Any question answered...

Daughter is heading for a year studying / working in Europe. We'll get her a payg local sim when she gets to Germany, but would obv like to also keep her UK number live & working, if only connecting that one on WiFi.
All the providers seem to have a limit for time spent abroad of 62ish days for 'fair use' and then looks like they can cancel them.
Anyone know a way around this?

I'm in the same boat, just moved to France but want to keep my uk number for my business. I was told the same thing about having to return to the UK to keep the sim active. Only thing I've found are 'expat' phone providers that let you keep your uk number.

Haven't sorted it myself but seems like the only way?

https://xpatfone.com/launch

I’m currently 16 months in touring the Americas and am still using my three sim with an old Go Roam (free international roaming) contract. I think their fair use policy is similar to the above but everything is still working fine.

My partner has a giffgaff payg number for WhatsApp and a local country sim for everything else. Her iPhone prompts her to insert the giffgaff sim every now and then to keep it working for FaceTime but that’s the only trouble.

Tldr: maybe it will just be fine and the fair usage policy will never come in to effect.

Could you get a UK pay as you go SIM to put the number on and then set up forwarding to another number?

Three cancelled my contract, but I have had the same Giff Gaff PAYG sim for 3 years now and have had no problems with it, whatever their T&Cs say. Just turned off roaming, as I don't actually want to use it - it's just there to receive authorisation text messages from the UK Gov, or bank when necessary. I've never even burned through my first £10 credit.

I think it needed to be activated in the UK, but after that it was all good.

Thanks all. Seems to be a bit arbitrary. Think we'll switch to the cheapest monthly deal here, switch off all roaming, send a text every couple of months and hope that with it being paid but barely used that will be OK.

I’ll ask here as well:
Those hdmi stick retro game emulators : which ones are any good/come with Mario kart etc/ are they worth it?

Can anyone point me in the direction of a cross section of how a chimney is constructed in a typical Victorian (~ 1910 so I guess not strictly Victorian) terrace?

I want to feed a wire from the loft to the living room and the chimney seems the perfect option for this except regardless of how much I try dropping strings down from the loft or shoving cable rods up I can't get anywhere.

Cheers for all the suggestions here. I made another hole at the other side of the cap, dropped a weight on a string down and it worked first time. Can't believe I spent so much time trying to do it at the other side.

Next question. I'm planning on running a mains extension (max draw maybe 300w) and an Ethernet cable up there. Anything special to consider?

Could she post it back every couple of months and you connect it to the UK network for a day and then send it back?

A bit of a faff but potentially worth it if it would work.

Classic neutral to earth fault. It won’t go into fault when there’s no load connected. But any load on the circuit will put current down the neutral and onto the earth at the location of the damage/moisture and trip the RCD.

Doesn’t sound like a faulty breaker to me at all.

To be clear, you’re saying the RCD and breaker tripped , but the MCB (mini circuit breaker) won’t stay up now (but the RCD can be reset)? One thing that is often missed, is that you need to flip the switch all the way down before it will switch on again (it trips to the halfway position, so needs to go all the way down to reset).
You’d need to have a fault to earth to trip the RCD (current going from from live or neutral to earth). And you’d need to have a fault from live to earth, or live to neutral to trip the MCB, or just have too much shit plugged in (but this doesn’t sound likely in this instance).

Also want to know this. I’ve heard the cheap ones are laggy, or just have poor feedback/controller input.

Neutral is Earth (in the UK at least)

It is and it isn’t - yes the earth is taken from the supply neutral on a PME/TNCS system, but not on a TT or TNS system, you used to get TNC where neutral and earth were combined on the consumer side, but they almost never exist here any more. On the consumer side earth and neutral are definitely separate.

On the consumer side earth and neutral are definitely separate.

But will be tied to earth at the sub-station - so neutral = earth

They're often tied to each other at the incoming supply. You just get two cables coming in - a live and a neutral. But critically they're separated before your meter. TNCS literally stands for terra neutral combined separated, IE your earth and neutral are combined in supply but separated into separate conductors for the consumer side. They aren't the same thing because of how they're used.

The whole safety of your electrical installation relies on neutral and earth being separate, lol. RCDs don't work otherwise.

I'd imagine none are as good as a modern firestick or similar.

Anything that comes with stuff like Mario Kart will probably be a dodgy one which are generally a bit crappy

I'm away until Weds so will test the pushing all the way down theory then.

It managed to stay up when every plug was out / switch was off but as soon as any of them were switched on it tripped again. (Any of them even devices I tried on other circuits and which didn't trip)

The whole safety of your electrical installation relies on neutral and earth being separate

Yes an no - Our system relies on earth being the fault path and that is why neutral is at the same potential (theoretically). When a class 1 appliance's case goes live, traditionally a large fault current would flow to earth and blow a fuse/mcb and therefore protect you and me.

You are correct though in terms of an RCD and the imbalance in current flow when a N-E fault is in effect when something it turned on, I was incorrectly over simplifying it.

Your example literally describes earth and neutral being separate. Having the same potential doesn’t mean they’re the same thing. One returns current in normal use, the other in fault condition.
If they weren’t separated, it would be a TNC system (terra neutral combined) which is highly uncommon.
Either way. I’m an electrician, and I have no idea what the point your making actually is, or why you think neutral and earth are the same.

Fair enough, but if an RCD fails (which they do) I would be happy that Neutral and Earth are tied to the same point (somewhere) because the fault current has a path to flow to instead of leaving a case live (the main reason for doing earth continuity tests as part of electrical safety testing). That is unless you are running a floating supply that is not referenced to earth (which we generally don't unless you are working with control systems or some lab applications)

You’re just waffling on about nothing while still missing the point.

If your protective device doesn’t trip in fault conditions, it doesn’t matter if the earth and neutral are linked, things will just set on fire until the main fuse goes.

What about TT systems where they’re completely separate as well?

I think that’s what I’m after a fire stick/hdmi input/ 2 controllers/ all the games.

To tide me over until I eventually give in and buy a switch.

If you already have some Xbox controllers or similar then that is a decent route to go down if you're happy with where to download slightly dubious stuff and sideloading it.

But buying a switch is a lot easier, they're pretty cheap secondhand and you can play Mario Kart.

I think this is the way.

Can I tip a gas cooker onto its side to transport it in a car or will I die a fiery death?