Friday Fact

The Queen once gave former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond a successful horse racing tip.

Earlier end to subsidies for new UK onshore wind farms

New onshore wind farms will be excluded from a subsidy scheme from 1 April 2016, a year earlier than expected.

 

There will be a grace period for projects which already have planning permission, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said.

But it is estimated that almost 3,000 wind turbines are awaiting planning permission and this announcement could jeopardise those plans.

Energy firms had been facing an end to generous subsidies in 2017.

The funding for the subsidy comes from the Renewables Obligation, which is funded by levies added to household fuel bills.

After the announcement was made, Fergus Ewing, Scottish minister for business, energy and tourism and member of the Scottish parliament, said he had warned the UK government that the decision could be the subject of a judicial review.

found on the BBC

Friday Fact

Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day.

Changes in legislation for Landlords - smoke detection

On 11th March 2015 that new legislation will come into force on the 1st October 2015 that concerns Landlords of residential premises.

Landlords will be required by law to install working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in their properties in England.

Who will the new legislation cover?
  This new legislation will cover private landlords. Communities Minister Stephen Williams said yesterday: "We're determined to create a bigger, better and safer private rented sector – a key part of that is to ensure the safety of tenants with fire prevention and carbon monoxide warning."

We would recommend that any type of landlord (private or social) should recognise the duty of care they have for their tenants to install Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms.

This new legislation is for England only.
Landlords in Scotland are already required by law to install smoke and carbon monoxide under existing legislation.

Arrow What needs to be fitted and to what standards?
 
It is The British Standard BS 5839-6:2013 that is regarded as the Standard to adhere to when fitting Smoke Alarms and BS EN 50292:2013 when fitting Carbon Monoxide (CO) Alarms in residential/domestic premises. These define the type of alarms that require fitting and where they should be sited when complying with Building Regulations.

On the Government's website it reads as:
   
"The proposed changes to the law would require landlords to install smoke alarms on every floor of their property, and test them at the start of every tenancy.

Landlords would also need to install carbon monoxide alarms in high risk rooms – such as those where a solid fuel heating system is installed.

This would bring private rented properties into line with existing building regulations that already require newly-built homes to have hard-wired smoke alarms installed."
 
Section 150 of the Energy Act states: "the appropriate standard", in relation to a smoke alarm or a carbon monoxide alarm, means the standard (if any) that is specified in, or determined under, regulations;"

Expect clarification of alarm types and siting requirements to be defined soon, but we know that landlords must fit a working smoke alarm on every storey of the property and a CO alarm in every room with a solid fuel burning appliance. Even so, Aico would recommend that a CO alarm is fitted in every room with any type of fuel burning appliance. They must be tested and in working order as each new tenant moves into the property. The Smoke and CO alarms should meet the relevant European and British Standards.

Who will enforce this new law?
  Local Authorities will be enforcing this from 1st October 2015. Some Local Authorities are already prepared to do this as they have a licencing scheme for HMOs (House in Multiple Occupancy), where smoke alarms are a requirement.

What is the penalty for non-compliance?
  Local Authorities will be able to serve a remedial notice on a landlord where they have reasonable grounds to believe the landlord has not complied with these new legal requirements for Smoke and CO alarms.
If a landlord fails to comply with the remedial notice within 28 days of the notice being served, the Local Authority under a duty (where the occupier consents) can arrange remedial action. This is to ensure that tenants are protected by working alarms and may involve action to install, repair or check the alarms are in proper working order.

In addition, Local Authorities can impose a civil penalty charge of up to £5000 on landlords who are in breach of their duty to comply with the remedial notice.

What we know:

  •Private landlords will be required by law to install working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in their properties in England.
•These alarms should meet the relevant European and British Standards.
•This new legislation will come into force on the 1st October 2015 (subject to Parliamentary approval).
•Local Authorities will enforce this legislation.
•Landlords could receive a penalty charge of up to £5000.

  However, there are some uncertainties in areas of this new law, so this information may be subject to change. Aico will attempt to keep you updated as more information comes through.

 If you are a Landlord and would like to find out more about how to fit Smoke and Carbon Monoxide alarms in accordance with the relevant British Standards you can register for contact us http://www.woolgarelectrical.co.uk/

found on the aico web site

Friday fact

Thomas Edison, who invented the light bulb, was afraid of the dark.

The first LED GLS lamp thats actually impressed us

Nick (Edmundson Luton) came in this morning with a new lamp

This is the first lamp we have seen that really impresses us as quite innovative.

 

The lamp uses gas for heat management and does not have a heat sink, Its only 4w (equivalent to 40w) but for the time being they are not available for dimming but we are told that will be coming soon. The bigger lamps like the GLS have a lot longer guarantee than the smaller lamps like the 40mm round golfball lamps and they do a really funky retro shaped lamp.

 

 

Those long yellow bits are actually LED's. clever eh!

 

Interested?

 

Solar Impulse to land in Japan because of poor weather

As you know, we have been following the solar impulse around the world.

Its most intriguing, but as regards to practical ability, we think Phileas Phogg might just have beat them around the world.

unfortunately yet again the record-breaking attempt to cross the Pacific Ocean using a solar-powered plane has hit another bump in the road (or should that be an air pocket)

Poor weather conditions are forcing the Solar Impulse craft to head to Japan to land.
The pilot was 36 hours into what was expected to be a six-day journey from China to Hawaii.
The team will now wait in Japan for clearer skies before attempting to continue.

The experimental craft, which is covered in 17,000 solar cells, took off from Abu Dhabi in March.

The Pacific crossing, however, was always going to be the most challenging part of this epic journey.

Solar Impulse had already waited more than a month in Nanjing for the right weather conditions to open up over the Pacific.

It needs not only favourable winds to push forward, but also cloud-free skies during the day to soak up enough energy from the Sun to enable nighttime flying on its batteries.

The team's meteorologists thought they had identified a suitable weather window - and the plane set off at 18:39 GMT on Saturday.

Mr Borschberg had been making good progress. However, in the early hours of Monday morning (GMT), the Solar Impulse team announced it was putting the plane in a holding pattern.

The pilot was asked to circle over the Sea of Japan while meteorologists assessed whether they could find their way through a worsening weather front close to Hawaii.

Mr Borschberg was just hours away from the point of no return - the stage in the flight where, if something were to go wrong, the plane would be too far from land to turn back and Mr Borschberg would have to bail out into the ocean.