Badger Électricité

06/05/2024

Series ends soon, hopefully.

After 14 years of Tory chaos on our screens, is the long-running Downing Street farce finally coming to an end?

15/01/2023

Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate, Helena Gualinga and Luisa Neubauer are calling on fossil fuel CEOs to immediately stop the new fossil fuel projects that are destroying our planet. Let's all join them!

19/10/2022

Yes. Sadly people do seem to….

The Just Stop Oil activists are accused of tactics that will stop people listening. But ‘respectable’ protest is roundly ignored, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

03/05/2022

To viewers of this page......
Although I'm still happy to answer questions about matters electrical in France I am no longer available for any insured or guaranteed work due to having recently retired (from my 62nd birthday on 28/02/2022). I need to get on with my own projects whilst I’m still fit & well, & it’s great that the system here allows me to do so.

I wish you well with your projects - bon courage!

Jonathan BADGER

18/08/2021

More analysis that warns against the hydrogen con. Don't fall for it!

The UK government claims hydrogen could meet one-third of the country’s energy demand by 2050.

25/06/2021

If I had to name one aspect of the domestic wiring regulations in France that underlines their common sense it is the attitude to junctions/joints in any circuit.
The rule is incredibly simple; any joint in any cable or wire must be accessible for the lifetime of the installation.
In other words there is no opportunity for a cable to change size or colour or split without it being obvious by opening a junction box ("bôite de derivation"). Unlike the UK you cannot hide a junction box under a floor, sealed away beneath boards, carpets or laminate flooring. This regulation explains why you find so many flush fitting junction boxes on the market, to be buried in solid walls or plasterboard ceilings & partitions. On the surface these are just a plain white plate, which can be painted to suit. As a box has to be accessible it is forbidden to paper over them (but you could stick wallpaper to the lid to match in, as long as the screws are left exposed). This all means that anyone investigating a fault doesn't have to be responsible for damaging any precious decor. It is allowable to have junctions behind cupboards/kitchen units etc., as long as their presence in indicated somehow. Access can then be via a removable panel, or removal of the shelf, picture or whatever, that is concealing the box.
A junction box is not limited to being used by just one circuit. If circumstances create the necessity it is perfectly normal to have a large junction box containing links/pairing/switch loops for sockets, lighting circuits, heaters & any other circuit of the same voltage. This gives rise to the large "bôite de combles" that you might have seen on the shelves of a brico store; these are intended to be fitted in voids (combles) as a hub for anything that can be serviced from that void. The result of such a box with multiple flexible conduits radiating out from it is sometimes referred to as a "pieuvre" - an octopus!
In order to help future fault finding of, or alterations to, wiring, it is imperative to label the circuits within a junction box (or anywhere else for that matter). Failure to do so will could result in the poor soul who has to deal with the system at a later date hunting you down & doing unspeakable things by way of revenge. You have been warned.
This article was originally in a blog I wrote in 2009.

20/05/2021

If aluminium-ion batreries end up doing what this article says they will be a complete game changer.

The graphene aluminum-ion battery cells from the Brisbane-based Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) are claimed to charge up to 60 times faster than the best lithium-ion cells and hold more energy.

02/01/2021

Bonne Année à tous!

Earthing! Yet again a posting I put on a Facebook group made me write a reply that is probably useful as a general item on this page, so....

To all those suggesting that creating a compliant earth is an easy task....I have to issue a warning.

Geology/soil type will play a big part on how efficient the electrical path to earth is. Yes, you might be lucky & find that one earth stake (minimum 1,5m, preferably 2m) will give you a reading under 100Ω, but you might need to put in multiple stakes (spaced at least their own length apart) to get the reading down. Even that might not be sufficient (I've had situations where putting in 4 or 5 stakes has barely effected the resistance).

If you have a reading of several hundred Ohms from one stake then the only fix is to bury a decent length (20m+) of bare 25mm² copper wire as deep as possible, or to bury copper earth mat(s). This is why I urge renovators to consider earthing at the start of a project when services & drainage trenches are bering opened up. Burying a “boucle” (loop) under new foundations is an even better method.

Final word; whatever you do to add/improve your earth you MUST get it checked for efficiency with a proper earth resistance meter. Only then will you know…..

16/08/2020

Every little bit helps. A good news item.

Oxford PV says tech based on perovskite crystal can generate almost a third more electricity

15/07/2020

I think I need to research the means to make an adaptor.

Nissan has announced that the new Ariya will use to the Combined Charging System (CCS) instead of CHAdeMO in the US and Europe