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[The Sheriff]

Indeed. A member here has no street lights outside their house, it's quite a shock to realise you can't see your hand in front of your face until your eyes get used to the dark. iPhone torch to the rescue.

...and before certain members scoff at the iPhone torch, I've been offered "a proper torch" on occasion when rummaging around engine bays and couldn't see a damn thing with it.

They have a little switch on the side for that.. and there's no "app". 

...I seem to remember some excuse about the batteries being flat the iphone flash is much brighter on constant, and yes there is no app. Your quite right.

One day Mr Wood might try one. (Yeah right )


....and to add, due to the depth of the device, it fits in places conventional torches can't. ....oh lord, that'll set Esta off again.

I have an 'assistive light' on my S4, very bright.

[TheBoy]

Also factor in that shopping - weekly food shopping and any other - will involve journeys, and since moving to Brakkers, I've learned to be a lot more organised if planning anything, as trips to the shops are a bit of a trek. Even though its a (quite small, admittedly) town, there isn't a busting lot here.

A pack of screws is a 22 mile, 1hr round trip if I don't remember to go to the local DIY shop before it shuts on Saturday lunchtime (and stays shut Sunday)

[aaronjb]

No none of that nonsense. We've just cancelled sky movies so only iplayer will suffer. Her job is internet dependant working from home, but it's just data, so no biggy. 2meg will be ok as long as its a stable line. If not, there's always Varches solution.

Remember that for anything interactive (so, to an extent the web, but certainly any remote desktop/VNC type protocols) even a fast satellite link will be like pulling teeth compared to a 2Mbit ADSL line.

Reason being that you'll be trading ~15-40ms round trip time (so every packet takes 40milliseconds to reach it's designation and every acknowledgement takes 40ms to get back) for ~600ms RTT.. every time you click a page there's 600ms for the DNS lookup to get there, 600ms to get back, that's 1.2 seconds before you've even gone anywhere.

Now imagine the impact that has on remote desktop, say.. horrible.

[humbucker]

Also factor in that shopping - weekly food shopping and any other - will involve journeys

Sod that. Get it delivered. Time is money.

[Taxi_Driver]

My brother lives in an ex farmhouse in the middle of nowhere....iirc he has a 2000L tank for the oil and has it filled about 3 times a year...sure he told me once it costs a bit over £1000 to have it filled.
But then he has an oil fired AGA thats obviously on 24/7....and also does the hot water/central heating.
To access his house you have to drive down quite a steep lane (in places), so its worth considering can a tanker get easy access in winter months...as a couple of years ago, when we had a 'hardish' winter the tanker driver refused to drive down his lane (risk of sliding due to frost/snow), so as he feared he'd run out of oil.....he turned the heating off and went out and bought 5/6 electric oil radiators....bet he had a big leccy bill that year 

[Shackeng]

Oil: I live in the country, as you know, but we are on gas, however friends living in gas-less villages nearby arrange a bulk price by joining with neighbours and all getting delivered on the same day, this saves them a certain amount, and I believe it is quite common practice.

http://www.which.co.uk/energy/creating-an-energy-saving-home/guides/heating-oil/getting-the-best-heating-oil-price/

[chrisgixer]

My brother lives in an ex farmhouse in the middle of nowhere....iirc he has a 2000L tank for the oil and has it filled about 3 times a year...sure he told me once it costs a bit over £1000 to have it filled.
But then he has an oil fired AGA thats obviously on 24/7....and also does the hot water/central heating.
To access his house you have to drive down quite a steep lane (in places), so its worth considering can a tanker get easy access in winter months...as a couple of years ago, when we had a 'hardish' winter the tanker driver refused to drive down his lane (risk of sliding due to frost/snow), so as he feared he'd run out of oil.....he turned the heating off and went out and bought 5/6 electric oil radiators....bet he had a big leccy bill that year 

3k a year? 

[chrisgixer]

Oil: I live in the country, as you know, but we are on gas, however friends living in gas-less villages nearby arrange a bulk price by joining with neighbours and all getting delivered on the same day, this saves them a certain amount, and I believe it is quite common practice.

http://www.which.co.uk/energy/creating-an-energy-saving-home/guides/heating-oil/getting-the-best-heating-oil-price/

That's handy Shak, thankyou.

[chrisgixer]

No none of that nonsense. We've just cancelled sky movies so only iplayer will suffer. Her job is internet dependant working from home, but it's just data, so no biggy. 2meg will be ok as long as its a stable line. If not, there's always Varches solution.

Remember that for anything interactive (so, to an extent the web, but certainly any remote desktop/VNC type protocols) even a fast satellite link will be like pulling teeth compared to a 2Mbit ADSL line.

Reason being that you'll be trading ~15-40ms round trip time (so every packet takes 40milliseconds to reach it's designation and every acknowledgement takes 40ms to get back) for ~600ms RTT.. every time you click a page there's 600ms for the DNS lookup to get there, 600ms to get back, that's 1.2 seconds before you've even gone anywhere.

Now imagine the impact that has on remote desktop, say.. horrible.

It runs via VPN (?) iirc which has its own issues tother end too. Like its packs up when it rains.

[humbucker]

Oil: I live in the country, as you know, but we are on gas, however friends living in gas-less villages nearby arrange a bulk price by joining with neighbours and all getting delivered on the same day, this saves them a certain amount, and I believe it is quite common practice.

http://www.which.co.uk/energy/creating-an-energy-saving-home/guides/heating-oil/getting-the-best-heating-oil-price/

That's handy Shak, thankyou.

I tend to get a quote from the Boilerjuice website and then call the delivery company that I know will be coming out to us (Boilerjuice are an agent/reseller). They then undercut Boilerjuice as they can cut out the middle man and I don't have to wait for neighbours to order etc. Bingo.

[Rog]

Seriously, we recently moved from suburban London to West Wales, and spoke to lots of people and looked into things . . . . . a lot.

We could very easilly have gone for an Opti size big detached house in the country with land etc etc. Great, and initially great, but can't walk to the pub, can't walk to a shop, taxi or drive for anything, possibly cut off in Winter, if there are kids - the school run gets tedious etc etc. I know people who really regret being tempted by this "ideal" life-style. We a bought a house, walk to pubs, walk to get a newspaper or a pint of milk, walk to a railway station etc, BUT can see cows and sheep on the hills not so far away, and go for a walk by the river to watch otters.

Just think realistically.

[Varche]

No none of that nonsense. We've just cancelled sky movies so only iplayer will suffer. Her job is internet dependant working from home, but it's just data, so no biggy. 2meg will be ok as long as its a stable line. If not, there's always Varches solution.

Remember that for anything interactive (so, to an extent the web, but certainly any remote desktop/VNC type protocols) even a fast satellite link will be like pulling teeth compared to a 2Mbit ADSL line.

Reason being that you'll be trading ~15-40ms round trip time (so every packet takes 40milliseconds to reach it's designation and every acknowledgement takes 40ms to get back) for ~600ms RTT.. every time you click a page there's 600ms for the DNS lookup to get there, 600ms to get back, that's 1.2 seconds before you've even gone anywhere.

Now imagine the impact that has on remote desktop, say.. horrible.

It runs via VPN (?) iirc which has its own issues tother end too. Like its packs up when it rains.

If you give the the web address of a test, I will post up my result. We watch occasional catch up TV with no buffering. No idea what a remote desktop is(unless it is what I am typing from....)

[TheBoy]

Using a VPN, you biggest problem isn't the headline speed, but the upload. ADSL maxes out at less than half a megabit, ADSL2+ at 1 megabit.

[dbug]

When I was married (back in the 80s) we had a large 5 bedroom stone built farm house set in 5 acres - no street lights or near neighbours.  It had oil fired central central heating with a 2.5K litre tank plus large solar panels on the roof.  Used hardly any oil in the summer - solar efficient enough for all hot water, including baths/showers for family of 4, winter costs comparible pro rata with gas costs for running a large 4 bed "estate" hose in a small town (previous house)

[Sir Tigger KC]

A bit more on septic tanks.

I think I heard recently that all septic tanks have to be registered with the Environment Agency by a soonish date.  I think that this might even involve an inspection?, all at a cost of course.  If the septic tank dosn't come up to scratch I'd imagine the Environment Agency would demand that you replace it with a new one and maybe even fine you for contamination if it leaks!  How they will prove this I don't know....    but for example we had a septic tank on the family farm which was brick built and was probably built by my Dad's Grandad!  My Mum used to grow great veggies on top of it!!    I can't imagine that tank passing any sort of inspection today if it's still there. 

So if the property you're looking at has one, make sure it's registered and complies with all the relevant regulations or you could end up with a shitty situation!! 

The other thing is that if they are used properly, septic tanks should rarely need pumping out, as Varche said you have to be careful what you put in it!