Today I mostly .....

[GvidoR]

Never been a huge fan of silver in a car to be honest, main experience of it being in a Passat CC a few years ago.

Looked lovely - until you tried to drive anywhere with the sun behind you, at which point it turned the entire dash into a giant retroreflective surface that tried to blind you. Plus it seemed to attract fingerprints even more quickly than an expensive camera lens.

Each to their own though, it's your car and you're welcome to do anything that you want to it provided that it makes you happy. What else are your plans for the interior>

I doubt that I will get any reflections from it since I just sanded down those pieces, so they are not shiny. I think it looks better than the all-black look. Next up I will tackle the air vents or the cup holder. Both of those need work. The paint is peeling off on the air vents a little and the cup holder doesn't retract and open up properly. After they're sorted I may have some other plans but that's all for now... just going with the flow.

[Hannesb]

Pffff! Cup holder. Drink before or after you drive, not whilst...

[GvidoR]

I prefer to drink whilst driving... coffee, that is.

[Hannesb]

I drive so badly that I can't concentrate on drinks as well! (I'm a biker after all.)

[GvidoR]

What about when you're driving the Niva? Also, it would be pretty weird if a bike had cup holders.

[Hannesb]

The Niva is a 4x4 and tough as hell; if I hit stuff it is fine

My crash helmet has can holders on the sides so I don't need cup holders...

[GvidoR]

Cleaned the interior



and fixed the cup holder

[excossack]

Renewed my phone contract and got an Galaxy S4 on 4gee
Hired a LWB transit van to shift a server rack (not on my one, two others assisted)
Had my shoulder cried on by a female co-worked (stressed, tired, fed up & needing a week off)
Did my last run to Ikea (I hope for a long while)

[GvidoR]

Painted door pillars(?) black.

[excossack]

Fixed my Galaxy S2 by fitting a new USB connector board.

[Zelandeth]

S2 USB connectors are a known weak spot it seemed. Had problems with it on mine that caused all manner of gremlins!

Today I mostly finally managed to confirm that the solar hot water system in our house is indeed working as intended.

Took about ten minutes to figure out with the aid of a Flir E60 thermal camera. Meant that I could actually see the hot water flowing out of the panels. Was 90% sure the system was working, just nice to have confirmation.

[Neil Chowney]

Ah, but that would only have proven that the water was indeed hot, not what had caused it to become so.......

[Neil Chowney]

He might have a back boiler as well, we just don't know at this point

[excossack]

There could be many elements involved in making the water hot....

[Zelandeth]

Yep, the issue was working out where the heat was coming from. Especially given that I basically need to be able to tell how hot a pipe two and a half floors up in the air was getting when the water was flowing. Can show you how accessible it isn't if you like. Plus it helped me get a better idea of what was doing what.

Real bonus was being able to confirm that water was coming out the panels at 50 odd degrees C...and that's the temperature showing on the "cold" feed to the hot water cylinder. That was basically the confirmation I needed.

Water heating here is combined gas and solar. There was also a solid fuel boiler but that was removed a long while back, as was the gas powered Fiat car engine that provided both heat and fed power back to the grid...plumbing for both of these systems is mostly still in place though, so the loft is a bit busy! Without the original blueprints and valve charts I would be hopelessly lost!

PS. It was also an excuse to play around with nearly ten grands worth of thermal camera...so was I really going to refuse?