Gosh, the month’s holiday is almost over and it feels like I’ll being going back to work in a different season, which I guess I almost will. The autumn equinox is only a day or two away and already things are changing rapidly. After clouds of Kamikaze midge in the sunshine last week they seem to have almost vanished overnight. It’s been dark now since just after 20:00 and already there’s a stag outside bellowing for all he’s worth, first frost is usually when they start that carry on but there’s no sign of that yet. One of the blighters has managed to get over the deer fence around wifey’s old veg plot and made a mess of the neighbours veg. Needless to say he’ll be destined for our freezer well, he will as soon as we get power into the bunker and the freezer in position.
Yes, it really does feel like the worst summer in my living memory is finally by with and hopefully we’ll not have too harsh a winter. Our rowan tree behind the caravan has very few berries on, which is, allegedly a good sign, not so the ones in the woods at Torran though. Perhaps we’ll have a mild winter at Sonas and a cold one at the Schoolhouse
The last full day at home was spent finishing off the wiring for the solar water and heat pump controllers, giving the inside of our store cupboard that ‘industrial’ look. I didn’t have any of that pretty white PVC trunking large enough so went for the more rugged alternative, PVC flexible conduit , it is the inside of a cupboard after all and this stuff is easier to make airtight.
The ends are all sealed with silicon so should let any draughts in.
The transition into the ‘bunker’ is via 32mm water pipe which is so snug a fit within the wood and block that it needs no sealer. The pipe will be sealed eventually but I’ve a few more meters to run to the store first.
I used a seven core 11amp trailer cable for the three solar sensors, six of the cores being used, two for each sensor for the MTDC controller.
These monitor the temperature of the panels and the thermal store, when the difference between the panels and the bottom of the store is more than 5 degrees the circulation pump starts. If the sensor in the tank detects an excessively high temperature another pump is started to circulate the water in the store and cool it down.
The water pipes into the rooms also got a similar treatment with lots of silicon and some nicer wood.
The wrasse fishing boat returned
and I managed to find a better picture of it that I took two years ago in Portree.
The rest of the day was taken up clearing away tools, tidying up and finally doing the last ‘wee job’ on the ‘Old Girl’ for the MOT tomorrow.
This would be the front nearside flexible brake hose which was fouling the tyre on full lock.
A quick adjustment on the offside ‘lock stop’ sorted that out ( I hope)
That was it really, tomorrow will be a day on the mainland and Skye visiting parents and shopping for the ‘fortnight on’.