Put up the bunting: we've had a positively upbeat and chatty email from Chas:
"At last it is finished and we've had it running.
Unfortunately a couple of issues meant we had to turn it off before it reached full temperature. These have been sorted out but time pressure meant that we have left it drained down. We can't actually get back to it until next Monday (2nd March) but we should be able to do a full test up to temperature then."
The photos show the buffer tank in situ outside and the complex manifold area. (We love it - it looks 'the business', G says; I love the copper pipes - and it has that industrial look that we anticipated and hoped for. Weird, I know.) It looks seriously over-designed for the job, but hopefully that means we'll be warm as toast in the winter months. (Eek. Not looking forward to learning how to get the thing to operate.)
I have asked Chas to photograph the stove with its red ceramic jacket in place, but I'm not holding my breath...
STOP PRESS!! A photo of the finished stove below.
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| Red ceramic jacket in place. Now all we have to do is work out how the thing works. |
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| Manifold, anyone? |
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| The buffer tank in situ outside in the little lean-to, which will, of course, have fixed sides and an access door. |
Chas has fixed the bath feet in place, with an ingenious (if oddly clunky) solution:
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| Oak doughnuts. A world first. |
Here's a very sophisticated outdoor shot, showing the stove flue and septic tank vent, complete with caps etc. (Promise they're vertical; I think the photographer may have been listing to the left.)
To give him his due, Chas managed to engineer a complicated system to hold the vent and flue to the uneven stonework of the wall, and negotiate the eaves. Of course, had he been available to discuss the project with Tom at the outset, he could have routed the flue through the roof...
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| Stainless steel and galvanised zinc, anyone? |
But we won't quibble at this late stage.
Huge sighs of relief all round. It looks as if we are getting there, people!
