Two Big Problems Sorted

 Our technically over-complicated home has had three major problem recently.

1.  Main tower underfloor heating packed up - in hand

2.  Poor wi-fi and hard-wired coverage

3. Kingspan Envireau Rainwater harvesting system broken - again

Happy to report major and seemingly total results on items 2 and 3 during the past week or so.

Wi Fi and hard-wired coverage

Big thanks to local wi-fi etc wizard Wayne Dunn who has sorted out the internet wiring that was done in order to 'future-proof' our home back in 2011 when the initial wiring was done.  Most of the wall sockets had failed and the distribution arrangements between the router and the sockets were ramshackle.  That distribution is now neat, tidy and above all working via an impressive 16 port power-over-ethernet switch and rewiring of some of the wall sockets.  Now, THAT'S more like it:

Some of those purple and grey wires were just dangling and doing nothing previously.

Wi fi has to a large extent overtaken hard wired wall sockets but this water tower has been a challenge with its metre-thick stone walls and a massive cast iron 'roof'.  Things were little better in the extensions, clad as they are in aluminium.  All in all we are  living in a giant Faraday cage!  We now have total and excellent wi-fi coverage, thanks to two UniFi App AC Pro 50 Ghz p.o.e. wi fi extenders, carefully located.  This is what they look like

About the size of a meal plate they are both hard-wired to the NetGear box or to any of the now working wall sockets.   Over time I had spent a fortune on plug-in wi-fi range extenders all of which promised miracles.   These new things work.  Our Smart TVs can now start delivering.

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Kingspan Envireau Rainwater Harvesting

Don't get me started about this!  Quite the worst buy of the lot.  Fine idea but lousy product.  This time it has been out of action for some months because of a spectacular leak between its submerged pump way below ground in the tank and the tank outlet to the house's internal rainwater pipework.  Trouble this time was that the leak was way out of reach because of its depth and  sideways displacement from the tank access chamber.   Poor design.   The only realistic course seemed to be to dig down alongside the tank, find that outlet and re-route it.   Local builder Frankie Eccleston dug heroically yesterday but the side of the hole kept collapsing because of the looseness of the tank's back-fill material covering its concrete base.  It became clear that a small excavator was needed so Frankie telephoned a friendly digger man at Hellifield, Matt Spencer.   Matt was doing jury service yesterday but had been discharged for the day.  Bless him, he jumped in his car and was here to weigh up the now increasingly awkward and costly job.

Matt is another six footer with remarkably long arms.  In a flash he was lying in Frankie's excavation and reaching precariously into the tank:

Working entirely by feel he located the problem - the reinforced plastic outflow pipe had split.  "Hacksaw, Stanley knife, screwdriver, angle grinder and Jubilee Clip" commanded Matt.  There are times when it pays to be a hoarder.  He was able to cut away a rusty Jubilee clip and the broken section of pipe. I shall spare you the picture of Matt working upside down in the dank darkness of the tank with his legs apart, gripping the crumbling sides of the excavation as more of Matt's nether regions we on display than would be seemly to reveal here.

No need for digger after all and job done.  Chuffed with what he had been able to achieve, Matt steadfastly and modestly declined payment.   Settle's like that sometimes.