|
Post by Kimmy on Sept 4, 2009 6:59:14 GMT
From another site.
Use your ice lollie sticks as plant identification labels or you use the plastic strap that is used to tie the boxes that fridges and stuff come in, I'm not sure what it's called, but I scrounged a whole bundle off a building site that had been around a pallet of bricks. The strap is cut into pieces the length you need!
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Sept 6, 2009 21:51:01 GMT
From another site about gas fires.
If you want heat, get an old-fashioned one with white radiants (or chalks, as they used to be called). This is because they give off radiant heat, which comes straight out of the fire to warm the room at foot-level, as well as convected heat from the grill at the top. Fuel-effect fires are convector heater fires, so take much longer to warm a room, as they rely on the heat rising and then dropping again to floor-level, by which time most of the heat has been lost at ceiling-height. However, if you have a radiator in the room (or other heat source), which will be on at the same time as the fire, a fuel-effect fire is a good back-up and nice focal-point. Many fuel-effect fires are VERY expensive to run. When buying one, be sure to ask about the running costs - ask about its efficiency and you can work out for yourself how much it will cost to run. You will be amazed at how low the efficiency rating is on most fuel-effect fires in comparison to radiant fires.
How do you know when a fire is working properly? Fuel-effect fires are meant to have yellow flames often, but they shouldn’t be forming soot. There is something wrong if a fire is forming soot, you may be using it incorrectly. Lots of people don’t get the fire hot enough before turning it down, that is very common. All fuel-effect fires need to be put on FULL for at least ¼ of an hour, then you can turn them down. If you want to turn it up again later, you should turn it to full again for a couple of minutes before you turn it to the number that you want (this is to get the back of the fuel bed hot). You aren’t saving money by not doing this, you are shortening the life of your fire and they are expensive! Radiant Fires. The flame should be blue, or almost clear, as you look at it at the bottom. Then they glow orange, which tends to worry people as they believe the orange flame is dangerous. The dangerous flame is yellowy-orange and floppy that is easily blown to one side. These sort of flames start to form soot on the radiants and they go discoloured and dark. When it goes like the burner is blocked and you get fumes. Any fire should be stripped right down and the burner washed - not just blown. It is no good just running a vacuum over it. If you can get a small rubber tube inside the burner and then attach it to your vacuum that is as good as a wash and increases the lifespan of the burner because you aren’t getting it full of water. Again, nobody checks gas pressure or gas rates - because they are difficult to alter as they don’t put governors on fires anymore, it has to be altered at the meter. So a lot of people don’t bother doing that.
SERVICING Gas fires need servicing regularly. Very regularly if you have pets or if you vacuum a lot, because dog and cat hairs get into the fire and the vacuum kicks up the dust from the carpet into the fire. A lot of people think their fire has been serviced if the engineer has just looked at it, but a good service should involve a lot more than that. · To properly service a fire, it should be taken off the wall and cleaned. Very few engineers take fires away from the wall. They don’t take the burners out and wash them, as they should do. Quite often engineers don’t use heat-resistant tape to stick the closure plate back on. They will use parcel tape or sellotape and it comes off within a matter of days and lets fumes into the room. · The air relief holes in the bottom of the closure plates can be a problem. People never look to see whether they should be left open or closed (it varies with every installation - lots of engineers just leave them wide open, they are better left closed). The manufacturers’ instructions give you an indication of what to do, but you have to go by the amount of flue-pull. Some people will throw a smoke bomb in and say it is fine - they don’t go outside and look how fast it is going up, or whether there is any smoke coming out from the stack itself. That will tell you whether the stack needs pointing, because that will break the flue-pull. If it comes out of more than one chimney pot, the mid-feathers have gone on the stack. You need to make sure the engineer goes outside and has a good look to see what is going on with the smoke outside. It is no use saying it went up - it could be going up into the loft-space, it will still go up (but once it gets hot it won’t and all the fumes will come into the room). With fuel-effect fires, not many people put the logs or coals back properly. They have to go in in the right position. This causes fires to soot up and give off fumes. People clean them themselves and put them back any old way. There is nothing wrong with cleaning them yourself if you keep the instruction manual and see where each individual coal or log goes. People seem to think they can just go anywhere.
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Sept 9, 2009 8:10:37 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Oct 7, 2009 8:16:04 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Oct 7, 2009 16:22:09 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Oct 13, 2009 12:00:56 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Oct 21, 2009 8:32:34 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Oct 26, 2009 8:57:43 GMT
The Three Types of Payment What's the problem? Spotting Recurring Payments? Are they ever worth doing? Cancel a Recurring Payment? Cancel my credit card instead?
Q. Recurring Payment, Direct Debit or Standing Order?
A. There are three types of regular payments, and the levels of protection you get vary from hugely pro-consumer, to a virtual licence for companies to steal your cash (for a full breakdown see the Direct Debit Audit guide).
Standing orders. You set up via your bank
This is an instruction from you to your bank to pay a fixed amount out at regular intervals. It's usually free and you can cancel it whenever you like.
Direct Debits. You sign a Direct Debit Mandate
This is where you let companies take money for a fixed or variable amount (see the Direct Debit guide). You've a right to contact your bank to cancel at any time you like, and if there's an error you get a full refund from the bank, rather than the company itself. Recurring Payments. You give companies your card details
The key to Recurring Payments, known as Continuous Payment Authorities until a few years ago, is the company will ask for the long number on the top of your credit or debit card rather than your bank details. If this happens, you need to be aware an entirely different structure of rules come into play.
Q. What's the problem with Recurring Payments?
A. It's not just the fact you have far less protection with Recurring Payments than Direct Debits; there's one simple fact that makes them terrors...
"You CAN'T CANCEL them. Only the company you're paying can do that!"
This means you have no automatic right to ask your bank to stop the payment. You have to go to the company you're paying and ask it to contact them.
In essence when youre set one up, you’re just giving a company your debit or credit card details and saying “take a payment whenever you think I owe you.”
While the money comes out regularly, each payment is a separate transaction, so there’s no easy off-switch at your bank. The company is registering a charge on your card, and if it wants to keep charging you it can. If it won’t stop charging you, then you need to dispute its rights to charge you (see later).
While with a reputable company it's usually fine, it only takes a small glitch for this to become a nightmare. If the company's difficult to contact, going into administration or, worse still, dodgy - you can find yourself stuck paying again and again for something you don't need or want with no recourse.
At that point you need to get into a dispute procedure with the bank, and it can sometimes mean huge effort to stop it.
The worst cases come from when it's a little known company, based outside the UK, so there's less legal recourse. Let me speak plainly here, one of the greatest Recurring Payment danger areas are overseas internet adult entertainment or pornography providers.
The difficulty of cancellation, combined with the embarrassment factor many feel about taking this to their bank in these cases make rich pickings for unscrupulous operators. You could be paying unnecessarily for years.
Recurring Payment stories from the MSE Forum...
MoneySaver 'SandC' - "The bank tells me there's nothing I can do."
We are having problems with this ourselves. An ex employee of mine must have set up a Recurring Payment to pay his mobile phone bills for work purposes. When he left the company I cancelled his company credit card, yet even so the mobile provider kept taking the monthly money out. It was his personal phone, paid for by us. The bank tell me there is nothing they can do and it has to be done by this ex employee.
JoeTeeee – "I'm being charged by a card I cancelled four years ago!"
I've found out the hard way about the perils of a Recurring Payment. Yesterday I received a credit card bill, with a payment taken from it, for a credit card that I had cancelled FOUR years ago!
The address used was one that I moved out of a similar number of years ago, and it's only by luck there are still people there who knew how to contact me. By the time I got the bill, the minimum payment date had already passed, so I am now expected to pay interest on a payment for a credit card that I cancelled ages ago.
The problem is I had my AA membership put into hibernation when I received 3 years free RAC cover with a new car, and this month the remaining period of cover elapsed. So this is the first time the AA had taken out payment in over four years.
How can a credit card company can take payment, and send out a bill, for someone for whom the last details they had are over four years old, on a cancelled card? To add insult to annoyance I phoned the AA to get them to refund the payment to the old card and take payment from my current card, and they said they can't refund onto the old card as it has been cancelled!
I can't imagine I am the only person that this sort of thing has happened to, and how many people currently have old credit cards running up interest and bad credit scores without their knowledge? Scary. It's Direct Debit for me from now on.
Important! Don't miss any regular payments updates Get MoneySavingExpert's free, spam-free weekly email full of guides & loopholes FAQS View Past Emails Privacy Policy
Q. How do I know if I've a recurring payment?
A. The obvious check is this...
If you gave your credit or debit card number, rather than bank account and sort code, it's a Recurring Payment.
Of course, this isn't always easy to remember. So for older transactions check your statements to see what's coming out regularly.
Credit Cards. If a regular payment is coming off your credit card, then by definition it's a Recurring Payment as it can't be anything else.
Debit Cards. For payments coming out of your bank account, you need to work it out by deduction. Most online accounts list Standing Orders and Direct Debits, and if you bank in a branch a member of staff should be able to tell you which payments are these. So, any regular payments left unaccounted for are Recurring Payments.
Q. Are recurring payments ever worth doing?
A. Occasionally it's impossible to pay for something without doing it this way, eg. a subscription to an overseas newspaper. In which case, if the company you're paying is a legitimate one, the risk is lessened. If not, avoid like the plague.
Yet even big companies can have problems. TV station Setanta Sports had many customers on Recurring Payments and when it fell into trouble, many were left worrying they wouldn't be able to cancel (see the Cancelling Setanta news story).
So if you are making Recurring Payments for a service you want to continue, check whether it's possible to switch it to a Direct Debit. Over the last few years many smaller companies have joined the Direct Debit scheme, so while you may've initially had no choice, things could've changed.
Prepaid Cards: An alternative for recurring payments?
If you need to make a recurring payment, one possible solution is to use Prepaid cards - a relatively new type of card that you top-up with cash before spending. Crucially, you can't spend more than is on the card.
This means that if you only keep the card topped up with the cash that needs to be on there, run into difficulty cancelling a recurring payment and you won't be left out of pocket
This has little feedback so far, so whether prepaid cards are accepted for recurring payments is down to the individual retailer and possibly the card provider too. However no credit check is carried out when you get one and the best cost nothing, so it's a no-risk trick that may work. See the Prepaid Cards guide for the best buys.
Q. How do I cancel a Recurring Payment?
A. It won't always be a disaster story, so don't panic straight away.
Step 1. Contact the company
The first step is the easy one; simply contact the company and request it no longer takes the payment. Most legitimate companies will accept this.
Though if you are within your contract and have agreed to pay (e.g. a year's digital TV subscription) then it may refuse. In which case think carefully about taking further action, as it may leave you in breach of contract, and owing the company money. Otherwise, follow the steps below.
Step 2. Inform the company you dispute the payments
Officially let it know you dispute the transaction, preferably in a written form as well as on the phone. In the best case scenario it may simply give up and cancel the account. If not, then you will need to escalate this further.
Step 3. Dispute the transaction with the credit/debit card company
Inform your bank or card company you want to dispute these "unauthorised transactions". Some banks will instantly act, others not. Yet under the Banking Code it's then their responsibility to sort it out.
However it can be drawn out and may mean Visa, Mastercard or American Express, the companies behind the electronic payments process, get called in and their disputes systems get in gear. Do record when you asked for the payments to be stopped as you want a full refund from that date. Step 4. Complain to the Financial Ombudsman
The last resort is to make a complaint to the completely free Financial Ombudsman Service, the independent arbiter of financial disputes. Find out how in the Financial Fight Back guide.
Hopefully, just the threat of this to your credit card provider should be enough in the first place. If not, make a complaint; there's no cost, and it's very easy to do. You could also be awarded compensation for your time and hassle - so always inform it if you've spent serious hours.
There are plans to make it easier to stop such transactions, and to force credit card companies to take instant action, but negotiations between Visa and Maestro have become bogged down, and sadly no changes are planned anytime soon.
Q. Can't I just cancel my credit card to stop it?
A. While this may work, it's drastic action and it doesn't always work. When you cancel a credit card, the account remains open for a few months to ensure that there haven't been payments made on the card which haven't yet processed.
If the Recurring Payment is still being requested by the company, this will count as a new payment coming in and the card company could keep the account open and ask you to settle it.
It's far better to dispute the transaction with the card company, then you know that the issue is fully and finally dealt with.
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Oct 27, 2009 12:56:04 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Nov 4, 2009 9:38:18 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Nov 10, 2009 12:46:25 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Nov 11, 2009 13:00:25 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Nov 17, 2009 13:00:34 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Nov 24, 2009 12:10:44 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Dec 1, 2009 19:54:07 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Dec 2, 2009 8:35:19 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Dec 3, 2009 18:36:31 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Dec 9, 2009 20:02:35 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Dec 11, 2009 11:33:44 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Dec 15, 2009 18:55:16 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Dec 21, 2009 12:53:17 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Dec 24, 2009 18:34:27 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Dec 29, 2009 14:31:35 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Jan 5, 2010 19:25:16 GMT
|
|
|
Post by dennisg on Jan 9, 2010 21:51:07 GMT
i have a 2007 mitsubishi colt diesel car which is very good on fuel 70mpg + on a run. but being a tightwad i bought a peugeot 405 diesel from e-bay on a whim, (£250), which i now run on veggie oil bought from one of our colonial friends for £15 for 20 litres, if buying 20 litres of diesel it would cost me about £22-23 or thereabouts saving £7.00 on every 20 litres. only certain types of engine/injector pumps are suited for veggie oil. common rail injection should not be run on veggie oil, but you can make biodiesel out of new or waste oil and that can be run in any diesel engine. need to be a bit of a chemist to do it but a lot of people are doing it nowadays, and custom and excise allow you to make/use 2500 litres per year
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Jan 10, 2010 13:58:15 GMT
Years ago when there was 2 3 4 5 * petrol I bought a new VW 1303S Beetle. The garage told me it would only run on 5* so when I drove it out of the showroom I called at their pumps and told them to fill it with 2*. They advised me against this but I took a chance and ran it on 2* until I sold it with 120,000 miles on the clock.
|
|
|
Post by dennisg on Jan 11, 2010 21:58:44 GMT
ah yes, 2* 3* 4* when did they stop using different grades, was it about 15years ago? obviously a moneymaking racket.
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Jan 12, 2010 8:13:41 GMT
I think it was way over 15 years ago. Probably more about 30.
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Jan 12, 2010 12:52:02 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kimmy on Jan 12, 2010 12:57:22 GMT
A few posts higher up we spoke about 1 2 3 4 5* petrol.
------------------------------------------------------
Grades of Petrol marketed and Octane Ratings in January 1964 (according to Which) Grade Octane Rating Best or Super 99-101 Premium 96-98 Mixture* 95-95 Standard or Regular 89-91
*Mixture in this case being a mix of standard and premium, not common by the 1960s.
Obviously a lot depended on what the supplier considered appropriate and there was a bit of a fuss when Cleveland petrol offered a mixture they branded something like Super Economy. The government decided to act and in the later 1960s a 'star rating' was introduced for petrol, based on a British Standard set of octane ratings.
Under this system one star was the lowest grade (and I do not remember ever seeing that available), 2 star was 92 octane, 3 star 95 octane 4 star 98 octane and 5 star 101 octane. The lower end was for the low tuned/low compression older design of engine (and skin flints ) the middle range for more modern higher compression engines and the skin flints who got sick of that awful pinking noise and five star was for big, fast and powerful engines.
Most cars would run happily on three star petrol (assuming the timing was set correctly) but most motorists seemed to believe that four star was 'better'. Most stations would offer two, three, four and five star grades, and as these had to be accommodated at older stations often with only two or three pump stands on the forecourt pumps were built on which the customer could select which grade they wanted. These pumps, technically called Multi Product Dispenser (MPD), were common in the later 1960s but as filling stations were modified or re-built with additional pumps to cater to the growing demand single grade pumps became the norm by the later 1970s.
Concerns over the pollution caused by the rapidly growing numbers of motor cars lead to a series of legislative changes from the mid 1970s on and by the later 1990s emissions from petrol additives (mainly lead) had been reduced by over 90%. First to go was five star petrol, usually the fourth pump was converted to four star, which remained the most commonly requested fuel for many years, with two and three star also on offer. They left some lead in the petrol to act as a lubricant for the valves, briefly with engines of the rime there was a risk of the valve sticking to its seat, which could wreck and engine.
In the 1980s catalytic converters were introduced, fitted to the exhaust these reduce the emission of unburned hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides. The cars so fitted had to have no lead at all in the petrol, but by this time the engineers had solved the valve seating problem so by the mid 1980s 'unleaded petrol' was regularly seen on the forecourt.
By the later 1990s the star rated petrol's were increasingly rare, the motor manufacturers had been preparing for this change, cars built after about 1975 would run perfectly well on unleaded petrol with a small adjustment to the timing. The elimination of leaded petrol has caused problems for vintage motor enthusiasts running cars built between about 1940 and 1975 as unleaded petrol causes severe wear on the engine valves on these engines. There were complaints that the main source of lead was still the lead water pipes in houses, but this was also being addressed by legislation with plastic pipes becoming a legal requirement. In practice adjusting the timing and fitting hardened valve seats should eliminate these problems.
I believe the last pumps offering leaded petrol were phased out in about 2000. These days all pumps offer the same basic 'unleaded' petrol but the oil companies are experimenting with alternative additives to produce 'premium grades' they can sell at a higher price.
|
|