Fionna O’Leary's avatar

Fionna O’Leary

@fascinatorfun.bsky.social

3554 followers 1280 following 3258 posts

Retired Lawyer, cook, Europhile, books, music, good conversations, gardens, walking. Bird site refugee

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

Further to the instruction to candidates not to tweet whilst drunk or risk suspension, Reform UK took it a step further …now 'mortified' after sacking 'inactive' election candidate who was actually dead.

“Mortified” seems apt in the circumstances!

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

4 replies 5 reposts 35 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

The 9.5kw “actual” capacity has built in safety head room at either end as manufacturer setting. In reality about 11.5kw. But I had no choice. Nowhere else for it to go …save for worse options.

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

Tesla says it’s poised to go bust because it is too “vertically integrated!

Tesla ended up disappointing even those low expectations. Wedbush analyst and noted Tesla bull Dan Ives called it an “unmitigated disaster that is hard to explain away.”

apple.news/AazpvmUimRES...

2 replies 3 reposts 6 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

The two chaps working on the roof, James and Rhys, have been carefully checking for any cracked tiles (so far none!). The morning conditions were less than ideal as early rain had made the conditions slippery and they have to haul up very heavy solar panels. Impressed with OVO so far!

0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

Day 3. Half the solar panels are up - those on the front elevation - and a start has been made on the rear elevation.

Both inverters (one for solar panels and one for the @givenergy.bsky.social battery) installed.

The electrician has been working non stop and late.

1 replies 0 reposts 9 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

Good Lord!

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

How do you mean “0wnership of the panels has to be specifically verified” By what means? The contract is in my name. Who else could own them? If I sold the house the panels would be part of the sale!

2 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

You’d definitely be better qualified than me to do it. Especially if you can install on lower property rather than having to climb onto a high complex roof!

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

Ah yes. You will produce more than me 1/ due to the additional panels and 2/ the south aspect. But my 9.5 kw battery should give me a boost in the evenings after a sunny day.

0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

I’m quite excited at that thought…though think it won’t go live until Friday, now.

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

Ah! The solar twitch virus! I am told I shall catch it too! How many panels? Roof orientation? Battery?

1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

Ovo Energy are the installers. They are using their in house and QA team to do it as it presents some challenges.

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

They are developing a housing unit for them, however that is likely to be available later this year. As will more sophisticated scheduling tools in their app, to enable users to schedule up and downloads more easily at low cost time slots.

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

So if you are thinking of installing solar and/or batteries you need to think of those things.

However I visited the @givenergy.bsky.social HQ last week and they were confident that the battery and inverter will function well outside.

3 replies 1 reposts 4 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

If I need to draw on battery power (it stores 9.5kw of usable energy) then the inverter converts it back to AC. It would have been handy to have them in my garage but, unfortunately, the garage is in a block quite separate from my house & on a different electrical circuit.

1 replies 1 reposts 2 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

So the 16 panels produce direct current (DC) current. The 5kw Growatt Inverter for the panels convert that to alternating current (AC) to run appliances and lighting in my house, the excess passes to the battery inverter that converts the AC to DC for storage in the battery & excess to the grid.

1 replies 1 reposts 2 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

I can’t be shinning up a wobbly loft ladder with awkward access at my age! But if that needs attention that will need an engineer/ electrician anyway. But the isolation switches need to be in an accessible place. Similarly the 110kg battery and the battery inverter. They will go outside

1 replies 1 reposts 3 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

It has been quite tricky getting the wiring from the meter box through a cupboard upstairs where the solar DC current isolation switches and boxes will have to go as I need to be able to access them. The panel inverter itself will go into the loft (with a fire alarm).

1 replies 1 reposts 4 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

The team is absolutely lovely. Today the roofing panel team will arrive: James and Rhys who have both been doing this for 4 years. James is ex military Rob and Andy (electricians and survey team) Geoff (sales consultant) has been in solar for years. Yesterday a chunk of wiring done.

1 replies 0 reposts 11 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

Yesterday the installation started & is steaming ahead. Alex the Project Manager arrived as did Andy the electrician that did the original scoping & Rob the lead electrician . Three scaffolders from Wales. My house is quite awkward to access but they are doing a great job

4 replies 0 reposts 25 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

I’ll be tweeting out each stage…and the results!

0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

I’m paying c £13k for 16 panels with MPPT technology, a 5kw inverter for the panels, a 3kw integrated inverter for the 9.5kw battery…and bird blocker…but they had an offer on. Other quotes ranged from £13.5k to £14.9k for similar systems.

1 replies 0 reposts 5 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

#SolarJourney

Tomorrow is the start of the installation. Scaffolding up and electrical work to start. Solar panels up & battery installed Tuesday & Wednesday.

It has come around really quickly - just over 1 month from contract signature.

OvoEnergy have been v efficient & helpful so far!

3 replies 1 reposts 15 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Adam Schwarz's avatar Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social
[ View ]

Rishi Sunak, who voted to criminalise the right to protest, make it harder to vote, strip the Electoral Commission of powers and limit court abilities to remedy unlawful government actions, says political extremists have no respect for British democracy.

8 replies 59 reposts 84 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Municipal Dreams's avatar Municipal Dreams @municipaldreams.bsky.social
[ View ]

It's St David's Day so here's the Elwy Road Estate in Rhos-on-Sea, north Wales, designed in 1952 by Sidney Colwyn Foulkes in Celtic Romantic style for Colwyn Bay Borough Council. Frank Lloyd Wright declared it ‘perfectly charming’.

0 replies 5 reposts 18 likes

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

And today - another day that was supposed to rain all day…but my 6 mile walk was all in the dry.

0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Tom Nichols's avatar Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social
[ View ]

There’s a part of me that now believes anything is possible. I want to believe that they’ll deny his immunity claim, but maybe the ability to institute a theocracy is just too tempting for five of them.

20 replies 39 reposts 196 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Ian Coldwater 📦💥's avatar Ian Coldwater 📦💥 @lookitup.baby
[ View ]

This was the guy on Twitter’s T&S team who got fired for liking a tweet calling the new owner a dipshit.

157 replies 1061 reposts 4873 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Helen Kennedy's avatar Helen Kennedy @helenkennedy.bsky.social
[ View ]

Luttig on MSNBC: "There was no reason whatsoever for the court to take this case unless there were dissents from the view taken by the US court of appeals...I feel all but certain there are some number of Justices prepared to hold that the former president is immune from prosecution (for Jan 6.)"

18 replies 72 reposts 195 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

e.w. niedermeyer's avatar e.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.io
[ View ]

If only there had been some way of knowing that you shouldn't let Tesla build a factory on top of the aquifer Berlin relies on for drinking water.

Oh wait, there totally was: niedermeyer.io/2024/02/02/i...

14 replies 144 reposts 356 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Melissa 2024 Edition 's avatar Melissa 2024 Edition @meltart.bsky.social
[ View ]

Bette sums it up nicely.

5 replies 42 reposts 96 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

My IRL friends call me Chris's avatar My IRL friends call me Chris @christyceeck.bsky.social
[ View ]

A new study of almost 1.2 million people in Hong Kong demonstrates the protective effect of COVID-19 vaccination against long COVID, and suggests that the more doses people have had the less likely they experience long-term symptoms related to the virus.

10 replies 309 reposts 651 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

John Self's avatar John Self @john-self.bsky.social
[ View ]

"Badenoch’s fans see her as the next leader of the Tories, someone who could take the fight to Labour. Those of us who make a living writing jokes about Parliament also relish the prospect, for different reasons."

1 replies 12 reposts 33 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Toby Earle's avatar Toby Earle @tobyontv.bsky.social
[ View ]

in a sign everything is absolutely fine, Tories are now angry with the *squints* dictionary

4 replies 28 reposts 44 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Steve Benen's avatar Steve Benen @stevebenen.bsky.social
[ View ]

Justice Clarence Thomas has faced so many ethics controversies that jokes about his alleged corruption have become a common cultural punchline.   For the Supreme Court, that's a disaster.

3 replies 14 reposts 37 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Bylines Network's avatar Bylines Network @bylinesnetwork.bsky.social
[ View ]

Durham’s grant of £72.8mn over seven years is the only money coming the North East’s way from the total of £4.7bn that ministers said today would be allocated to the North and Midlands from HS2 savings | Peter Morris

northeastbylines.co.uk/north-east-t...

1 replies 16 reposts 14 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Brenda Selwyn's avatar Brenda Selwyn @brendaselwyn.bsky.social
[ View ]

I remember reading an interview with June Spencer years ago in which she said unfortunately Peggy wouldn't reach her 100th birthday because she (June) was 5 years older than the character. It's starting to look like she might have been wrong! #TheArchers

1 replies 1 reposts 8 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Fionna O’Leary's avatar Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social
[ View ]

Magnolias brightening a rather grey afternoon.

1 replies 0 reposts 15 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary

Mark Chadbourn's avatar Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social
[ View ]

Immigration is fuelling America’s economic growth. “About 50 percent of the labor market’s extraordinary recent growth came from foreign-born workers between January 2023 and January 2024, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis of federal data,” WaPo reports.

0 replies 2 reposts 13 likes

Reposted by Fionna O’Leary