I am simply so excited that we have a new central heating in time for the winter. Last winter I struggled with the cold and I was worried about the cost of keeping the old system going, so this has been a brilliant step forward here at the Quirky Museum. Needless to say, it wasn’t straight forward, nothing ever is these days.
The challenge
Once we had found the right person, I was quite specific in what we wanted. I wanted to be kept nice and warm during the winter with an efficient boiler. It started with removing the old boiler….
The old boiler was in the middle of the house, not really a suitable place for a replacement. It had been likened to an old V8 3.5 litre engine – powerful, simple, could last for ever but very thirsty for fuel. Removing the old boiler also involved removing an asbestos flue. Chris, the heating engineer, said he could give us the name of a contractor who could do the work. I negotiated so it was part of the job, with Chris subcontracting it and getting the timing right (this worked well).
Radiators? These had to be more efficient than the old ones and correctly sized for each room. They needed to have thermostat controls, since Rachel doesn’t necessary want to swelter everywhere in the house. We decided to go for conventional radiators, rather than mock Victorian or ultra-modern.
So we decided to put the new boiler in the front garage, which is alongside the house. I said I didn’t want to see miles of pipework everywhere and it needed to be hidden. Chris needed to think in 3D in getting pipes invisibly everywhere around the house, plus I wanted a blank spur for adding a few radiators towards the back of the house later on, so the boiler needed to have spare capacity.
Just before the work was due to start, Chris phoned me and said his supplier had failed to deliver, either their IT system had been hacked or they had gone out of business. So there was a mad scramble to source everything from elsewhere. Instead of everything being delivered in one go, different things arrived in various vans during the first week. Phew, it worked, although I could tell Chris was anxious about it.
As for summing up the challenge – and it really was – we were picky customers and a house full of nooks and crannies with lots of unexpected problems and snags along the way.
Getting the work done
It took Chris two-and-a-half weeks to complete the job, even with his father-in-law helping for a week. It was all done with good cheer, we supplied plenty of Hobnobs, ice creams (for when it was really hot), enormous Belgian buns and an introduction to my bespoke coffee blend (Chris duly addicted).
Some of the floorboards looked quite good, see above photo, so when we come to decorate that room we might assess them more thoroughly with a view to having them visible. Other floorboards in the house are a complete hotchpotch I can’t see much potential in their beauty.
Speaking of floors, this circular vent was discovered on the landing. As you can see, it is brass and about the size of a dinner plate. Rachel said she could vaguely remember this from her childhood. It is a warm air vent, designed to draw warm air off from the nearby chimney stack. Chris said he’d never seen anything like it, certainly hadn’t been included in his central heating college course. After a nano second of thought, we concluded it wasn’t the answer to our future heating needs but it was still interesting.
Picking up on my brief about not wanting miles of piping everywhere, the ground floor radiators had pipes coming up from the cellar. For upstairs, the pipes went straight from the garage into the space under the floorboards. We even have a couple of extra radiators downstairs – one near my desk (yay!) and an extra one in the hallway, under the coat rack.
We also needed a new shower, a shame really as the “old” shower was under a year old but wasn’t compatible with the new system. Nevertheless the new one turns out to be much better – and silent!
Amongst some of the snags was having ceiling joists too close to each other and too shallow for slots being cut for new pipes. This was an unexpected problem. It was solved by Chris ordering a new compact right-angle drill, so he could drill holes in tight spaces (he loves an excuse to buy a new tool or gadget!). This, combined with some flexible plastic piping, worked well. The plastic piping was also useful for navigating the pipes under three small steps on the landing.
The result?
We should be nice and warm this winter, without having to worry too much about the cost. I must admit, I did freak out at paying £300/month in gas last winter AND I was STILL COLD! So this should be more economical. The blurb says the boiler is 95% efficient, instead of the old 60%.
The other thing I’m looking forward to is simply getting the time and temperature settings right and then simply forgetting about it, knowing the system is working quietly in the background. We went for a mid-range controlling gizmo, resisting the temptation to go for an app-controlled version.
Mind you, all this winter warmth also depends on getting the front windows sorted (see below). You see we did have a joiner lined up to refurbish them, only to pull out. Having the windows refurbished was a step before having secondary glazing installed. So we are having to re-think this a little but it should be straight forward.
One thought on “New heating!”