Serendipity

Worse still spirit vinegar! This week Waitrose have got soft herring roes in - I had them dusted in flour and gently fried in butter, also with some delicious bread

Great - thanks both very much.

Can't work out what I would use to connect 15mm speedfit to the 3/4 internal diameter braided hose coming from the water pump. The water pump is a flojet with the barbed outlet connector that locks into the pump body, so have to use that. Cheers

You don't need to get the bowl of the tank, just off the column it sits on which contains the ball valve and water lever. It's held in place with a giant jubilee clip, and the whole job will be twenty minutes. Kit contains a gasket and a seal, and differs depending whether your loo has an overflow or not. Be sure you put the right bit in first (the seal), then the gasket.

14 years on my car now, but it did show signs of being tired last winter - think I'll coax it through this one and try and make 15!

Does the Globe Surfer have an aerial socket, or do you have the 'pad' type strapped to it. Also, do you run it on 12v? (I've found the manual, but doesn't help with these) Cheers

How about simply using a 110-240V transformer?

Thanks for that. Any idea what the screw on the top is for? I can't take any better pictures as she's back in the water now. I didn't think the play was excessive, but I guess they are concerned what it might be after being disturbed. I think I'm just gong to get them to replace the rubber tube, and then if they find a problem whilst doing it then we'll get the whole lot changed. ETA - Same pics, but they might be clearer viewing at source:- (That's a tiny mussel on the left side of the hull flange)

Hmmm - two at that price with one controller would be fantastic. Do you know if it is mono or multi crystalline and the size to help with verification of the stats?

Can I have the sellers details please Seriuosly, if you can do better than £1/watt you are doing well. so if that really is 275 watts at £45 + £95 for controller great. What is the seller using it for - perhaps you can get advice on their controller?

Yes, stick with your existing setup, and parallel a new MPPT controller for the higher voltage panel.

Well it says it will take 60v input, so it should do. How much can you get the panel for? (for cost comparison with a 17v one)?

Well a bit more than that surely. Additionally the 'proper' ones will take much higher voltage arrays and drop them down to the system voltage, upward adjusting the amp output. ie 17v panels need only an 'ordinary' controller for 12v systems, and will lose the benefit of the spare volts over 14.4v, but if you put an MPPT controller in you get a few more amps out for the extra few volts over 14.4V. And here is the additional bit - if you need to match much higher voltage panels to 12v you need MPPT which again converts the extra volts to more amps at 12v system levels.

Good thinking - I'll forget that idea.

Valuable advice thank you. Co-incidentally a 3010 boiler came up on eBay early afternoon today (I have a search in case a spare for my old one comes up cheaply locally), and he suggested "a clever little trick is to connect the outlet of the calorifier (where the hot water comes out) to the inlet of the 8.4L tank, then the outlet of the 8.4L tank to your hot water system. This would mean that you will always be able to get 8.4L of hot water quickly whilst you're waiting for the larger calorifier to heat up." Might have some merit?