So started off a very long day at 6:15AM. The dog was already on the ball after checking her calendar last night, knowing it was Wednesday, she was up and ready for breakfast, wolfed it down and was ready to get into her harness in about three minutes. We sat in the car and discussed North Korea’s missile launch while we waited for the car to defrost. She got to day care at 6:50, I was back in bed by 7:15.
Was rudely awaken by two smiling boiler fitters at 8:30. They came in, I introduced them to the kettle and coffee machine then left them to it. They turned the water off grunted a bit and got on with it. Deciding that it was pointless trying to go back to bed I started work, well I started iPlayer anyway and caught up with another episode of Merlin anyway.
Today I was working on OsX (iMac) again, found the issue with the audio, wasn’t audio related at all, but was to do with memory alignment, OsX requires 16 byte alignment as it uses multimedia registers. Also fixed a few issues with minimise/maximise. Got one of our apps working fine on iMac which was great. Also did a few more bits on the upcoming mobile game update.
Boiler men were finished by 2PM. Okay, lets see. Boiler fitted, the inside of the flu has been jammed with expanding foam and not the neatest thing in the world. They told me my three port valve wasn’t working properly and when there was a call for heat only it was also going to the water tank. They also told me for maximum efficiency it I should run the boiler on max. They filled all the paperwork out and buggered off (I even paid them).
Now here’s the reality. The outside flu is tidy, the inside looks like it was done by a 3 year old. The actual boiler fitting is fine. There’s nothing wrong with the three port valve, I tested it on heat/heat&water/water and the valve moved between all positions just fine, I assume they didn’t have the controls set correctly. In the paperwork they said they flushed the system and then added inhibitor using the brand name ‘Fernox’, this is complete bollocks. How do I know this? Well they chucked the used container of cheapo Toolstation inhibitor in the kitchen bin. Running the boiler at max temperature setting, again, as far as I can tell complete bollocks. Every bit of research I have done says a condensing boiler gets more efficient when the return flow is below 55 degrees, so chucking the water out at 86 and then hoping for a 30 degree drop across all the radiators is a bit much. Also they only drained the system from the boiler level not from the under the lowest radiator, this left half the system full and not flushed. This also introduced an airlock, meaning I’ll be bleeding radiators for the next six months as they will contain more air than my ass after a decent curry. So would I use them again? Too bloody right I would. I paid about five hundred quid for fitting which included all sundries, testing and paperwork. Plus about three tubes of expanding foam. At the end of the day British Gas wanted an extra £1500 for the exact same job (okay, except the £7 I had to spend on a length of cable). They may have done a better job of the finish and may have even drained it properly but at the end of the day, it was the same boiler. So I paid a bargain bucket price for the bear legal and safety requirements, which is exactly what I wanted. I couldn’t have done it myself as it wouldn’t be legal and I don’t have a fucking great drill for the flu. Also I don’t have the testing gear necessary. So overall, very happy, just need to rebalance the radiators and adjust the output to the minimum required to reach the required temperature. Oh and bleed all the fart air out of the radiators.
After they went, I decided that as it was only minus six outside it would be a great idea to go out and run 12 miles. So I did. I then came back and picked up the dog. She was very happy. I was very happy. I had lunch. Did a bit more work and finished a bit earlier due to the early start.
I then cleaned out the cupboards where I’d removed all the stuff yesterday for the condense pipe and put all the stuff back in. More wine turned up today, and dog food. I’ll try not to use that as nibbles. Had a bath, drank wine, ate salad. Dog is at the vet tomorrow for her shots. I’ve got Friday off, I won’t get excited.
