Digging in the dirt

The builders filled several skips of rubble and other rubbish during the build. In order to limit what they sent 'away' to landfill in the skips we kept an eye on what they disposed of, especially easily recyclable cans and plastic bottles, timber that we could reuse or burn, and bricks or other hardcore that could be reused somewhere in the garden.

As a result of this we've been left with a huge mound of rubble to the side of the house that has been earmarked to provide a base for the terrace at the rear of the house. With the builders having left site almost a year ago now the mound has become a familiar site as we approach the front door, so much so we've hardly noticed it of late. With the plan to order materials for the terrace before the summer is over, we decided it was time to tackle the mound at the weekend.

We'd hoped that the builders had taken on board our request to segregate waste and that it would just be a pile of bricks, blockwork, tiles and other debris from the cutting the holes into the rear of the house. Unfortunately, when we disturbed the mound during the heat of the weekend the smell we encountered confirmed that wasn't the case. Not that we found any food waste, or worse, in the mound. It was all debris from the house. Mostly it was inert rubble (bricks, broken tiles and blockwork) with some pieces of metal, small amounts of plastic (broken lightswitches etc), none of which would have been decomposing to produce the smell. The two offending items we found though were wood and plasterboard. Both of the latter produce gases as they biodegrade, with plasterboard a particular problem in landfill sites where it results in hydrogen sulphide being produced. Not something we want in our garden, and certainly not under the terrace!

So our afternoon of moving the rubble mound to the rear of the house also entailed a sifting of the waste so that we didn't rebury the offending items. Instead yet another bonfire pile has appeared, the metal recycling heap is larger than it was, and with a pang of guilt we sent the plasterboard 'away' in our black wheelie bin. But at least the mound has diminished and we can now measure up to see what additional hardcore we need to bring in to provide the base for the terrace.

Greenhouse

We'd been looking for a second-hand greenhouse on Freecycle for while when friends (Jess & Yinka) mentioned in passing that their new house came with a 6' by 8' greenhouse that they didn't want. Not something that would go well with their 6 year old son and his desire to kick a football!

So a couple of months ago, just after they moved in, we visited them armed with spanners etc and dismantled the aluminium framed greenhouse. The iPhone captured a few key photos and mother-in-law (who was visiting that weekend), sketched the general layout of the frame whilst C stuck labels onto the structural parts.

Since then the structure has lain in the 'allotment' waiting for us to build a base. We finally did this last weekend using old bricks, patio slabs and crushed plant pots for hardcore. So we were able to start putting the frame up,only to find most of the labels had faded, the sketches didn't capture all the relevant details and the iPhone pics weren't as clear as I'd hoped!

However, some common sense and a couple of bags of new bolts later (to replace those that'd sheared off) the frame is now up. We just need to rescue the glazing from the advancing brambles before cleaning it off and putting it into the frame so that we have a sun trap for our tender plants. It'll also be a place to ripen off any tomatoes if the rain that has appeared over the past week persists for the rest of the summer.

Best laid plans...

Okay, so I didn't quite finish off the installing the solar thermal system after my last post. With the system all pressure tested and leak free I installed 6 of the evacuated tubes to see what effect they would have for starters. As the tubes can be damaged if left in the sun without the heat being taken away I didn't want to risk damaging the full complement of 30.

It was probably just as well as an annoying intermittent electrical fault plagued me for a few weeks! This meant several fuses blew, some 3 amp from the fused spur supplying the TD3 controller, along with a couple of the special fuses in the controller itself. Thankfully the guys at Navitron posted several spares at no cost. Finally I tracked down the power spike to an extra 'stat that I'd wired up, thinking it would give me additional control. The TD3 came with three sensors (1 for the panel, 2 for the cylinder; top and bottom) but I thought it'd be good to use a spare mains 'stat that was supplied with the cylinder. It appears that this was producing a power surge every time the water temp dropped below 60C, blowing the fuses.

All this has coincided with weekends of visitors and a weekend in Dorset so there's not been much DIY time for a while. The last weekend was the first opportunity to fiddle with the system once more, adding a high temperature automatic air vent at the high point, before finally installing all 30 tubes. This proved to be an easy task, just as in the Youtube video. Interestingly it was overcast when I put a batch of 10 tubes out on the roof, and the 15 mins or so it took me to nstall them was long enough for the copper tail on the last tube to be hot to touch, so definitely not something to do on a sunny day.

The last thing I have to complete is installing the final few reflectors, strips of aluminium that clip between the tubes to bounce light onto the back of the tubes to increase the system efficiency. This evenings rain stopped me from doing this. But this is just a final tweak as the system is up and running, generating our hot water for the rest of the summer, and hopefully well into Autumn. So the biomass boiler has been switched off and we can now enjoy 'free' hot water. The TD3 controller keeps a detailed tally of how much energy the system generates, so I'll have to give an update in a few weeks on how quickly (or not) the system will pay for itself.