B&Q Wind turbines

Hospital parking charges are a disgrace. At our local hospital you are only allowed a full refund for repeat visits if your relative is a terminal patient.

When our twins were in the neo-natal unit we could get a charge capped at £2 a day if we had a chit signed and stamped by a medical staff member, nice having to harass a tired medic for the stamp and nice when we were often stressed too and then having to get the usually really miserable, and often absent, security staff to validate it just so we could go home.

£2 a day isn't a lot to see your babies but at £84 for 6 weeks it was a charge we resented, particularly as the money doesn't go into the coffers of the Health Trust to help patient care but goes straight into the pockets of the crony private finance initiative consortium. Why aren't these pfi investments opened up to local small investors, I would put money in, high return for apparently zero risk seems better than I can get else where - and surely Us local patients would be happier about the money flows? H
Reply to
HLAH
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The two turbines at Swaffham were criticised recently for only producing 30% of the expected output.

Reply to
PJ

That was the Scroby Sands windfarm, the media reported that they had only produced 30% of expected output but that wasn't apparently true. Though in this muddled bullshit world of eco energy production I doubt any single quoted figure by any interested party is true.

This is the BBC report

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the 30 % figure of the detractors comes from comparing the operators "bigging it up" hyped maximum output (a la B&Q) compared with the actual 90% of truly expected yearly output.

H
Reply to
HLAH

I've gone back to cheques. I don't do pin numbers visible to all and sundry.

Reply to
<me9

Whay-hey - I live at the top of a cliff, with an end wall facing the sea, and a good Siberian wind blowing most of the time. Perhaps it's time I invested in one of these things.

-- JJ

Reply to
Jason

It is needed here and our council does f*ck all for free except to supply mouse and rat poison to domestic properties only, which actually isn't free as it is covered by the community charge.

Reply to
Codswallop

It would need to be a two storey garage as the Windsave comes with a 6ft pole and the blades have to be at least 30ft from ground level. The Windsave is only suitable for two-storey properties.

Reply to
Codswallop

It's a simple matter of putting your hand around the keypad.

One other thing to remember is that use of a credit card when making purchases in excess of £100 provides an additional degree of consumer protection. This is lost when using the ancient technology of cheques.

Reply to
Andy Hall

Not only that, but if your credit card is used fraudulently, as mine was yesterday, the CC company simply cancels the card and refunds the stolen money. No big deal.

Reply to
Grunff

With the problems of parking and your walking I'd have thought a cab would be the favourite anyway with transport to the best door for spouses ward. Cost wise there probably wouldn't be much in it, parking plus running costs of car at 40p/mile or so.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Travelling around hospitals for work it has come to my notice that there have been big increases in parking charges over the last year, usually accompanied by new ticket machines and exit barrier systems.

Typically it might have gone up from a flat fee of £1.00 per stay to £2.50 for up to 4 hours. A 500% increase.

Not that much, you might say but it equates to £35.00 per week if you are visiting a seriously ill relative.

Hmmm, in Leeds they have opened a new hospital car park at £12.00/day. It only has a few places for public use.

Staff such as nurses have to pay (less) for a space, but it is only available whilst they are on shift, if they take too long to move their car at the end of their shift they are "Fined" an amount of about one day's pay.

It's money for old rope.

:-(

DG

Reply to
Derek ^

Nah, Get a proper one.

DG

Reply to
Derek ^

What, in My Back Yard?

Oh, go on then :-)

Reply to
Jason

In your situation I would.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Since we use a lot of stamps of various demoninations - now increaded in umber by the Large Letter ones :-) - we buy a few pounds' worth at a time, they're in a box in my desk drawer. I have been known to buy special fancy stamps online because I usually leave it too late for the PO to have any in. That's my bad organisation!

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

There's hanging about waiting (you can't phone from inside the hospital), having to phone on the mobile, and the fare IS higher than the parking. More important, I don't like the way mini cab drivers drive and some of them smoke and/or have those nasty hanging scented dangly things on their internal mirrors. No thanks, I prefer to have the versatility and independence of my own car. I only had the parking problem on one day, when I was later arriving than usual.

Many people do use mini cabs, I'm not saying they shouldn't but it's not for me.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

I don't think I mentioned Windsave ...

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Reply to
Mary Fisher

Too many variations - not to mention the price rises screwing up the stock, necessitatingpurchase of even more denominations.

Reply to
Bob Eager

You can book cabs you know, with fixed visiting times that is OK but not quite so convient with variable ones.

I don't doubt it but don't forget to take into account the costs of running your car. About 40p/mile is what mine costs when you take into account maintenace, tax, fuel and depriciation.

ISTR that you are in an urban area, therefore have more than one cab firm to choose from...

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

We certainly have no shortage of wind here, and at rooftop level, there is a clear view out to sea for a 200 degree sweep, which should help keep the turbulence down.

I've been following the Windsave products for a couple of years, and so far have found a lack of evidence to back up the claims they make. They may be valid, they may not, but until I've seen evidence either way (other than the usual polarised views of "look at the savings - go for it" and "what a load of rubbish"), then it is a lot of money to gamble with. I need to understand the basis for the claims, and relate those claims to my situation. Windsave are publishing a little more information, but it is still lacking.

The original price for these generators was to be £1000 (including installation). Now B&Q are the distributers, the price is suddenly £1500. So although you can get £500 back through grants (for this year at least) it just turns out to be a B&Q grant. That has kind of annoyed me, perhaps unjustifiably, perhaps not.

Also, knowing how B&Q work, they would have clamped down on the manufacturers so much that short-cuts will have been taken, and the quality will suffer. I found that out after writing to MK about the reliability of some of their dimmer switches (always burning out when an MK bulb blows). After giving them the manufacturer code, they informed me that they were the 'special B&Q designed versions'. After comparing the same unit bought from an independant retailer, it was obvious why: the B&Q version had less in it. It lacked the surge suppressors of the independant version, and the heatsink was smaller, and the Triac was just pop-rivetted on rather than screwed on.

So in short, I need to see more evidence, for my own personal benefit, and even then, I would not touch something like this from B&Q.

-- JJ

Reply to
Jason

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