Well, after a week of preparing myself, assembling all the bits, and sorting out radiator and peripheral plumbing stuff, I finally bit the bullet and removed a stud wall and the hot water cylinder to make way for …. Steampunk.
I can’t say I enjoyed the week, but the satisfaction at the end of it all when it didn’t leak (nearly) was enormous. Endless trips to B&Q; endless re-routing of flow and return, hot and cold; bits of wire wool getting to places where wire wool really shouldn’t get, and poor Gwen taking refuge in the car to get away from the chaos.
Caerthan, wisely, just shut himself in the spinning room and made spectacular things with alpaca fleece.
I say nearly didn’t leak, because it did a bit, through the immersion heater socket, which I had plumbed incorrectly. Thankfully, for this, and other problems I had phone support from Cinnabar Stoves Peter who aside from practical advice has been very enouraging.
So, the joys of the thermal store are just opening up for us, the first immediate benefit being mains pressure hot water in our shower, aside from the more economical fuel usage. Stay tuned for more critical appraisal as the weeks go by.
But what does it look like?!? This mass of tangled pipes. Well … they all DO go somewhere, and they all do DO something, I promise. The big question now though is: “Do I box it in, shutting it out of sight like some menial in the attic, or do I celebrate its pipey-ness and watch the looks of horror on our guests faces when I show them to our already crowded guest-room …. ?”
Hmmm … well I know what the devil is saying ….