keep up your spirits

New hurdles appearing every day.
I tell myself the phases when you regret having started are the hallmarks of a successful project. Progress photos click here (same album as below but we update it).


So far we have had:

• first digger was too small and could not progress fast enough
  
• second (needed smashing down wall) was too large to move around properly in the garden
• third digger was the right size but seems not available when needed (think we had 4 kinds of diggers so far)
  
• digging area originally estimated has increased from 13m to 15m (because of a mistake) and from there to about 18m (having forgotten to account for length of joints between each collector) taking us right to the edge of the stairs
  
• falling over of dumpers, causing some minor delays
• powerful dumper broke engine after falling over and has been there and irremovable for a week
• heat pump came with damaged door
• joints (between all the collector panes) supplied were the wrong size
• the digging contractor walked out from the job, he gave up and left (without being paid)
• not enough space to put all the soil so collectors have to be put in and tested in phases making job more complex and time consuming
  
• also the little space and the wrong estimates means that branches of apple tree are being damaged by the diggers
  
• after old loft tanks were removed and new pipes wired up we had a water leak from the loft through to our bedroom and into the ground floor sitting room
  

Monday 2nd July: the works begin !

More than 18 months after the initial idea it is finally all happening now.

Pictures of progress and works click here.

Problems on the way:

• the digger that was organised to dig the trenches is too small and makes slow progress. A larger one will be coming in a couple of days and the wall around the garden gate needs to be broken to make room for a larger digger.
• existing water pipes are all over the house like spaghetti and a the new layout requires a bigger mess than predicted (cutting up floors, removing parts of walls, drilling through walls...)

Benefits we are expecting keep our hopes up:

• a modern efficient ground source heat pump (the major point!)
• cleaner layout of pipes and no water tanks in the loft
  
• secondary hot water loop (instant hot water)
• mains pressure (no noisy pressure pump in the house)
• more space and no heater noise (heating system is in the garage)