We hosted Christmas dinner this year, two of us plus twelve hungry relatives. My parents; my sister, her husband and son; Stephen's older sister and her two sons; Stephen's younger sister, her husband and two daughters. All in the new house which is almost finished...but not completely finished.
As you would know it is summer here, we were expecting warm to hot weather for Christmas. The new house has solar hot water which works excellently, but the wood stove booster and electric backup are not yet connected so it is strictly solar only - no sun = no hot water. As we expected bright warm sunny weather we thought it would be fine... The last three days have been very cold and rainy - just in time for all the guests! Our alternative was to take the people staying at the new house up to the old house, 2 km away, for showers. The night before Chistmas I took my elderly parents up to the old place for showers. There is solar hot water there too but at least there is a backup mains electricity, we have just disconnected the solar electricity from there and will soon install the equipment at the new house. For the first time since we bought the old house over 10 years ago, the old place has mains electricity, hooked up two days before Christmas...
Christmas morning 7.30 am my partner went up for his shower, came back saying the water was cold, the electric element had not reheated. So I went back to the old house, up into the roof space to see what had gone wrong...turned out the thermostat had failed. Luckily I had a thermostat for a front load washer in my toolbox, so I was able to fit it to the hot water service. It had no markings so I don't know its cut out temperature, but it got us hot water!!! I pushed the manual boost button at the meter box and we had hot water later that day. Meanwhile I had to dash back and start preparing Christmas dinner for 14 people.
Fortunatley we had no further dramas that day, the meal was delicious if I may say so myself. It was the first time our two families had met, and we have just celebrated 20 years together! A lovely day.
Actually the day before we had a minor drama too - I make the christmas pudding a couple of days before - it has been a family tradition on both sides of our family that I bring the traditional "plum pud." The puddings are traditionally steamed for several hours, but I don't like the method as it is so cumbersome and you can only fit one or two steamer pots on the stove top, whereas I make four or more puddings at once.I prefer to cook them in a low oven, set at 110 degrees C. ((Maybe 230 degrees F??) It is important that the oven doesn't get too hot or the pudding gets too dark and loses flavour. Many ovens don't go low enough for that but my old one did. My "new" oven is the same as my old one but reconditioned - it is 20 years old. They are so good to cook on I don't want anything else. My old one was a basic model but the new one is top of the line, including a digital readout of the actual oven temperature, it helps to check if the thermostat is accurate... turns out the new one wasn't! Silly me, I hadn't checked before. I needed the oven at 110, it kept rising to 150. So Stephen and I spent six hours watching the display, when it got up to 130 we turned the oven off, when it fell to 100 we turned it on. I was a bit concerned it might be dry but everyone said it was the best ever. (as they would...)I will re-calibrate it and fit a new low temp jet soon...
Chris.
As you would know it is summer here, we were expecting warm to hot weather for Christmas. The new house has solar hot water which works excellently, but the wood stove booster and electric backup are not yet connected so it is strictly solar only - no sun = no hot water. As we expected bright warm sunny weather we thought it would be fine... The last three days have been very cold and rainy - just in time for all the guests! Our alternative was to take the people staying at the new house up to the old house, 2 km away, for showers. The night before Chistmas I took my elderly parents up to the old place for showers. There is solar hot water there too but at least there is a backup mains electricity, we have just disconnected the solar electricity from there and will soon install the equipment at the new house. For the first time since we bought the old house over 10 years ago, the old place has mains electricity, hooked up two days before Christmas...
Christmas morning 7.30 am my partner went up for his shower, came back saying the water was cold, the electric element had not reheated. So I went back to the old house, up into the roof space to see what had gone wrong...turned out the thermostat had failed. Luckily I had a thermostat for a front load washer in my toolbox, so I was able to fit it to the hot water service. It had no markings so I don't know its cut out temperature, but it got us hot water!!! I pushed the manual boost button at the meter box and we had hot water later that day. Meanwhile I had to dash back and start preparing Christmas dinner for 14 people.
Fortunatley we had no further dramas that day, the meal was delicious if I may say so myself. It was the first time our two families had met, and we have just celebrated 20 years together! A lovely day.
Actually the day before we had a minor drama too - I make the christmas pudding a couple of days before - it has been a family tradition on both sides of our family that I bring the traditional "plum pud." The puddings are traditionally steamed for several hours, but I don't like the method as it is so cumbersome and you can only fit one or two steamer pots on the stove top, whereas I make four or more puddings at once.I prefer to cook them in a low oven, set at 110 degrees C. ((Maybe 230 degrees F??) It is important that the oven doesn't get too hot or the pudding gets too dark and loses flavour. Many ovens don't go low enough for that but my old one did. My "new" oven is the same as my old one but reconditioned - it is 20 years old. They are so good to cook on I don't want anything else. My old one was a basic model but the new one is top of the line, including a digital readout of the actual oven temperature, it helps to check if the thermostat is accurate... turns out the new one wasn't! Silly me, I hadn't checked before. I needed the oven at 110, it kept rising to 150. So Stephen and I spent six hours watching the display, when it got up to 130 we turned the oven off, when it fell to 100 we turned it on. I was a bit concerned it might be dry but everyone said it was the best ever. (as they would...)I will re-calibrate it and fit a new low temp jet soon...
Chris.
