Every day is a new adventure.
Even though I have spent lots of time in Ireland, there are things that still confound me.
Hot water, for example.
I’ve done major renovations to my homes in the States and so I understand the basics of boilers, furnaces, and hot water heaters.
But here in Ireland? Not so much.
I mean, I know there are hot presses in every house. There is a mysterious thing called “immersion”, and there are electric showers. But precisely how these things all operate together is a bit of a mystery to me.
Sometimes I’ve been told you have to “turn on the immersion” to get hot water for a shower. Then there are also power switches for electric showers.
Some of the older houses I looked at had “back boiler” heating – which I learned meant that you had to have a fire in the fireplace in order to have hot water – a “boiler” behind the fireplace heated the water for the house! No central heating!!! I learned pretty quickly that I definitely didn’t want that.
So I realize that some of the things I have taken for granted my entire life – like on-demand hot water, as hot as I want it, all the time – may not be quite as readily available as I’m used to. But, hot water is a must for me.
So.
I had called the oil company to inquire if they would please come to be sure there was oil in the tank as I wanted to make sure I had hot water (and maybe heat – as summers can be cool) when I arrived.
I woke up late after my first night – still getting used to the time change and after missing a night’s sleep on the plane. I was barely up when the oil truck pulled into the yard. Of course, he caught me in my bathrobe. (or dressing gown, as it is called here) Oh well, I had to get over my embarrassment pretty quick because he was all business.
The very large plastic oil tank is located at the back of the house – overgrown with large shrubs (gotta get that hedge clippers!). He checked the tank – it was nearly empty. Put some oil in it – half full as I couldn’t quite process 1000 litres at that moment. And fired up the furnace.
Or not.
That part didn’t work out so well.
Most burners in Ireland are outdoors. They are designed that way.
He checked a few things and then came into the house and checked everything else – up the stairs to the immersion tank with me in hot pursuit lest I miss anything I needed to know. He flipped a few switches, back down again.
Nothing.
“You have electricity going to the burner. But it won’t fire. You need a plumber,” he said.
A plumber?
Timidly, not wanting to sound incredulous (although that is how I was feeling), I asked, “The oil company doesn’t service the burner/furnace?”
No, that’s a plumber.
Which actually makes sense since it was hot water that I was after. And now that I think about it, the last time I had water leaking out of my furnace in the States, the oil company told me to call a plumber.
Fortunately, he gave me the name of a local plumber.
Meanwhile, it is now Friday afternoon and I have no hot water.
And I still hadn’t had a cup of tea. Since yesterday morning on the plane.
So I decided that the first priority was to buy a kettle. That would solve the problem of both a cup of tea and hot water until I could figure out what I was going to do about a plumber.
To be continued…