WIND FARM SUPPLY VESSELS COVERING ALL AREAS OF SUPPLIES FOR OFFSHORE INSTALLATIONS CLICK HERE

Save money, help save the environment, and it's free!

Order your FREE eaga ShowerSmart - click HERE

eaga are offering every household in the UK a free eaga ShowerSmart unit.

The eaga ShowerSmart fits easily to your existing shower unit and ensures a constant flow of 7.7 litres per minute, giving a full even jet and reducing fluctuation in the speed of the water flow.

Save Money
As soon as you install your eaga ShowerSmart, it will start saving you money and water for a guaranteed 15 years. The average UK family is likely to save up to a substantial £900* over the product's lifetime.

Help the environment
Fitting the eaga ShowerSmart enables the average family to save more than 12,000 litres of water every year* and cut carbon emissions by 1 tonne of CO2.

Easy to install
Once your free pack arrives, it takes seconds to install, without the need for a plumber. Simply undo your existing shower hose at the tap end, screw in your eaga ShowerSmart, with the provided washers on either end, finger tight, then screw the shower hose onto it. Click here for installation diagrams.

The eaga ShowerSmart is suitable for use with non-electric mixer showers or bath/shower mixer taps, provided they run off the mains water pressure.

Home insulation - cavity wall and loft insulation for UK home owners, or private renters, with grants of up to 100% if you qualify.

If you are on a qualifying benefit (see below), you can obtain a 100% grant towards loft and cavity wall insulation. However, smaller grants are available for home cavity wall insulation and loft insulation, whatever your income and dependent on your circumstances.

With guaranteed utility company funded grants of between 30 & 100% for UK home insulation, whatever your status or income, NOW is the time to act on home insulation for your home. There is a client contribution of around £249 saving you around £500, on a three to four bedroomed detached property.

Installing cavity wall and loft insulation to your home will not only save you money on heating your home, but the knock-on effect is that you're helping to save the planet from climate change, as well as improving your home enviroment.

Gas central heating. Government grants may be available in your area.Click here to apply

Warm Front is a government grant scheme catering for homeowners or private renters. A grant of up to £2700 (£4,000 for oil fired if you cannot get gas supplied) is given for heating.

If you do not currently have a modern gas central heating system installed and you are in receipt of qualifying benefits, tax credits or allowances, you are eligible for a UK government funded gas central heating installation, repair or upgrade.

A reputable surveying company will survey your home insulation or gas central heating needs - this is a FREE service - estimate the materials necessary to complete and tell you what grants are available for homes in your area, and what you will have to contribute.

Typical qualifying credits etc are as follows.

Council Tax Credit; Housing Benefit; Income Support; Income-based Job Seekers Allowance; Attendance Allowance; Disability Living Allowance; War Disablement Pension; Disability Pension; State Pension Credit; Child Tax Credit **; Working Tax Credit **

** For the last two credits, total annual earned income must be below £15,000

The average UK home could reduce heating costs by over a third. In fact, between 2002 and 2005 around 800,000 home owners installed cavity wall insulation.  It is estimated that this will have saved nearly 400,000 tonnes of CO2, enough to fill the new Wembley Stadium 47 times.

In most UK homes built after the 1920s, the external walls are made of two layers with a small air gap or 'cavity' between them. If your home has unfilled cavity walls, a considerable slice of your energy bills will be spent heating the air outside. Filling the gap between the two walls of a your home with an insulating material massively decreases the amount of heat which escapes through the walls therefore improving your home enviroment and comfort.

It will help create a more even temperature in your home enviroment, help prevent condensation on the walls and ceilings and can also reduce the amount of heat building up inside your home during summer hot spells.

The savings

Around a third of all the heat lost in an un-insulated UK home is lost through the walls. If you have cavity walls in your home, insulating them will make a great difference, and it could save you £130 - £160 a year on your home fuel bills.

How it is installed

Home Cavity wall insulation is quick, clean and relatively inexpensive to install. It's injected into the cavity from the outside, taking between two and three hours in a three bedroom semi-detached home. It typically costs less than £500 in the UK for a three - four bedroomed detached home, and with the savings you make on your heating bills, it can pay for itself in around three years..

Loft insulation - the basics

Heat lost from your walls, loft and floor can account for up to 35, 25 and 15 per cent of your home heating bill respectively. 

Of these, lofts are by far the easiest to add insulation to without major upheaval and you can save up to £100 a year on heating costs by doing so. 

Even if you already have some insulation in your home, adding to this can lead to further savings. 

Standards for home insulation have risen over the years and 250mm is the current recommended thickness. 

The more common types of home insulation - fibre glass and mineral wool - have been joined by environmental alternatives such as recycled paper and sheep's wool. In fact, home insulation made from shredded recycled paper, mainly newspapers,is the best on test. 

Our other Best Buys are more traditional types of home insulation. 

Government grants are available to help with the cost of home insulation through the Warm Front programme. 

Grants of up to £2,700 can provide a package of insulation and heating measures tailored to your home - find out more by enquiring via the response forms provided on this page.

HOME IMROVEMENT: What to look for.

Types

Home Insulation is sold in different forms and each has its pros and cons when it comes to fitting. Some are sold as batts, others as rolls, rigid boards or loose fill material.

Ease of cutting

How long it takes to fit home insulation depends partly on how easy it is to cut. Warmcell 100 doesn't require cutting because it is made from loose material while Pavatex Pavatherm is very rigid making it difficult to cut.

Tools

Most of the insulation we tested can be cut with a sharp Stanley knife. There are a couple of exceptions; you'll need a saw to cut the Pavatex Pavatherm, Xtratherm Extra Performance Polyiscoyanurate and Kingspan Best Buys.

Fibres and dust

The Pavatex Pavatherm, Xtratherm Extra Performance Polyiscoyanurate and Kingspan all release the most fibres when cut, so wear a mask over your mouth.

As much as a third of your home heating costs could be escaping through your roof. Loft insulation is a very effective way to reduce your homes heating bills.

Simply by insulating your loft to the recommended depth of 270mm, you can save wasted energy by insulating your home and save money on your home heating bills.

There are home owner insulation grants and offers available to help you pay for loft insulation.

Why have controls on a gas central heating system?

In order for a gas central heating and hot water system to operate efficiently it must be controlled so that heat and hot water is provided at a suitable temperature, when and where required. Most systems include:-

• Boiler (which can be a condensing, condensing combi, conventional or conventional combi model).
• Hot water tank
• Room thermostat
• Radiators
• Thermostatic radiator controls
• Programmer

The Boiler

Agas central heating boiler heats up the water which is circulated through radiators to provide heat. It also heats a coil in the hot water tank and in turn the water stored inside for household use. If your central heating boiler is a 'combi' boiler then the water is heated instantaneously when the hot water taps are switched on. The thermostat on the boiler controls the temperature of the water circulating around your central heating system. Please refer to the manufacturer's instructions for the optimum setting of the thermostat.

Hot Water Tank

Most gas central heating hot water cylinders have a thermostat; this is recommended to be set at 60°C. It is beneficial to encase hot water cylinders with a minimum of 8cm of insulation to retain heat.

Radiators

Central heating Radiators are most commonly used in 'wet' (uses water) central heating systems. The water is heated by the boiler and travels through the radiators, giving out heat.

Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRV's)

TRV's are found on radiators in rooms other than where the room thermostat (see below) is placed. The TRV senses the air temperature in the room and can be set higher in the rooms you use most and lower in rooms used least such as bedrooms. They can also be used to turn an individual radiator on or off.

Central heating Room Thermostats

This is usually found in the living room or hallway and is recommended to be set at 21°C and 18°C for each room respectively. The room thermostat will respond to the temperature in the room where it is situated. When the room is warm enough it sends a signal to the central heating pump to stop heating the radiators until the temperature drops below the set level. At this point they will come on again.

Programmer

The programmer is usually situated in the kitchen and can be set to control the times when the central heating and hot water are switched on and off. The average heating period is about 8 hours each day. This depends on your own personal circumstances however. The majority of time clocks allow you to set 2 'on' and 'off' periods during the day i.e. 8am - 10am and 4pm - 10pm.

In order to wake up to a warm house set the Central heating to come on approximately 30 minutes before you get up and then in the evening set the heating to turn off about 1 hour before you go to bed. This will account for the time it takes for the house to warm up and cool down.

There are a variety of programmers for operating central heating (CH) and hot water (HW). The majority have the following controls: -

• ON/CONSTANT -HW/CH is on 24 hours each day.
• OFF - the HW/CH is completely off.
• ONCE - the HW/CH comes on at the first 'ON' time selected and turns off at the second 'OFF' time selected.
• TWICE/AUTO - the HW/CH comes on for the 2 selected time periods.
• HOT WATER ONLY - the heating system will not operate.

If you have mislaid your instructions on how to operate your programmer you can request a copy from the manufacturer. If you are a Council tenant and require further information please contact your Neighbourhood Officer.

Gas Safety

Natural gas is a very safe fuel to use in your home. However it is vital that you know what procedures to follow should you smell gas: -

• Turn the gas off at the meter (usually located in a meter box outside your home).
• Make sure all appliances are turned off.
• Open a window to let the fresh air in and gas out.
• Do not smoke or light any matches or naked flames.
• Do not switch lights or electrical goods on or off.
• Phone the Transco Emergency telephone number 0800 111 999.

Electric Heating Systems

Electric storage heating systems are very different from a 'wet' gas central heating system. The majority of homes heated by electricity have a combination of storage heaters and panel heaters with an electric immersion heater for the hot water.

Storage Heaters

These operate by storing heat during 'off-peak' periods when the electricity is cheaper, usually overnight. This heat is then released into the room the following day and evening. There are two controls (input/charge and output/boost) on the majority of storage heaters which have to be adjusted in anticipation of the following day's weather.

'Input' or 'Charge' control: This must be set manually to ensure that an adequate amount of heat is stored during the night. In the winter, the input control must be set higher as the outside temperatures are usually colder.

'Output' or 'Boost' control: The output control tells the heater how much heat to give out during the day. If this is at the maximum setting (usually 6 or 9) you will find that the stored heat is distributed fairly quickly. It is important to set the controls to reflect the temperature outside and the times that you are in the property, e.g. if you are going out or to bed then turn the output down to the minimum setting.

Although storage heaters can be large and bulky in size because they use off-peak electricity they are much cheaper to run than panel heaters or bar fires. A well controlled storage heater should give you ten hours of useful heat a day. As the weather gets warmer and you find you no longer need the storage heaters on, then simply turn them off at the wall. Be sure not to put clothing or ornaments on top of the heaters as they can become very hot and lead to a fire risk.

Electric Immersion

Most electric storage heating systems use an electric immersion to heat hot water. This may be using 'peak' or more commonly 'off-peak' electricity (usually between 11.30pm and 8.30am). If using the latter to heat water then this will be controlled automatically by a timer and the whole tank will be heated for about 5 hours overnight. The water temperature can be boosted during the day, at the peak rate, if required. If using peak electricity only, switch the immersion on for the period required to heat the water. It is expensive to keep the immersion on for long periods during 'peak' times.

In the early days of its existence in Kent Smuggling took the form of illegal exportation rather than importation,and was directly concerned with parcels from the wool trade,Englands main service industry during the medieval era.The export of raw parcels of wool was prohibited by the government in an attempt to protect the home weaving industry from its European rivals.While the weavers benefited from this measure, the
wool growers found that wool-prices were kept low because of a glut in production

Thus, they were forecd to export parcels of wool illegaly in order to make a profit. These original wool
smugglers were known as 'owlers'(because they worked at night) and they operated mainlyfrom Kent and Sussex. import smuggling as we know it grew up when customs dues were first introduced. The customs system 'was creaed byEdward the 1st in 1272 to help service the finance for wars against
France but no system to prevent the avoidance of dueswas established till 1421, and even then it was negligible


Meanwhile, smuggling had been growing into an organised operation with nothingto deter it, for it was, after all, only a minor. Problem compared with England's succession of wars, and men were
unavailable at that time to suppress it

As new duties were levied on tobacco, tea, brandy, rum. silks, muslins, handkerchiefs and even salt, they became targets for kent smugglers.
To the fishermen of Kent, smuggling was a logical extension of their legitimate business. The coast of France was less than thirty miles away and could he serviced in under three hours in a fast vessel under full sail.

The goods were paid for and brought back to a willing market. The import duties on certain goods were so high that a smuggler could charge well below the official price and at still make a handsome profit. In the 1770.s, a Four-gallon (eighteen litre) tub of brandy brought in France for £1 could be sold in England for £4. A pound (454 g of tea, costing sevenpence (3p), would fetch five shillings 25p), and so tea.could still he afforded buy most people. These kent smugglers felt they were doing a public service supplying these goods at afford able prices and were merely maintaining an
Englishmans right, to free trade. .

The famous eighteenth century economist,
Adam Smith, defined smugglers as: A person who no doupt highly blamable for violating the laws of his country is frequently incapable of violating those of natural justice

have been in every respect an excellent citizen had not the laws of his country made that a crime which Nature never meant.to.be.so:This.was.such.a.widespread.attitude.that everyone,from the fisherman to the magistrate and even the parson, took part in the proceedings. This allegiance was beneficial to all the community, for smuggling could not exist without loyalty, while all those concerned were generously rewarded.

Smuggling runs became highly organised and sometimes involved large gangs of people. Finance came from wealthy and respected members of the communityand other kinds of help were given at all levels, not always voluntarily. Farmers left stable doors unlocked so that horses and cart,could be borrowed Farm labourers found a welcome extra in carrying contraband ashore
Timing and secrecy were crucial to avoid ambush by the more zealous revenue men. However smugglers who were caught frequently received less servere punishments then those give to common thieves, and were often let off with a fine. After all, many magistrates also benefited from `free trade:

Some parsons turned a blind eye to items stored in their churches. Others were not so amenable, but it was rare indeed to find any taking the part of the customs officer,For smugglers provided,necessary service to the community, supplying everyone with the little luxuries of life at a price even the poorest could afford.
Even the revenue men or gaugers themselves (they gauged the amount of duty payable) were not above reproach and could be bribed, using, for instance a'gauger's pocket', a concealed fissure or deepcrack in the cliff face,over which a stone could be placed and into which a bag of gold could be dropped to ensure the absence of the officer when contraband was being run ashore.
While smuggling was not the glamorous and romantic adventure that we like to imagine, it was certainly a recognised, even respected, profession through which the majority of the population gained a better standard of living.

Most smugglers worked in small groups and avoided violence, feeling that it would be wrong to attack the revenue officers, as servants of the King,but in some areas these groups banded together to form large gauge, which became increasingly arrogant with successs and resorted more happily to violent behaviour. It became more and more difficult for the customs officers to exercise any control at all over large parts of the Kent coastline.
Smugglers were able to carry on their trade virtualy unhampered for a century,but a change in fortunes threatened in 1815,when the war against France ended. Men and resources were now available to join the fight against smuggling

A blockade of the Kent coast was put in place and smugglers' lives became less easy. Before 1815,
venue officers had concentrated on seizing smuggled goods, after that date they began to seize the men. At first the increased rewards caused by shortages of goods made the risks worthwhile and smuggling continued, becoming ever more devious in its methods. Eventually, in 1831, the taxes on many imported goods were abolished and smuggling began to decline,the rewards were no longer worth the increasing risk of capture.

SMUGGLERS' HAUNTS

I
n medieval times, Edward the Confessor chose five southern ports (Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, Romney and Hastings) to supply him with men and ships in time of war. In return he granted the citizens of the Cinque Ports, as they were known, many special privileges, including the right to bring goods into the country without paying import duties. Smaller service ports, known as 'limbs', were also given the same privileges.

By the end of the seventeenth century England had an ever?increasing permanent navy, and the
men and ships of the Cinque Ports were no longer needed. The royal privileges were withdrawn, but old habits died hard. The Cinque Ports had fallen on difficult times. The action of sea currents had slowly filled many of the harbours with mud and gravel, and protecting headlands had been washed away.

Men from the Cinque Ports and their limbs all turned to smuggling as an ancient right.
Soon fishermen from small ports all around the Kent coast had discovered that smuggling could be a lucrative sideline. A secret store of contraband would provide income in the hard winter months when stormy weather made fishing impossible. Villages inland also became involved, as places where imported goods could be stored en route for the main market in London, and as bases for smuggling gangs. Smugglers supplied liquor to local inns and sometimes their own homes became 'blind pigs' (unlicensed drinking houses), where illegally imported liquor could be enjoyed in secrecy.

Owlers in the north of Kent, who shipped fine quality wool, known as 'Canterbury Wool', to weavers on the Continent from the Thames estuary, began to fill their boats with French luxury goods on the return journey. The Isle of Sheppey, which had one beach that could be used at almost all states of the tide, was a particularly busy area. By the 1780s it was estimated that £60,000 a year was lost in unpaid customs dues on goods landed on Sheppey and in the Medway estuary.

The small number of customs officials available was not sufficient to deter the large number of smugglers working, usually in small gangs, among the creeks and narrow channels of this marshy coastline. Contraband was brought ashore from ships on their way to the docks of London, as well as being carried directly from Flushing and Ostend on local boats. Priaon hulks and plague ships were anchored offshore in this area, and some smugglers supplemented their income by taking escaped prisoners of war back to the Continent.

Both Rochester and Faversham grew prosperous on the proceeds of trade, legal and illegal. Oyster boats carried contraband up Faversham Creek, and smuggled goods were brought to Faversham market from the sheltered sandy beaches to the east and sold quite openly. There were few communities on the coast itself, apart from the small ports of Whitstable and Margate, so smugglers could carry on their business largely undisturbed.
Whitstable was much frequented by smugglers, a narrow street called Island Wall being the centre of their activities. From Whitstable, smuggled goods were taken either to Faversham or to Canterbury and then on to London where the main market lay. Most goods were carried by packhorse, sometimes quite openly, but it is tempting to think that, after May 1830, a proportion of smuggled goods might have found their way to Canterbury as freight on the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway the first steam hauled passenger railway in the south of England.
The first line of defence of the customs service was a system of riding officers. Each man patrolled a beat of four miles of coastline all night and everynight on horseback.

The job was uncomfortable and dangerous. Alone riding officer could easily be overpowered by a group of smugglers, who might merely tie him up, but might shoot him or take him across to France and abandon him there. Many riding officers therefore became corrupt and lazy, happy to accept a bribe to turn a blind eye.
More conscientious officers could call on a body of dragoons to back them up if they had advance knowledge of a smuggling run, but the dragoons were not always reliable. They did not enjoy hunting for elusive smugglers in dark and difficult conditions. (The smugglers often chose the worst of weather to mask their activities.) Pay was not good, so bribes were welcome, and a tub of liquor outside their billet would not be ignored.

Riding officers were not popular. The men based at Herne at the beginning of the eighteenth century reported that they had been threatened by local smugglers, and there was such illfeeling against
riding officers in Whitstable that their quarters had to be fortified to protect the officers and their store of captured contraband.
Many individual smugglers have earned a place in history by the devious methods they used. Samuel Jackson, or Slippery Sam, as he became known, was born in 1730, the son of a smuggler. In 1750 he bought a farmhouse in Petham, near Canterbury, a village situated almost in the centre of Kent and therefore within reach of. wide angle of coastline.

Farming activities seem to have taken second place in his interests, as Sam quickly became involved in receiving and distributing contraband from all parts of Kent, as well as taking part in smuggling runs himself.
A network of tunnels beneath the house provided useful storage space and enabled Sam to come and go in secret, evading capture by revenue officers on at least one occasion. A large pond at the back of the house was also used in emergencies to hide weighted kegs from suspicious customs men. Sam was eventually arrested and taken to Maidstone gaol and it was here that he earned his nickname. Managing to overpower the gaoler, Sam used axle grease to slip through a small window and make his escape.
Slippery Sam met his end at the age of thirty after a fierce battle in which he shot and killed a revenue officer. He was hanged and his body was suspended in chains from a gibbet, where it remained for two days.