Heated water

[P4dstar]

Same here just said on the tv news it will be 15-17 degrees again from Tuesday on !!!!

I retract my earlier statement I looked on the met office long term forecast a week ago. They were suggesting cold weather through December. They’re now saying an area of high pressure. My original point remains, if the cold weather sticks around that is.

 

[mills cleaning]

Hot water

Hands warm

∆ Just got back managed to finish my work this week, only due to having hot water. 2kw immersion heater, I use it all year round, wouldn't be without it

 

[Pjj]

I retract my earlier statement I looked on the met office long term forecast a week ago. They were suggesting cold weather through December. They’re now saying an area of high pressure. My original point remains, if the cold weather sticks around that is.

It can be zero degrees today and 15 tomorrow there is no consistency theses days ,

 

[THL4KEL]

 

[Yogi1872]

Looks legit

 

[tench0771]

i work in any temp never had anyone complain or say im desperate im a sole trader last year i was melting the ice off the conservatory's every one was over the moon with my work i offer a service thats reliable and just gets the job done one thing i wont be doing is fannying around with weather

 

[Iron Giant]

I see your point but I've been in the situation of going out working in **** weather and had my van smashed into which effected work way longer than a day off for 5 years my premiums went up even though it wasn't my fault. So if your happy to take the risk crack on i will just go put a log on the fire whilst a wait for more replies

Just to clarify when I put a laughing emoji against your reply the other day it was meant solely for this sentence, not the fact that you had crashed your van

 

[dave1]

Just to clarify when I put a laughing emoji against your reply the other day it was meant solely for this sentence, not the fact that you had crashed your van

All good mate, tbh i had the immersion on and totally went against what I said yesterday but purely down to boredom of a 3rd day indoors.

But like I said customers around here whinge so I stayed strong and said it's.now or January shut them all up. The jobs in guestion the roads where untouched and hardly any footsteps around the paths on there houses. You'd have though they'd have enjoyed the company more

 

[Iron Giant]

All good mate, tbh i had the immersion on and totally went against what I said yesterday but purely down to boredom of a 3rd day indoors.

But like I said customers around here whinge so I stayed strong and said it's.now or January shut them all up. The jobs in guestion the roads where untouched and hardly any footsteps around the paths on there houses. You'd have though they'd have enjoyed the company more

Good to hear you just have to crack on!!


I grew up in a small village and my wife and I lived there in our first house, the gritter and snowplough wouldn't turn up till around lunchtime, my wife and plenty of other people had to be at work for 7am so you learned to drive in what a lot of people wouldn't drive in with 2wd drive cars these days or try to drive in and fail miserably

I find untouched roads are the best because of no compacted snow proving the snow isn't too deep, it's tough one to call at times, if the snow fall is decent and the roads aren't that good I sit at home, the only reason being our town is on a hill and the only way out is down two very big hills until those are clear I won't bother, yet my wife used to manage 7am starts in the past just fine I always made sure she got off to work

 

[dave1]

Good to hear you just have to crack on!!


I grew up in a small village and my wife and I lived there in our first house, the gritter and snowplough wouldn't turn up till around lunchtime, my wife and plenty of other people had to be at work for 7am so you learned to drive in what a lot of people wouldn't drive in with 2wd drive cars these days or try to drive in and fail miserably

I find untouched roads are the best because of no compacted snow proving the snow isn't too deep, it's tough one to call at times, if the snow fall is decent and the roads aren't that good I sit at home, the only reason being our town is on a hill and the only way out is down two very big hills until those are clear I won't bother, yet my wife used to manage 7am starts in the past just fine I always made sure she got off to work

Fingers crossed it's that last of the snow until the end of the year anyway

 

[RyeCleanLiam]

More snow here in York today. But it's a Saturday so no work anyway, snow day with the kids
Worked all week this week, no complaints, no unhappy customers.

 

[Chris34]

i work in any temp never had anyone complain or say im desperate im a sole trader last year i was melting the ice off the conservatory's every one was over the moon with my work i offer a service thats reliable and just gets the job done one thing i wont be doing is fannying around with weather

I actually find they're even more appreciative when the weathers bad, like they can see how hard you're trying and are thankful to even have a service at this time of year...

Previous winters I would have suffered really badly on a week like this one due to my fingers always playing up but I seem to have cracked it now with the gloves, it wasn't too bad in the sunshine and actually was quite pleasant at times. Horrible yesterday though, freezing heavy rain for about 2 hours on top of icy snow on the ground, I was soaked through to my underpants, managed to get through it though.

I find that the colder the water the better it seems to clean. I've had mega problems this October with the spiders, I've seen so many of them and they've just been making a mess of all my work, even the monthly's haven't looked like they had been cleaned for months... But one good thing about the cold snap, they've all disappeared and suddenly the cleaning has gone back to being easy, the marks come off easy with the cold conditions.

Only issue I've had is stone flags, the ones that hold water that are not porous at all, water freezing on them and becoming an ice rink... a real liability, so moving forward into winter I'm going to note which houses have them and try and avoid them in the freezing conditions.

 

[tweedwindowcleaning]

Problem I have up in Scotland when it's -4 or below is that the water freezes on the windows! As for Velux, forget about it! I have a van set up with the 600l tank longways down the centre with the pumps and feeds at the back door end of the tank. The longest pipework is 3 feet from pump to reel. Inside roof and partial sides of the van are insulated. I plug in an oil-filled radiator set to low, just enough to keep the inside of the van above freezing. I am lucky in that I can park my van in my drive. Roll on spring.

 

[Breathe Easy]

Yes mate 2kw heater I don’t have it set high, as it’s only for stopping the water freezing and help keep the hose warm and supple honestly does help last job of the day was an unheated barn conversion x2 skylights both were still frozen and the water melted the ice of them immediately.

kept me going as normal the last two days where as my son as gone out later for it to warm up.

May I ask what heater you use to warm your water? I take it it’s an electric immersion heater, but I’ve read they are a fire hazard with plastic tanks? Any guidance?

 

[dave1]

May I ask what heater you use to warm your water? I take it it’s an electric immersion heater, but I’ve read they are a fire hazard with plastic tanks? Any guidance?

2 years in and no fires yet so I'd say if done properly the risk is low
W

 

[spruce]

May I ask what heater you use to warm your water? I take it it’s an electric immersion heater, but I’ve read they are a fire hazard with plastic tanks? Any guidance?

The element that @Den is referring to is a 2kw one. The element has to be fitted correctly away from plastic components (baffles) and the water level in the tank must be well above the element when switched on. Provided the extension cable is of the correct size, fully unwound off the drum and plugged into a correctly wired outside socket with RCD protection, there should be very little risk.

The main concern is when someone decides to fit a 3kw element. 3kw is a current draw of 13.05 amps. So a standard extension cable with a 13amp plug isn't safe. This is when you need a proper 16amp socket fitted by a qualified electrician together with heavy-duty cable, totally uncoiled.

I have seen instances where a cable drum has caught fire when it hasn't been unwound. Cable under a heavy load heats up. When the cable is fully unwound, that heat can easily dissipate. If the cable is still wound up on a cable drum, that heat has nowhere to go. When cable heats up, the resistance also increases, causing more heat.

Unfortunately, we all get a little lax when it comes to using a cable drum, me included. There won't be an issue using a small electric drilling machine with a fully wound cable drum. But once you start using appliances over 1000 watt or 5 amps for an extended period of time, then the cable drum needs to be fully unwound for safety. How often have we seen someone with a hot-tub plugged in with a fully wound up extension cable.

Perhaps we tend to get away with things a little more in the UK due to the cooler weather. I can tell you that an overheating cable drum is much more common in the tropics where the weather is hot.

 

[Den]

The element that @Den is referring to is a 2kw one. The element has to be fitted correctly away from plastic components (baffles) and the water level in the tank must be well above the element when switched on. Provided the extension cable is of the correct size, fully unwound off the drum and plugged into a correctly wired outside socket with RCD protection, there should be very little risk.

The main concern is when someone decides to fit a 3kw element. 3kw is a current draw of 13.05 amps. So a standard extension cable with a 13amp plug isn't safe. This is when you need a proper 16amp socket fitted by a qualified electrician together with heavy-duty cable, totally uncoiled.

I have seen instances where a cable drum has caught fire when it hasn't been unwound. Cable under a heavy load heats up. When the cable is fully unwound, that heat can easily dissipate. If the cable is still wound up on a cable drum, that heat has nowhere to go. When cable heats up, the resistance also increases, causing more heat.

Unfortunately, we all get a little lax when it comes to using a cable drum, me included. There won't be an issue using a small electric drilling machine with a fully wound cable drum. But once you start using appliances over 1000 watt or 5 amps for an extended period of time, then the cable drum needs to be fully unwound for safety. How often have we seen someone with a hot-tub plugged in with a fully wound up extension cable.

Perhaps we tend to get away with things a little more in the UK due to the cooler weather. I can tell you that an overheating cable drum is much more common in the tropics where the weather is hot.

This is correct plus my thermostat isn’t anywhere near set to highest setting

 

[Yogi1872]

Problem I have up in Scotland when it's -4 or below is that the water freezes on the windows! As for Velux, forget about it! I have a van set up with the 600l tank longways down the centre with the pumps and feeds at the back door end of the tank. The longest pipework is 3 feet from pump to reel. Inside roof and partial sides of the van are insulated. I plug in an oil-filled radiator set to low, just enough to keep the inside of the van above freezing. I am lucky in that I can park my van in my drive. Roll on spring.

If it's forecast for a cold one the next day then empty the tank and hose when you finish, the next day just run a hose from your hot water tap in the house, if you haven't got the di vessel set up in the van then set it up in there to go through when it comes out the tank.

If the tanks insulated youl have hot water all day without the 5k cost of installing a hot water system, youl not have the ongoing costs of around £170 a month in diesil for heating the water either.

It's a no brainer.

 

[dave1]

If it's forecast for a cold one the next day then empty the tank and hose when you finish, the next day just run a hose from your hot water tap in the house, if you haven't got the di vessel set up in the van then set it up in there to go through when it comes out the tank.

If the tanks insulated youl have hot water all day without the 5k cost of installing a hot water system, youl not have the ongoing costs of around £170 a month in diesil for heating the water either.

It's a no brainer.

Think I'd rather pay the costs than doing that everyday

 

[Yogi1872]

Think I'd rather pay the costs than doing that everyday

Your not going to to it everyday though. Literally probably count on 1 hand the number of weeks youl actually have to do it.

 

[P4dstar]

If it's forecast for a cold one the next day then empty the tank and hose when you finish, the next day just run a hose from your hot water tap in the house, if you haven't got the di vessel set up in the van then set it up in there to go through when it comes out the tank.

If the tanks insulated youl have hot water all day without the 5k cost of installing a hot water system, youl not have the ongoing costs of around £170 a month in diesil for heating the water either.

It's a no brainer.

I read this and see the value in the £750 diesel air heater ionics sell. Uses approx 1litre of diesel over a 12 hour period.