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We're in!

Posted: 21-06-10

Central heating. Leaky filter. Surprise bill. Final payment. Moving in.

There's a reason why this update has been so long and that's down to the amount of to-ing and fro-ing between me, the plumber, the sparky and the solar heating and control suppliers - LEAP Ltd of late.

The middle of last week saw confusion on the part of many technically minded types, myself included, as to an innocuous enough looking device called the TIC-17 and how it would function correctly. This device is one of 3 heating controllers our home features. Very basically, it detects the temperature in the cylinder and when it exceeds a preset value, switches on a pump which redirects hot-water from the Rayburn's boiler, directly to the radiator circuit.

It was designed like this so that we always had plenty of hot water.

It took a few days to figure out which of the settings would do the trick and allow the pump to switch on. Having sussed it, and hearing the pump going, we're now having issues figuring out why, even when the cylinder is way above temperature, no heat whatsoever is reaching the rads. My suspicions are with air in the pipes, the pressure of which is preventing the proper 'ingress' of hot water to the appropriate areas of the radiator circuit.

I'll check it out and get back to you.

The membrane filter we purchased from Rainline, seems to be dumping its load at random intervals all over the pantry floor. Ordinarily this would be an issue. It was made more than an issue when it decided to do this twice on the day the building inspector came to sign-off the building as being compliant with the building code.

I took to aiming a portable fan heater at the patch of wet on the concrete floor so he wouldn't spot it and scuffing some dust over it when he was doing his rounds! He signed it off and we passed, so something must have been done right. The suppliers of the filter meanwhile have admitted fault with a set of 'O' rings which unfortunately they have run out of and have had to place an order for us. The filter however hasn't emptied itself in 4 days now, so all good so far.

We had a surprise bill from the sparky the other day for $1500. That was a lot to take in after a late-night conference, when all I wanted was to flop into bed. We had assumed that as we were on a fixed-term contract, that whatever "variations" came up, they would be soaked-up by whichever agency fouled-up on costing x,y or z system that went over budget. However, it says plainly in our contract that all variations are to be discussed and billed directly with/from the sparky so we may well yet be liable to pay that [last] bill.

The issue we take however, is the provisional sum of $400 that was allowed-for before additional costs start to accrue. Everyone knew the potential for our system to be totally non-standard so surely better to over-think the potential costs of it to the value of say $1000 and refund the difference to us, than allow such a small sum and surprise us later on.

I'll let you know how we go with this too.

We made the final payment to the builder on Friday and I ended up having a hefty chat with the director, Dave, about how organised (or not) we found them to be.

In all fairness, from what he told me, our build itself was pretty straightforward, it was the non-standard insulation, central heating, Rayburn and associated electronics that threw everything off kilter. As a result, and if Dave was being honest, and I have nothing to suggest that he wasn't, ours was the most complex build they have done to date.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at that! He also thought, and I tended to agree, that because I knew (or made out that I knew) about many of the more technical aspects of the build and its systems, and the lingo involved with it all - that very possibly - some of the tradesmen simply assumed I knew what it was they were talking about half the time. So when then, they explained something to me which I didn't understand, I assumed that I should really understand and basically we all got horribly confused on one or two fairly key occasions.

So there's a warning to you: Know your stuff, just not that well.

We finally moved-in at the weekend. It was super-dry for once and John had hired-us a 5-speed Toyo-Ace truck to cart our stuff in. It took 3 trips, an acheing back and badly dinged shin to bring all the stuff over and then another day of John, Denise, Tasia and myself to organised the lot in the new house as well as a new reclaimed Rimu farmhouse-style dining table that Denise decided to buy us for a belated engagement pressie.

I love it!

So just as soon as myself, John and Charlie from work get the data and phone stuff hooked-up, I'll post some photos for y'all to look at.

Til next time, cheers.