Cold Neighbours and Lots of Lager
As it turns out, the central heating repairman who was here last Wednesday didn't fix my boiler as well as he - and I - thought he did. Quite the contrary, in fact.
In the process of rewiring the boiler, he came across an apparently pointless bit of electric wire disappearing into the wall. He cut it off, some time later my boiler worked, I got warm, all appeared to be well with the world.
Then today, I found a different repair man at my door telling me that since last Wednesday, 5 of my neighbours (those living in a straight line either over or below me) had been freezing their butts off. The little bit of pointless wire was some sort of safety line, connecting all six boilers in a row to a fan on the roof which blows fresh air into the boiler duct. Without fresh air, the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning is quite high. An unconnected boiler will not work, because it will "think" there's no fresh air, hence, a risk of sudden and sneaky Death.
So. Not really a pointless bit of wire, then.
It's all a bit of a long, technical story, but the upshot is:
a. I could have DIED of carbon monoxide poisoning!!! *insert girly scream here*
b. But I didn't, so that's ok.
c. Five of my neighbours are now Very Cold Indeed.
d. They're coming to fix it for real tomorrow, so I have to be up and ready to receive yet another repairman at 9.00 am on a Saturday morning when I was planning to sleep in.
e. I have to unplug the boiler tonight, just to be safe.
I'm not sure whether this is amusing, or just very annoying, but at least it's never a dull moment around here.
Also, in Entirely Unrelated: I was just at the supermarket where I witnessed a guy buying 34 half liter cans of lager, a pound of processed cheese and nothing else. He is going to have some VERY weird dreams tonight.
In the process of rewiring the boiler, he came across an apparently pointless bit of electric wire disappearing into the wall. He cut it off, some time later my boiler worked, I got warm, all appeared to be well with the world.
Then today, I found a different repair man at my door telling me that since last Wednesday, 5 of my neighbours (those living in a straight line either over or below me) had been freezing their butts off. The little bit of pointless wire was some sort of safety line, connecting all six boilers in a row to a fan on the roof which blows fresh air into the boiler duct. Without fresh air, the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning is quite high. An unconnected boiler will not work, because it will "think" there's no fresh air, hence, a risk of sudden and sneaky Death.
So. Not really a pointless bit of wire, then.
It's all a bit of a long, technical story, but the upshot is:
a. I could have DIED of carbon monoxide poisoning!!! *insert girly scream here*
b. But I didn't, so that's ok.
c. Five of my neighbours are now Very Cold Indeed.
d. They're coming to fix it for real tomorrow, so I have to be up and ready to receive yet another repairman at 9.00 am on a Saturday morning when I was planning to sleep in.
e. I have to unplug the boiler tonight, just to be safe.
I'm not sure whether this is amusing, or just very annoying, but at least it's never a dull moment around here.
Also, in Entirely Unrelated: I was just at the supermarket where I witnessed a guy buying 34 half liter cans of lager, a pound of processed cheese and nothing else. He is going to have some VERY weird dreams tonight.