I assumed, from gazing down my garden from the kitchen window this morning, that the overnight temperatures had avoided negative numbers. The last two days have presented window ice on the car and, on Wednesday, it was quite tough stuff, or perhaps my ice chipping muscles have atrophied over the summer. I was surprised then, when trying to wipe the water from my car before coming to work, to find that the water was ice. Fortunately it was more like soft sugar icing this morning and only required a vigorous rub.
With the sun out, and the weather dry, and a few spare minutes for the journey, I took the opportunity to pass the custard maple on my way today. I slowed down to get a good look into its canopy, to see if it was doing its usual seasonal colour change. I think this year that the lower leaves may turn to custard, but in the upper branches there are signs of marmalade streaking.
The maple route, the longer route to work, takes me along one of my favourite local driving roads, across the forest. As the bracken browns and curls and the deciduous leaves fall, the sight-lines on this road improve, making it safer to drive fast and with a little attitude. On a dry day the bends and climbs sweep together into a short symphony of motion. The road was clear of leaves and so it was only clouds of chaffinches that were swept up as I barrelled along, with a smile. A few squirrels played chicken, the ponies kept, largely, out of the way and the deer, if there were any, remained invisible. My usual route has been scattered with pheasant this week, and a lone quail has always been on the verge, but I saw none this morning.
The trees are still partly clothed, the colours not yet fully turned, and yet, already winter is creeping in. Northerly winds blow harshly from Arctic latitudes. Only the sun's elevation betrays the weather as autumnal, rather than the coldest season.
Friday 22 October 2010
Tuesday 19 October 2010
No crumbs
I know it was one of my children. The missing circle of paper was too far from the edge. One perfect sheet of white A4, with a circle missing, the size of a mug-ring, for what purpose I can only guess.
The sheet caught my eye on Wednesday evening, lying on the oak dining table, when I came home from playing badminton and, I shrugged. What else to do, they'll learn better when they have to buy their own paper, I think.
And then my attention moved to a light snack, a drink, to bed. The paper didn't reconnect with my consciousness until the following morning. On my way from the kitchen, my eye was caught, a biscuit!
The grain of the dark wood took on the perfect disguise of a wire-cooked biscuit base, as though illuminated from one side. The illusion was enhanced because it is not all together unusual to find an occasional forgotten digestive biscuit lying on the dining table, abandoned when some other (usually electronic) distraction called.
Eldest son walked by, preparing to leave for school. "Do you want a biscuit?" I asked cheerily, nodding at the table. His hand reached out, hesitated with six inches to go, he laughed. Then we tried it out on middle son; he saw through it more quickly, I suspect because it was he who had cut the circle in the first place.
Knowing the illusion was there was little protection, for the rest of the morning until we went out, everyone glanced at the biscuit as they walked through the room, doing an amused double-take each time.
The sheet caught my eye on Wednesday evening, lying on the oak dining table, when I came home from playing badminton and, I shrugged. What else to do, they'll learn better when they have to buy their own paper, I think.
And then my attention moved to a light snack, a drink, to bed. The paper didn't reconnect with my consciousness until the following morning. On my way from the kitchen, my eye was caught, a biscuit!
The grain of the dark wood took on the perfect disguise of a wire-cooked biscuit base, as though illuminated from one side. The illusion was enhanced because it is not all together unusual to find an occasional forgotten digestive biscuit lying on the dining table, abandoned when some other (usually electronic) distraction called.
Eldest son walked by, preparing to leave for school. "Do you want a biscuit?" I asked cheerily, nodding at the table. His hand reached out, hesitated with six inches to go, he laughed. Then we tried it out on middle son; he saw through it more quickly, I suspect because it was he who had cut the circle in the first place.
Knowing the illusion was there was little protection, for the rest of the morning until we went out, everyone glanced at the biscuit as they walked through the room, doing an amused double-take each time.
Tuesday 12 October 2010
symbolic scarf
The core of the house, the part we all use, had an artificial warmth this morning. Peripherals were chilled by the night air still as I moved around, finding breakfast and restoring order to piles of paper disturbed by passing children.
On Sunday we swam, or at least paddled deeply, in the sea. Waves shot cool salt spray over our heads, but the sun was warm. In the lee of the cliff, on the rocks, we soaked up sun like reptiles; spreading ourselves perpendicular to the rays.
Ths morning, sponging the dew from the car windows, it felt different. A corner has been turned in the year and to mark this, I wore a scarf. The trees, where they are exposed to flows of cool, already show seasonal colour changes. Occasional boughs are marked with yellow in the oaks and chestnuts, maples have turned to glowing fiery balls, flickering where the sun reflects of wet, turned foliage.
The first day of autumn.
On Sunday we swam, or at least paddled deeply, in the sea. Waves shot cool salt spray over our heads, but the sun was warm. In the lee of the cliff, on the rocks, we soaked up sun like reptiles; spreading ourselves perpendicular to the rays.
Ths morning, sponging the dew from the car windows, it felt different. A corner has been turned in the year and to mark this, I wore a scarf. The trees, where they are exposed to flows of cool, already show seasonal colour changes. Occasional boughs are marked with yellow in the oaks and chestnuts, maples have turned to glowing fiery balls, flickering where the sun reflects of wet, turned foliage.
The first day of autumn.
Sunday 10 October 2010
warm feelings
My central heating system and I have come to know each other quite well over the 15 years we have been together. At first, our relationship was rather distant, but over the years I feel we have become friends.
In the early years, whenever the house was at the wrong temperature, we would be in conflict. "Winter again and the heating is on the blink; if only we had had a descent heating system installed by someone competent,..." etc. I even resorted, in this early phase, to bringing in "experts", who would wave their magic spanners, replace a part or two and leave me with warm accommodation and a hefty bill, but I eventually learnt my lesson and decided to apply my engineering brain to the problem of simple binary logic, albeit operating at 240V.
In these early years the problems were due to component infant-failures, to earlier poor maintenance and, frankly, to a barely adequate installation. I must be fair on the installer here and point out that the boiler was added to two, combined heating circuits that had been cobbled together by the house's previous owner. The boiler fitted is a Glowworm condensing boiler, and it is the heating element in an otherwise conventional fully pumped, unpressurised system. Such installations are required, by the manufacturer's rules, to include a bypass circuit to accept the overpressure from the pump in the event that all the heating circuit parallel radiator valves are turned off. The fitted circuit, being a little short (i.e. low in copper content) has always made the boiler short-cycle, which is not an efficient mode for a condensing boiler.
Over our years together I have corrected a number of amusing failures, but left this bypass circuit alone. I have replaced the flue fan unit, the over-temperature cut-off thermostat, the hot water thermostat, the pump and the motorised valve, this latter item, several times. I have also cleaned the burner and the main boiler circuit board which, over time, accumulates enough conductive dust to prevent the effective operation of the flame ignition (there being no pilot light). I have even rebuilt a couple of valve motors from the working components of multiple failed units to correct burnt out resistors and failing micro-switches, but unfortunately Honeywell have now changed the design subtly, and the new parts and the old no-longer fully interwork.
In order to avoid doing repairs in bad weather I have also run the heating for extended periods with string holding the 2-way valve manual override active or with the heating on continuously so that the pump ran 24/7, since it had lost the will to start itself, once it had stopped.
The reason I claim that the heating system is getting to know me, as well as the converse, is that last winter it worked trouble free throughout the coldest spell of weather, when I was at my busiest doing other things, whereas in previous years, it would have taken such opportunities to break down on me.
Knowing that some amount of maintenance was going to be essential this year, I ran the heating with the temperature still positively balmy outdoors, I listened carefully to all the components, ran my hand over all of the pipes and determined that the only problems this year, to add to the ongoing fault in one of the pump isolation valves, that necessitates the partial draining of the system in order to do any pump maintenance work, were:
So I ordered a new pump and, while I was admiring Screfix's online site, I noticed, while searching for valves, that they had a reasonably priced bypass valve for my ever leaky bypass circuit. These items arrived swiftly and, while all was disassembled I had time to clean the circuit board in the boiler, diagnose the 2-way valve problem (mechanism worn out beyond repair) and determine the type of the back-up battery in the Honeywell programmer. I ordered the valve motor (and a valve, the price was essentially the same with as without) from someone on ebay. The battery was harder to source, because the original was obselete, a Varta V110H. I found a company called Cell Pack Solutions on the web, but their website said a replacement cell, a 1V150H, was out of stock and to call. I called on the Monday and explained my problems. They were willing, for under a fiver (5 pounds sterling) to get a compatible cell out of stock, attach the required 3 pins to it, package it, post it and accept a credit card; an excellent and polite service.
So now, with all of these parts fitted and commissioned I have a warm feeling about my relationship with my heating system, although I am realistic. I know it could all break down again soon.
Incidentally, in these cost and carbon dioxide conscious times, I also bought us a joint present of a programmable room thermostat, but I haven't got around to fitting that yet, I let the rest of the components get to know each other first.
In the early years, whenever the house was at the wrong temperature, we would be in conflict. "Winter again and the heating is on the blink; if only we had had a descent heating system installed by someone competent,..." etc. I even resorted, in this early phase, to bringing in "experts", who would wave their magic spanners, replace a part or two and leave me with warm accommodation and a hefty bill, but I eventually learnt my lesson and decided to apply my engineering brain to the problem of simple binary logic, albeit operating at 240V.
In these early years the problems were due to component infant-failures, to earlier poor maintenance and, frankly, to a barely adequate installation. I must be fair on the installer here and point out that the boiler was added to two, combined heating circuits that had been cobbled together by the house's previous owner. The boiler fitted is a Glowworm condensing boiler, and it is the heating element in an otherwise conventional fully pumped, unpressurised system. Such installations are required, by the manufacturer's rules, to include a bypass circuit to accept the overpressure from the pump in the event that all the heating circuit parallel radiator valves are turned off. The fitted circuit, being a little short (i.e. low in copper content) has always made the boiler short-cycle, which is not an efficient mode for a condensing boiler.
Over our years together I have corrected a number of amusing failures, but left this bypass circuit alone. I have replaced the flue fan unit, the over-temperature cut-off thermostat, the hot water thermostat, the pump and the motorised valve, this latter item, several times. I have also cleaned the burner and the main boiler circuit board which, over time, accumulates enough conductive dust to prevent the effective operation of the flame ignition (there being no pilot light). I have even rebuilt a couple of valve motors from the working components of multiple failed units to correct burnt out resistors and failing micro-switches, but unfortunately Honeywell have now changed the design subtly, and the new parts and the old no-longer fully interwork.
In order to avoid doing repairs in bad weather I have also run the heating for extended periods with string holding the 2-way valve manual override active or with the heating on continuously so that the pump ran 24/7, since it had lost the will to start itself, once it had stopped.
The reason I claim that the heating system is getting to know me, as well as the converse, is that last winter it worked trouble free throughout the coldest spell of weather, when I was at my busiest doing other things, whereas in previous years, it would have taken such opportunities to break down on me.
Knowing that some amount of maintenance was going to be essential this year, I ran the heating with the temperature still positively balmy outdoors, I listened carefully to all the components, ran my hand over all of the pipes and determined that the only problems this year, to add to the ongoing fault in one of the pump isolation valves, that necessitates the partial draining of the system in order to do any pump maintenance work, were:
- The pump, in addition to not wanting to start, did not run reliably.
- The boiler did not reliably light.
- The 2-way valve had something wrong, because it did not return to central when the heating demand was off.
- The programmer's back-up battery was shagged, allowing it to forget any programming information if it lost power for ten or more seconds.
So I ordered a new pump and, while I was admiring Screfix's online site, I noticed, while searching for valves, that they had a reasonably priced bypass valve for my ever leaky bypass circuit. These items arrived swiftly and, while all was disassembled I had time to clean the circuit board in the boiler, diagnose the 2-way valve problem (mechanism worn out beyond repair) and determine the type of the back-up battery in the Honeywell programmer. I ordered the valve motor (and a valve, the price was essentially the same with as without) from someone on ebay. The battery was harder to source, because the original was obselete, a Varta V110H. I found a company called Cell Pack Solutions on the web, but their website said a replacement cell, a 1V150H, was out of stock and to call. I called on the Monday and explained my problems. They were willing, for under a fiver (5 pounds sterling) to get a compatible cell out of stock, attach the required 3 pins to it, package it, post it and accept a credit card; an excellent and polite service.
So now, with all of these parts fitted and commissioned I have a warm feeling about my relationship with my heating system, although I am realistic. I know it could all break down again soon.
Incidentally, in these cost and carbon dioxide conscious times, I also bought us a joint present of a programmable room thermostat, but I haven't got around to fitting that yet, I let the rest of the components get to know each other first.
Tuesday 5 October 2010
I have resisted blogging these many years
I have, however kept an infrequent journal on the h2g2 site. What do you mean you never heard of it? That is the whole problem, h2g2 seems to be dying. I stopped journalling there because I cannot be confident that the content will persist. Perhaps I'll try to import from there one day, but for now, there are new rambles only.
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