Joy unconfined, Donald is here, with his little spade and a heat gun. He has made an excavation at the leaking pipe place; and found that it is not frozen, but burst probably because some sensor in the Nibe had failed to tell the pump to stop pushing, when a blockage of ice next to the Nibe prevented any water getting through. You may well say why have the Nibe virtually outdoors. Well, it is just one of those things that one does. The little gun is now unfreezing the pipe in the cupboard.
He said we would be lucky to get away with no bursts indoors; and lo he was right. A line of drips has appeared just over the dining table, from a burst behind the plasterboard on the north side of the landing. So now we have a new hatch there, rather as Roy has always wanted. I think the tally of leaks is five: the popped pipe to the washing machine; the pipe from the well; the one upstairs; another one in a pipe feeding the top of the Nibe; and, finally, one in the utility room, in the wall above the washing machine, where the leaking water started running into the electric socket and tripping the main fuse. There will be another hatch in the utility room wall, perhaps with a useful cupboard in front of it. We are keeping the pieces of burst pipe as a reminder of the Awesome Power of Ice.
At the end of a long day, all that seems to be left to do is to replace the pressure sensor on the tank, as it seems to have been knocked out by the frost. Donald will be able to get a new one next week. In the mean time, Roy has been shown how to get 100 litres of water at a time by turning on the pump and watching for the pressure to get to the critical level. A great improvement on no water at all; and I shall be able to wash my hair.
Some good news, though: the sitting room and living room floors are positively cosy and there is perceptible heat in the study, the hall and the shower room floors. I am walking around barefoot with No Ill Effects.
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4 comments:
I think that you should insulate the Nibe cupboard doors.
And various other things. They are actually very thick already; but there are clearly other steps we could take. Such as knitting a fetching sock for the pressure sensor, for example.
One thing we do when weather is freezing, turn on light in outside loo to stop cistern freezing. Obviously only any good if we're around to turn it on; also not sure how we are going to get a replacement energy-inefficient bulb when this one goes pop:-(
That reminds me of the recent report of how the roads department in some American city where they had changed the bulbs in their traffic lights for low energy ones are now having to send out chaps because snow now sticks on the lights.
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