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.

I've bought some curtain material

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!