Panel the first

Sunday 16 January 2011

Sunday being a day off, we were straight up the land, Dave having wrestled with ideas for how to mount the first panel, and being anxious to test out his ideas.

Dieter was saving us money by not selling us an installation kit, and leaving us to do it ourselves.  This may have been a false economy - it was very difficult.  Dave is definitely not spiderman - we needed George and Richie again for this project.

Dave fitted brackets to three sides of the panel.  The roof is large enough to take four panels, so he had chalked out the position for this first one. 

Then he had to climb up there, while holding the panel, with my help, fiddle it into position, get up there too, and then realise there was no-where to put the drill, the screws, and the sikaflex (a very sticky black sealant to prevent rain getting through the screw holes - but it is a well-known fact to anyone who works in a boatyard, that the merest, tiniest drop of sikaflex will instantly smudge all over a 20 ft radius, especially smearing any people in the vicinity - this was proven, yet again, to be true). 

But he did it - a nasty job, and our nice green roof is now a blotchy green and black roof - but the panel is up.  Hurrah!  It's not wired to anything yet, that'll wait till we have the other three panels and the regulator and inverter.

 When I wasn't passing tools or supporting the panel, I went off on a frolic of my own and started to build a compost bin out of offcuts.

Arriving back at the apartment later that evening, we found that the building site next door had gained a new feature.  The shuttering had been put in with a blithe disregard for our convenience - once again the washing line had come down; the compost bin had been moved, turning the compost out into the swamp; and the garden path was a hurdle track.

Monday evening I couldn't help but go up to the land for an hour and finish off the compost bin.  We can now take our compost to Goat Bottom, since our bin at the apartment has been compromised.

Returning to the apartment we found further sinister developments had taken place.  This development is going to completely block the sun from the east, probably until about 2pm.  Which will make it very cold and dark in the winter.  Thank goodness we've got an escape plan.

During the week, the reinforcing bars just kept coming.  Our landlady told us she had been told they were building a small wooden house - doesn't look small or wooden to me.