18.03.2026

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  Wednesday 18th 38F/3.3C. Bright with all day sunshine promised. 64F/18C in the room. 42F/5.6C in the greenhouse.

 Up at 6am after a busy night. 

 9.15 leaving to visit my English friend. 

 12.30 Back from my visit. It is sunny but does not feel particularly warm in the wind. Gusting to 10m/s from the south. I took a picture of  some flowers in his spacious greenhouse. Where we enjoyed coffee and Danish pastries in the sunshine. 

 13.00 53F/11.7C. 65F/18C indoors. 98F/37C in the greenhouse. I'll open the doors out to the greenhouse. To borrow some of that heat. I have also opened the living room windows covered by the greenhouse. To try to speed up heat flow to the indoors. I also gathered the open stairwell curtains and tied them with a cord. To hopefully obtain a chimney effect.

 I have decided to order two new doors for the north facing facade. A panel front door with diamond shaped square window near the top. To provide a smarter, far better insulated and much beter sealed entrance door. With a bit of extra light for the hall. Plus a triple glazed, terrasse door. To allow greater freedom for bringing things in and out of the living room. 

 It was an awful struggle to get the furniture in when we first moved here. The removal chap handed the heavy, three seater settee/sofa up to me. While I was standing on the 1st floor balcony in the gable end! Once safely upstairs it then had to be lowered down the narrow 55º stairs. That was 30 years ago. When I was still strong and fit at 50.

 Similarly, the home helps and district nurses couldn't get the hospital bed indoors. When it was needed for my wife's final days here. The bed had to be dismantled just to get it in. 

 Getting Her coffin out ten days later was similarly difficult for the funeral directors. Very undignified! I couldn't bare to watch as they struggled mightily! 

 The narrow entrance hall forces a sharp bend from the living room out to what is the main entrance door. Which does not allow much freedom for anything longer than a few feet. 

 The new doors will help to lift the presently hideous appearance of Chez Hovel. Though how much it will improve the value is debatable. It might help the place to sell after I am gone. Every little helps.

 The current window is a lanceolate topped, single glazed, pine antique. It was there when we bought the place. With the firm intention of getting rid of it at some point. It has some historical value and arguably some character. The old pine will probably last another century. 

 I shall have to do some demolition work to fit the new, full height, glazed door in its place. The area above and below the present window was bricked and blocked up to close the gaps. The floor level indoors is a bit higher than the black painted, ground bar. The ugly, lightweight building blocks badly need repainting. After decades of knocks from gardening tools being leaned up against it. Cream was my wife's choice. After much discussion. Only the back of the house was ever painted. I left the white front alone. With the lean-to greenhouse hiding most of it. The gable ends are still patchy white.

 I presume this old window was once a real door in the long history of the hovel. Which dates back to the 1700s and was once a tiny, thatched, double hipped cottage. It was still like that in the 1950s. With a small porch to the main, south facing, entrance door. And another door directly into the living room facing east. Now another window. The last owner before us expanded the place and did it up [very badly!] I spent years doing the place up and making repairs myself once it became our new home. Though it was never really good enough. 

 I finally placed the order for both doors. After hours of re-measuring and deciding on the fine details. Some at extra expense. The living room rose to 75F/24C in the sunshine. Though it has cooled off to 71F now. After I closed all the doors and windows. 

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17.03.2026 Air-air heat pump Pt.2

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 Tuesday 17th 36F/2.2C [6.45] Light overcast with a tobacco filter in the east. 66F/19C in the room. 57F/14C in the greenhouse.

 Up at 4am. Wide awake. No visit to my friend today. 

 Watching videos on heat pumps. Moving furniture to make room for low level and floor standing indoor units. My original idea avoided sitting in "the wind" but directed the heat to the open stairwell. That would leave the main sitting area in the cold. 

 While a low level unit could blow warm air along the floor from the wall near the TV. Towards the computer desk, TV chair and the bed. Where it would rise by convection to form and circular air flow.

 A long time owner of a heat pump said that high level units struggle to match the heat required. Due to stratification. While his low mounted unit kept an entire upstairs room arrangement warm. Consisting of a living room, office, bedrooms and bathroom. Good to know.

 My original drawing is horribly out of scale. This end of the L-shaped room is far more roomy than it appears. So I have now redrawn the east wall to better match reality. Still not to scale!

 The outside heat pump unit coincides with where I keep the three, recycling, wheelie bins. Not a problem. Plenty of room. I have discovered that the heat pump's mains plug must be earthed. The nearest sockets indoors are close but not earthed. They date from a period where Denmark did not have earthed sockets and plugs. 

 However, the plastic water supply pipe lies close to this wall. The storm of '99 brought down a telegraph pole with TV aerials mounted. This broke the buried water pipe at its base and it had to be rejoined. So hammering an earth rod in just there might be risky. I might have to dig down to expose the pipe's exact position. An earth rod would be far simpler and probably cheaper than indoor rewiring back to the consumer unit. Which in on the other side of the house.

 9.30 Sunshine. I drove into the village to shop. Having run out of essentials. I'll ride in again later. When the pharmacy is open.

 12.00 Back from the chemist. I have to have an annual checkup at the doctors. Twice, next month. MOT and service. 

 Dinner was chicken, mushrooms, tomatoes and chips. 

  

 

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16.03.2026 Heat pump?

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  Monday 16th 37F/3C. Heavy overcast. A wet morning clearing to sunshine. 61F/16C in the room.43F/6C in the greenhouse. I am using the new wireless digital thermometers for monitoring the greenhouse. Both are reading identically to 0.1F. My old digital thermometer, with a sensor on a lead, is reading high at 47F. The sensor is trapped against the house wall by a shade card. Not to be trusted. 

 The wireless sensors are separated and resting in the open. On a slatted wooden table in the shade of large plant pots. Not under them! I am hoping this will overcome solar heating of the sensors and their immediate surroundings. Which was a constant battle out there last summer. I tried all sorts of shading but was always limited by the length of the sensor leads. The two thermometers were showing wildly different measurements. As much as 30F! As the sun heated the southern brick wall. 

 9.45 Up at 8.22 after a ridiculously busy night attending the fire bucket. I was going to get up several times but went back to sleep each time. I have lit the stove. 60F is not warm enough!

 I lit the stove and the room quickly rose to 70F. That consumed only four logs. The sunshine after lunch maintained both the room and greenhouse at 70F/21C. I had already let the stove go out mid morning.

 No walk with it raining steadily. 

 Another day on YouTube. Researching heat pumps again. I have been considering having one for years. Air to Air of course. I can't afford a wet system. Even though that could utilize the underfloor heating pipes in the kitchen and bathroom. Starting at £10,000 equivalent and needing a plethora of pipes and umpteen tanks. The Danish taxpayer will subsidize a wet unit to the tune of about £3k. The UK offers £7500 handouts for a wet system! 

 The main problem is deciding where to place the indoor "blower" unit. It doesn't want to be blowing directly at the TV seating area. I would much prefer it on the far end of the long leg of the L-shaped lounge. This would minimize any draughts. While avoiding blowing warm air directly up the open stairs. 

 The online advice is to place it on the short wall wall blowing towards the long leg. This would be above my bed and the windows. Which is the worst position for blowing onto the computer desk and TV watching chair. The far end of the long leg has a low ceiling height and a door. Making positioning anything there a real struggle. It also requires lengthy plumbing pipes. Since there is no suitable outside wall for the exterior unit. 

 So, I have placed a red box with a question mark at top right on my rough drawing for the outside unit. With the indoor unit on the short wall between the window and the corner. The dining table is probably far enough away not to cause storm tossed hairstyles. 

 A heat pump would free me from the ever increasing burden of collecting firewood for the stove. Then double handling it from the trailer into the greenhouse. Then stacking it in the greenhouse from the wheelbarrow. Then bringing in heavy baskets full to the living room for a day's burning. It seems more logical to do this in loads. To avoid repeatedly opening the greenhouse door when it is cold out there. The small front hall out to the greenhouse is often feels as chilly as a walk-in fridge. 

 It is fortunate there are two doors to treat the small hall as an air lock. Between the living room, hall and kitchen. I fold back the kitchen door in summer to free up the foot traffic flow. The living room door opens back against the airing cupboard doors.

 18.30 Time to make dinner. Still 68F/20C in the room. 

 I have sent emails to five heat pump installers to hear their responses. There is no old heating system to remove so it should be a quick job. 

 I should have gone shopping. The last two slices of bread to toast. Four day old beans. 😋

   

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