Any pointers on how best to `lock` the plug marked with an X to the timing unit. I have not pushed the plug all the way in just so the layout could be seen.
I could join the 2 with a nut & bolt but messy. Thought about silicone but would it be solid enough.
It is to stop anyone from easily unplugging it or at least to make them aware I dont want them to.
Ideas welcome.
Picture...
Tim
tie wrap seems easier.
Or hot glue.
SS :
round the top of the plug, the sides of the timer, and the timer plug between its E and L/N pins.
But what's to stop them unplugging the timer from the adapter or the adapter from the socket? Or are you just bothered about them plugging the appliance in without a timer?
Mike it will be an air con unit plugged into the timer in a place I rent abroad. It is just to stop them putting the air con on 24/7 in the hot weather, the timer will mean they have to reset every hour. If I dont `join` the plug to the timer they could just unplug and plug directly bypassing the timer. It can cost £40 a week if they run the air con constantly and in the past some switch it on and then go away for the day. I know there are other professional methods to wire this but this is a cheap option for me.
In that case, you need to put them both in a sealed box, or at least make the only power outlet available a timer-controlled one.
Any solutions based on tie-wrapping them together, or on loose timer sockets are doomed as they can either pop the two apart, or else re- program the timer.
You might even change the aircon plug to a round blue one. That'll scare them off from fiddling! Needs a fused spur though, not just sitting straight on the ring.
Evostick Serious Glue. You'd need tools to separate them.
Then sod's law says the fuse in plug "X" will blow ...
"Any solutions based on tie-wrapping them together, or on loose timer sockets are doomed as they can either pop the two apart, or else re- program the timer."
I am actually favouring the ties as it clearly shows dont tamper, they could pop them but unlikely as I hold their.deposit until after the place is inspected when they depart. The timer only allows 1 hour maximum and they then have to press the `on` button again to get another hour so it cant be re-programmed for longer.
I now agree any `rock solid` bonding, and IF it required a fuse. :-( could cause issues
I could maybe fabricate a box of some kind but likely to look unsightly, I may play around with this though as I dont require until May next year.
hotglue then
Cheap options never work, even professional approaches wouldn't usually stop me. If I found a place where I had such restrictions on me I'd go out and buy a suitable piece of mains flex and a plug and rewire it for the length of my stay. If it was a hardwired timer I'd remove the cover and bypass it.
Many years ago I had the misfortune to be in the southern US in summer. I was 'forced' to use my plastic hotel door key card to turn on the electrics in a room meaning I was always returning to a stuffy, warm and damp room.
So I used a bit of cardboard jammed in the switch instead leaving the electrics on constantly, another piece of cardboard and a matchstick kept the thermostat contacts closed. I chilled the room so cold in 8 hours that I had to wear three layers of clothing and a coat. Outside was mid to high 30's and close to 100% humidity, clothes were rotting off my back after a 50 yard walk to the hire car, but inside my hotel room was just like England, midwinter with a busted boiler. Pure Heaven :)
from the letter's perspective, this is why there is (needs to be) a 40 quid a week surcharge. In summer.
Forget trying to secure the aircon
Charge them for the electricity used through the holiday by having the meter read at the start and finish of the holiday. copy of the start figures each when let let avoids any dispute at the end
This was how the last french rental place I used did it
Put a notice on the aircon giving clear costs per hour of use
If they want use it all day no problem
Very sensible. A cousin of mine has a place she lets out, and that's what she does.
I agree, if I was in a place that attempted to restrict my use of something I'd find away around it in such a manner that the owner wouldn't know from a simple visual inspection. Even if that took fitting a new power cord into the appliance then putting the old "secure" one back in at the end of my stay. I'd manage to do that safely but not everyone is particulary good at electrics...
Good idea, may be even seperately meter the aircon, provided the cost/unit charged was sensible I'd not bother trying to bypass that meter.
Probably better to have the first x units included in the rental which covers normal aircon use but charge for any useage over those x units at a sensible rate. "Sensible" as in very close to your cost price. Personally I'd prefer the latter, it's up to me if I use the aircon and I've got the information about costs.
No can do Baz, they have to reset it after every hour by pushing the on button.
But that looks like a fairly normal sort of timer so, even with the plug and timer stuck together, couldn't they just alter the timer settings to be on for much longer anyway?
Mike it is a timer that you set in 5 minute increments to a max of 55 minutes, it then counts down and switches off. It remembers the original setting so when they click the on button again it sets to another 55 minutes and counts down and so on and so on. It cannot be set beyond 55 minutes in a single setting. It is not a 24 hour type of timer.
programme about perception on the TV.
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