Turneresque

The plumbers came back today to replace four radiator valves and put insulation into the chimney around the double-lined flu. That meant going up on the roof. Just as it began to rain. They also cracked on with putting right a downpipe that they had not finished when they put up the copper guttering. But they ran out of curvy bits.

The boiler is still on a provisional wiring basis and we await Andrea to put it all 'alla norma' - within the existing regulations.  It is very impressive and the insulation has closed up the chimney gap that led to some acoustic issues. Apparently the 'boiler whisperer' set the thing up to run at maximum blast so the forced air sounds more like a plane that an open fire. We will gradually bring it round so that it burns longer but without quite so much ferocity - this depends on getting the pellet feed and forced air balanced at an intensity somewhat lower than that of a blast furnace. The idea being that you minimise the switching on and off of the boiler from burn to standby thus cutting out those periods when the burn is less efficient and more likely to produce flu tars.

As the guys finished off it began to hail and I caught a glimpse of the long hail trails falling on Mt Falterona. I got the camera and took this. It seemed to look better in black and white with a high contrast red filter.