Next steps; grip-relaxing bimbling, and avoiding the temptations

Suffolk_lass · 17 January at 6:16PM

Almost a week since I updated here, I can assure you, you have missed little or nothing beyond the normal rhythm of life here. Except that my exam results eventually appeared on Thursday. I passed both, with a credit for the one I resat.

I need to take three more and would need credits in at least two of them to stand a chance of a credit in my Advanced theory. At the moment I am one mark short as the average of the four I have is applied. The reason is because the first one (first exam for maybe 20 years) I only just got the passmark and I only got one mark over on one I took this time (but taking two, I am a little irked but not surprised!). I won't be resitting, just reflecting a bit.

I need to go through some family archives today as my Mum's cousin (actually my late Dad's cousin's husband) is writing his family history and has asked what I know about my Great Grandmother (paternal Grandmother's mother). I've sent him a couple of anecdotes from his late father too, with whom I spent a couple of happy hours in 2007 listening to him talk about his role during the 1969-1973 Northern Ireland troubles, when he had a senior role in an organisation I am very familiar with. We both loved it; him having someone who was interested enough to listen, and me, loving hearing about his role and how he and his wife dealt with a number of incidents.

Anyway, to more mundane day to day things, I am still thanking myself for the stores I have in and we are slowly working our way through these. Today... shopping. I had to shop as the last bag of cat litter has been deployed. None is stock over December but I managed to get some today. Enough for 2-4 weeks. My total for the month is just over £130 within an aim of £150. Lots of lovely seasonal veg, mostly and some extra milk as I will make a rice pudding. Proper winter food.

Oh yes, and I am thanking me for buying a short subscription for fresh flowers for my Mum. Only three months, through the dark months but she is absolutely loving them and no additional clutter in her house! Win-win! On that basis, I bought two bunches for £6 plus a reduced bunch of roses and our sitting room has cream roses, yellow carnations and orange multi-stemmed chrysanth's - they look very cheery and for under a tenner of personal spends

Happy days with a little more daylight. Hope all is well.

Makingabobor2 · 17 January at 8:39PM

I bought daffs the other day & they have opened out & really cheering the kitchen up stood on the windowsill.

rtandon27 · 17 January at 9:06PM

I"ve got Daffs in a jug in our bedroom - makes me smile every motning, especially when the weather is grey!

Suffolk_lass · 20 January at 9:03AM

Disastrous news yesterday. The man from the reputable, recommended local Solar Company arrived to see if he could determine why our solar arrays were not registering on the inverter or charging our battery, and he thoroughly reviewed the installation. Then he condemned it as unsafe and a fire hazard, in light of our house being predominantly thatched, with one array on a gently sloping roof that underhangs the main thatched roof at one end.

Just for the record, here are some of the issues he will include in his report:

the array on the slated roof has correctly used an under-slate fastening but has not replace a slate on top, so water ingress may have happened (or at best, we have caught it in time, but it needs redoing
all the wiring between the panels in both arrays has been left sitting on the slates, not secured up in the air space under the PV panels - on a modern tiled roof, not so much of an issue, but under the run-off from a thatched roof, which has no gutter, it is sitting in a little river and his view is that something might have shorted. While the connectors are insulated, they are not waterproof or designed to sit in water
the other array is on the cartlodge roof. In his view the pre-installation survey did not properly assess whether the roof was level and the dip in the middle that we attributed purely to the deterioration of the timber pillar that had been enclosed in brick, and had to have repaired, propped and replaced last year, was caused by the weight of the solar panels, and a proper survey should have reported this
the cables on that roof are also not secured properly
the DC cable from there has been run into a little junction box and then an inappropriate AC cable has been run from there - not armoured, in trunking or buried - it is on the fence. This is a fire hazard
the materials used are not the quality specified in the survey specification, they are the equivalent of the savers or value range and not of the quality we have paid for
the battery is not designed to be outdoors, but frankly, thank goodness it is not indoors, as it could be another fire risk, given the use of sub-standard components
In his view, the panels are reusable but it looks like a DIY installation and does not meet the code of the association body that the installers are members of.

He will write an independent report we can use with the insurers - his view is that they have used sub-contractors who have been paid a fixed price and just done it as quickly as possible and the system cannot be safely switched on and proper remedial work undertaken. It is condemned.

We have to contact the insurers today. The normal course of events is that they would have a chance to do the remedial work but frankly, we have no trust in them. They have not installed what we asked for, or what we paid for. The good piece of news is that the insurance policy is still valid. His view is that we should be able to get most of our money back.

The company used to do the install is a reputable company that were selected through a County Council promoted group buy scheme with supposedly, a discount. I suspect they used sub-contractors for every part of the work as they were probably overwhelmed by the number of customers who bought in to the scheme.

As you can imagine, everything else is a bit secondary at the moment. Unlike @foxgloves, we have electricity, just not our own.

Watty1 · 20 January at 9:12AM

oh my goodness that is, well , I have no words. how devastating. I hope the insurance can help and quickly.

Makingabobor2 · 20 January at 9:30AM

Oh no, that's dreadful. Hope it can get sorted out. Stay calm. X

foxgloves · 20 January at 9:40AM

Ohhhh, that is awful. I stand with you in solidarity after the awfulness of last week. Appalling that the work doesn't meet standards. You may well be right about sub-contractors & installations being treated as little more than 'cash cow' units. I do hope it can be sorted out & that you can recover costs.
F

rtandon27 · 20 January at 11:43AM

Oh dear @Suffolk_lass - what a horrid situation to find yourselves in! Very glad to hear that there is an independent report that you can use with the insurers. If you find yourself with the energy to do it after the main issues have been corrected to your satisfaction, the same report can be used to inform the governing body of the lapse in standards of the company & their certified installers.

EssexHebridean · 20 January at 12:58PM

Oh heck SL what a nightmare - and what a lucky escape too, by the sound of it. It's alarming that contractors employed through a seemingly reputable chain have turned out to be so utterly shoddy, too - I imagine you will be reporting the issues to every part of that chain from the County Council down!