Some like it hot, Part 1

It's done. Yes, it is finally finished, complete and done, but maybe not yet dusted properly. (In fact, my dear sweet wife had one or two sharp things to say about the dusting – or the lack of it - when she returned home from the Crimea today.)

The new central heating system is something that we have been talking about, planning and intending to get done and now it is actually done. So all we need to do now is to work out how to switch it on. Of course, it does not help that the instruction manual is in Bulgarian and there is no electrical socket next to the main boiler. The control panel is really a little computer and you can understand what it tells you if you have a PhD in Computer Science. In Bulgarian.

The engineer chap who came yesterday, to give the system its final adjustments, tweaks and fiddling, did not speak much English, but he did get it all working and boy, it was hot! The flames were pretty and the electric fan certainly does its job, making those wood pellets burn like mad. The boiler seems to know when more fuel is needed (there is some sort of sensor) and then more pellets are fed in automatically. At 40C, the pump kicks in and it starts pushing the water around the system, to the radiators upstairs, downstairs and in my lady's chamber.

Wood pellets are in many ways much better than logs. Firewood takes an awful lot of cutting up and storage, as you may recall if you read my piece about the Einhell. Sold in 15kg plastic bags, the pellets are specially dried and then they can be poured into the hopper at the top of the boiler.

In order to operate the boiler, you need something else, as well as that Bulgarian Computer Science PhD. You also need a socket for the electricity, so that you can plug it in. Oh dear! There isn't one.