Day 57 - Report time

Now getting closer and closer to getting finished. Most of the activity is now in the entrance hall, staircase and landing area, Robert putting up lots of plasterboard to replace the wooden sloping ceiling. We had moved the roof window a meter and trying to juggle a puzzle of old wooden slats would never have resulted in a good result.

Angie is at the point where she just wanted the hole filled with anything and was prepared to find a large poster photo to hang over it  - anything to get the work finished quickly. Rightly builder Robert calmed her and said the plasterboard wouldn't take long. The hardest bit was setting up scaffolding but once done, the plasterboard was in place, the grooves and screw-holes filled, sanded, re-filled, re-sanded and the first coat of paint done. All helped by the very hot temperatures.

In the course of the work, we have in several places replaced the wooden slat ceilings with plasterboard, a relic from the 60's and 70's trend. One doesn't really think anything of it when it's there but the wood makes a  wonderful spiderweb catcher and of course is relatively dark in an area where there is little light. Now with white plasterboard, it has transformed the bathroom, WC and a changing room. Would be nice to do all the other rooms one day - when we win on the lottery.

Evening dog walk saw Farmer Franz out doing some soil preparation with his Basildon, Essex built New Holland. Will be interesting to see what happens on the New Holland front in these parts, not just because of Brexit but also the bankruptcy & closing of the very influential agricultural suppliers and NH main dealer

Franz was a long way away so didn't get to find out what exactly he was doing. Did though have a long chat with Farmer Müller (one of several) - so Josef and his wife out on a dog walk too. They are very active in the village, both in the church and Josef is the farmer's representative  They were the first people who helped us out when we moved here back in 2002 - a very nice and helpful couple who it is always a pleasure to have a chat with.

As an extra, the graph of our first full days PV electricity production and consumption. In total we produced 59kWh, used 22kWh ourselves and sold 36kWh to the grid for about 4.50 €uros. If we had no PV and had used the same amount of electricity but bought it woould have cost around 6.50 €uros. Sure it's women's "Sale Logic" that says we saved 10 €uros today!

The blue bits show the immersion heater kicking in several times. We need to think of a way of perhaps making this even better so that it doesn't try to constantly maintain the 60°C mark but allows boiler to drop to say 45°C before reheating. Need to speak to the pellet heating people as their unit does this when burning pellets and have to find out if new electrics/software/communication available whereby we could hook up the central heating unit to the PV management system.

Should add that one's consumption is quite possibly higher than it would be when you know it's for "free". One is not quite so careful with turning off lights! However the consumption is high at the moment as we let the swimming pool pump run almost all day as the pump also sends the water up on to a roof where the water is heated in black sun absorbing pipes. Pool is at 30°C, just right for weak types like me and I have been in quite a lot. Even the builders have had the odd evening dip with an ice cold bottle of beer at the end of a day with around 50°C on the roof.