After the trouble with the central heating we were looking forward to a quiet weekend, I had decided not to go to a local jumble sale as the roads are still quite bad and had planned a nice day at home. The pipes had melted with no bursts so we could top up the central heating properly and the frozen sink in the utility room had unblocked itself.
The morning was flowing along nicely until all the power went off ! No central heating, no cooking facilities, no back up heat, no internet to help solve the problem ! We had a new fuse panel installed ten years ago when we moved in and we know that it can be a bit 'twitchy', for example it will trip a fuse if a bulb blows. So hoping it was something simple like that, we set about unplugging everything and turning everything off. However, it was the main fuse that had tripped and nothing would make it come back on. Now we have had this problem before because when it gets very cold, condensation forms in the motor which powers the garage door, that makes it unsafe to operate and you have to dry it out and then re-set all the fuses. So we tried that and it didn't work !
Then we noticed that the kettle in the kitchen, although switched off was still plugged in, could this be causing the problem ? Yes, when we finally got it unplugged the plug was corroded and so was the double plug socket ! The corrosion was probably caused by all the steam in the kitchen. Then MissShoestring helped us look up the cheapest place to get a new plug and double socket panel from on her mobile phone which still had internet access. MrShoestring went down the snowy drive to get the parts from Screwfix. MasterShoestring helped his Dad fit all the parts as the new metric sizes were not an exact match for our old kettle and even older socket space in the kitchen, so there was quite a bit of brute strength needed to get them to fit.
Finally, the main fuse turned on again and so did the fridge, the freezers, the central heating boiler and the internet router ! We boiled a kettle and were very grateful that we had been able to fix the problem at a cost of £4.62 for parts. No expensive call-out to the electrician and power restored ! We spent the rest of the day exclaiming over how lucky we were to be able to have a hot drink, cook a snack, write a blogpost and sit in the warm !
Now they say these things come in threes, I certainly hope that we have seen the last of 'breakdowns' for a bit !
Glad you managed to sort the power out. It certainly tests you when things don't do what they are supposed to and it does make you appreciate the little things.
ReplyDeleteThat was a great saving on a possible call out. We like to fix what we can too, although we haven't managed to get round to fixing our heating!
We have a multifuel stove and a couple of oil heaters (one of which has just broken) but the heating part of our boiler hasn't worked for ober 4 years. This snowy spell has really been exhausting.
I dream of being more self sufficient, but in our part of Cornwall house and land is soooo expensive. In the mean time I can keep a pantry, use the stove for cooking sometimes.
I am however really lucky that I can use modern conveniences if I choose to.
Thanks felicity ! I'm glad to hear that we are not the only ones who 'make do and mend' with these sort of things. Fingers crossed that things become a little less exhausting down your way soon !
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