El Andrew

Yeah the quote I got on solar and battery suggested a 17 year payback! But we have a weird thing in the ACT where the government invested in an SA wind farm and buys electricity at a fixed cost. We only use half of it so the rest gets sold to the national energy market and ACT gets the difference back. So the higher electricity prices go nationwide, the lower ACT prices go. My solar quotes suggest estimated gross electricity usage of 25 kWh per day in Canberra with a modern ducted reverse cycle in a 3 bedroom house so something ain't right.

Any of you with ducted reverse cycle know what your average kWh usage is during winter? Had our gas heating and evap cooling replaced with a reverse cycle unit last week. Electricity usage has increased from an average of 10 kWh per day to 60! Seems a bit odd. I had heard the usage for similar systems in Canberra was around 10 - 15 kWh per day. We leave the unit off overnight and in the evening turn zones off and shut doors when they are no longer used (eg once the kids are in bed, the family room is closed and zone turned off). Run the house at 20-21 degrees. I'm a bit suspicious there's maybe a duct that wasn't sealed properly or one of the old evaporative ducts wasn't tied off and so I'm leaking warm air and the unit is running flat out. I'm getting those properly removed and the ceiling patched soon. I've emailed the installer to see what they think, but if anyone knows their own usage it would be a good sense check. Edit: 3 bedroom single story. Open plan kitchen, dining, lounge and separate family room.

When I parted out the BA I noticed there was some blood from my hands behind the passenger headlight [emoji1787]

@Puffwagon you must love it when people ask you that question!

Haha yep, and every time you open a muesli bar on a trip, the kids think they are going to die. Even worse are the ones that actually take over and try to correct you back into the lane. Some of the reviews of the Kia and Hyundai systems in particular make it sound like bumper bowling.

Definitely! Got to see whether I can turn the lane departure warning off too and just put it back on for long distance driving. Is super annoying on windy roads or going around parked cars.

Well that was a strange one - Subaru wouldn't go on the ramps - applied its brakes, cut its throttle and flashed 'Obstacle Detected' on the dash. Solution was to take a run up.

It slopes up behind us too so I think a lot of the water in the soil of the house behind us flows into our soil too. Has never been a problem before but the ridiculous amount of rain lately has completely saturated the soil. I reckon I'll run ag pipe along the back of the retaining wall to catch most of the moisture in the lawn area, plus one under the deck for anything that makes it last that, plus water from the deck itself (the outer edge of the deck extends out past the pergola) I've framed up my outdoor kitchen so looking forward to a steak and a beer out there when I finally finish it all. Bought a Kreg pocket hole jig and tried it out on the frame - ripper of a thing!

Reckon I might need to sort out some drainage issues before I put the deck in... Since I got the ground levelled, I think the lawn is draining under that retaining wall. If I bail water off it, it just floods again until the lawn dries out. I'll just throw in a trench, Ag pipe and silt pit plumbed into the stormwater. I'd rather be building the deck, but better to know I've got this problem now rather than later.

The benefit of a transmission place over a dealer is they will happily use the Gulf Western fluid rather than Lifeguard which will be much cheaper.

I'd settle for making it past 2:30pm without wanting to sleep at my desk at this point!

I know how you feel sortnof - all my COVID symptoms are gone other than a bit of a cough, but I still feel completely exhausted by the end of each day. Looking forward to a weekend.

Good question! Mine has been doing that the last couple of months too. Maybe once every couple of weeks. Haven't gone hunting yet but doesn't seem like the typical door lock actuator issue as the locks don't cycle.

Haha that's what you want. Was trying to get my brother's ride on going the other week. Turns out the switch under the clutch that needs to be depressed to start had snapped its bracket. Too much mowing through 5 foot bracken. Just cable tied it up next to the steering column so you can press it by hand and off it goes.

Tested positive on a PCR last night so just did the phone voting thing. You have to talk someone through your vote, who literally sits there filling out the ballot paper. Made me wonder if anyone does an informal/donkey vote via telephone voting. How would you like me to number the boxes, sir? Just leave them blank and draw a pen!s, please.

Thanks mate. Yeah sounds like I should either leave it, get a crappy cluster to practice on, or get a decent one to program to the car.

Thanks @biddie_fiddler Keep meaning to ask you due to your recent cluster experience. The lower left LED on the speedo keeps playing up. Sometimes it's on with the others, sometimes it's off and sometimes it flickers. I'm guessing it's just a dry solder joint or something. If I pull the cluster out am I unlikely to be able to access that from the rear of the cluster and dials only come off to remove an LED, or are they completely inaccessible with the dials in place?

Nice! Glad you are through it and out of iso. Yeah I've got a decent pile of negative RATs. Might go get a PCR as seems almost impossible it's not COVID and I want to kick off the 7 days. Called out to the boys "Who wants toast?" This was the only response I got.

Home with muscle aches, sore throat, fatigue and a son who has tested positive [emoji1787] Treating myself with a pour over. Uses a sh!tload of coffee so I'd better order some more.

Had a friend hosing off some cobwebs outside on a ladder and decided to hose out an empty light socket. As he hit the ground he realised the switch must have been on. His wife was inside cooking and wondered why all the lights went out [emoji15]

4 bar / 58 psi is the correct fuel pressure, assuming it hasn't been changed previously and tuned for something different

Only access I had to a wagon was a mate's TR Magna - not quite as cool

Haha the Parade and Skye - having flashbacks to my P plate days

Yeah had Lovells and Koni Reds in it when I got it but with those the rear sat higher than the front. Put Kings SSLs in the rear to fix it.

Pic for Keith. Bonus silhouette of big ears and bald head. Just picked up the wing so car should be looking schmick later tonight. I hate the no spoiler look on an XR so much that I considered slapping it back together in the work carpark. But there's a bit of exposed metal on the bootlit around one hole that rusted as soon as the wing was off and it was in open air. So I'll touch that up properly first.