Fahrenheit 451

Well our solid fuel Rayburn installation was completed a week or so ago and we have been gradually adjusting to a different way of living. My father-in-law reminded me how, when such devices were originally developed the house wife would be there to manage it from dusk til dawn, nursing it through the day.

Of course these days both my wife and I are occupied with other matters, like earning enough to stay where we are. Into the mix of parenting, working and middle class pressures, we now have to get through the wood felling and splitting and coal purchasing.

My wife is adamant that we do not resort to using our electric cooker or gas hob. We certainly do not use the oil fired central heating anymore, so there is a feeling of return to the good life. But be warned if you are contemplating venturing into this territory. Having stoked up the Rayburn
to a cool 150 deg centigrade, we have been able to heat water and radiators. However, instant cooking is a thing of the past now as we 'wind up' the Rayburn over 2 hours to get to a cooking temperature.

And I haven't yet developed that much foresight. So it was on Tuesday night, after another luke warm meal that we 'banked' the Rayburn for overnight heating at about 9pm: Set the spin wheel to quarter turn open, close the flue chamber, set the boiler to 1 (it's all manual), riddle and de-ash.

Two hours later I was listening to the hot water pipes boiling away... gurgle gurgle. Okay, one circulation is normally just the system blowing some steam off. Within the next hour, this gurgling was becoming a continual annoyance, and so at midnight I set off to examine the Rayburn.

As I waded through the Turkish steam room of our kitchen I was concerned to see the cooker thermostat at 250 deg C, and clearly rising. By 1am the thermostat had reached 300 deg C (600 deg F). Flames licked across the Rayburn and up the flue. A combination of radiators and hot water taps on full gradually brought the Rayburn temp back down.

Since then we have managed to avoid such high temp and have been able to accommodate the additional tasks of Rayburn cooking within our busy lifestyle. There is still plenty to do, but we all contibute. My wife need not be chained to the kitchen sink and cooker, and I can live with the fact that Guy Montag will not be knocking on the door to utilise our furnace.