Friday, January 13, 2017

Snow fun

With the weather forecast to be snowy and icy by the end of the week. and with us not feeling 100% sure of the efficacy of the frost protector heater, we drove up to the marina on yesterday in the pouring rain. All was well on board Kantara, except that it was extremely cold inside - hardly surprising. There were no burst pipes or popped joints, of course there weren't. We're not exactly beginners at this, but we still can't get around to relaxing in sub-zero temperatures.

We tested the new heater over night, and we were aware of it on occasion as it switched on and off in response to the fall and rise of the temperature. (Note to self - It works, so we can trust it when we're not here, too.) (Pass note to Grace.)

There's something of an enigma about the heater, though, and I need to work it out. The marina operates a "Winter Watch" scheme, in which registered boats have their electricity meters read regularly by marina staff, and topped up if they get low. Kantara's registered on the scheme. On 1st January, I installed the heater, set it to its 5° setting, and left it. The meter said there was £11 of electricity left. Not able to top it up myself at the time, I rang the office a few days later, and explained that Kantara was now using more electricity than before, and please would they top it up for me.

Today, I checked the meter. It read £17. I was told in the office that £20 had been added to the meter on the day I phoned. I did the sums. They weren't difficult. They showed that Kantara had used £11+£20-£17 of electricity on 13 days. £14 in 13 days! The heater only consumes 500 watts maximum, and only switches on when the temperature drops below 5°. Something's not right, and I'm hoping that it's with what the office told me they had added to the meter! I'll discuss it with them tomorrow.

It snowed early this morning,

accompanied by an extremely strong wind. But it stopped before 10:00am, and thawed quickly under a bright sun, though the wind continued. News reports I've just seen on TV tell me that what we've had has been mild by comparison with many parts of the country. It's going to be pretty easy for us tonight.






1 comment:

  1. That is a lot of money for a short amount of time. Still, cheaper than frozen pipes would be....I'm guessing! I keep one of those little defrosters going all the time over the winter on my barge, whether I'm there are not. Lord knows what my bill is going to be, but I figure that's little compared to the cost of everything freezing up and going phoom!

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to hear from you!