The decision to go private was helped along by two earlier bad experiences with the State Education System: I was disappointed at my young daughters ignorance of her times tables during her spell in Primary School. Imagine my shock when, at a Parents Evening, her elderly teacher told me that she was "no longer allowed to teach times tables". How the hell are our children expected to go through life? Counting on their B****y fingers?
Of course, it goes without saying, they were taught at home.
Later on, in Junior School, daughter came home and told us that the old (stern, respected, no-nonsense) Head Master had retired, to be replaced with a young 'touchy/feely' bloke to whom the children had all taken an instant dislike. (They saw through him immediately. It took us parents a bit longer). His first act was to rearrange the furniture so that the children all sat round interfering with each other, copying each other's answers, and kicking each other under the table. The ones with their backs to the board had to screw their heads off constantly to see what was going on. What a great idea!
The old-fashioned Private Grammar School we chose for her secondary education had all the desks facing the front, as they had in my day. If parents can choose their children's schools, they can make their own minds up, but in Africa, with the pupils facing the front, one teacher can educate 150 in one class - under a tree, probably. And get a better result than some of our own poor deluded teachers get with the vast sums poured into their training.
Huh!
Friday, November 5, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Education, education, education
Where have I heard that before?
I was pleased to hear a government advisor repeat, yesterday, that it should be pupils and parents who choose their education or that of their children. Emphatically, NOT government, local authorities, or, worst of all, teachers.
I have to ask, "What was wrong with my education?". It was MY generation (and the one before it) that built Concorde (an astonishing collaboration itself) and put a man on the moon: Without much aid from computers, at that! All done with slide rules and log tables.
My first computer - a Sinclair Spectrum with booster - with 32 kbytes had three times the RAM of the computers used to help design Concorde and control the moon landing module.
When we saw how dire the local secondary schools were - the state choice for our child - my dear wife went out and got a job to pay for a private schooling. During the sales pitch to the assembled parents (this is mid-80s) the Head said "We know what you want from us, and we will have to give you what you want so that we can all pay our mortgages" (or words to that effect). As a result, said child was given the sort of education that was given to me by the state thirty years earlier, was given a sound base of maths, physics, chemistry, and languages, and went on to obtain an Honours Degree in aeronautical engineering. This would NOT (COULD not) have happened had she gone to the local-authority-run state school, for the simple reason that said school didn't do physics as a separate subject.
Sad, isn't it? All those children let down by the state and militant teachers.
Funny how "Power to the People" has been turned on it's head by the Socialists, isn't it? What they really mean is "Power to the State".
I was pleased to hear a government advisor repeat, yesterday, that it should be pupils and parents who choose their education or that of their children. Emphatically, NOT government, local authorities, or, worst of all, teachers.
I have to ask, "What was wrong with my education?". It was MY generation (and the one before it) that built Concorde (an astonishing collaboration itself) and put a man on the moon: Without much aid from computers, at that! All done with slide rules and log tables.
My first computer - a Sinclair Spectrum with booster - with 32 kbytes had three times the RAM of the computers used to help design Concorde and control the moon landing module.
When we saw how dire the local secondary schools were - the state choice for our child - my dear wife went out and got a job to pay for a private schooling. During the sales pitch to the assembled parents (this is mid-80s) the Head said "We know what you want from us, and we will have to give you what you want so that we can all pay our mortgages" (or words to that effect). As a result, said child was given the sort of education that was given to me by the state thirty years earlier, was given a sound base of maths, physics, chemistry, and languages, and went on to obtain an Honours Degree in aeronautical engineering. This would NOT (COULD not) have happened had she gone to the local-authority-run state school, for the simple reason that said school didn't do physics as a separate subject.
Sad, isn't it? All those children let down by the state and militant teachers.
Funny how "Power to the People" has been turned on it's head by the Socialists, isn't it? What they really mean is "Power to the State".
Friday, October 29, 2010
How VAT damages trade skills
It's barely understood how VAT has been a factor in the destruction of the skills base of this nation:
To the retailer, the introduction of VAT was a godsend, sweeping away a mess of purchase taxes, replacing them with a simple one-stop tax that the customer barely notices - if at all. (How many people ask the shop assistant at M&S "....can you do something about the VAT"?)
To the wholesaler or industrialist, VAT is of no consequence, as it simply passes through unnoticed, improving the cash flow in the process, but impinging not at all on the price of the product. All prices are quoted 'Excl VAT'.
The VAT registered tradesman, however- the guy at the end of the line charged with prising this no small additional sum of money out of the customer - finds himself in competition with the unregistered tradesman who's decided to work on his own and remain below the VAT threshold. The effect on the marginal tax rates is simply staggering, and a simple calculation explains why we have seen a collapse in trade skills over the last thirty years. No one in trade dealing direct to the public would willingly take on and train staff when their main role becomes that of a tax collector. In order to compete, the middling business has to either swallow the VAT or risk prosecution for tax evasion. Yet there isn't a policeman, tax inspector or politician in the land who doesn't say "Can we do something about the VAT? The chap down the road doesn't charge it."
Locked into a lease on premises and hire purchase agreements on expensive machinery, the only way to compete is to avoid the direct sales business altogether. This explains, of course, not just the demise of the small joinery company, but all trades from PVC windows to car repairs. VAT favours big business, and puts an enormous obstacle in the way of small businesses to grow organically. When, in those dark days of 1985, I told my bank manager that VAT was going to be put on home improvements, he said "Oh good! It'll improve your cash flow". That might have been true had I been selling to the trade - when VAT is indeed of no consequence, and DOES improve cash flow - but selling direct to householders I knew that it would be ME that paid the VAT, as no one would stand a 15% hike in prices overnight. Worse, the government decreed it uneconomic to police individual tradesmen, and allowed a gap for the competition to seriously undercut the slightly bigger business employing a few staff, lumbered with plant and machinery, and locked into an overhead. As materials make up only a modest part of the cost, for the tradesman, VAT amounts to a tax on his labour. Hardly surprising then, that to this day, the individual tradesman wants to work on his own, as he can make around eight times the income for perhaps half the effort.* As a result, for ten years I simply handed my quarterly profits over to the VATman and watched the growth of a generation of shiftless young men denied the opportunity of learning a trade while subject to the discipline and example set by their master.
This is why we have a desperate shortage of skilled labour, a great unemployed pool of our own children and rely on cheap Eastern european neighbours to fill the gap.
When will we learn?
*If you don't believe me, e-mail me and I'll send you the figures.
To the retailer, the introduction of VAT was a godsend, sweeping away a mess of purchase taxes, replacing them with a simple one-stop tax that the customer barely notices - if at all. (How many people ask the shop assistant at M&S "....can you do something about the VAT"?)
To the wholesaler or industrialist, VAT is of no consequence, as it simply passes through unnoticed, improving the cash flow in the process, but impinging not at all on the price of the product. All prices are quoted 'Excl VAT'.
The VAT registered tradesman, however- the guy at the end of the line charged with prising this no small additional sum of money out of the customer - finds himself in competition with the unregistered tradesman who's decided to work on his own and remain below the VAT threshold. The effect on the marginal tax rates is simply staggering, and a simple calculation explains why we have seen a collapse in trade skills over the last thirty years. No one in trade dealing direct to the public would willingly take on and train staff when their main role becomes that of a tax collector. In order to compete, the middling business has to either swallow the VAT or risk prosecution for tax evasion. Yet there isn't a policeman, tax inspector or politician in the land who doesn't say "Can we do something about the VAT? The chap down the road doesn't charge it."
Locked into a lease on premises and hire purchase agreements on expensive machinery, the only way to compete is to avoid the direct sales business altogether. This explains, of course, not just the demise of the small joinery company, but all trades from PVC windows to car repairs. VAT favours big business, and puts an enormous obstacle in the way of small businesses to grow organically. When, in those dark days of 1985, I told my bank manager that VAT was going to be put on home improvements, he said "Oh good! It'll improve your cash flow". That might have been true had I been selling to the trade - when VAT is indeed of no consequence, and DOES improve cash flow - but selling direct to householders I knew that it would be ME that paid the VAT, as no one would stand a 15% hike in prices overnight. Worse, the government decreed it uneconomic to police individual tradesmen, and allowed a gap for the competition to seriously undercut the slightly bigger business employing a few staff, lumbered with plant and machinery, and locked into an overhead. As materials make up only a modest part of the cost, for the tradesman, VAT amounts to a tax on his labour. Hardly surprising then, that to this day, the individual tradesman wants to work on his own, as he can make around eight times the income for perhaps half the effort.* As a result, for ten years I simply handed my quarterly profits over to the VATman and watched the growth of a generation of shiftless young men denied the opportunity of learning a trade while subject to the discipline and example set by their master.
This is why we have a desperate shortage of skilled labour, a great unemployed pool of our own children and rely on cheap Eastern european neighbours to fill the gap.
When will we learn?
*If you don't believe me, e-mail me and I'll send you the figures.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
How to wreck Small Business
Hello Mark
Perusing the economics commentaries in the business pages this Sunday morning: The lack of growth in employment is clearly the principal concern of the powers-that-be on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet having personally seen the clear correllation between excessive taxation and job destruction, I find it difficult to understand why this obvious truth (obvious to me, anyway) is so difficult for our politicians to understand.
The first (and best) example of this was demonstrated by the introduction of 15% VAT overnight on home improvements in 1985. I had an innovative product with growing sales, a factory, a growing workforce, and export potential. Had the status-quo been maintained, the Exchequer would have received growing income from steadily increasing income tax, corporation tax, and property rates (and also from the rents from my local authority landlord) along with reducing welfare payments from those new employees coming off the dole. In the event the overnight bombshell of VAT killed the business stone-dead. In April I had a full and growing order book but took not a single new order between then and August, when I sacked the remaining staff and changed the direction of the business with a dramatic downsizing (to just me, again). It was four years before the payroll reached the same level, but sales of the innovative product range were damaged for a generation by the inability to grasp the moment in 1985. Such is the damage wrought by the greed of big government.
Regards
Keith
PS And that was a Tory government!
Perusing the economics commentaries in the business pages this Sunday morning: The lack of growth in employment is clearly the principal concern of the powers-that-be on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet having personally seen the clear correllation between excessive taxation and job destruction, I find it difficult to understand why this obvious truth (obvious to me, anyway) is so difficult for our politicians to understand.
The first (and best) example of this was demonstrated by the introduction of 15% VAT overnight on home improvements in 1985. I had an innovative product with growing sales, a factory, a growing workforce, and export potential. Had the status-quo been maintained, the Exchequer would have received growing income from steadily increasing income tax, corporation tax, and property rates (and also from the rents from my local authority landlord) along with reducing welfare payments from those new employees coming off the dole. In the event the overnight bombshell of VAT killed the business stone-dead. In April I had a full and growing order book but took not a single new order between then and August, when I sacked the remaining staff and changed the direction of the business with a dramatic downsizing (to just me, again). It was four years before the payroll reached the same level, but sales of the innovative product range were damaged for a generation by the inability to grasp the moment in 1985. Such is the damage wrought by the greed of big government.
Regards
Keith
PS And that was a Tory government!
Friday, October 22, 2010
A letter to my MP
Hello Mark,
You must have been pleased with the masterly performance from George Osborne on Wednesday, putting a great spin on what is a rather depressing message. After thirty five years in business, and having now weathered five recessions since starting out in self employment (as a carpenter/joiner in Mallorca) just as the economies of Europe took a dive in 1974, I have become rather more sanguine than some. After all these years of New Labour 'growth' we are seeing some chickens come home to roost.
I returned to England in 1978 just in time to experience Labour's Winter of Discontent, and another nosedive in the economy. As I turned up one morning to install a porch for my very first UK customer, I met her setting off to the ATV studios to take part in a hand-wringing discussion about the dire economic future and the death of UK business. "What do YOU think?" she asked. I told her that I thought the increasing productivity promised by modern computerised manufacturing would bring on a Golden Age freeing us from wage-slavery, with a flowering of small businesses in trade crafts and art and food production. I rather think I was proved right in the fullness of time, although the look on her face told me she thought I was mad.
The one thing that was missing from George's performance, though, was anything to encourage these small businesses to take on staff. After struggling with ever-growing laws biased in favour of the employees, five years ago I grabbed an opportunity to get out before the roof fell in, and shut the business with the loss of twenty two jobs. I swore then, for the second time, as it happens, to never employ anyone again. Although I am now drawing the state pension, and (as Gordon stole my company pensions) I have to work for a living, this time round, with business booming following a phase of innovation permitted by not having to battle the staff on daily basis, I intend to outsource and licence my way to a pension.
Two questions:
1: Are you aware that private individuals have to pay VAT on the costs of developing their Intellectual Property?
My patent agent charges VAT that I can't reclaim as an individual. This amounts to a substantial imposition on a pensioner, even if (with a fair wind) I hope to live long enough to see the fruits of my innovations some years hence. What value-added does the government see in taxing my innovations? Is this designed to encourage us as entrepreneurs? Or is it just one of those silly things that HMRC slipped past everyone thinking that BIG BUSINESS is the source of invention? Ask George to give us a break, please.
2: I recall pointing out to your father (ed - then local MP) some fifteen years ago or more, that small businesses had the capacity to soak up most of the unemployment of Margaret Thatcher's time. The problem was, much of the time employing more staff wasn't worth the hassle, or the risk, and wasn't sufficiently rewarding. Regrettably, the suggestion fell on deaf ears, and I guess Euro Employment Law took precedence over sanity.
So,the question is - what plans does the Coalition have to make employers WANT to employ more staff? Surely, as I put it to Frank Field MP in 1992, during another economic nose dive, tax-breaks for employers MUST cost less than welfare payments.
It's frankly too late for me, but as George says, it's time for some radical thinking.
Yours ever
Keith
You must have been pleased with the masterly performance from George Osborne on Wednesday, putting a great spin on what is a rather depressing message. After thirty five years in business, and having now weathered five recessions since starting out in self employment (as a carpenter/joiner in Mallorca) just as the economies of Europe took a dive in 1974, I have become rather more sanguine than some. After all these years of New Labour 'growth' we are seeing some chickens come home to roost.
I returned to England in 1978 just in time to experience Labour's Winter of Discontent, and another nosedive in the economy. As I turned up one morning to install a porch for my very first UK customer, I met her setting off to the ATV studios to take part in a hand-wringing discussion about the dire economic future and the death of UK business. "What do YOU think?" she asked. I told her that I thought the increasing productivity promised by modern computerised manufacturing would bring on a Golden Age freeing us from wage-slavery, with a flowering of small businesses in trade crafts and art and food production. I rather think I was proved right in the fullness of time, although the look on her face told me she thought I was mad.
The one thing that was missing from George's performance, though, was anything to encourage these small businesses to take on staff. After struggling with ever-growing laws biased in favour of the employees, five years ago I grabbed an opportunity to get out before the roof fell in, and shut the business with the loss of twenty two jobs. I swore then, for the second time, as it happens, to never employ anyone again. Although I am now drawing the state pension, and (as Gordon stole my company pensions) I have to work for a living, this time round, with business booming following a phase of innovation permitted by not having to battle the staff on daily basis, I intend to outsource and licence my way to a pension.
Two questions:
1: Are you aware that private individuals have to pay VAT on the costs of developing their Intellectual Property?
My patent agent charges VAT that I can't reclaim as an individual. This amounts to a substantial imposition on a pensioner, even if (with a fair wind) I hope to live long enough to see the fruits of my innovations some years hence. What value-added does the government see in taxing my innovations? Is this designed to encourage us as entrepreneurs? Or is it just one of those silly things that HMRC slipped past everyone thinking that BIG BUSINESS is the source of invention? Ask George to give us a break, please.
2: I recall pointing out to your father (ed - then local MP) some fifteen years ago or more, that small businesses had the capacity to soak up most of the unemployment of Margaret Thatcher's time. The problem was, much of the time employing more staff wasn't worth the hassle, or the risk, and wasn't sufficiently rewarding. Regrettably, the suggestion fell on deaf ears, and I guess Euro Employment Law took precedence over sanity.
So,the question is - what plans does the Coalition have to make employers WANT to employ more staff? Surely, as I put it to Frank Field MP in 1992, during another economic nose dive, tax-breaks for employers MUST cost less than welfare payments.
It's frankly too late for me, but as George says, it's time for some radical thinking.
Yours ever
Keith
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
What an exciting day!
The BFRC window rating scheme is getting it in the neck big style. Here's the link to read the full stories: http://renegadeconservatoryguy.co.uk/category/energy-rated-windows/
On top of that, the issue of external misting of these efficient windows has prompted a flood of complaints from the public now that autumn has arrived. Those of my readers who have been paying attention will know that this issue was highlighted on TerryTheWindowman's website (RIP) around ten years ago when I first encountered the problem in my own office window. I did ask what the public would say when they found they couldn't see out of their nice new windows. I seemed to be in the minority then, but now we know. Here's the link: http://renegadeconservatoryguy.co.uk/a-rated-windows-problem/
Where have you all been since then?
On top of that, the issue of external misting of these efficient windows has prompted a flood of complaints from the public now that autumn has arrived. Those of my readers who have been paying attention will know that this issue was highlighted on TerryTheWindowman's website (RIP) around ten years ago when I first encountered the problem in my own office window. I did ask what the public would say when they found they couldn't see out of their nice new windows. I seemed to be in the minority then, but now we know. Here's the link: http://renegadeconservatoryguy.co.uk/a-rated-windows-problem/
Where have you all been since then?
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Recession? What recession?
Phew! Grabbing a few minutes to catch up! Recent weeks have been hectic, with business piling in, the creative juices flowing with answers to long- standing problems appearing out of the blue, and dealing with all the issues that both business and leisure have been throwing at me. In particular, the unfolding (and predictable) shambles over the new Window Rating Scheme (particularly in view of the dodgy science involved): Predictable in the knowledge that it could never be more than a marketing ploy - in the same vein as the 'Secure By Design' label owned by the Metropolitan Police - and that those, like me, who view the whole thing as a well-intentioned job-creation scheme, would continue to stick with the entirely justifiable U-value calculators from truly independent sources such as the highly reputable BRE at Watford.
I never completed my treatise on DGU fabrication, started here in August to explain why these new- f angled slim sealed units for Georgian-glazing-bar windows are distinctly dodgy. That's 'cos it seemed superfluous while a full discussion was in full flow on Philip Rougier's ExpertExpert site. Here's the link to the relevant page for those interested: http://forum.expertexpert.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=42
So much for retirement, too much to do. must fly. More later.
I never completed my treatise on DGU fabrication, started here in August to explain why these new- f angled slim sealed units for Georgian-glazing-bar windows are distinctly dodgy. That's 'cos it seemed superfluous while a full discussion was in full flow on Philip Rougier's ExpertExpert site. Here's the link to the relevant page for those interested: http://forum.expertexpert.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=42
So much for retirement, too much to do. must fly. More later.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Back to work
Back from a great week gliding in Yorkshire. Sharing Janus A Delta 31 with a great team, Brian and I managed to stay in the top half of the entrants in the 25th Two-Seater competition at Pocklington. Just three great flying days saw us complete more than 700km from Newark in the south to Thirsk in the north, via Driffield and Knaresborough in the east and west. The English countryside at its best, with air like crystal clear champagne.
Back to find lots of great business prospects on all fronts, and a really nice e-mail from a past client expressing delight in the ease of maintenance and wanting more windows.
I must catch up with the dissertation on slimline sealed units soon.
Back to find lots of great business prospects on all fronts, and a really nice e-mail from a past client expressing delight in the ease of maintenance and wanting more windows.
I must catch up with the dissertation on slimline sealed units soon.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
A diversion
I'm currently talking to other businesses about outsourcing a great deal of business to them, and have been surprised at several who have turned away the prospect of very simple profitable repeat business without even considering what's required. It's led me to reflect on my earlier experiences in manufacturing, and the constant struggle to get the staff to follow the laid-down procedures to the letter, without gradually omitting the bits they have difficulty with. Even the managers were complicit, and it was a constant battle to prevent them doing their own thing. I'm sure McDonalds don't have this problem (or do they?)
It strikes me that part of the problem was (and still is) the fact that employees generally are no longer terrified of losing their job, these days. Not that they should be expected to lie awake at night with their eyes sticking out like chapel hat-pegs (as many small business-owners do, as they wonder how they are going to pay the wages at the end of the month), but they ought surely to be concerned that if they don't do their job properly they might be shown the door. It's so time-consuming getting rid of unsatisfactory staff these days - difficult and fraught with danger - that quality and output may suffer to the detriment of the whole business. Call me old-fashioned, but hungry staff are going to be very much more diligent than those with a couldn't-care-less attitude. It's why I avoid employing anyone at all these days.
In my first week as a trainee metallurgist with the Heat Treatment Service of the then nationalised West Midlands Gas Board in 1961 I was told " Don't worry, lad. They can't sack you whatever you do." It shocked me even then, that such attitudes could prevail.
It got better under Maggie for a while, but we lost a lot of ground under New Labour. I suspect that our dire economic position with the lean and hungry Indians biting at our heels might require a change of heart, again.
It strikes me that part of the problem was (and still is) the fact that employees generally are no longer terrified of losing their job, these days. Not that they should be expected to lie awake at night with their eyes sticking out like chapel hat-pegs (as many small business-owners do, as they wonder how they are going to pay the wages at the end of the month), but they ought surely to be concerned that if they don't do their job properly they might be shown the door. It's so time-consuming getting rid of unsatisfactory staff these days - difficult and fraught with danger - that quality and output may suffer to the detriment of the whole business. Call me old-fashioned, but hungry staff are going to be very much more diligent than those with a couldn't-care-less attitude. It's why I avoid employing anyone at all these days.
In my first week as a trainee metallurgist with the Heat Treatment Service of the then nationalised West Midlands Gas Board in 1961 I was told " Don't worry, lad. They can't sack you whatever you do." It shocked me even then, that such attitudes could prevail.
It got better under Maggie for a while, but we lost a lot of ground under New Labour. I suspect that our dire economic position with the lean and hungry Indians biting at our heels might require a change of heart, again.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Back to the double-glazing.
Gas filling is the last step (to date) in achieving a small but significant improvement in U-value, (according to the published U-value calculators) but is perhaps the most difficult to explain. Air is a wonderful insulator - generally accepted to be the best of all - but three of the inert gases are reported to have better insulating qualities still, despite being heavier (and therefore denser). Logic might suggest that they might conceivably be better sound insulators but worse thermal insulators. Clearly there's more to this than meets the eye, as I have seen it claimed that these heavier gases - which also convect, of course - are at their best at successively smaller glass spacings. On that basis, it appears that an argon-filled DGU with a 12mm spacer ought to perform better than one with a 16mm spacer. Not according to my BRE U-value calculator it doesn't. I rather think that the benefits are questionable. However, for my preferred 20mm DGU (12mm spacer) argon confers a demonstrable and affordable reduction of 0.2 in the U-value of an average-size domestic window installation. Whether it's cost effective is arguable. Whether the use of expensive krypton or eye-wateringly expensive xenon is ever justified is highly, highly questionable. The claim that either (or, most puzzling of all, a mixture - in just what proportions?) of these two gases miraculously tranforms a 4mm gap into an efficient insulating unit is emphatically NOT borne out by the published U-value calculators from our most reputable authorities.
On a cheering note: Yesterday, a passing trio of canvassers for a national pvc window company told my wife (working in the front garden) that they wouldn't bother to pester her, as our wood windows were clearly excellent, and she wasn't going to be interested in what they were pushing. Knowing that pvc salesmen never have an option up their sleeve for those they encounter who really do want wood, I suggested they point such leads in my direction. They jumped at the opportunity. Other canvassers, form a queue here, please.
On a cheering note: Yesterday, a passing trio of canvassers for a national pvc window company told my wife (working in the front garden) that they wouldn't bother to pester her, as our wood windows were clearly excellent, and she wasn't going to be interested in what they were pushing. Knowing that pvc salesmen never have an option up their sleeve for those they encounter who really do want wood, I suggested they point such leads in my direction. They jumped at the opportunity. Other canvassers, form a queue here, please.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
More digression
I have spent the last few days completely re-writing the website, which along with an ongoing discussion on rising damp on Philip Rougiers forum (http://forum.expertexpert.com/index.php) hasn't left much time to continue the thoughts on slimlite DGUs. I'm now busy with preparing a new pitch to a potential big client, so it'll have to wait a bit longer.
Friday, July 30, 2010
A digression
Just returned from a spell in France which exposed a few weaknesses in Apple Technology. Don't get me wrong, modern technology is great, and I just luurve my i-Phone. However, when it goes wonky it doesn't just drive me crazy, the lost time and wasted effort in finding (and sometimes failing to find) a fix negates so much of the benefit it bought in the first place.
If you haven't got one, the beauty of the i-Phone is its almost permanent connection to the internet, with instant results from on-line searches without having to lug around a laptop and boot it up every time one thinks of something. So taking it to France and using my family's Wi-Fi was a no-brainer. Except that the i-Phone doesn't appear to be able to deal with hexadecimal password encryption, so three days were wasted for several people trawling the internet for an answer. (At least it proves that hexaD really IS effective, I suppose!) It seems we were not alone, and no answer was found. How did Mr Apple miss that one?
So for ten days I felt as if I had had an arm cut off. Never mind, it WAS supposed to be a holiday.
To really put the lid on it, on my return, it dropped the phone connection, and after two days of tearing my hair out, the problem was only solved by swapping the phone (on guarantee) for a new one. Have you ever tried to back-up to i-Tunes then re-load to a new phone...?
Phew! Five or six wasted days in all. I need another holiday....
If you haven't got one, the beauty of the i-Phone is its almost permanent connection to the internet, with instant results from on-line searches without having to lug around a laptop and boot it up every time one thinks of something. So taking it to France and using my family's Wi-Fi was a no-brainer. Except that the i-Phone doesn't appear to be able to deal with hexadecimal password encryption, so three days were wasted for several people trawling the internet for an answer. (At least it proves that hexaD really IS effective, I suppose!) It seems we were not alone, and no answer was found. How did Mr Apple miss that one?
So for ten days I felt as if I had had an arm cut off. Never mind, it WAS supposed to be a holiday.
To really put the lid on it, on my return, it dropped the phone connection, and after two days of tearing my hair out, the problem was only solved by swapping the phone (on guarantee) for a new one. Have you ever tried to back-up to i-Tunes then re-load to a new phone...?
Phew! Five or six wasted days in all. I need another holiday....
Friday, July 23, 2010
Yet More Basics....
The third big factor in DGU thermal performance is the coating (if any) on the glass. Put simply, thin coatings act like a see-through mirror, letting visible light through but reflecting selected long-wave radiation (heat) back into the room (or out again if you live in Dubai and want to keep the heat OUT).
There are two main classes of coating: Hard-coat and soft coat. Hard coat films are 'baked on' during the process. The hard-coat film is less efficient in keeping heat in than soft-coat, and also suffers from a reputation of leaving the glass with a dirty appearance in certain lighting conditions. It has a major advantage for small manufacturers in that it requires no special handling techniques in the construction of sealed units. So it's often pushed, not because its the best, but because its cheap and easy to use. Buyer beware! (It IS more effective at GATHERING heat from outside - the so-called solar gain. In the UK winter this is hardly likely to be a reason to use it, and in the summer it's likely to be a real pain.)
Soft coat films are becoming very sophisticated. A still-developing technology, they are capable of being 'tuned' to maximise their performance. Early issues with tinting and colour changes upon toughening are a thing of the past, and generally I consider them far superior to the hard coat films. As much as anything because I hate arguments, and will not take the risk of supplying my customers with what appears to be 'dirty glass' even if it isn't.
Soft coat films require special handing during the manufacture of DGUs, so they tend to be more expensive and are rarely available from the back-street fabricator. However, used in conjunction with warm-edge spacer separating the two sheets of glass, it is difficult to conceive a more efficient and cost-effective way of providing insulating glass.
Next I'll discuss the fine tuning with gas-filling: Another hornet's nest.
There are two main classes of coating: Hard-coat and soft coat. Hard coat films are 'baked on' during the process. The hard-coat film is less efficient in keeping heat in than soft-coat, and also suffers from a reputation of leaving the glass with a dirty appearance in certain lighting conditions. It has a major advantage for small manufacturers in that it requires no special handling techniques in the construction of sealed units. So it's often pushed, not because its the best, but because its cheap and easy to use. Buyer beware! (It IS more effective at GATHERING heat from outside - the so-called solar gain. In the UK winter this is hardly likely to be a reason to use it, and in the summer it's likely to be a real pain.)
Soft coat films are becoming very sophisticated. A still-developing technology, they are capable of being 'tuned' to maximise their performance. Early issues with tinting and colour changes upon toughening are a thing of the past, and generally I consider them far superior to the hard coat films. As much as anything because I hate arguments, and will not take the risk of supplying my customers with what appears to be 'dirty glass' even if it isn't.
Soft coat films require special handing during the manufacture of DGUs, so they tend to be more expensive and are rarely available from the back-street fabricator. However, used in conjunction with warm-edge spacer separating the two sheets of glass, it is difficult to conceive a more efficient and cost-effective way of providing insulating glass.
Next I'll discuss the fine tuning with gas-filling: Another hornet's nest.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
More Basics
The next big factor is the air (or gas) space. Air is a great insulator, but is prone to transfer heat by convection. Remember, hot air rises, so, if there is room for convection currents to develop, heat is transferred from the warm inner pane to the cold outer pane. If the airspace is kept below about 18mm, the viscosity of the air tends to limit this convection, so the insulation improvement to a sealed unit increases with the airgap to around 18mm, after which it falls off. In reality, the curve is very flat from 12mm to 20mm, so the improvement beyond a 12mm airgap is pretty small. 16mm is probably the peak in insulation terms, beyond which any improvement is doubltful or unlikely. To complicate matters further, the failure mode of sealed units is generally via moisture permeation (at molecular level) through the edge sealant, and the wider the airgap, the shorter the life of the DGU.
So sealed unit design, as with almost everything else in life, involves a compromise. In my considered opinion (borne out now by some thirty years of experience) a 12mm gas-gap is a good balance of the factors involved, and for timber windows a 20mm DGU (4/12/4) allows an economy of framing material while still achieving the desired insulation values and long unit life.
On the face of, the 4mm airgap (gas-gap) of Slimline units - with its reduced insulation value - might be offset by a reduced expectation of moisture permeation, and a thus enhanced unit life.
Regrettably, it's not as simple as that.
More next time.
So sealed unit design, as with almost everything else in life, involves a compromise. In my considered opinion (borne out now by some thirty years of experience) a 12mm gas-gap is a good balance of the factors involved, and for timber windows a 20mm DGU (4/12/4) allows an economy of framing material while still achieving the desired insulation values and long unit life.
On the face of, the 4mm airgap (gas-gap) of Slimline units - with its reduced insulation value - might be offset by a reduced expectation of moisture permeation, and a thus enhanced unit life.
Regrettably, it's not as simple as that.
More next time.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Back to basics.
The idea of slim DGUs is - on the face of it - very attractive. The day someone invents a single sheet of transparent material to replace existing double-glazing will signal the end of a massive industry. However, until that day, double-glazing is a developed technology that looks simple but has a great deal of Technical Know-How behind it to make it work. Getting it wrong leads to tears, and there are more than fifty years of often-painful experience to look back on.
Let's start at the beginning:
The most important (and effective) bit of double-glazing is - by far - the second sheet of glass. Obvious enough, but the problems arise in keeping those two panes clean and dry for twenty- five years or more. Glass is not cheap, nor is the labour involved in fitting them, so prematurely failed DGUs are a disaster in every sense: For the customer: For the installer who has to replace them at his own expense, and may even be chased through the courts: For the reputation of the industry, which has a poor reputation at the best of times: and - not least - for mankind, now that the sheer COST of energy is understood. Glass is expensive stuff, made from molten sand, and perhaps coated with exotic and complex films. DON'T WASTE IT!
Let's start at the beginning:
The most important (and effective) bit of double-glazing is - by far - the second sheet of glass. Obvious enough, but the problems arise in keeping those two panes clean and dry for twenty- five years or more. Glass is not cheap, nor is the labour involved in fitting them, so prematurely failed DGUs are a disaster in every sense: For the customer: For the installer who has to replace them at his own expense, and may even be chased through the courts: For the reputation of the industry, which has a poor reputation at the best of times: and - not least - for mankind, now that the sheer COST of energy is understood. Glass is expensive stuff, made from molten sand, and perhaps coated with exotic and complex films. DON'T WASTE IT!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Back to the Future
It's almost surreal... After thirty years of proving that draining and venting is the ONLY sure way of preventing premature sealed unit failure, we seem to be faced with a resurgence of the very cause of the problem - solid-bedding in oil-based putty. (And/Or NO drain and vent plus insufficient sealant and edgecover, all of which will almost GUARANTEE early failure.
It all stems from this new love-affair with so-called Slimlite double-glazed sealed units, characterised by the use of a 4mm gas space (rather than 12mm or 16mm). The logic sounds OK but is deeply flawed on several counts. I'll develop the theme over the next few weeks, but I predict a return to screaming headlines of the 1980's - "DOUBLE GLAZING = TROUBLE GLAZING" (Sunday Mercury 198?) once the complaints start to flood in (as they will).
It all stems from this new love-affair with so-called Slimlite double-glazed sealed units, characterised by the use of a 4mm gas space (rather than 12mm or 16mm). The logic sounds OK but is deeply flawed on several counts. I'll develop the theme over the next few weeks, but I predict a return to screaming headlines of the 1980's - "DOUBLE GLAZING = TROUBLE GLAZING" (Sunday Mercury 198?) once the complaints start to flood in (as they will).
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