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Mar. 3rd, 2026 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galadhirOn very bad news: my belly dance teacher, Elizabeth, popped over to the Middle East to get some dancing in during the half term holiday, and she is now trapped there thanks to the war. We suggested she find the embassy and let them know she's there but that's all we've heard, so none of us know what's happening beyond that. Some prayers for her safety would not come amiss if anyone reading this has a prayer list :(
On slightly better news, DH and I are having a heat pump put in, to run our central heating, instead of the gas boiler we previously had. And when I say 'we're having a heat pump put in' I mean right now. One engineer is outside drilling something. One is putting sticky back plastic over our carpets to protect them, prior to checking which radiators need to be replaced.
(Apparently we need larger radiators because the water coming from the heat pump will be at a lower temperature than that coming from a boiler, so we'll need a larger surface area of radiator to provide equivalent heating.)
We were keen to get a heat pump because we are with an electricity provider who get all their electricity from renewables (mostly wind farms around here.) That way, once we swap our gas hob for an electric one, we will be freed from fossil fuel use except for the cars. (They're on the plan too, but second hand electric cars are not yet as available as we need, and who can afford a new car?)
I'm very impressed with our electricity people so far (Octopus Electric.) They said they'd be here by 8am and they were here at 8.10am. (In contrast to the scaffolding people who said they'd be here yesterday and never turned up at all.)
They're putting protectors on our carpeting where they intend to walk. They say it will take them three days to install the heat pump system, but we'll only have one day without heating. And they have given us three fan heaters to keep us warm on that one day, and told us we can keep them afterward.
It'll be hard to go back to a system where you have to heat up the hot water tank in order to have hot water, (rather than the current system where the boiler heats the water on demand.) But we're doing our bit for the planet, so that will have to be the consolation :)
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Date: 2026-03-03 01:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-04 09:32 am (UTC)Thank you!
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Date: 2026-03-03 05:17 pm (UTC)Wow - a heat pump is on our list (we already have electric cars and solar panels). The British gas engineer who came today to service our 10-year-old gas boiler told us it was old...!! I'll be interested to find out how you get on with it. Did you get a grant?
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Date: 2026-03-04 09:38 am (UTC)I hope so too. We haven't heard any more since then, but we're low on the list of people to be told.
We did get a grant for the heat pump. The government is covering £7000 of the installation (I think.) Which obviously makes quite a difference :)
I'll try to remember to do an update on how it does once it's settled in :)
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Date: 2026-03-03 06:41 pm (UTC)Hope that the installation all goes according to plan and timetable.
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Date: 2026-03-04 09:46 am (UTC)Thank you!
They are all very busy about here again today, and DH and I are feeling a bit under siege, but glad it's getting on. We have all our new radiators and a hot water tank now, so that's something.
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Date: 2026-03-04 01:57 am (UTC)It's great to hear about heat pump. Good luck while they install. At least you get to stay home while they're doing it. It's going to be so nice when they're done.
And by the way, it's okay if you laugh about me saying a rosary. Even my children make fun. But it gives me comfort and I always hope it does to the intended person. 😁
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Date: 2026-03-04 09:50 am (UTC)Thank you so much! I would never laugh about you saying a rosary. I have been known to do the same despite being Anglican. It's a great way to keep your thoughts focussed.
Things are moving fast on the installation. We have pipes all over now, and new radiators, and a new water tank, but nothing is hooked up yet. That's for tomorrow :)
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Date: 2026-03-04 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-05 10:57 am (UTC)We'll both be really glad when that happens. We're both introverts, so having strangers all over the house is frazzling both our nerves :)
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Date: 2026-03-04 03:06 am (UTC)The heat pump process sounds very interesting. (And stressful.) I hope it goes smoothly!
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Date: 2026-03-04 09:51 am (UTC)Thank you! I hope so too.
It really is very stressful. DH is stress eating, and I'm busy finding excuses to get out of the house. We'll see if it has all worked tomorrow :)
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Date: 2026-03-04 03:33 am (UTC)Hooray for the heat pump!
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Date: 2026-03-04 09:54 am (UTC)Thank you! Yes, it's the sort of thing you don't think can happen to someone you know. I'm not sure it's safe to travel anywhere these days. Maybe not even safe to live anywhere :(
I will give everyone an update on the heat pump when it's working, but today is the middle day of three, and we have a house full of people and no heating, so today is a bit of a grumpy day!
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Date: 2026-03-05 04:14 am (UTC)I'm very relieved to hear she made it home!
Bleh, I hope the heat pump is all the way working sooner rather than later!
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Date: 2026-03-05 10:59 am (UTC)Thank you! My fingers are crossed that they might be able to hook the system up today, but it seems like they've got a long way to go.
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Date: 2026-03-07 02:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-07 10:50 am (UTC)We have heating now :) And (very) hot water. It's a great relief :)
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Date: 2026-03-13 02:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-05 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-06 09:46 am (UTC)They say they'll be done with the installation today, so I'll let you know :)
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Date: 2026-03-07 10:53 am (UTC)It is now working and the house is heated again. It's heating the water to a much higher temperature than the boiler used to. We don't know yet if that's a feature or a bug. But DH is very impressed that it's converting one kilowatt of electricity to four kilowatts of heat, which seems miraculous. It's far more silent than the boiler, that's for sure :)
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Date: 2026-03-08 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-08 09:54 pm (UTC)I really hope so :) Thanks!
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Date: 2026-03-07 09:35 am (UTC)My parents also got a heat pump uhhh... last year? The year before? Their oil heater was 30 years old by then and started having more and more problems. They also needed to get new radiators - I did get the same ones even though my house still runs on oil (the heater was almost new as the old one broke down a few years before my grandma's death and she didn't have the money for a whole new heating system, so a new oil one it was) because then the change sometime in the future to a heat pump or whatever will be easier. But those radiators are absolute shit for cats - my late Bonnie got stuck with his toes two times and now I have some mesh wire over them to prevent it. That was quite annoying as it's almost impossible to get the wire to stay in place, but I found a way that seems to be working so far. I guess no-one in the radiator inventing group has cats...
Anyway, yay for getting the heat pump and for having a great company to install them! Hope everything went smoothly!
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Date: 2026-03-07 10:58 am (UTC)Oh, I hadn't even thought about cats when looking at the new radiators except for thinking that cats might like to lie on top of them. I hadn't thought that their feet could get caught. Fortunately we don't have cats, but we'll have to be careful if my daughter is visiting with hers. (Which sometimes happens at Christmas.) You would have thought that someone would invent radiator caps for them in that case. Maybe you can patent your wire caps instead?
We are now installed and warm. It's great :)
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Date: 2026-03-08 08:45 am (UTC)Many people also put wire over the old radiators as cats sometimes got stuck in them, too. Mine never did, though. Perhaps that was lucky and I was just very unlucky with Bonnie and the new ones, who knows. It was much easier with the old radiators as you could take off the top grate and put the wire beneath. That doesn't work with the new ones. :/
Yay for having a nice warm house! :D
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Date: 2026-03-08 12:00 pm (UTC)I hope he was okay? That sounds like it could have been grim.
I've not yet got over how nice it is to be warm again. In fact we are concerned that we are a little too warm and the hot water is a little too hot. But the engineer is back tomorrow and can help us tune it down a bit then :)
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Date: 2026-03-08 06:35 pm (UTC)There's always a bit of adjusting with new heating but I'm sure that's easy to correct.
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Date: 2026-03-08 10:10 pm (UTC)Well done for catching him before he damaged himself, even at the cost of your poor arms!