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Friday 18th 39F/4C heavy overcast and rainy morning. Windy again this morning with light showers. Outside temperatures falling daily towards freezing. Possible snow in the forecast.
Up at 3am with unhappy memories. Watched YT for a couple of hours then went back to bed until 8am. Cold indoors, despite the stove going well all evening. 59F/15C upstairs. 53F/12C in the kitchen this morning. 50F/10C in the bathroom and rear hall.
It never got above 61F/16C upstairs, or down last night. It had been 67F/19C over the last couple of evenings. Which lulled me into thinking the new stove would continue to achieve these temperatures.
My thick, down, winter duvet is fine for keeping me warm in bed. A charity shop find many years ago. As is the down jacket I have worn every winter indoors for years. My wife had her own duvets and jackets too. The old Jøtel stove was useless at keeping the house and domestic water warm. It seems the new stove can't cope either. Now it is colder outside.
I had the kitchen doors open all afternoon and evening. To spread the warmth from the stove in the lounge until bedtime. This doesn't seem to work so well as outside temperatures fall. The gales probably haven't helped. The house isn't remotely tight against draughts. Though better than it was in some places. The balcony and the bedroom window are now better sealed.
The planked, entrance door is absolutely hopeless. Daylight can be seen around the opening edge due to shrinkage. The same problem with the double doors out to the greenhouse. Where daylight can be seen at the top. Where the opener of the pair has warped lightly. No doubt a cross draught is dragging the heat straight out of the house. Due to pressure differentials on opposing facades.
The stove needs to be fed lots of air as well as logs. I ran an air hose indoors from the outside for the old stove. It was never possible to feel any air coming through the pipe. So I closed it off.
I need to add a board to deepen the frame at the top of the hall/greenhouse doors. Otherwise no draught sealing can possibly work. I bought a roll of good quality rubber seal but haven't progressed. Due to more pressing and more "cosmetic" projects.
Draught sealing needs to become a top priority! I'll have to keep the intervening hall/kitchen doors closed from now on. To prioritise the warmth in the lounge and bedroom above. The open stairwell lets the heat rise fairly readily. With no sensible way to close it off. Even if I wanted to. You can imagine I have thought about this repeatedly for the last 25 winters. We moved upstairs almost immediately after purchase and stayed there. With the l-shaped lounge becoming more like a cool, storage room. With narrow aisles for access to reach the stove.
The entrance door needs to be replaced but is very non-standard in size. [73x196cm.] So no off-the-shelf door will work. Delivery times are measured in many months for made-to-measure doors. I had foolishly hoped the entrance door would widen again as it became damper outside in autumn. It hasn't happened this time.
A new door and frame could possibly push the dimensions outwards slightly. Though not by much. I should be seriously considering making a new door and soon. It would probably have to be assembled, glued and screwed on the bedroom floor. There is nowhere else left with enough floor space.
One short term option is to add a board to the door frame on the opening side. Where daylight shows. Then I can add the rubber draught seal. This will require I cut back the three, timber cross-braces to make room for the thickness of the extra board. This will probably need the portable circular saw. Which should be possible with the door wide open. It won't matter [at all] if the cuts aren't pretty. My old circular saw [from Aldi] is damned heavy. I checked the DeWalt battery models and they are no lighter!
9.00 I have lit the stove. Then checked every window in the house. To ensure they are not "on the catch" for ventilation. I will also turn on the oil-filled radiator. Which I bought last winter to stop the 'fridge from turning itself off. Because it was too cold in the kitchen!
My wife and I discussed buying a heat pump for years. The Danish government also talked about subsidising heat pumps. Our problem was making best use of any heat pump. An air-to-air heat pump would only heat one room. A very expensive room heater!
I had installed underfloor heating hose two decades ago. When I remade and insulated the floors. An air-to-water heat pump is far more costly than the air-to-air variety. So, we waited for years in the hope of the promised subsidies. Or falling prices for air-to-water systems. Neither happened. So we continued to freeze. Wearing our secondhand duvet jackets, fleece hats and long thermal underwear, indoors, every winter.
No doubt the government's empty promises trashed the heat pump installers livelihood. Just as they did with solar, water heating panels two decades ago. Then the empty threats to subsidise new and scrap older wood stoves. Remember this when you hear them bragging about being global, climate leaders.
You could subsidize a lot of heat pumps with a windfall tax on energy and supermarket inflationary profiteering. Not that the money would ever end up keeping the poorer Danes warm in their homes. They have to subsidise Pootin's invasion of Ukraine and its countless refugees instead.
While quite another class of Danes keep their summer houses cosy. The Danish poor are frozen out of the energy market. By profiteering prices and unimproved homes. Note that I do not consider myself poor. In case you were wondering.
10.20 It is still 59F/15C upstairs. Perhaps I should go and hang about in the Town Hall? I could take my bread roll lunch and a flask for tea. 😏
10.40 38F/3.5C. Weak sunny periods and showers continue. I opened the door wide and used the bayonet saw. To cut back the entrance door's cross braces. Instead of using the heavy circular saw and a stepladder. Hard work and noisy but at least I am nicely warm now. 60F/15C upstairs and down. Thanks to four, split, beech logs and counting.
11.15 A board has now been screwed to the door frame on the opening side. I added a doubled rubber seal to the edge for the door to close against. Though there is some warping near the top of the door it will still help. Better than seeing daylight! The antique [lever] door handle is now a nuisance. It gets in the way of the board unless I am careful. Trapped fingers is another possibility. That door definitely has to go! As does the recycled frame. Which now has lots of woodworm.
11.30 Any glimpse of sunshine is now only a memory. It is raining lightly almost continuously. 62F in the lounge. 61F upstairs. It now feels very warm in the lounge as I come back in from working in the hall.
12.00 The wind is now easterly instead of SE. Did I mention that I found my cheap, LED projector, work lamp? It had migrated to the shed. Where I found it while searching for something else. The story of my life! The constant searching allowed me to remember where most things were. Until I actually needed them.
I am now spread over two sheds, the observatory building [on two floors] and every room indoors. Again on two floors. Mostly on the floor. So the original goalposts have not only been removed but sited somewhere else entirely. Probably in another dimension. I have literally been reduced to tears of frustration after losing things recently. I have added boot laces to all the separate keys. So I can tell from a distance if I have forgotten to lock a shed and remove the key. Or even the door to the house!
If this missive grows any longer I shall have to start a Chapter Two on my afternoon activities. Just think of all the things I could do. Instead of typing furiously and then mending all the badly broken typos! My excuse is that I need a rest. Now and then.
18.30 37F/3C outside. Stars visible but the wind has dropped. 66F/19C downstairs, 65F/18C upstairs. Doors closed. The small, oil-filled radiator is maintaining the kitchen at 55F/13C.
The stove has been fed with logs continuously since 9am. The previous log has been allowed to burn down to a red fire bed before adding another. Air increased to obtain and then lowered again to maintain flames. I have checked the chimney is completely clear with the help of a small mirror.
20.00 Dinner was mackerel on toast. Followed by tomato soup and a bread roll.
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