December 2022 – Flood

It has been a busy old year and it feels like we’ve been ready for a Christmas break since we got back from Cornwall.

With the house move, new schools, Rachel’s new job, returning to on-site working, bigger team, planning application, building work and generally being busy trying to integrate into a new area we’ve not really spent a lot of time up at Temperance Hall.  A few friends have been using it during the day, on and off  just to get some heat into the place for a few hours but we haven’t spent the night there for at least two months.

Having had to clean mold off the beams twice since we bought the place isn’t something I’m keen to repeat so we’ve been keen to get volunteers to spend the day there, getting the log burners blasting some warmth into the place as the temperature drops and the days get shorter.  The boiler we had installed is set to holiday mode so, should the temperature drop, it kicks in to stop anything from freezing.

Or, at least that was the plan…

What actually seems to have happened is, even though we’ve not been using any power, the solar yeild must have been so low that just powering the invertor and boiler display has completely drained the battery bank.  A drained battery bank means no 240v supply to the boiler, which means you guessed it, no holiday mode heating.  And so, we find a few hours to come up to the hall and spend the day, only to find a water-logged bathroom and bunk room, a sink mixer tap in the basin, three burst radiators and a cracked shower mixer all pouring the now defrosted water into the building at great speed as I dart int.

A quick look tells me the mains need to go off so I’m in the cellar within 60 seconds shutting the stop tap before opening every tap we have to remove the remaining pressure.

It takes about two hours to scoop, mop and dry before we can start to asess the damage but the kids have come through with a roaring fire and a hot chocolate to help soften the blow of the rework to come.