ollibees

The Great Expectations

• By admin
• 2013, 14 October
• 26 Comments

The past two weeks brought enough frustration to last us until Christmas. All mostly in connection with the heating system components supply and roofing plastics. Our great expectations went unmet and ASSUMptions failed. All eventually was back on track but not without endless hours of Internet research and numerous phone calls.

Two weeks ago I finished our last post prophesying the return of the hot water… Today, alas, there are still no burning logs to gaze at for the lack of a wood burner, and there is no hot shower to take after getting completely frozen and drenched spending a day insulating the roof in freezing rain and northerly winds… On top of that our camping stove ran out of gas half way through cooking last night… Luckily it was only a veggie curry, which turned out just as good when al-dente. Today, as yesterday, all we have to look forward to is yet another freezing shower, followed by an hour of clenching a hot water bottle to get warm. Ahh, I miss those long hot sunny summer days!

The basic utilities of the 21st century will not be featuring at the Ollibees for at least another two weeks, simply because the huge choice of products made the decision-making process far too long and windy and dependent on way too many factors… This was also coupled with the fact that the heat store manufacturers draw up lots of wonderful drawings of interconnected heating systems that all wonderfully sing and dance together in perfect unison and harmony. Yet the minute one starts digging deeper one comes across many gaps…  Andy the Plumber, a bundle of patience and perseverance, has done a great job in the end designing a heating system for us that  at last instils confidence in all, including us, the manufacturers and Andy himself.

The thermal store is at the very core of the system. It is tailor-made to take into account the individual household requirements, based on the heating sources available and the household’s heating energy demands. The cylinder will be fit to take in hot water sources from four different  feeds:

1. Two solar thermal panels. This is the primary source available all year around.
2. A multi-fuel wood burner with a back boiler. This is the secondary source mainly used during the colder months when the fire is lit.
3. A gas boiler. This will be used as back-up only, whenever there is not enough heat from the solar and when the wood burner is not lit.
4. Immersion heating (electricity). This is only if all of the above ever choose to fail.

The total cost may outweigh any immediate savings in fossil fuel costs but this was not the top reason we went for this hybrid system. The main reasons were:

• Taking advantage of the free / readily-available heat sources : sunlight and fireplace heat
• Contributing towards the conservation of the finite fossil fuel (natural gas)
• Reducing reliance on the main grid

The solar thermal panels should be eligible for a cash back of a few hundred quid when we apply for it in Spring 2014 as per of the Renewable Heat Incentive from the government. It’s a shame then that the Green Deal we had been so eagerly awaiting for turned out to be just a money-making scheme where those who cannot afford to invest in the first place are offered a loan at too high an interest rate to be even faintly attractive… 🙁

Back to the house.

Have you ever thought of becoming a millionaire?! If so, then look no further than fascias and soffits! There are hundreds of thousands of houses in need of a major refurb  and the same number of new-builds in planning, all in need of the stuff! By targeting those who are not too keen on the off-the-shelf white tacky glossy stuff  – you can charge an outrageous premium without having to explain yourself! The quotes I got for Anthracite Grey wood-grain finish fascias we chose to match our windows and doors beggars belief! I could have bought a small car or taken a plane to Kazakhstan once a month for the next 12 months for that price! Surely it’s only a few meters of plastic!!!! The leadtime was four weeks too… Not only would this hyper expensive UPVC plastic have a serious impact on the total budget, it would also set back the chippies and the roofer already lined up for their jobs over the next few weeks. So, Anthracite Grey got stricken off our list and replaced with a more wallet-friendly black wood-grain finish delivered to us directly from by the manufacturer three days after order placement and to everyone’s delight. Voila!…. And as an afterthought, – until three weeks ago I did not know my fascias from my soffits. Today I will name you every single component this roofing finish consists of and I can even become your personal quantitative surveyor should you decide to replace yours. 🙂

Another major panic in the past two weeks was the wood burning stove with the back boiler. Not only had we nearly run out of choices for back boiler stoves, but we were potentially in real danger of not having any water heating source in the house until after Christmas!!! Our original choice was the Cove 2B from Charnwood which was subsequently abandoned in favour of one from Stovax, only to be replaced by one from Yeoman. And this is not to mention hours and hours of research undertaken in the first place to arrive at all those decision!

On the stove’s order placement a one-week leadtime turned out to be a three-months leadtime as both Yeoman and Stovax had suddenly decided to “improve their stoves based on customer feedback”… Charnwood, being another British (Isle of Weight) manufacturer decided to play its fowl card too with deliveries scheduled for the end of November… Desperation was setting in as we trawled the Net in search of a stove that would do the job without compromising the looks. After a few agonising days our chimney components supplier suggested a Morso stove DB15. There was one caveat  – the stove was so new – the marketing art work had just gone off into print and there were no any other brochures or datasheets to look at! Based on the art work drafts with limited spec, we decided to bite the bullet and placed our order. By the first week of November we will be the proud owners of two stoves: a  Morso DB15 and a Stovax Riva Duplex… I just hope we get them before we turn into icicles!!!! It is also of great help that Stovesavers (our chimney and stoves supplier) are running a 12-months 0% APR with a 40% deposit promo…

As far as the house build progress is concerned, we had completed most of the brick-work last week. There may be a few finishing touches to do for a day in the next few weeks, but nothing major. Tomorrow will see me insulating the last of the flat roofs, by which point all our roofs will be fully insulated with the flat roofs to be finished off with ply, OSB, fibreglass and resin, before green sedum plants go on. Unfortunately that is not the last of the EcoTherm insulation we see. We are yet to order and install tonnes more as floor insulation, to go below underfloor heating and screed.

Last weekend also saw the very last of the steels welded in place for the glazed roof section. I am in great anticipation of all the glass going in before the end of November. Can’t wait!

The chippies are busy working on our new porch and getting all the fascias in place. Today also was a great milestone as the very first of the slates went onto the roof, hooray! 🙂

And as a bonus, we finally reclaimed some of our normality back in the form of a drive-way, which no longer hosts a huge pile of sand and our front garden, following the last of the muck-away visits to take away the remainder of the rubble of what used to be the old house to make space for the Ollibees.

The next couple of weeks will be occupied with research on flat-roofing,  floor insulation, underfloor heating and external wall timber cladding. Tasks-wise, pitched-roofs roofing and heating system set-up will take priority, including solar thermal panels installation, heat store installation and pipe work lay-out. All I hope for at the moment is that in two-weeks time I will have had a hot showering when I write our next blog post 😉