UK Energy Production

[Sachakins]

In UK, standing orders and direct debits are not the same thing.
Direct debit is an agreement with a provider you sign up to. A standing order is an agreement between you and the bank that only you can set up. A provider has no control over a standing order.

 

[mwinfrance]

Ah, long time since I was in the UK, Our "push" thing may be similar to what you call a standing order. I do know that far more French still use cheques than is the case in the UK, you would think that because of that the suppliers would have better method to deal with them. Then again, as their aim is to get as many as possible to let them take the money straight out of the bank account, they would hardly make other methods easy. Bouncing a cheque ( known as a "cheque en bois" wooden cheque ) is not an offence here, but it can get the writer banned from banking.

Post dated cheques are a huge thing here, the french health service is a "re-imbousement" type.You visit a doctor, or hospital , pharmacy etc, you pay them and then you get a percentage of that money paid back into your bank account by the health service within a few days to a few weeks ( private insurance, if you have it "tops up" any difference ). Because of this delay, many people will "post date" cheques for medical or dental work, or expensive medicines. The doctor, dentist etc agree to present the cheque to their bank, only after the patient tells them that they have received the money from the health service.it would be far simpler , cheaper, and less paper shuffling and IT admin, if the system was free at the point of use, and the system then paid the doctors etc.

The doctors , medical practitioners , dentists, pharmacies, hospitals etc do not want that.

 

[Hypnotic Chimera]

BS. You're sloppy use of English again. Your 'typically' refers to the first clause. Admit it, you love lecturing to us and love the sound of your own voice.

Whether I love the sound of my own voice, or whether I actually enjoy the (facepalm) I derive from sometimes stating the bleedin' obvious that grown educated men ought to have a better handle on is utterly irrelevant to the information I sometimes feel brings value to a discussion. It's often badly needed to correct some seriously flawed understandings or viewpoints with either no factual justification or simply blinkered views or poor analysis.

What would it matter who delivers the truth and facts, or whether they enjoy it or not?
Isn't the information the central issue, instead of the person who brings it?
There is a named and titled fallacious argument centred upon an argument which attacks the character of one party in a discussion for a reason.

 

[Superduner]

We're in Aveyron, so a bit further south and have 4x400w panels of the plug and type on the roof. Made and supplied by a French company called Sunethic (who were great to deal with).
We had to get a "work permit" through our mayor who had to then ask the local Grand Figeac authority for their go ahead. They didn't reply to the mayor's application so after a month it was deemed accepted and we went ahead with it.
When we were looking at options we were told that if the panels were at a height of less than 1.8 metres (so on the ground), no permission of any kind was needed to install. In fact Sunethic's default fixing kit is for ground mounting and we had to ask them to supply the roof mounting which was slightly cheaper. I thought that was the case over the whole of France-it's certainly what I understood from what I read online.
In general our local mayor is great to deal with and very accessible.
The installation which faces south has reduced our monthly payments by about 20% and I expect to get back the investment in about 5-6 years. A bit longer now as the price of power has dropped by 18% this month.
The EDF website gives me the option to vary our monthly payments on the fly and in fact we sometimes get an email asking us if we want to reduce it. This month we got a credit of 192€ from last year's over payment.

 

[DerekJohn]

'Eats shoots and leaves' my English usage bible

 

[DerekJohn]

"You're/You Are sloppy use of English??????? lol

'Eats shoots and leaves' my English usage bible

 

[Hypnotic Chimera]

'Eats shoots and leaves' my English usage bible

An important contribution and one which thoroughly deserves a double post

 

[John Brown]

An important contribution and one which thoroughly deserves a double post

I believe the original version of the eponymous joke was "eats roots and leaves".

 

[Hypnotic Chimera]

I believe the original version of the eponymous joke was "eats roots and leaves".

Didn't know that, mate.
(But I do know the grammar bible of the "shoots" name.)

 

[Terry - Somerset]

'Eats shoots and leaves' my English usage bible

The purpose of language is to communicate, ideally with precision.

Sentences can be constructed which are capable of clarity without resorting to the apostrophe.

As many (possibly a majority) do not understand the grammatically correct use of the apostrophe, its use simply creates ambiguity.

I can only assume the attachment to its unnecessary use is driven by an elitist sense of superiority.

The title, in using words with multiple meanings and out of context, provides clear evidence of how NOT to communicate!!!

 

[John Brown]

The purpose of language is to communicate, ideally with precision.

Sentences can be constructed which are capable of clarity without resorting to the apostrophe.

As many (possibly a majority) do not understand the grammatically correct use of the apostrophe, its use simply creates ambiguity.

I can only assume the attachment to its unnecessary use is driven by an elitist sense of superiority.

The title, in using words with multiple meanings and out of context, provides clear evidence of how NOT to communicate!!!

Im not clear what youre talking about, when you say "unnecessary use".

Joking aside, I find that to be a strange assumption. Of course sentences can be constructed without resorting to apostrophes, but they'll often sound clumsy or stilted, and it would be hard to portray natural dialogue without using apostrophes.
I agree that language is a tool for communication, but don't you endeavour to use your tools in the most effective and efficient ways? Maybe we should allow the same latitude to musicians, don't bother with all those rests. Sharps and flats? They're just for pedants!

 

[mwinfrance]

@Superduner
Oh if only that were the case..The reality is that any mayor in any one of the over 30 something thousand "communes" ( towns villages and cities here ) can make up all sorts of local law ( décrét municipal, arrété municipal ) , specific to their commune. Ours for instance requires permission from the mayor ( actually it is the planning councilor../ retired music therapist in our case, who decides, the mayor just "signs off" ) for any solar panels on any roof at any height, and for any panels on the ground ( they forgot to mention "on walls" when they drew up that local reg* ), If permission is granted, they also require a "tax" of €25.00 per sq metre per year, which is added to the tax foncière. Two km away from here, in an other commune there is no charge for any panels, and no permission required for solar panels on the ground.

I used to get on well with our current mayor, ( pre-covid ) my best computer chair was one of his medical chairs, that he was replacing when he still had his lab. I voted for him. But, as happens with many mayors, as soon as they become mayor, they start spending on new buildings, hiring friends or relatives, and making petty laws. He has been a major disappointment to many, he knows this is the general feeling, so he has said recently that he will not be running again, This will mean that we will get an entire new "team" or "list". In each French commune, each mayoral candidate heads a "list", if they win, that "list" become councilors. Some also become "adjoints" , which is a sort of senior councilor with special responsibilities, such as planning rules.

I'm one of many hoping for a new mayor with a new team, and some sensible rules.

*I could put solar panels up on one of our house walls now, but the only one with enough space to put two 450W panels has lousy exposure and is shaded for all but 4 hours per day even in summer on a sunny day , not really worth it on that wall. The current "rules" mean I do not need permission, but I'm certain that if I did, they'd be difficult about, or refuse permission for my extension of the atelier, they would not have to give a truly coherent reason, no mairie does, hence the use of "not in keeping".

Many people across France use EDF to do their installations of solar or heat pumps etc, in which case all the "paperwork" is done by EDF. Others ( such as one of my two neighbours, use private companies, he was unlucky and got a cowboy outfit that fitted his heat pump incorrectly and then went bust and vanished, cost him 16K, he's only used it for 3 days since it was fitted 15 years ago ). You apparently had a better experience.

One of the companies that I have a "trade account" with is l' Asturienne ( the trade roofing side of Point P ) ..I asked them for a quote for slate a year ago.they now spam me daily with various totaly non related offers.The most common of which is that I should attend a three day course with them at Rennes, on completion of which ( and in exchange for a sum that they have not mentioned ) I would be a fully qualified Solar Installer.. "agrée " . Three days and I'd be considered as totally qualified ..you could n't make it up..c'est la France.

 

[Superduner]

@Superduner
Oh if only that were the case..The reality is that any mayor in any one of the over 30 something thousand "communes" ( towns villages and cities here ) can make up all sorts of local law ( décrét municipal, arrété municipal ) , specific to their commune. Ours for instance requires permission from the mayor ( actually it is the planning councilor../ retired music therapist in our case, who decides, the mayor just "signs off" ) for any solar panels on any roof at any height, and for any panels on the ground ( they forgot to mention "on walls" when they drew up that local reg* ), If permission is granted, they also require a "tax" of €25.00 per sq metre per year, which is added to the tax foncière. Two km away from here, in an other commune there is no charge for any panels, and no permission required for solar panels on the ground.

I used to get on well with our current mayor, ( pre-covid ) my best computer chair was one of his medical chairs, that he was replacing when he still had his lab. I voted for him. But, as happens with many mayors, as soon as they become mayor, they start spending on buildings, hiring friends or relatives, and making petty laws. He has been a major disappointment to many, he knows this is the general feeling, so he has said recently that he will not be running again, This will mean that we will get an entire new "team" or "list". In each French commune, each mayoral candidate heads a "list", if they win, that "list" become councilors. Some also become "adjoints" , which is a sort of senior councilor with special responsibilities, such as planning rules.

I'm one of many hoping for a new mayor with a new team, and some sensible rules.

*I could put solar panels up on one of our house walls now, but the only one with enough space to put two 45W panels has lousy exposure and is shaded for all but 4 hours per day even in summer on a sunny day , not really worth it on that wall. The current "rules" mean I do not need permission, but I'm certain that if I did, they'd be difficult about, or refuse permission for my extension of the atelier, they would not have to give a truly coherent reason, no mairie does, hence the use of "not in keeping".

Many people across France use EDF to do their installations of solar or heat pumps etc, in which case all the "paperwork" is done by EDF. Others ( such as one of my two neighbours, use private companies, he was unlucky and got a cowboy outfit that fitted his heat pump incorrectly and then went bust and vanished, cost him 16K, he's only used it for 3 days since it was fitted 15 years ago ). You apparently had a better experience.

One of the companies that I have "trade account" with is Asturienne ( the trade roofing side of Point P ) ..I asked them for a quote for slate a year ago.they now spam me daily with various totaly non related offers.The most common of which is that I should attend a three day course with them at Rennes, on completion of which ( and in exchange for a sum that they have not mentioned ) I would be a fully qualified Solar Installer.. "agrée " . Three days and I'd be considered as totally qualified ..you could n't make it up..c'est la France.

We had to tell Enerdis that we were installing panels by filling in a form on their website. No permission needed - just notification.
The installation was done by me and someone a bit more capable of climbing around on roofs and moving tiles around. He fitted the brackets, we fitted the panels to them and I ran the wire to the nearest standard socket. Then it was just a case of setting up the wireless monitoring box to connect to the Wi-Fi and setting up a free account on the website of the 2 micro inverters.. It was all done in a day.
So far we have generated 1400Kwh since the 18th December 2023 - about 350€. Obviously we're only "saving" if we are using the power as it is generated so we try to use the dishwasher and washing machine during the cheap period between 1238 and 1438 every day, which is when we get maximum solar power. We also have a roof mounted solar water heater so most of the year we don't pay much for that.
I'm of an age where I'd never see the payback of storage batteries.
Maybe set up your panels in the next commune (no permission needed) and run a very long wire back to the house

 

[mwinfrance]

Tu as de la chance, je suis jaloux .

 

[mwinfrance]

Maybe we should allow the same latitude to musicians, don't bother with all those rests. Sharps and flats?

I think they did that already back in the 70s....called it punk IIRC.