Category: hot water

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ASHP and micro-harvests

When it comes to plumbing, electrics and heating in the home it may all be in Mandarin for the level of understanding I have. Husband makes it sound very logical and simple, and clearly finds it amusing that I either panic or glaze over when he tries to explain how electrical things work.

Yesterday we had the plumbers in to install the Air Source Heat Pump system for the house. This is a core element in heating the house as economically as possible, something that is becoming increasingly essential.

We now have a plant room with hot water tank, expansion vessels, underfloor heating pipes and outside, mounted on a concrete slab, the ASHP unit.

To me the assemblage in the plant room looks like something out of a gothic horror novel, all those pipes and valves and control panels. A local friend described it as looking like “a steam train mated with a brass band” which made me laugh out loud.

The electrician needs to come next week to complete the installation before we can crank it up and start testing it.

But it’s progress! Once it’s in and working we can lay the rest of the flooring, which will be another major milestone.

Whilst the install operation was underway I hid in the Polycrub.

There’s always something happening in there at this point in the growing year and the tomatoes and squash are now so large that I can hide amongst them quite effectively.

Every morning when I open up the tunnel to water the plants I pick as I go, a sort of micro-harvest. A few ripe strawberries, a handful of peas, a few bunches of coriander, dill , parsley, some lettuce. It doesn’t seem like much, but soon it will mean that we won’t have to buy those things.

Once the freezer and dehydrator are up and running, we’ll be able to store surpluses. At the moment we share any excess with our friends and neighbours.

It’s like receiving a gift every day.

It’s so satisfying to feel that you’ve grown this yourself, and that it will be on the table by supper time. Small steps towards self sufficiency.

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Frozen pipes

We’ve had several nights of temperatures well below freezing, and although these have brought clear, beautiful winter days, they’ve also brought frozen pipes.

We run the water supply to the caravan overground from the house. It’s a temporary measure – we don’t want to have to dig the pipes in under the drive as the caravan won’t be here once the house build is complete.

However, this leaves them very exposed to the weather.

Waking up to a cold caravan, sometimes with ice on the inside of the windows is one thing, but switching on the tap to fill the kettle for coffee and realising that there is no water coming through is an altogether different level of morning discomfort.

On a couple of occasions in the last few weeks we’ve woken to this and husband has had to head out in jumper, dressing gown and wellies to try and thaw them out.

Insulation for the pipe has now been ordered and will be installed as soon as the weather permits..

In the meatime we now store large canisters of water in the caravan so that when this happens next, as it will with the worst of the winter months still to get through, we can at least have a mug of hot coffee before heading out to attempt the defrosting process..

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Hurrah for Hot Water!

This is a very short post to mark the momentous occasion, after two weeks of caravan life, of the connection of hot water.

Going for a weekly hot shower in Kyle was fine, but a 25 mile round trip meant it wasn’t really feasible much more frequently than that.

And with the wind and rain whipping around us daily, we get muddier and dirtier than I thought possible.

Husband connected up the pipes and installed a new boiler over the last few days, and after a break in the weather this morning completed the last bits of the connection.

We now have a working toilet, a shower and a hot water tap in the kitchen. Doing my happy dance.

Isn’t it amazing how we take things like this for granted.