HI all.

GR1 said:

Now he's the same as me, but he won't entertain the idea of varifocals, instead opting for off the peg reading glasses costing less than £3. 

I seem to be strange in that my £3 'readers' work for me for most things, inc driving. I can see the GPS and road signs clearly?

I do have to wear an additional pair (like the clock guys does on 'The Repair Shop') when doing fine work, like soldering or inside laptops.

I did have a set of 3 prescription glasses made up (on-line) after my last eye test, close up, reading and driving but because they are heavier than my readers, not 'universal' and so not on my face all the time, they reside in the box they came in. ;-(

And because I don't take the readers off, I don't tend to break or leave them places.

The Mrs used to wear contacts for vanity ... not sure I could poke things in my eyes. ;-(

All I know is that whatever glasses I wear my flipping eyes get sore in this hot weather due to the salt in the sweat dripping into them. It doesn't help that I spend so.much time looking at screens.

I've tried contacts a few time  but couldn't get used to them. Because of me being long sighted I've tried mono vision test made one eye short sighted and one long sighted with the brain adjusting to merge the two. The last time I tried varifocal ones  but half the time I couldn't work out if they were inside out and my eyes got so dry and itchy after wearing them for a short time. They couldn't get the prescription quite right either so I was too scared to drive.

Hello GR1.

Try a sweatband in hot weather? Desk or stand fan? Living in a hot country where it reached 45 degrees this summer and over 30 for 3 months of the year we have found that fans are the most effective and cheap to run. An investment for the future with this topsy turvy weather we are all experiencing at the moment?

Thanks for the tip I'll try the sweatband suggestion. I've got a portable humidifier and a couple of fans but I find them too noisy and quite expensive to run  especially with the cost of leccy here in the UK now. 

I assume you meant to say 'de-humidifier' there as I think it's the humidity that makes the heat even more uncomfortable. ;-)

We have ceiling fans in the lounge and bedroom and am not sure if we would survive this hot weather without them. In fact if / when we go to other peoples houses in this weather we really find it uncomfortable, unless they also have some sort of fan.

It would normally be difficult to measure the energy use of a ceiling fan but luckily I have a home automation system that also measures the whole house energy usage so I can confirm our fans use:

Low speed =  ~25W

Med speed =  ~40W

High speed = ~50W

We might only put them on high if just coming in from a walk or when we want to cool down quickly. We generally only have them on low where they move enough air over our skin to enhance the natural cooling effect of sweat evaporating off the skin (latent heat of vaporisation) and also at night as that's the quietest (nearly silent).

Re cost, if we assume the current UK electricity cost is 34p / kWh, then our ceiling fan on low for say 8 hours at night.

25W into 1kW or 1000W (as we are charged by the kWh) = 40. So you can run that fan on low for 40 hours before it used one kWh.

1kWh costs 34p (your rates my vary etc) so 34 / 40 = 0.85p / hour. On 8 hours at night, 0.85p x 8 = 6.8p.

So if you wanted it on full, that would still only be less than 2p/hour? (If my maths is right)

However, it does all add up so if you had one on (like we might have the lounge one on all day and the bedroom one on all night, (both on low)) that would be ~£1.50 for 7 days.

Personally we call that very good value for money. ;-)

We bought our fans from Homebase (other supplier are available etc) many years ago for about £25 each but you can get them for a bit more now.

Assuming you have a high enough ceiling and a central light it's pretty easy to install one in place of the light using the existing wiring. You power the fan from the permanent live normally found in a 'loop-in' rose and switch it from the pull switch and the built in light by the std room light switch as normal.

According to my HA system it's currently 21 DegC outside, 25 DegC here in the lounge and I have the fan on low. ;-)

No it's a humidifier. I have to fill it with cold water and put it near an open window or door. The water puts cool moisturised air into the room.

We've got a ceiling fan with a light in the conservatory and one on our bedroom ceiling, but they frighten me as I have visions of them coming off the ceiling and chopping my head off. 

We have 3 very agile cats, one in particular can jump very high and she'd probably end up shredded. Not to mention the dust if I forget to clean them.

Yeah, I know the saying you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. I am that horse

GR1 said:

Yeah, I know the saying you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. I am that horse

Fair enough, I was really trying to quantify the idea that 'all' fans were noisy and 'quite expensive to run' but I guess that's also relative.

And what's this 'dusting' of which you speak? ;-)

On a practical note, if they 'came off the ceiling' they would also disconnect themselves from the electricity so wouldn't be able to chop your whole head off. ;-)

Taking it back on topic, I really hope it's cooled down by the time I have any form of treatment for PC, if I have to go into London on the train. That said, I'm pleased to observe our overland service and the Queen Elizabeth lines were air conditioned. It's just the streets between the nearest station (Bond Street?)  and the UCH that aren't.

I'm with you on travelling to London. I used to commute from Kent to London Victoria. I'm up north right now and had to travel to St Pancras and cross over the road to Kings Cross. Even on the high speed train it takes an hr to do less than 50 miles, whereas the remaining 200 miles takes 2.25 hrs.

At least I don't have to use underground anymore.