Selfsufficientish.com

Thomzo wrote: If you were a millionaire, you could try these http://www.rainwaterharvesting.co.uk/pr ... Hog-540-GK but at over a grand for three, they're a bit steep.

Typical... pipped at the post... or you could say great minds think alike I wonder if they'd catch on more if they were in the price reach of the average gardener.

battybird wrote:Not really an invention...but we have no hot water in our barn in Portugal only what we heat with the woodburner. It is lit most evenings in Nov and also when it is cold in the morning. Obviously the pan gets cold fairly fast. So we made this giant "cosy" out of offcuts of insulation. We put the pan of hot water on a wooden slab when we go to bed or once the fire is out and cover it..keeps the water hot for several hours. Found that the cast iron woodburner took the heat from the pan if we left it on the stove! Dont think there will ever be a market for the cosy, but maybe someone else might use the idea. If my gran was still alive, she would have knitted me one!

Sorry, tried to make files a bit smaller and seem to have succeeded too well !

I've often wondered why you don't get kettle cosies in the same way as tea cosies. Would they be dangerous if you left them on while the kettle was boiling?

Zoe

I put the saucepan cosy on when the fire was not cool enough and it started to melt where it touched the flue! I should imagine a kettle cosy would be ok if it was on the stove but not making contact with any hot surfaces, I have set the teacosy on fire so I am sure I could manage to burn a kettle cosy!

Aha, good point. I was thinking more of an electric kettle. Surely it would heat up more quickly if it was insulated?

Zoe

Thomzo wrote:Aha, good point. I was thinking more of an electric kettle. Surely it would heat up more quickly if it was insulated?

Zoe

Not to any significant degree, because the power of the element can only change the cold water into boiling water at a certain rate. It would, however, keep the water in the kettle hotter for longer once it had boiled.
Gosh, physics on a Sunday morning??? I'm off for a lie-down!

Kate

hedgewizard wrote:'Kitty snipper'

just like one of those catflaps that won't let a cat in without a magnetic collar.

except this one lets them all in, but if they don't have the collar a guillotine blade cuts them in half. The prototype's working pretty well but I haven't solved the mess issue yet

Someone has pipped you to the post, though he didn't involve the use of a guillotine, but an orbiting 1000 Megaton peace keeping bomb.

"Photon Push-Pull Radiation Detector For Use In Chromatically Selective Cat Flap Control And 1000 Megaton Earth-Orbital Peace-Keeping Bomb". - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Paul_Pedrick

"Many of Pedrick's inventions related to his cat, and trying to improve the life of his sadly aging moggie. His crowning achievement in this respect was patent GB1426698 titled "Photon Push-Pull Radiation Detector For Use In Chromatically Selective Cat Flap Control And 1000 Megaton Earth-Orbital Peace-Keeping Bomb".

The idea was to detect the difference in fur colour between a ginger cat and a black cat. He came up with this idea because a black cat named "Blackie" from next door kept trying to steal his own cat's food. However, with Pedrick's new catflap design, if Blackie attempted to use the cat-flap he would not be allowed in. Ginger was impressed with the idea, and further suggested that the concept could be applied as a nuclear deterrent. Ginger's concern over the Cold War and the nuclear arsenals threatening the world was a regular motivator for Pedrick's inventions."

Patent:
http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publica ... &KC=A&ND=1

thanks for sharing that Tim_n How did you come across Pedrick? Do you know of any other crackpots like him? The man's a genius! :)

kit-e-kate wrote:

Thomzo wrote:Aha, good point. I was thinking more of an electric kettle. Surely it would heat up more quickly if it was insulated?

Zoe

Not to any significant degree, because the power of the element can only change the cold water into boiling water at a certain rate. It would, however, keep the water in the kettle hotter for longer once it had boiled.
Gosh, physics on a Sunday morning??? I'm off for a lie-down!

Kate

I think I´ll stick to filling the thermos with whats left in kettle!, and when its not hot enough, it still saves as boils back up sooner when back in kettle!

Perhaps it's already been done (I don't go shopping very often) but why can't the kettle and thermos be combined ?


Pete

The kitty snipper has reduced me and my family to hoots of laughter. Please could you adapt it to do away with the fox who keeps letting himself in through the catflap? He eats the cats food, and started going up the stairs the other morning....

An alarm on the remote for the TV with a button on the TV setting it off so you can hear where it is when you've lost it.

Just as a thought, could you use a kelly kettle on a gas hobb? Surely a larger surface area would be heated allowing the water to boil quicker. Right I'm off to find out. Might try the same amount of water in an electric kettle, ordinary hob kettle and a kelly kettle and see what results I get. Will post results later.

Can someone please invent an allotment steamer? To be heated by a bonfire of some sort, with an old tin bath or something on top, plus steaming basket and a lid. All those perennial roots wouldn't have to be double bagged for over a year or drowned for a month or more, but could be simply steamed for ...? 20 minutes? ... then tossed on the compost heap. I'm not sure there'd be a market for it from allotmenteers, but it could be hired out by the week to those trying to tame a new allotment...

Why steam them, just boil them or roast lightly over the bonfire?

Vacuum pump for gutting Chickens. Attach it to the rear end, press something and voila all the innards removed in one swift pump. No idea how to make it work though. Ideas man only. :-)