Tosra & The Auction, day 25
Steam boiler
While the crew started unloading everything from the ship, I continued working on the steam boiler installation and making sure everything seemed okay. Lots of soldering, as I also install pipes and water pumps. Iselin isn't the only one happy to help, and Caecilia helping her and Ciara and Alith handing me stuff, the work quickly progress. I've been trying to avoid hyping it up, but Jane havn't, and the expectations are high. At least those expectations started from zero. We complete the work to be able to pump up water from the reservoir by the basement stairs, and install a pump on the boiler room water reservoir as well. A simple double tap splits the pump outlet to either fill the steam boilers water tank, or directed it to the attics water tanks.
I used the opportunity do other small work, like preparing and installing a water pipe from the drinking water tanks up in the attic wing, to the east end of the main building, as I really want a future sink in my bedroom. I direct Iselin as she install a tap, so we can redirect so water from the well doesn't go directly into the attic water tanks, and instead out via the overfill protection. Its maybe unnecessary, but should the well become contaminated, the water in the tanks is prevented from becoming contaminated if someone is careless with the valve out at the well pump. Or consciously do it. In any case, the rain collection system works well, and the reservoirs are full. It might just be this season, but there seem to be enough rain that we probably won't have to use the well.
I expect I will have a new steam boiler built next year, because this isn't particularly fuel efficient and a lot of heat will leave through the chimney, but the steam boiler is basically made as a separate piece just connected to the chimney, and should be easily replaced. Hopefully my own future blacksmith will be able to make something much more fuel efficient and overall better. I'm literally asking a medieval blacksmith to do work they havn't done even something close to before, so simple but working is enough for now.
I do not look forward to all the leak detection on every steam pipe from start to finish, and there will surely be problems, because unlike the water pipes, it will be fine steam under higher pressure, and several hundred meters of pipe and a huge amount of splices. But I look forward to not having to use the fireplaces. Its starting to get cold, and we've had to light and use the fireplaces for a couple of weeks now and then, and it has guaranteed been frost in the inland. The good news is that the heat is contained well in the house. The insulation works as expected and its obviously all the single glazed windows that stand for most of the heat loss, but they have unloaded a pile of interior windows and already started to install them, which will give us double glazing in the bedrooms, and hopefully also less window condensation. Theres even some greenhouse windows, so thats coming along.
I appreciate that the window maker has increased production as much as he can, to provide us with all the windows ordered as quickly as he can. There are ridiculously many windows in total compared to a normal house here, and he knows that I will order at least as much more due to the Academy and other planned buildings. We expect our need to decrease before summer, but it will not stop and I guess others will start buying more windows. Since none of these windows are stained glass windows, it probably saves a lot of time, and the greenhouse windows are the ones with the least requirements.
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Since warm water have been the common type of heating in Sweden, I'm not that comfortable with steam. It hardly helps thats everything is from scratch, so just something like setting the spring-loaded safety valves is problematic. I have to see at what pressure they trigger, and mark and make a scale for that. The only safety valves I can be somewhat sure of are the dead weight safety valve. They're only weighted over the valves surface which should be about 2 bar, ie about 2kg per square centimeter for a vertical dead weight valve, or 29 psi, ie 12.5kg per square inch. I prefer SI units in general, but 'kilograms per square centimeter' and 'pound force per square inch' are easy to think in even if it is technically a bad idea, especially kg/cm². After testing that the boiler actually hold pressure to 2 bar, I start adjusting the spring loaded valves. I started at the lowest setting and let the pressure build up until the spring valve release, the adjust the screw a bit so it release at a nice number, mark, and repeat with more pressure. I can atleast do it without letting steam out into the whole system.
Its hard to explain how nervous this is because I respect steam boilers. So many people have died in boiler explosions, especially on steamboats, and I don't know what is appropriate or expected pressure in a steam heating systems. These are not the levels that modern compressed air tanks in industry work with, ie 7-15 bar, or what high-pressure steam boilers in locomotives used that were 25 bar and up, but it could be 2-3 bar, like a car tire. I've been to a lecture on steam boilers, and I know how much steam expands and thus how pressure can quickly rise. Flash boiling in particular is very dangerous.
Farmhand Hrappr is the one responsible for feeding the boiler with wood, but I keep him outside the boiler room for safety reasons and the basement doors are open. There are also a couple of narrow elongated windows where pressure can be ventilated out into the greenhouse. Not optimal, but it it really goes to hell in the future, losing the greenhouse isn't that bad, and right now the greenhouse isn't finished. It won't help for a really powerful steam boiler explosion, but this is a comparatively small steam boiler for high steam production - not high pressure.
It is a hassle to check for leaks, and I run back and forth in the house, getting everyone available to help check for leaks in an assigned sections and report to Caecilia or me. We find leaks but less that expected even as pressure continue to rise. Just take notes and move on. I have temporarily attached manometers to the pipe ends in the wing, and the main building in my bedroom to check the main pipes pressure drop. Getting somewhat close to even heat in all the different sized rooms will not be easy.
More leaks are found, but I can feel that all the radiators on the second floor are hot. Too hot. I just havn't considered that steam heating of course will make the radiators really hot, so I need to get simple protective guards made in wood. All the radiators on the first floor gets warm and we just tried to keep it so. The manometers I made go to 4-6 bar even though they're only calibrated to 4 bar, and they barely show 1 bar...
Huh.
I just stand there and look at the steam boiler and the manometer when Iselin comes down and hugs me. Its has apparently started to get really hot in some of the smaller rooms, and I can't resist to smile. Hell yeah! I hug her and give her a kiss, and then point to the meter. Iselin was involved in making and calibrating them so she knows how a manometer works, and how worried I've been for the pressure in the boiler, pipes and radiators. I may have over-specified things. And maybe its was unnecessary to spend time soldering on vertical copper plates for extra heat transfer on a lot of the large space radiators, but increased surface area helps transfer heat, and I thought the cast radiators were a bit too small or had insufficient radiator fins. But then again, I compared with ordinary Swedish hot water radiators with far lower temperature. I still respect the steam in the pipes, because it is hot and under pressure even when it is relatively low pressure, but this is much less than I feared.
Nice.
I close the three main valves, one for each main pipe, so that more pressure can build up, and we test that the safety valves trigger. When it reaches 1.2 bar, the adjustable safety valve releases and the pressure quickly drops before it closes. I turn up the adjustment so that the dead weight valve can be tested, and remove a couple of the weight rings on the dead weight valve so it ends up at 1.3 bar, which works. I reset the adjustable safety valve so that it trips at 1.2 bar, and then open up the main pipes. Then I adjust the automatic oxygen control to the fire a too, and if everything works, the system will slowly pulse around the set pressure depending on water temperature and pressure in the boiler and the intensity of the fire. I cannot really regulate the heat put into the boiler from burning wood, but as long as someone runs down every two hours or so and feed in more wood and check the water level, the system should work well enough. How well remains to be seen, and it will be a learning experience. I expect to have to run down here more today to fiddle with the automatic control.
I have also figured out an improvement to do when I take care of those leaks. I will remove both main pipe end manometers and plug their holes with screws, and then install a small extension pipe up next to the main pipes, but which goes out through the wall one floor up, and out to the wings corridor and put a manometer there, beside the security door between the buildings. Everyone walking between the wing and the main building pass that spot, so everyone walking by can take a quick look at the pressure gauge.
It will be the farmhands task to make sure that there are always a large pile of dry wood in the boiler room, and to store another pile in the basements main hall. I explain and show how he occasionally will remove ash from the boiler, fill up the water and so on. This seem to be working well enough, so we're gonna try it as is.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I will make a more efficient steam boiler in the future. Just because there is plenty of firewood here now, doesn't mean it will be in the future. Efficiency is good for the future. I don't want to be the reason why the forests are disappearing, and the elves seem to be skilled enough at it already, and there will be more wood consumed to keep people warm on the islands as the population here increases. Right now there are plenty of scrap wood pieces from the buildings but it will not last, and the workers cooking and heating fires are consuming a lot of it.
I will need to introduce felling and planting to slowly cycle the forest on the islands so we have enough firewood and building material year after year. It will be a hard limit on availability, and how much people can live here. Sure, buying is an option, but that depends on people selling and having money to buy. Money that could be used for other things. I really hope heat pumps will be introduced in the coming generations.
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We walk around and make a final careful check for steam leaks, and a few more are found, but I can feel how warm and nice it is starting to become. I adjust the flow in the western part of the main building and adjust down the radiators in rooms that are becoming too hot, and up on those that are not. Jane is overjoyed that the mansion now has 'central heating', but most look at the copper radiators on the walls with respect, both because the radiators are too hot to touch and because they really heat the rooms. They all know there is a fire in the basement corner and the heat is moved all over the house, and it is just magical for them. Jane and I might have high expectations, but this doesn't have to be perfect. The elves are used to wearing layers of cloths and being in draughty cold houses which can have a large temperature variation in a room. Many don't even have glass windows, with gaps in doors and walls. This mansion is something completely different and new, and is very well insulated with much more even heat.
The craftsmen who are installing interior windows, and special windows, finds it hart to understand how it can be this hot when the fireplaces arn't lit. They've all removed cloths. Carpenter Engdrid, who is installing glass panes with rougher glass in the dark room door, has a hell of a lot of respect for me for designing and creating this mansion, and is fascinated by the whole idea of glass in doors for decoration and light. He has also seen the new interior doors between the entrance hall and the main hall. Wide decorated doors with inlaid small glass panes that together form a large glass diamond shape in each door. Fine wood carvings with mountain nature motifs cover the doors. Kari and Jane were absolutely right in ordering that.
Everyone also likes all the light tunnels, but the dark room lives up to its nickname, because the light tunnel doesn't help much and it is always shady in here, because the light tunnel is long and collect light from the north. The corridor isn't the brightest place in the house and has its own light tunnel just above the wing door, but some glass panes in the door are still a clear improvement to the dark room. When the oil lamp in the corridor is lit in the evening, some light also enters the room when it is pitch black outside. However, we will continue to call it the dark room, because it will always be darker than all the others.
If I need to do experiments in the dark, develop film or something, I know which room to use. A dark curtain on the door and light tunnel will make it pitch black. Jane would've liked to participate in photo experiments, and knows more than I do about developing film as Tom tried it in their apartment, but none of us know what chemicals it really is, or how it works. Silver emulsion, wet plates and dry plates. Knowing those terms help, but it is just hints to where to start.
The security doors are appreciated, but in the interior security doors like the one between the wing and the main building and to the corridors of the second floor, the guards would appreciate if there was a small window to look through to the other side. It will also make the doors nicer, so Engdrid who was sworn to secrecy and paid for it, will inlay two small glass panes in each of the doors. Each only about 7x7 cm to fit in a hole in the doors iron bar reinforcement, with thin wooden edges around the hole. It should look good and I like the look with two diamond shaped windows on top of each other. Matches the rest of the doors and general motif of the mansion.
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I don't give a shit how ugly the big red fire extinguishers clay pots are, because they are our only real fire protection, and they can be hidden behind doors and so on. The exception is in the guards day room where there are two. If someone is going to light a fire in a fireplace, they have to get a fire extinguisher along with wood, but most fireplaces will have a permanent one. I instruct the guards to clean and replace the water in all extinguishers every week, and at the same time check that the extinguishers are in good condition, and where everyone is. Jane completely agrees that it is a very sound idea to have some form of firefighting equipment, and has filled in every fire extinguishers marking with white paint so it is very visible.
We use a fire extinguisher in the kitchen with everyone present, just so they have had a demonstration, and I clearly inform them that if something is on fire, I won't care about water damage. Extinguish that fire fast! Water might just damage whats beneath, while fire will make the whole house burn down.
Many first aid kits will be made, and they will be green with a white cross on. They won't be advanced, but there will be two emergency bandages, field dressings, bandages, prepared needle and thread as well as extra needles and thread, a small knife, scissors, trauma shears, tweezers, safety pins, soap and a face mask, as well as a small bottle with the purest and strongest alcohol for disinfection. A small patch of tinder, flint and steel to start a fire will be added in some of them. To try and keep an emergency bandage, bandage, field dressing and thread sterile, one each will be stored in a small sealed jar that will be boiled. The jar will be made to be easily opened by hand, and it should keeps away the worst bacteria etc. An emergency bandage, bandage and field dressing are stored for quick and easy access. The guards day room will of course get a two first aid kits, but we will have one in the wings corridor together with a fire extinguisher, another in my bedroom and in the guards bedroom, and two in reserve. There will be many more made, as I want two on the ship and three at the B-mansion, and I plan to equip every house here on the islands with one, and each carriage will have one too.
If we need a first aid kit, it should always be available close by. Yes, they will cost silver, and that is a good investment. There will be first aid practice for everyone living on the islands. There is a lot in the kit that is new for them, but first aid has changed a lot over the years.
Hillevi will make sure that one is stored in the boiler room, and another in the panic room bunker under the pavilion, and also one by the other escape routes. I plan to include a good first aid kit in every cache I bury.
Jane complains that the first aid kit won't be white with a red cross, but I inform her that green has become the standard color. Green is the ISO standard. Red with white text is for firefighting, and green with white text is for medical aid. As a bonus, green is also somewhat more discreet if the first aid kit are carried.
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After an hour, I suffocate the fire in the steam boiler and let the pressure drop and everything cool down. After another hour I start to fix leaks and connect the new corridor manometer that has been prepared. I use the one with the lowest range. I improvise a gas expansion thermometer of a work in progress manometer and install it to get a reading how hot the fire is. I can't actually make a correct scale on it yet, but I can mark it 0-10 and we can simply learn what that means. I talk to Alith and Hillevi while I work, and the guards will regularly check the corridor dials, and if the pressure or temperature is too low, they will go down and throw in a couple of logs, check the water level is okay and tell the others that they made it to avoid someone else do the same. Being responsible for the steam boilers fire is a job the guards are happy to accept. It is so easy compared to checking up on all fireplaces, and caring for the fire or fires are a common duty for guards and servants. Everyone understands the advantage of nice warm rooms and hot water.
I could also put a box beside the gauges to act as the main panel of the electrical system and battery bank. It would be helpful if the guards can keep track of it to without having to visit my workshop, so I ask Engdrid to make a box each for the gauges and electric panel, with at protective front door with glass. The electrical box will just have glass in the top half of the door, to see a moving coil instrument.
I cannot use oil lamp soldering everywhere and solder copper pipes with heated copper blocks is risky and hard. Copper pipes just transfer heat away too damn well. But we had the same problem when installing them so, gotten a bit easier. I continue to work as day turns to night, but with many oil lamps, light is a minor issue.
Oil lamp with a reflector is frankly a quite okay light source, and I would guess that is equivalent to a 15-25W incandescent bulb depending on setting and placement. But the oil lamp gives of significantly more heat, probably a few hundred watts of heat, and at certain times of the year that heat will probably be enough to keep a room cozy, and who knows? If we had had the newly installed interior windows, it might have been enough. But I rather be warm in shorts and a tshirt while sweating, than cold and freezing, and Jane totally agree with. Also, wood is cheaper and easier to obtain than rapeseed oil.
The double oil lamps with top reflectors work fine to hang from a ceiling and are nicely balanced. The one hanging in the middle of the main hall gives a nice but a bit too low all around light there, but theres some light in the corridors of the second floor. I would prefer three or four times more light in the main hall, but its better than candle light. Double oil lamps hang in every larger room, like the dining room, my bedroom, kitchen, workshop and so on.
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Its rather late when I finally get all the work done, and the guards excitedly light the steam boiler. There is a small leak which we remember was there, but Caecilia missed to make a note of it and feel so guilty, but I will take care of it in the morning. We can live with it during the night, and I just warn people to avoid the leak and a chair with orange red cloth in front works as a reminder. The new gauges works well. I will paint to mark a blue, green and red area of the gauge, once I'm sure where those boundaries are. For now I will just collect data.
The mansion is wind and waterproof, and is starting to have double glazing and fireplaces, so with a working centralized heating system, warmth is basically done. Plenty of oil lamps means we have light too. Cold and warm water system with redundancy, and indoor toilets, have also been completed. The mansion have a good kitchen and food storage. With plenty of food in storage. Theres even electric power. Still, a lot of work to do, but I feel far less anxiety towards the coming winter.
Iselin hugs me, and drags me of to the bathroom. Earlier today Iselin made sure that everyone knew I would be hers tonight.