After thinking about for long enough I finally decided to replace the central heating system with a modern one, in the hope of reducing my greenhouse emissions (or at least my monthly spend on gas). After doing the quotes and all through the summer today was the agreed installation day. The parts were due this morning with 2 teams arriving this afternoon. The work would be done by Wednesday evening.
As expected the new boiler and various parts arrived this morning. and shortly after lunch a single Scottish Gas installer arrived and apologised for being so late. It seems the job was due to start at 8 this morning with only the single guy. Bad start but hopefully not an omen...
The guy started examining the paperwork and scratching his head. It seems the job was oversimplified on the job sheet and it looks like its going to be a bit tougher then expected.
The problem is the gas supply has to be 3/4" but the old boiler only needed 1/2" so the 3/4" pipe is reduced somewhere between the meter at the front door and the oven at the back of the house. We are presuming that the pipe is running underground beneath the house, so there is no way to find the current reduction point and replace it as it could be anywhere between the two. A quick check next door shows their gas pipe runs outside along the base of the pebble dash, apparently confirming the idea that the pipe is not available for connecting to.
Sadly, running the pipe outside from my meter to the back to the kitchen means it crosses the front door and that doesn't look (or seem) right.
My installer gives up and refers it back up his management chain, telling me that someone will be in touch.
Later on I speak to next door. Their gas supply actually comes out of the bottom of the meter under and into the house and then up to the first floor, across the house and down into the boiler, and then down to the cooker. They didn't want to the effort of finding were the pipe reduced indoors and just by passed the entire search. It would be odd if mine was any different...
24 August 2010
01 August 2010
Brú na Bóinne
After getting up and having nice cooked breakfast I checked the sat nav and turned off yesterday's offending "Avoid Motorways" setting, so today should be more straight forward.
I had decided that we would go up to Newgrange, mostly because I hadn't been there in years and really wanted to go again. I had read that a new visitor centre was open and that all access to the site was through it. Undaunted, we typed "Newgrange" into the sat nav and visually confirmed where we were going and headed off.
Despite taking some very small lanes, the sat nav brought us directly to the passage grave at Newgrange. I parked just outside the old Visitor Centre and we looked at the buses and the neatly herded tourists. We headed up to the ticket office where we we offered a printed map with directions back to the visitor Centre in 6 languages. With no ambiguity we headed off, trusting enough in the printed instruction not to set the sat nav. After going through Slane were ended up a the new Visitor Centre, and again marvelled at just how busy it was. Since we wanted to see both sites, we were assigned seats on the 1515 Knowth and the 1645 Newgrange buses. Since it was only 1330 we had a bit to wait. We toured the centre, tested the tea room and eventually headed out for the bus.
Knowth is actually the larger and more impressive site. Yes Newgrange has the spectacular solstice alignment (Knowth has two passages aligned east and West but early work destroyed any possible sun box as in Newgrange) There are 19 tombs, with the other 18 arranged around the main one. Something like 80% of the world's megalithic art is on the site.
After spending an hour here we were bussed back to the centre for our second site visit.
After seeing Knowth, Newgrange is a bit of disappointment but still massively impressive. As the key passage grave in the region physically is on the highest local point and the quartz front shines in the morning sun. The lack of satellite sites makes it look a bit empty, and you wonder if there is anything below the grass.
For the tourist, the key difference between here and Knowth is that you can go into the tomb itself. We were brought in and after moving to the end of the passage the guide treated us t a simulation of winter solstice morning with an electric light show. It really takes your breath away.
I had decided that we would go up to Newgrange, mostly because I hadn't been there in years and really wanted to go again. I had read that a new visitor centre was open and that all access to the site was through it. Undaunted, we typed "Newgrange" into the sat nav and visually confirmed where we were going and headed off.
Despite taking some very small lanes, the sat nav brought us directly to the passage grave at Newgrange. I parked just outside the old Visitor Centre and we looked at the buses and the neatly herded tourists. We headed up to the ticket office where we we offered a printed map with directions back to the visitor Centre in 6 languages. With no ambiguity we headed off, trusting enough in the printed instruction not to set the sat nav. After going through Slane were ended up a the new Visitor Centre, and again marvelled at just how busy it was. Since we wanted to see both sites, we were assigned seats on the 1515 Knowth and the 1645 Newgrange buses. Since it was only 1330 we had a bit to wait. We toured the centre, tested the tea room and eventually headed out for the bus.
After spending an hour here we were bussed back to the centre for our second site visit.
For the tourist, the key difference between here and Knowth is that you can go into the tomb itself. We were brought in and after moving to the end of the passage the guide treated us t a simulation of winter solstice morning with an electric light show. It really takes your breath away.
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