THE GENERAL
For those of us who shy away from user manuals, some caring residents have concocted a series of video clips to walk us through the correct use of our most user-unfriendly devices. Looking for a professional? Try the Trades page. Or perhaps a good DIYer from The General can help. See the General Repair Shop page.
Click on a topic...
Central Heating Control
Martyn Green has helpfully produced a video guide to help you set up the control unit that governs the central heating in your flat.
LED lighting
The LED lighting in your apartment / house is guaranteed for 7 years by Ansell.
You cannot register directly with Ansell, all claims should be referred to the developer or the installer.
These are the details we currently have so address your claims via C&C / Jeffway
Company Name: City & Country
Product Code: AORBLED/CW
Product: Orbio 360 LED
Qty:
Place of Purchase: Via developer City & Country
Date of Purchase: 18/07/2020
Marketing Emails: No
If you require any further information regarding your warranty please do not hesitate to contact us.
Ansell Electrical Products Limited
Unit 6B Stonecross Industrial Park, Yew Tree Way Warrington, WA3 3JD
Fax: +44 (0)1942 433433
https://www.anselluk.com
Hot water / Central Heating
The majority of the dwellings in this development have hot water and heating supplied by a centralised boiler system located within the old General hospital building, the system is triplicated and therefore it has redundancy in the case of a system failure.
The hot water arrives in your apartment feeding into your individual Heating Interface Unit (HIU), this is the white metal box located within a cupboard in your apartment which has lots of piping feeding in and out of it.
The HIU controls and measures the amount of hot water you are consuming (hot water and central heating) in your apartment.
The small window on the front of the box lets you see the amount of energy (measured in Kw/hours) you have consumed, this figure you give to the concierge when they request it from you (usually twice a year).
You will then receive an invoice for the amount of energy you have consumed.
Further information on the HIU can be found by clicking here.
The HIU should be serviced once per year.
A lot of owners within the development have used the services of Alex Derrick a very good and reasonably priced engineer to check out and service the unit.
Alex Derrick
Switchsafe Environment
switchsafe.uk.com
07545 308730
Kitchen Walls
Do you have problems with grease marks on the paintwork in your kitchen area?
The expensive solution is to get Roman Glass to extend the glass splash back to the cooking hob and/or to tile the area between the base and wall units.
A much cheaper solution is to visit a shop that can mix Dulux paint and to get them to mix you a can of Dulux pale walnut with an eggshell finish, you will then be able to repaint those kitchen areas suseptable with a finish that is washable and resistant to staining with the advantage that the result is matt enough to fit in well with the original paint (Dulux pale walnut 17190).
There is a retailer locally in Bedminster:
Dulux Decorator Centre
3 Vale Lane
trading estate
Bedminster
0117 963 1161
And, if you don't want to paint it yourself...
Vent-Axia System
Your apartment will be fitted with a Vent-Axia ventilation system with air vents situated in bathrooms and in the kitchen.
Various types of main units have been fitted. The units are normally located in the utilities cupboards, the system needs to be regulated to perform correctly - for this reason it is very important that you do not adjust yourself the circular vents located in the ceiling.
A specialist flow meter is used by a technician to balance the flows across all the ceiling vents in your apartment, the central disc in each ceiling vent is screwed out or in to increase or decrease the flow rate via that vent to achieve the required volume of air passing through it.
Do not attempt to unscrew a disc to clean the vent as you will more than likely not be able to return it to its previously set position.
The system should be serviced once per year and the engineer will clean the vents and reset them to their correct positions, expect a yearly service to cost in the region of £100.
If you have a white control box it will be fitted with filters which can be removed and vacuumed by the owner/tenant, the filters simply pull out of the main unit.
The filters should be replaced during the yearly service interval.
If you have a black control box, a MEV (Mechanical Extract Ventilation) system, there are no cleanable or replaceable filters inside. With this unit you do have the ability to monitor and regulate the settings. A technical guide to regulating the unit can be found here.
Wood Flooring
A good product to clean wooden floors is a mop and fluid spray system available from Lakeland, Amazon or other retailers. The manufacturer is BONA and you can get a starter kit for £40 or less.
It's not going to get rid of stains but it will freshen up your flooring and will lessen the drag marks made when you move furniture around. A deeper cleaning solution is also available from the same manufacturer that will remove some staining but it does require repeated application to get a good result.
They do also make a refill that oils wood floors but we have not tried that so cannot comment on how effective that product is.
You can get specialised products that are good at removing stains but you do need to take care using them as they will lighten the flooring if you use them at high active concentrations, some products residents have used here include:
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'Bar keepers friend' available from supermarkets or B&Q.
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Oxallic acid - available from eBay, Several videos on YouTube on how to use it.
Many other products are available to treat and protect wooden flooring but you must be prepared to spend some time and effort to prepare your floor before you apply the product.
You need to research how you need to apply it taking note on how long it will take to dry before you can use the floor again - some people have done this in the development and I suggest you make enquiries via the WhatsApp group for guidance before you consider undertaking the task.
HIU Battery Replacement
Once again, Martyn comes to the rescue.
Click image below to see video clip.
