During the summer, we’d re-visited the idea of fitting a pellet boiler. Ali the Architect was thinking of installing one and had pointed out that the RHI payments were disappearing like “snaw aff a dyke” so we checked out a few companies, most of whom said they couldn’t do anything before the payments dropped and were left with Alva Northern from Glasgow.
I can’t say too much publicly about the EPC process. Essentially, the software used by the assessors couldn’t cope with a house like ours and gave “default” readings to most of the points of assessment. These were very much in our favour when it came to assessing the size of the quarterly payments.
We had to build an enclosure for the boiler (thanks for giving a hand Richard) and remodel the utility room. We always had intended to fit a pellet boiler so it was a “no brainer” to get somebody else to pay for it in the longer term but as with all of these types of things we’ll see how it all works out.
Autumn usually sees a visit from my sister Kathleen but this year Nick wasn’t well enough to leave so we had a trip to Chesterfield to celebrate her 70th.
Quite soon afterwards we took a late season trip to Croatia to do some kayaking. Everything worked out very well but I think we were lucky. It confirmed that if it wasn’t for the weather, the west coast of Scotland would be the only place to kayak in the world. Bar none! I may correct this statement once we get back from a planned orienteering and kayaking trip to Vancouver next summer. Here are some images from the trip.
[huge_it_slider id=”2″]
When we got back from kayaking, we took stock of what had been happening in the veg garden and after another wet summer it was clear that we couldn’t continue without making some substantial changes. So after many years of resisting the introduction of a large poly tunnel (because they are ugly) I relented and we now have 30′ x 12′ monster. It took longer to erect than I thought it would but we got the polythene good and tight and it has withstood some pretty strong gusts of wind so it looks like it should last.