would have said were without power who were fine, so... We bravely ventured down into the basement with our phone torches to check the fuse box - but that was all fine, so Madam Boss rang UK power networks and they confirmed a major fault. Apparently there was no chance of it being an immediate fix - someone had to come out - so Madam Boss said I may as well go home - well I was fine with that except that of course MrEH was still in London too, and wasn't going to be back in my direction for a couple of hours. I gave him a ring and we had a quick conflab and decided I may as well head home via the Tube and the bus - not done that for a good while! All went relatively smoothly anyway - I got almost straight on a tube going right to the end of the line, and then had a short wait for the bus...also managed to get off the bus a stop before I needed to as I thought it was going one way and it turned out not to be so I could have stayed on - oh well! Anyway I walked in the door just before 6pm which wasn't too bad. 

Of course the unexpected travel method wasn't particularly MSE as of course I have my fares to pay - but the alternative would have been to find somewhere to sit and wait for MrEH with my book, and let's be honest, that "somewhere" would have been a pub...I'm thinking that the fares might have been cheaper! 

MSE Stuff:
- My FD regular saver went out on the 5th, meaning it used the money that had already been transferred from last month, so I have changed the Standing Order to go on the 2nd of each month (it was set for the 15th) and so we will "save" the payment that will not now go this month. That will be transferred to long term savings I think. 
- the bus fare yesterday was a very reasonable £2 which was substantially better than the cost last time I took that route a few years back! 
- Food last night used up a couple of cooked sausages from the freezer, and the other half of the tub of creme fraiche along with pasta and plenty of veg - and very tasty it was too! 
- DW was run in the peak period last night which may help with usage in terms of any more savings sessions. 
- MrEH was intended to run the washing machine late this afternoon but I don't know if he'll remember or not! (He's actually just messaged me - he has remembered!)

In less MSE news he's needed the office heater on all day today - not surprisingly! It's going to be an expensive day for electricity, that's for sure! 

Rugby training night tonight so we will be venturing back into "couscous and stuff" for tea - current thinking is to throw a pile of veg in the air fryer to roast, I wonder how it would work to do the halloumi in there too... Anyway, the aim is to do enough veg that the rest can go into a frittata later in the week. 

themadvix

The bus fare will have been cheap because they keep extending the £2 each way fares - and long may that continue! Definitely cheaper than sitting in a pub for a couple of hours though 😊

If you can afford not to, I’d implore you not to increase the load at peak times just to improve savings sessions - the reason we have them then is because the grid is at its dirtiest then - and this is true whether there’s a savings session on or not. Hope you don’t mind me saying.

PennysIntoPounds

You're a stronger woman than me, turning down the universe's gift of a beer and book opportunity! Glad your journey was smooth, it's so horrible being stuck waiting for transport in the cold

Jellytotts

We originally had 12 panels installed under a free scheme on a previous house, they'd have cost us around £18k back in 2012. We then moved and had 6 solar panels installed by E-opposite of "off" 5 years ago at the cost of £3600 (no batteries, not keen on having them in my loft for the fire risk) but have since moved again and the quote for 8 panels from the tentacled ones was  £10.8k, now I'm not great at maths but it didn't ring true. A local company came to quote and came in at just over £5k which we still felt was too much.  The panels in question are £120 each....the installation costs are daft when you consider that I've never had an installation be more than 3 hours.  

We have looked into grants locally but they'll only accept us if we have cavity wall insulation put in which we refuse to do, walls are built with cavities for a reason!   It's very hard to try and do your bit sometimes. 

EssexHebridean

themadvix said:

The bus fare will have been cheap because they keep extending the £2 each way fares - and long may that continue! Definitely cheaper than sitting in a pub for a couple of hours though 😊

If you can afford not to, I’d implore you not to increase the load at peak times just to improve savings sessions - the reason we have them then is because the grid is at its dirtiest then - and this is true whether there’s a savings session on or not. Hope you don’t mind me saying.

That as exactly it on the bus fare - I was expecting £2.50 which would still have been a saving on previously, but £2 was even better! Don't mind you saying at all on the energy thing - it's a very valid point! The iamkate site suggested that yesterday wasn't looking particularly problematic - although I confess I didn't check back yesterday evening to see if that had held true! Our issue is that with the washing machine on its way out, we currently need to be sure that we are in attendance when it starts its spin just in case things go horribly awry...it's also horrifically noisy, so if we leave the machine until 7pm to set it running - ie after the peak time - that means it will potentially be doing the noisiest part of its cycle after 10pm and as we're in a terrace we think that's a bit late to be running something that we know is probably well and truly audible next door. Frankly thanks to MrEH's office heating our electricity use was horrific - the WM was the proverbial drop in the ocean! (it would have been even more of one had he not decided for some reason to run it on the time saver programme mind you - I have NO idea why as we never use it normally!)

I appreciate that would could just replace the WM now meaning both a reduction in noise levels AND probably general energy use improving too - but that in turn means an appliance which is currently still working going to landfill, and I'm not too comfortable with that before I have to either. It is tough to find a balance sometimes!  (And before anyone suggests getting it repaired - nobody around us will even contemplate a repair on a 10 year old Hotpoint, they won't even quote on it!)

PennysIntoPounds said:

You're a stronger woman than me, turning down the universe's gift of a beer and book opportunity! Glad your journey was smooth, it's so horrible being stuck waiting for transport in the cold

Ha - well this was partly because I don't generally do beers midweek, and partly because getting home earlier meant I had a cup of tea and book opportunity on the sofa which was always going to be more comfortable!

Jellytotts said:

We originally had 12 panels installed under a free scheme on a previous house, they'd have cost us around £18k back in 2012. We then moved and had 6 solar panels installed by E-opposite of "off" 5 years ago at the cost of £3600 (no batteries, not keen on having them in my loft for the fire risk) but have since moved again and the quote for 8 panels from the tentacled ones was  £10.8k, now I'm not great at maths but it didn't ring true. A local company came to quote and came in at just over £5k which we still felt was too much.  The panels in question are £120 each....the installation costs are daft when you consider that I've never had an installation be more than 3 hours.  

We have looked into grants locally but they'll only accept us if we have cavity wall insulation put in which we refuse to do, walls are built with cavities for a reason!   It's very hard to try and do your bit sometimes. 

Interesting stuff - thank you. I assume the combination of scaffold being needed plus the electrical works being needed are what particularly bumps the cost up - I too had noticed how relatively speaking inexpensive the panels are!  the fact that the installers all have to be working at height trained these days will also increase that aspect I imagine. I definitely want another quote before we get anyone to come and survey anyway, and then we'll probably ask both parties to survey to see who we want to go with.  

themadvix

If you're WM needs supervising, then that's entirely understandable EH! Just thought it was worth pointing out - especially as I know so many people read your diary. The Iamkate website/Drax insights are fascinating, definitely! Our solar/battery app also shows us the state of the grid (in a traffic light system, so not as in-depth). Definitely don't get rid of it until you need to.

Re battery @Jellytotts, house ones are LFP rather than Li, so much more stable and far less of a fire risk (which is minimal anyway - far more likely to have a house fire from 'normal' causes). But I can see why you wouldn't necessarily want in a loft - ours are in our attached, part of the house 'outbuilding' (rapidly becoming the 'plant room' (one wall is mostly taking up with cables, inverter, circuit boards (x3), battery etc.!) 

Agreed, EH - scaffolding is a huge part of the cost. Definitely worth maxing installation of panels, even if you then have to wait and save for battery (depending on location, battery is a plug and play situation, pretty much). Also make sure your inverter can cope should you want to expand (panels or batteries) - ours won't and it's really annoying, but we only have ourselves to blame really - as we didn't spec this on our quote and of course, they didn't suggest it as what we've got is sufficient for what we've currently got installed.

EssexHebridean

Ahh Vix thank you for the comments regarding the battery - ours will have a choice of being in the loft or in the cupboard under the stairs - and given the choice I think we can assume it will be in the loft! it's good to hear reassurance from someone on the fire risk aspect - although I would hope that the likes of the tentacled provider would not be fitting them in the loft if there was a significant risk in any event. 

The quote we have currently on the solar includes both battery and hybrid inverter - we'd get everything done in one go I think as we are planning that an upcoming maturing regular saver will cover at least the majority of the cost. We're also intending to get as many panels up there in the first instance as will go - the chap from the Octopoddy types said that he didn't think we'd have room for more than 6 - which is odd as doesn't stack up with what we're seeing elsewhere in the area being installed, so either their panels are larger than others, or they are thinking our roof is smaller than it is. The battery they have quoted is  5.2kWh - whether there would be any likelihood that we might want to expand that I have no idea, but I'll certainly check whether the inverter will cope if we do just for "belt & braces" purposes - see, it's things like that which are massively helpful as you don't know that you don't know it, IYSWIM! 

I love the iamkate site - it's one of the tabs which is as standard up on my browser on my work pc and my ipad!