We got a cricut

 

OK I will be honest I have mixed feelings about this idea as after seeing what cutting machines do and how wasteful they can be I'm concerned it will be as bad as it is good 

we purchased a maker 3, there are currently 4 machines the company sells and this is one of the newest ones available, and it can do a little more than most of the others available, I was going to purchase a joy as it is small and less versatile than the bigger machine.

There is a lot to learn, and it feels intimidating, but we will get it home and see what we can do and what we how we can reduce the waste from making with it 

Why did I buy a cricut?
I purchased a cricut for quite a few reasons, I found there is a bigger supporting groups on facebook and YouTube tutorials, there is one supplier of them that you can get support, training, and back up in store and online so to me, I think that's a good start and the best place to learn about cutting machines.

I purchased this in the shop because of the advice and no pressure to buy one more than another, on the website the company do sell another product from a company called silhouette but they don't carry these machines in the shop, nor could I find a shop that does sell them locally to see if one would be a better purchase than the other.

Looking at things on the internet moth media and company info, I felt the cricut was a more beginner orientated machine to use 

sites to start looking for help on both machines:

google 
Cricut
silhouetteamerica.com
HOBBYCRAFT

cooking with the log burner!

HELLFIRE PIZZA COOKER AND GRILL SET

As winter draws nearer and the energy bills will be going up by over 80% in October like everyone in the uk we are all looking to save money any way we can and as we have a log burner we are looking to use it to cook more food on.

The wife found a grill plate to place in the log burner to aid in cooking on the stove, they do two sizes, and I'm debating whether to purchase one for cooking on the cold wet weekends when we have the burner on all day warming the house.

It comes as a kit to cook all manner of things, not just pizza, I would not think of using anything other than good kiln dried wood as I would think the smoke will flavour the food to a degree, especially when grilling over the glowing embers.

We have measured the dimensions, and it looks like we could fit a nine-inch grill in our fire I'm just waiting on feedback from the shop to confirm this, as it's a bank holiday weekend I doubt ill get anything back until mid-week next week.

This company also do a planning maker, and they did do a jacket potato maker as well (we have these items already but are unable to use hem to the best of their ability as they need to be used inside the stove) and I fear they will fail or damage the burner if not placed flat 

check out the company's website and see what they do at naturalheating.co.uk

check out their YouTube channel, they have cooked some awesome stuff natural heating YouTube

Burn baby burn

The log burner, 3 years on:

OK after three years of log burner use what have I learnt? 

Economy: a log burner is between 70 to 80% efficient, so to me it made sense to have one instead of a gas fire or open fire, it also stops cold air coming down the chimney when not in use.

If  I wanted to save some money I could have carried out a lot of the work my self, all that needed doing to make the fire safe was the installation of a carbon monoxide alarm and a registered installer to carry out the final fitting of the burner. If you do some running round and getting quotes some will come round and assess also advise you on what you can do your self.

Chimney sweep's prices vary and as long as you use a registered sweep it's all that matters, so spend a little time contacting your local sweeps for a quote. To find a registered sweep click HERE

Should I have got a multi fuel burner? No not for us, I don't think coal would have been appropriate as you need to store it and then there is the added mess of coal bits over the place, As well as having to install a more expensive liner for the chimney.

Fire wood we have an external log store for the logs and kindling, so for us kiln dried logs are pointless for me so we use seasoned wood, I order by builder's bag at a time to save money, from empty it takes two bags to fill my log store 

Is a burner messy? yes the burner can be a little messy, ash can come out when you open the door quickly if it is windy outside or the fire is burning wood, you will also get some ash over the place when you empty the ash it's not half  as bad once you learn to take your time.

Cleaning:  emptying out the ash, we find leaving a layer of compacted ash in the bottom of the burner works better for the efficiency of the burning logs as opposed to the bare firebrick of the wood burner, if you don't plan to use the burner for a while then remove as much ash as you can so not to absorb any damp.
If you get a dirty window when the burner is cool, get a damp cloth and use a bit of ash dust and wipe the window until the dark marks are gone. Then wipe with a clean damp cloth and then wipe dry.
To clean the outside of the burner, wipe over with a  duster or damp cloth when cool.

Making the log burner operate more efficiently:
I would recommend a stove fan to place on the top of your burner in the back corner, it will blow warm air out and around your room, a chimney thermometer as it will show you the best temperature to have your log burner at to reduce soot deposits up your chimney. Quality tools, a good set of tongs and a spade will help no end a metal bucket for the ash that could contain hot embers and a pair of gloves to protect your hands, a damp meter if you are storing wood outside 

Cost to run per year

Chimney sweep: £40 yearly
Seasoned wood: £60 per bulk load delivered to our door,  we use approximately 3 bags a year 
Kindling: free if you are willing to collect old pallet wood and cut it up your self
firelighters: cost about ten pence to melt the old wax candles down, the rest is recycled material 

Questions:

Do you use your gas central heating?
The only time our central heating comes on is when we have heavy frost outside in the early mornings and in the evenings if the fire is not on. Without scientifically testing this, and that's not easily done, I would say I don't use my boiler by up to two thirds as  much as I did the 1st year.

Could I use pallets instead of fire wood?
You could, but pallet wood burns extremely fast and creates a lot of soot.

Can I chop my own trees down and use?
it takes about 12 months or more to season the wood so it will need to be dry stored, If the wood moisture is 15% or less yes you could, I would, if your wood is from an evergreen tree it will spit a lot and sap will be hard to get off the glass

Why not throw freshly chopped wood in the log burner?
Green wood has a lot of moisture in it. The  wood will spit heavily from all the moisture and sap in it, the moisture and sap will stick to the liner and cause issues further down the line. The wet wood will cause the fire to cool down and not burn efficiently also causing a lot of soot that won't burn because the fire is not hot enough.

Testing P0113 error

 

I found this video on testing both functions of the MAF sensor (we are testing the seciond part, the IAT part.

You will need the correct tool to remove the sensor, in my case it was a Philips screwdriver and a multimeter to test the function of the temperature side of the sensor, you will also need to understand how to use and understand readings from your multimeter 

1. remover the plug for the sensor.
2. Remove the screws 
3. gently wiggle the sensor and it will come out 
4. lay the sensor on a clean surface 
5. get the multimeter and set it up to read K ohms

information on testing from the above has been snipped out 

On measuring the sensor with the ambient temp that the sensor is in is at 17 degrees, I got 1.92k ohm (this is working fine at this temperature), it doesn't mean the sensor isn't failing at higher temps.

I cleared the error code and switched the ignition off and started the car, it hasn't come back yet, I will take the car for a drive and see if it comes back 

ELM327

 Earlier this year, I purchased a very cheap fault code reader named the ELM327 blue tooth for around £5.00p 

This is the 1st time I have used it on my car, it allows you to connect to an app on your phone via Bluetooth. 

Setting up the Elm327 Bluetooth 

1. plug the unit into the Obd2 port in your car and see if it lights up, (sometimes you will need to switch the ignition on before it will light up) 
2. with your phone, search for Bluetooth device OBDII
3. Connect to OBDII it will ask for a pass code (it is usually 1234 or 0000 if there is no info with the plug) 
4. I have an android phone and searched in google play for ELM327 and found an app called clear and go (picture below) many other apps available that I haven't tried.

1. Then you open the app and press connect, and it will ask you how you wish to connect, select Bluetooth, and it will give you a bunch of options (select ODBII) and it will go back to the main screen
2. press scan (if it is and engine fault, it will show up in the top of the main screen. )
3. select the error code, and it will give you more information about the fault and help in trying to fix it.
4. Press clear, and it will delete the error code, if you have fixed the fault the engine warning light will clear (sometimes you need to turn the car off and then start the car up to see if it has fixed the fault, sometimes it's an intermittent fault that may return over time)

Ravioli is not well!

On my drive home from our holiday, my car decided it wanted to drop out of cruise control and the VSC warning and 4wd disabled as well as the engine light came on!!!!

At the time, I had no way to test the car, but it drove fine and had no limp mode, I drove the car home and plugged in to it and found error p0113.

Fault meaning and remedy:

 What does this mean? 

P0113 TOYOTA code possible causes Dirty air filter Faulty Intake Air Temperature (IAT) Sensor (Part of the Mass Air Flow [MAF] Sensor) Intake Air Temperature sensor harness is open or shorted Intake Air Temperature sensor circuit poor electrical connection Faulty Engine Control Module (ECM) 

How do I fix code P0113 TOYOTA code? 

Check the "Possible Causes" listed above. Visually inspect the related wiring harness and connectors. Check for damaged components and look for broken, bent, pushed out, or corroded connector's pins.

This is what my sensor looked like, fixed by 2 screws on the rear of the air filter box as this sensor has two functions, it is known as the MAF sensor.

Firstly I checked the air filter I replaced in March April time and check the box isn't full of leaves.

Secondly, I checked the connector to the sensor and unplugged and pulled the wires gently, as well as checking the pins and the connectors for corrosion.

Thirdly, I removed the sensor to check there was no visible fault.

I found no big issue when with the above, so next was to try and find any way to test the IAT of the sensor and at the time I came up with nothing, but I found a comparable l MAF sensor for £11.94p, so I ordered it. 

No more tick, tick, tick

 

A few weeks ago I pre-ordered some Wi-Fi plugs to replace the old timer sockets as they are old and noisy, they cost me less than £13.00p for two, 

you need to set them up via the tapo app, they are very easy to set up, you can use them via your phone and other ways, you can also set timers on them

here is how you set up a p100 Wi-Fi plug

Im not yokeing

 

So today my tumble dryer egg's arrived from a company called eco egg, I purchased the unscented version via Amazon because there was no postage as I'm a prime member.

There are many versions of tumble dryer ball brands you can buy, but we have purchased this for 2 reasons.

1. We purchased the laundry egg for the washing machine a few years ago, it washes the clothes almost as well as a leading brand's that we have used and there is less packaging and waste.
2. You can buy some fragrance sticks that fit inside the egg to scent while helping dry the clothes 

The dryer egg claims to save the drying time by up to 28%, it's done by the eggs creating warm air pockets in the damp clothing and will help to try them faster.

First thoughts in the 1st time of using the eggs I found they are rather loud crashing about in the dryer drum with a half load. I will try them more with a bigger load.

Check them out

dryer warranty

 With the new dryer the technology being quite new, I was keen to get extra cover for the dryer as it  cost £450, I don't want to have any big bills with it,  I was going to go with the supplier AO, I went to register the dryer on Hoovers website, so it has its warranty, and found they do extend warranty that you can keep it for the life of the dryer, it is also cheaper than AO offered, I think all the key features offered was the same 

To register your warranty goto

The offers at the time I took out my extended warranty is below 

The new dryer

The new Hoover HLE H9A2TCE-80 heat pump dryer 

Well it was an early start this morning as I received a text saying the new dryer will arrive between 745 and 1145am. 

As requested, I was asked to remove the old dryer and make it easily collectable for the free collection they provided for me, so I took it out of its little space it was in and put it into the back garden for the delivery team to collect.

At 10:45 it arrived, they dropped the new dryer into the conservatory ready for me to fit, they were very polite and helpful and promptly removed the old dryer as they offered over the phone.

Within 20 minutes I had it unpacked, I am installing to collect the water in its internal moisture collector tank, you can set it up so the moisture collected go straight into the waste pipe if you have one close by, all that had to be done was to remove the two blocks in the top of the drum for to protect it in transport, and it is ready to use.

The manual recommends you download the App on your phone, the one you need to download is hOn

The app will guide you through the setup of the Wi-Fi to the dryer, I tried 4 times to connect the new machine as recommended, it kept failing! On further reading upon this app I found it needed to be the low 2.4ghz bandwidth to run it, so ill need to look into setting this up on my router.to see if I can set this up.

1st impressions: 

• compared to my old dryer it the opening is much bigger so makes loading and unloading much easier
• the door only opens to the left, it can't be changed like some, so this causes some loading issues
• the twin filters seem to collect the lint quite well
• lots of options to get to understand 
• the water tank is very easy to use 

January seems to be an expencive month

Well after an expensive start to the month it doesn't seem to have got any better, today the 1st filter has gone brittle and large lumps have broken off.

I searched for the part and all I came up with was company's to contact regarding getting a new door on the 10 plus year old tumble dryer, if it is available, I'm guessing it will take more than a week to get here.

We decided we needed to look at a new tumble dryer was in order, I started to look at some on various websites and as I flicked through I found one that was a lot of money and boasted an energy rating of A+++! 

Wow A+++ rating? I looked at why, the tumble dryer is called a heat pump tumble dryer. I have never heard of this type of tumble dryer before, so with this I got my google's out and researched into it a little.

For years we have had two types of dryer.  Both involve a lot of electricity to heat up the inside of a metal drum and dry the items that tumble around in the drum, and the moisture escapes via a filter to an exhaust or into a condensing system to collect the water. 

both do the job well but not very efficiently, from the energy used and the fact the items inside could be dry but still using lots of electricity while still running on the timer, more modern and expensive ones have a moisture sensor internally to aid in saving on the cost. But lots of heat escapes and is wasted.

In comes the heat pump tumble dryer, from what I understand is it is a back to front air conditioner, it uses the warm air created from the system is used a lot more efficiently to heat the tumble unit and the clothing of the drum to draw the moisture and remove it from the system, the efficiency is a lot better as it contains the heat and moisture internally as opposed to it escaping from the machine like older designed machines.

I was weighing up whether the cost of the machine would be made back? You are looking at a cost of approximately £350 for the machine, but to offset that you would be saving around half the cost of the electricity than the old dryers.

My old dryer on an 80-minute cycle used approximately 70p, the new dryer says it uses approximately 25p their standard cycle, what ever they class as a standard cycle it does not say what the cost per kw hour is at the time of testing the machine and there was no comparison with a standard tumble dryer

but if you look at it I think I should save approximately half the cost per load.

So to compare I was looking at a condenser drier costing £219.99p  and the new dryer I have purchased has cost £239.99p (double the price) so I use the dryer once a day approximately  5 times a week and I hope it will last a minimum of 7 years I work that out at a saving of £637.00p, so I will recover this cost happily.

To add to this, the cost of electricity is about to double in cost in February, so it will definitely save on the day to day electricity cost, only time will tell.

Feeling Flat

Today I had to jumpstart my car again, it has been sat there for 2 weeks not used, so I can't complain about it but with modern cars they measure the voltage of the battery when the engine is running and charge it up as needed to conserve fuel the alternator is switched on and off.

The lower the battery is when fully charged, the more the alternator will run and the more fuel the car will require when the engine is running

if you don't understand what I mean, think of it as a bucket of water under running water and as the bucket gets older it split at the top so to keep the water level at the top  you will need to top the bucket up more frequently, as the bucket ages the split travels slowly down the bucket, and you need to top the bucket up more frequently until the bucket splits and won't hold water.

I tested the battery after I took the car for a long run and tested it after 15 mins of being parked up it slowly dropped from 12.8 volt to 11.9 volt, the car would start and run, but the battery was failing, it would work fine if I wanted to drive it a lot more regularly, but I don't need to,  so off to Halford's I went for a new battery, I picked the heavy-duty one as the car is a big 2.2 diesel engine takes a lot of  power from a battery to start it.

On removing the battery I found it was from 2015, so it's lasted 6 years, I don't think that's bad for a big diesel engine, especially as it doesn't get used much.

On removing the battery retainer, I found one of the bolts to be seized and as soon as I put some force into removing the bolt, the head broke off! This turned into an hour and a half of removing the plastic trim and clips then drilling and tapping the hole from a 6 mm bolt to a bigger m8 bolt and putting the trim all back together again

job done