After all this time joking about making the curtains, I actually bought some material for the kitchen windows today. Now, how exciting is that do you think? I will make a sort of Roman blind for the window by the sink and curtains for the dining end. The material is apple-green gingham with little white daisies on it - quite cute really and very fresh-looking.
The electrician has been here today . . . . and the plumber . . . . . and the water tank delivery van . . . . . and a neighbour. A bit chaotic this morning! As I mentioned before, the sparky was coming as he had a free day and a half. So he has now done all the lights and extractor fans and just has the underfloor heating to sort out tomorrow. The plumber called round unexpectedly yesterday and after much complimenting us on the house, the woodburner, the tiling and so on, looked very sheepish and told us he couldn't come on Monday . . . . . or for a fortnight after that! He has to go into hospital, so there's not a lot we could say really. So, the plan was that he'd get the hot water tank (or heat store to be more precise - I'll explain in a minute) delivered this morning and he'd come and position it and the solar tubes controller and pump so the sparky could do the wiring if he had time. He turned up, a bit later the delivery van turned up and they unloaded the tank . . . . . wrong one! So that had to go back. So then the plumber said he'd connect the electric shower so the sparky could wire that up if he had time. He unpacked the shower only to find that it had been used - it was covered in water marks, there was a nut on the back that isn't usually included and you could see by the fixing holes that it had obviously been attached to a wall. So that had to go back and the plumber went home. How frustrating and we'll not see him now until the end of the month!
So, a heat store - because we have solar panels and a back boiler producing hot water we can't have an ordinary hot water cylinder. We have to have a heat store. It works in the opposite way to a normal tank. The fluid from the solar tubes will run through a copper coil in the bottom half of the tank and will warm the water in the tank. In winter, the hot water from the back boiler goes straight into the tank - that is the same water that the solar coil will warm, but is not the actual water that comes out of the hot tap. The mains cold water runs through a long coil inside the tank and as it goes through it is heated by the already hot water in the tank. So the water that actually comes out of the tap is at mains pressure (good for showers) and is freshly heated as you use it. There will also be a traditional immersion heater for topping-up or for in summer when we don't have the woodburner going and the sun isn't in evidence. Now, that's all very clever isn't it. I hope I've got that all right . . . . well, it sounds convincing doesn't it?
Remember I told you about the rabbit hole in the middle of the leek patch that we emptied of baby rabbits and filled back in? Well, next morning the hole was back again! So we filled it back in again and next morning there it was again, so we filled it back in again and next morning . . . you've guessed it. Persisitent little blighters aren't they. This morning though, no sign of a hole, so maybe they've got the message. We have lots of feathered babies around - Bob can barely keep up with filling the feeders! There have been two baby nuthatches around most of the day, the young woodpeckers (at least two) and parents have been in the trees across the lane for the last few days as well as on the peanuts and there have been about 64 baby great tits on the peanuts almost constantly. I know most people have stopped filling the feeders by now, but for purely selfish reasons we carry on - I just love seeing all these babies!
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