How to Quit Smoking

My sister sent me this... if you smoke you need to watch it

Teenage dad Alfie Patten ..........

has joined 'Fathers for Justice'. In an interview, the 13 year old said "it made sense as I already have a Spiderman outfit"

Heating again

The house has been freezing all day.

It was down to 14 degrees when I got up (woken by the cat) at 7:40. The heating came on at 7:50 but its only just reached 19 degrees.

We've got an energy survey being done in a few weeks - we need cavity wall insulation I think!

Apparently this is where to find the manuals for the RC1 and WRI thermostat/receiver.

http://www.invensyscontrolseurope.com/InvensysControlsEurope/Pages/Product.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRNODEGUID={EA65767E-D57E-4472-9B56-A1F317FD8ECE}&NRORIGINALURL=/InvensysControlsEurope/en/ProductsServices/MarketSegments/Heatingdomesticcommercial/Drayton/RoomThermostats/ComingSoon-thenewDigistat.htm&NRCACHEHINT=Guest

or - 

http://preview.tinyurl.com/bozew9

http://tinyurl.com/bozew9

Boiler guy

The British Gas guy came today.

He diagnosed a faulty valve, which he swapped. But he booked a return visit for Monday as he wasn't sure this would fix the problem. This also would give him time to order the parts he may need.

So we've got to monitor it over the weekend.

Its been fine the past two nights - so may be fine over the weekend too.

WRI & RC1 and British Gas 330 Boiler

I had fun last night with the central heating. It wouldn't turn off! We thought there had been a problem for a few nights as it got very warm, but the weather has been quite cold so it didn't matter too much. But last night it woke me up it was so hot.

I came downstairs and checked the timer. It was off. However the boiler was lit and the pump was running. After some messing around, turning it off and on again (well, it works on computers) and checking the Wireless Thermostat Receiver (WRI) in the airing cupboard I thought that maybe the batteries in the thermostat (RC1) had died or were dying, so I changed them.

All seemed well. 

I ran some tests during the day and it seemed to shut down and start up normally. Then tonight at 11 pm we noticed it was still running again. I checked the timer: it was set to turn off at 11 pm and it appeared to have shut down on the timer, but the boiler was lit and the WRI was reporting it was active. To get it to shut down I turned the boiler off.

I guess tomorrow I'll have to call British Gas :) Lucky I've got a service contract!

Odd that this seemed to have started since the service visit to check the water leak from the boiler. The water leak was apparently due to the condensation drip tray overflowing after the drain pipe froze. However the weather has been too cold for us to notice a problem before now.

Snow clearance

We spent 2 hours yesterday working with neighbours to clear snow and ice from the road. One of our neighbours is a nurse and she needed to leave to get to work for her shift.

After 2 hours the road was clear enough for our neighbour Mark to get a car out to go to the DIY shop to get some salt.

With salt on it the road was clear enough to use :-)

There was ice under the snow - thanks in the main to the local lads driving their motorised tricycle on it yesterday, spinning and throwing up snow. This compacted the snow into ice, on which more snow fell. They didn't come out to help shift it though.

Snowy here...

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=8e115437-c5bb-4273-8f15-850f0b3cc888&i=0:1:3&z=621.1224471900001&g=1&p=0:0&m=false&c=-0.0773902:-0.0252638:-0.0434345&d=-1.14069:0.830727:1.05787

 Photosynth of our snowy garden - view by clicking on the link.