Find a Shop Fitter you can trust in Tighnabruaich.

The cost to charge an electric car in the UK varies between home, work and public charging.

For a typical electric car with a 60kWh battery and ~200 mile range:

• Charging at home: Costs about £9.20 for a full charge. *
• Charging at work: Many employers will install workplace charging points and typically offer free access throughout the day.
• Charging at public locations: Public chargepoints at supermarkets or car parks are often free to use for the duration of your stay.
• Rapid charging: Rapid charging points are normally found at motorway service stations and typically cost £6.50 for a 30 min, ~100 mile charge.

Charging an electric car at home costs about £9.20 for a full charge* and is the most convenient and cost-effective way to keep your car fully charged. Most drivers will charge their electric car overnight, waking up to a full battery every morning.

Average domestic electricity rate in the whole of the UK is about 17p per kWh.

Fully charging a 60kWh electric car will cost between £9.00 and £9.90 (depending on where you live) and give you about 200 miles of range.

* Costs calculated at 17p/kWh based on usable battery is ~54kWh (90%).

Like every other systems in your home, solar hot water systems will require periodic inspections as well as a regular maintenance in order to keep it running as efficiently as it should. Not only that, the various components will also require either repair or replacement from time to time. It’ll also be proactive to take the necessary precautions so as to prevent worrying issues like corrosion, scaling or freezing.

Is it a task you can handle on your own? Well, there are some inspections and maintenance activities you should be able to handle on your own, however, you’ll also require a qualified technician to carry out the more technical or complicated tasks. You should also take note that it may actually be more cost effective to have some systems replaced, shut off or removed completely than having it repaired. Here are some of the essential inspections that should be carried out on solar system components. They include:

✓ Collector soiling. Periodic cleaning of your collectors is important especially in dry and dusty climates.

✓ Plumbing, ductwork and wire connections. Check the pipe connections for fluid leaks. Examine duct connections and seals. Also make sure that all wire connections are tight.

✓ Roof penetrations. Flashing and sealant around the roof penetration should be checked to see that it’s in a good shape.

✓ Collector shading. Check for shading of the collectors on annual basis as this may greatly affect their performance.

✓ Support structures. Examine all bolts and nuts which connects the support structures to the collectors for tightness.

✓ Heat transfer fluids. Anti freeze solutions in liquid solar heating collectors will have to be replaced periodically. And this right here is a task that’s best handled by a licensed technician.

Traditional heating system that features a solid fuel boiler makes use of wood or coal stoves. However, in modern times, biomass boilers have rapidly grown to become the popular solid fuel option. Not only are they very effective and efficient just like the other heating systems, but they’re also renewable due to the fact that they’re able totally carbon neutral as they burn plant based organisms as a great alternative to oil, gas and electricity. As a result, they’re a perfect choice of heating system for off-gird homes or properties.

We have two main types of solid fuel boiler, these includes the following:

✓ Solid fuel stoves. This is also referred to as wood burners. Although coal burners are also available in the market, but we’d only recommend using wood burners as coal can be highly polluting and also set to be banned as a domestic fuel by the government. The most popular options of wood burning is wood log but it can also be operated using wood chips or wood pellets. Due to the fact that they’re stand alone heaters, they can only warm up the room in which they’re fitted.

✓ Biomass boilers. The type of solid fuel heating system makes use of natural material to warm up a space. These natural materials may be wood chips, wood pellets, wood logs and even plant based organisms. How they operate is very similar to that of the traditional boilers. They’re able to provide both hot water and hating by burning fuel, however, the only carbon released into the air was previously absorbed by the wood fuel. As a result, they’re a carbon neutral renewable heating system. But in contrary to solid fuel stoves, they’re fed automatically via a hopper but there are also manually fed biomass boiler.

A sudden appearance of graffiti on your property carried out by some vandals can be a real concern. Since you know it’s your responsibility to have it cleaned, the question becomes would you rather call in a professional or have it cleaned yourself. While calling in a professional may be costly, removing graffiti by yourself won’t be easy either especially if it’s done on brick. Bricks are known to be porous which enables paint to sink with ease inside all of the surface’s grooves. Unlike wood, they can’t be scraped and if it happens to be an internal wall, it can’t be sand- or water-blasted. So, what is the best way to remove graffiti?

Well, your best bet would be to incorporate chemical and gel masonry stripper. And while stripping of the surface is not a complex task, it does involve a number of applications of stripper and multiple scrubbing which makes it very time consuming.

Basically, a fresh and wet paint should be soaked up with am absorbent material without wiping the paint in order to spread the stain. Once done, you can then proceed to apply a suitable solvent like white spirit. After this, wash the area using a degreasing agent taking care in the disposal of the run-off material.

With dried paint, simply scrape off the paint as far as possible and apply a paint removal using the following steps:

• Put on your safety gear like a face mask, safety googles and gloves.
• Apply the paint stripper over the brick wall with a brush starting from a corner at the top of the wall and then working outward and downward.
• Leave for the specified amount of time by the manufacturer. Then start to scrub off the masonry paint stripper beginning at the top of the wall again. Remove as many paints as possible.
• Use rags and warm water to wash the wall and allow it to air dry.
• Repeat the process over again to remove every form of stubborn paint that’s left.
• Use a white vinegar to spray the stripped wall and wipe off any residue of paint with a brush and rinse with water.

Where Can I Find A Handyman Near Me?

Do you have a need for the services of a local handyman? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Some tasks around the house or property are a bit too much to be handled as a DIY project, but at the same time not enough to hire a general contractor or a professional company. So in such cases of middle of the road projects, your best bet would be to reach out to a reputable handyman and even more so, if he or she is in a location near you.

A lot of household repairs, maintenance and upgrades aren’t always a massive job. However, there’s a likely possibility for them to stack up when there’s not just enough time on the plate to conveniently tackle them or probably due to the overwhelming idea of having to visit multiple shops to acquire various tools and supplies. The more worrying issue however is, where can you find a handyman that’s close to you?

• Ask family and friends for experiences and recommendations. Choosing the right handyman goes way beyond the qualifications, you also have to be comfortable with bringing the professional into your home.

• Ask local realtors for recommendations. Due to the fact that they’re often in contact with handymen as they would mostly need to make some repairs before negotiation a sale, they tend to know several local handymen by experience.

• Google it. Just by searching “local handyman services, Google can automatically determine your location and proffer a number of handymen in your area, However, you must be extremely careful not to fall prey to all these scam artists in disguise of being a handyman.

Before hiring, it’s always advisable to go through your state’s licensing requirements for licensing handymen. Certain states will only require licensing for some job types or generally, some projects that cost more than a particular amount of money.

No, you will need a satellite dish to receive a satellite signal for services like Sky or Freesat, as these are specific channels and programmes only broadcast via this medium. These can be installed in a similar way to a standard TV aerial by a recognised engineer.

A Velux window is a brand of roof window, but the brand is so popular that people often use the name to describe the entire type of window. They are windows that are installed at the same orientation and ‘in plane’ with the surrounding roof, and they’re usually installed at a minimum of a 15-degree pitch. You can buy roof windows that offer completely frameless internal views for a really clean look in your loft conversion, while some come with built-in shutters.

Velux windows aren’t to be confused with rooflights which usually refers to a glazed unit that’s installed on a flat roof. It might also mean a window that’s been installed on a pitched roof out of plane with the level of the tiling.

People also confuse roof windows with skylights, which normally can’t be opened or closed and are usually smaller than Velux windows. Skylights, therefore, only let daylight into the room whereas roof windows also help with ventilation.

If you’re using your loft as a room in your home rather than simply for storage, you must have a roof window installed. Skylights won’t be enough as they don’t allow for ventilation. It doesn’t have to be a Velux window – it can be any type of roof window. Luckily, they tend to come in standard sizes and they must be CE marked if they’re sold as a roof window, so they should be easy to find.