Hot water . . . . . . . not quite!

Well, the plumber was here Monday to Wednesday and got most things connected up.  I did think he might finish yesterday and we'd have running water (even hot water) . . . . . but, no.  I was a little disappointed, but he didn't want to connect to the mains at the end of a day and leave it to sprout leaks overnight - shouldn't he be a little more confident than that?!  I guess it makes sense.  Anyway, he should be here again tomorrow to finish off.  We just have to put the solar tubes on the roof (which we can't do until everything else is ready as they don't react well to creating heat and  not having anywhere for it to go) and connect the house to the mains supply.


Want to know how solar tubes work?  Skip this paragraph if not, but we had a lesson yesterday, so I have to pass on my new-found knowledge.  So, the tubes themselves (a bit like flourescent lights) have a bit of special liquid at the bottom (when they're on a sloping roof) and when the sun heats it this it turns to vapour and rises to the top of the tube.  Here the heat is transferred to the glycol mixture that is in the closed pipe system which runs along under the roof and into the leanto where the heat store is.  As the heat is transferred, the vapour cools and condenses and runs back to the bottom of the tube to begin again.  The glycol mixture runs through a coil in the heat store and the heat is transferred to the water in the tank.  When you turn a hot tap on, mains water runs through another coil in the heat store and takes the heat from the water in the tank  and then pootles along to the tap.  Simple really!  Amazing that the heat is transferred so many times before we will actually feel it.  Yesterday the plumber put  water in the system and pressure tested it, then when he was happy there were no leaks he put the glycol in, so it's all primed and ready to go - just need some water in the heat store so there is somewhere for the heat to go.

This is the heat store - quite a lot of gubbins connected
to it isn't there?  The black pipes are to and from the solar
tubes and the white tank is for the glycol.  Then there are pipes
to and from the backboiler and, of course, cold water in and
hot water out.  All connected up - just waiting for some water!

Although he didn't quite finish yesterday, a lot has been done this week and below are some pictures of our new additions.  The electrician also managed to come for the morning yesterday, so he was able to wire up the downstairs shower, solar pump and controller and the immersion heater.




A loo at last - all connected up, just waiting for some water!



The upstairs sink all connected up - just waiting for some water!



The upstairs shower all ready to go - just waiting for some water!
Actually, the glass screen and door may be a good idea
too, otherwise we'll be having a shower in the kitchen too
I think!



Our little cast iron radiator in the ensuite, all connected up -
you've guessed it, just wating for some water.  We're going to put a
couple of hooks on the wall above so we have nice toasty towels.
Can't wait, damp towels is one of the downsides of caravan life.

While the plumber has been here we've been hanging around as usual in case he needs anything and checking things are where we want them, but we have also got some jobs done.  I've snuck in a bit more decorating and all the painting in the kitchen is now done except for a few bits of touching up.  You know when you're painting it's the corners and edges that take the time?  Well, the kitchen is nothing but corners and edges with all the oak posts and beams!  Bob has carried on digging holes for drains - these holes seem to have been there for ages and it'll be good to get the pipes in and cover them all back in again.  We finally put the guttering around the extension after I painted it all, so that is ready to connect to the pipe to the soakaway.  This afternoon we put the closure plate in the inglenook.  This basically blocks off the rest of the chimney.  The woodburner is connected to a flue liner that goes right to the top of the chimney, so you don't need a big open chimney sucking heat away like you do with an open fire.  We had to make the plate ourselves - you can buy them, but only for little square chimneys, not great big uneven shaped ones like ours.  It was a real pain to do and put in place because, of course, the woodburner and flue are in the way.  Anyway, it's done and very glad we are too.

While I was painting the guttering up by our top barns earlier in the week, the chickens were happily scratching around in the woods behind the barns.  Suddenly one of them started making a real noisy fuss.  Usually that doesn't mean anything, but we do go and check just in case.  So I went to see what was what and as I walked round the corner a buzzard flew from a fairly low branch and across the field.  Wonder if it was thinking that the babies might like chicken for tea?  Anyway, the girls weren't too perturbed and just carried on bumbling around as usual.