No, not Totleigh-in-the-Wold, I had arrived too early at Birmingham NEC and was ferried by bus from the well managed car parks to the Piazza entrance. Virgin trains for business brains but not for this one in future. With careful planning and a gentle drive I arrived home later feeling much fresher than last time.

Rumours of mass defections from Interbuild were starkly confirmed by the compact size of the Domestic Heating and Plumbing show, even when combined with the modest HVAC show. Several times I strayed accidentally into Electrical on one side and Double Glazing on the other. Never done that before.

Fortunately the absent included the army of dot com boffins much in evidence and promising the earth during Interbuild 2000. I wonder if any survived ? A smiling Neil Everitt, Editor of Heating & Ventilating Review and self confessed internet sceptic (once upon a time) had taken their place. I signed up again and explained that his venerable journal had suddenly stopped appearing through my letter box.

Barbara Field, Editor of Heating, Ventilating and Plumbing was too busy to attend apparently and her erstwhile prodigy and more recently Editor of Heating and Plumbing Monthly David Craig, is now allegedly masquerading as a plumber with Norwich City Council. You can sign up for any of these magazines through our Library.

The plastic pipe war was raging as always, oblivious to the apparent boycott of Interbuild by the mighty many, a number of whom tipped me off about that before I went. Like piranhas a seemingly growing number of plastic producers continue to tear at each other mercilessly rather than rely on the merits (?) of their own products. Juicy rumours of failures abound and perhaps it is time we compiled a list for our next book. All in all a less than edifying spectacle really. I predict some must go belly up soon. There are simply too many and everyone is getting utterly confused.

Visitors were greeted first by a lavish Ravenheat stand complete with Sally and Louis eager to answer questions and show off their latest compact technology and there was plenty of that. Ideal, Halstead and Keston completed the line up of household names on wet systems. There were some other high tech products visiting from across the english channel but overall, anyone seeking a one-stop review of boilers would have been disappointed.

Feigned surprise was offered by Ideal when I mentioned my ripped out Isar that was waking the customer up with the incessant and unnecessary nocturnal hot water pre-heat. I was not surprised when they told me the pre-heat will soon be fitted with a switch. Nice of them. Have they done that just for me ? I doubt it.

Their explosive ignition issue has been resolved as well. Apparently the Dutch PCB manufacturers had allegedly changed a board component without telling anyone and a voltage drop was occurring between the board and the igniter. The majority of PCBs are now made in Barnsley and a hefty cable sheath has been added for good measure.

Rothenberger took my first prize for (tools) their glittering Aladdin’s Cave and people in support. The new power flusher was on display and could not be more basic in design. We will look again soon at that subject. They once tried to sell me a CCTV camera but I predicted they would need to change the carrier. That has now happened. Those are however worth looking at and the price of CCTV has been driven down considerably.

Drugasar need no introduction and were sporting the inevitable but please spare the time to study their dedicated everflo water heaters which are quite at home out of doors as well as cluttering up internal walls. Industry is riding on the back of a growing demand for hot water and such is the efficiency of modern technology that storage is moving over for rapid recovery units. Thermal store and unvented systems (hardly represented) will soon be squeezed. The everflo options are stunning.

New to me was a company called Excess Flow Valves Limited who claim with their Magne-flo to have The world’s only fully automatic shut off and reset valve to operate in the event of a gas leak causing an excess flow of natural gas in the home. Excellent product and worth studying but I’ll see what Mertik have to say about that if they are at Hearth and Home this month. Mertik showed me a range of such valves last year and indeed also showed me their acclaimed Gas Safety Socket Plug which a recent edition of HPM suggested was a new idea (?) Mertik also developed the remote control gas valve, as fitted to gas fires.

Well why not. I’ve treated myself to a new Anton single input manometer. My five year old pressure-mate has been hammered and will now be retired. I hope the new one delivers the same Trojan service and rock solid readings. My posh Digitron differential will be reserved for differential purposes. As I said on the Discussion Board I joined forces with Tony Bleakey again to attack Corgi on the long overdue issue of accepting digital manometers for tightness testing. Pity Corgi don’t have to live in the real world for a while and they’d soon respond. The U gauge is as antiquated as wooden wheels. I have other issues to take up with Tony in due course and will discuss that again. Something is however moving on digital manometers for sure.

Electronic Test Instruments (ETI) were on hand and I recently donated one of their superb differential thermometer kits (one of my spares) to my local College after ACS given the pathetic stuff I was offered for use in assessment on water heaters. An imperial flow rate jug (?) and single point thermometer designed really for testing beef-burgers. I was permitted to get my own stuff and used that instead. I’ll do an assessment on them one day soon.

Which reminds me, I give notice I will be taking issue with UKAS on the generally laisser-faire attitude to warm air noted on ACS, arising both from disgraceful ignorance and prejudice in my view. I will light a fire under this one soon. Watch this space.

Underfloor heating is on a roll as we all know and was well represented but I have not yet had the pleasure. Our number is in Contacts ? The Library includes many such names along with all the other companies who should have been at Interbuild but have drifted North ready for the first PHEX in October.

One of the advantages of this miniscule show was the opportunity afforded to look at other features. I am very interested in one exhibitor promoting CFC free cooling systems for commercial applications. They have what is essentially the opposite of an unvented heating system. I.E. an unvented cooling system.

One centralised unit serving a system filled with a cunning liquid that does not freeze and is circulated where needed. Gone are the individual point-of-use compressors etc. The best heating analogy would be numerous wall heaters in a home being replaced by a wet central heating system with just one heat producing appliance.

You younger people should really have a look at this when I get the information as there is a growing healthy market for that and your existing expertise will serve the purpose for the bulk of it. They are looking for people. Diversify as I keep saying and increase your earnings potential as well as independence.

I have yet to receive much information which may prompt more words from me in due course. In support of that I wish I had taken some cards to save reciting my name, rank and number endlessly. Yes, I had an electronic ID but only a handful of exhibitors would afford the cost of the technology able to take advantage of that.

Overall it would appear Interbuild may have been a victim of their own greed and the large majority of names in our Library were absent.

I now have enough pens to last me for a while as well as a talking thermometer key fob from ETI. No magnetic pick up sticks though.