How many buckets do you need?? (just kidding) I use my empty cat litter containers. Listen, yes, there are chemicals that will leach out, but only trace amounts and I doubt it will do a lot of damage. If you can still smell the fumes after you wash really well, I wouldn't use that bucket. But, that's just what I would do.

No problem. Plastic is controversial in some areas, and although the following link may strike a cord with some, it does have a useful list of plastic types and known problems with them: http://www.lifewithoutplastic.com/factsonplastic.htm It is this list and similar ones that persuade me to stick with #2, #4, #5. All of that said, I think my ebb and flow tray is probably #6 - something that I'd like to change someday once I find a way to do so. Many drink bottles from the grocery store are #1 - so you can only do so much. Ideally I'd like to experiment with hydroponics that doesn't rely so heavily on plastic parts, but that is a huge challenge and more work since plastic is so convenient. Instead of PVC pipe I am considering the possibility of using HDPE - the #4 plastic pipe. I am also fairly certain that the black poly tubing used in hydroponics is pretty good too, I think.

Most US residential households have 120V center-tapped two phase service (some big apartment buildings are different). Most European systems are 220V (confusingly called 230V) three phase service in a Wye configuration. The nominal difference between 220V and 240V is negligible in practice. All modern electric equipment is built to handle these small differences. If in doubt, check the appliance's documentation. Sometimes, you have to change a configuration option for optimal performance. Also, the difference between 50 Hz (Europe) and 60 Hz (US) is generally fine. You can in principle get away with smaller-size built-in transformers when using a European appliance in the US; and on the other hand, you'll drive any frequency synchronized equipment 20% too fast. It's unlikely this would affect your stove. And in fact, I'd expect the ratings plate to show you that the equipment is compatible with a range of frequencies. Some American 240V appliances use the center tap to drive a subset of the electronics at 120V and the rest at 240V. This is not really doable in Europe, and thus they don't require a 120V input. That's why you don't expect to see two hot wires and one neutral wire on these appliances, whereas American appliances frequently have that. Instead, you'll have one hot and one neutral. When you connect the appliance in the US, you'll instead connect it as if it had two hot wires. The neutral on the appliance becomes the second hot wire. This is not what the manufacturer expected, but it doesn't really matter much in practice. European equipment doesn't rely on polarized plugs (there is no such thing). So, it is always designed to be compatible with two hots, even if it never would be connected that way in Europe. The reason this sounds scary is that really old US equipment didn't distinguish between ground and neutral. In Europe, whole-house GFCI has been a standard for more than half a century. So, this was never an option. Neutral would never be connected to the chassis. So, even if the appliance has something that is labelled as neutral, it is fully interchangeable with the hot wire. This is all really basic physics. But electricians are frequently trained to memorize regulations instead of understanding the underlying principles. This makes it difficult for them to transfer knowledge from one domain to another one. My best suggestion is to find a different electrician who is more comfortable with cross-referencing both physics and local regulations. I can try to explain the physics, but you obviously need a trained electrician to figure out how to apply all of this so that it results in a safe and approved configuration. If your electrician regularly works with commercial equipment, he might be more comfortable with how electrical systems can be configured.

Safe? Yes, as long as you are not using a regular plain slide-in kind of range. Note the 4" riser/vent at the back of Pirula's range. Any range that has at least a 4" high backsplash on it can go directly against the wall and will be fine from a code and safety standpoint. With your cooktop, it will be a little different. Some makers (such as Blue Star) require 6" of horizontal clearance for their units, but Miele is designed to require less. So, as long as you maintain the requisite 2.75" clearance for the Miele, there will not be a safety issue. Beyond that, I'm very much with akchicago on cleaning the thing. I speak from experience. A couple of decades ago, I had an old-house kitchen with beadboard backsplash. I'm a messy cook. I found it hard to maintain the beadboard without frequent touch-up on the paint. I never found a paint that was tough enough to hold up for any length of time. If you really like the look of the beadboard, I suppose you could consider overlaying it with a clear tempered glass panel. That would allow the beadboard pattern to show through and would be much easier to clean. (I've done something like this behind my stove in my current house, although my wall is just plain painted drywall, The tempered glass panel was inexpensive. The most expensive part was having holes drilled in the glass for the mounting screws.). This post was edited by JWVideo on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 18:02