Summer is when I’d hear the foghorns most often, reminding me that I lived on a peninsula surrounded by a cold ocean. If you were to get seasonal affective disorder, you’d get it in August, and the knowledge that inland people were sweating and wearing shorts while you were piling on sweaters and praying for a glimpse of sun wouldn’t help. Designed to warn sailors at sea of unseen, unseeable obstacles, the sounds also let land-dwellers like me know what is there beyond the reach of our senses.įog is silent, and when you watch it from afar, it seems stealthy or even sinister - arms of fog reaching around the belly of Mount Tamalpais, then retreating fingers pouring over the Sausalito hills, drifting with languid weight down onto the town and the bay rafts of it sailing under or over or all around the Golden Gate Bridge a solid layer of the stuff over western San Francisco in late summer like a sodden gray blanket, muffling sound and sense of time, as though it were six in the morning all day until darkness returns. They are also an orientation there I was in a bed in a little apartment in the middle of a city where, the sounds told me, fog was rising up from the sea, traveling from the west, twining around the coast, sliding toward us. We still say horn, but foghorns are now mechanical devices with deep voices, because low noises travel farther. It’s a way to give a voice to as much as a million tons an hour of water vapor on the move. It’s a warning, an offer of assistance, a sound that says when seeing fails, hearing may succeed. San Francisco’s foghorns make a deep, plaintive bleat, like the call of a guardian. I heard them often, and in recollection the sound seems almost like a correlative of that middle-of-the-night state of being not quite awake, not quite asleep, with a wandering mind but a body pinned down by sleep’s Jupiterian gravity. If anybody else gets the same problems it might be a good idea if they or their plumber makes the same basic checks before more expensive options are considered.Only in the middle of the night, only when all the background noise of the busy streets I lived on from 1981 to 2011 fell away, only when there were almost no cars abroad and the hum of city life died down, only when I woke up in darkness from deep sleep, did I hear the foghorns. That was the end of the problem and its been ok ever since (3 weeks). Gas analysis at high fire - CO2 slightly less than specified so again an adjustment was made. Gas analysis at low fire - CO2 less than specified so that was increased. Then the gas at the meter with boiler on high fire and other gas appliances on to check for pressure drop - all ok. Fearing the worst I called the plumber who just went through basic checks.įirst the flue for blockage then the gas pressure at the meter - both ok. It would also happen if the boiler was re-started and the start up cycle with the trap filling sequence (which is also accompanied with a low fire flame) is in operation. when the heating is up to temp and the burner has a small flame to keep it topped up. I had the groaning vibration problem when the boiler was on 'low fire' i.e. I suspect that I need to get someone out to see it, but I'd like to narrow it down - intermittent problems can be expensive I find!Īnyone have ideas what might be the problem? Is it major / serious? Any thoughts on repair costs? Any advice welcome! We have a few TRV's that I've fitted since moving in but most Rads are open (although some of the plumbing is questionable: e.g. It seems to be getting more frequent but that might be the weather. It occurs randomly when CH on - sometimes a few minutes apart sometimes only once or twice a night, particularly when working hard / very cold. No sign of air in the system, pressure ok and stable (always in green). I used a suitable descaler incase it was jammed up and emptied / refilled with inhibitor recently. Reminds me of my childhood in Scarborough - Fog Horns!! However, since moving in it has produced a loud intermittent groaning, vibrating, rumbling sound. We've only had one fault that was sorted by BG on a fixed fee basis - the fan inside needed replacing. Moved into this house last year with a "Worcester Bosh Greenstar HE Condensing Combi".
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |