Paphos People

ALL PUMPED UP

This is the story of a series of mishaps over a week when nothing went right you couldn’t make it up!

September 2023.
We had been in our house for one year now, the first time we have had central heating in seventeen years. Last winter we bought the heating oil at about 200 litres at a time. Not knowing how much we were using and trying to gauge how much we would need for the winter to come. That of course depended on the coldness of the weather so it was very much a guessing game. We got through the winter and into the spring having used six hundred and fifty litres of oil. Very comfortable, the system also provided hot water on the darkest coldest day we both agreed that it worked well for us.
The man who delivered the oil told us that in summer, the price dropped and that was the time to buy. There was also a government subsidy applied to petrol, diesel and heating oil. The price of heating oil dropped to ninety nine cents a litre in June a saving of seventeen cents on the winter price. How much further would it drop?
Then the announcement that the fuel subsidy would be removed on June 30th 2023! A phone call was made to the supplier and he arrived the next day.
“How many litres?” he asked.
“Fill it up please.” I replied feeling very pleased with myself at my astuteness.
Ten minutes later, six hundred and twenty litres were safely in my tank at ninety nine cents per litre. That was a saving of about one hundred euros on the winter price.
The somewhat smug feeling of satisfaction that we had beaten the taxman, if only in a small way but a win for us nonetheless, was very satisfying.

One week later the lady from next door came to our door in a state of distress,
“Quick, Quick you must come, your petrol is leaking!!”
Running up the driveway I was shocked to see a split in the plastic tank about a foot long and heating oil seeping out and running away down towards the road. The split was about three inches down from the top, what to do? Lower the level - into what?
Grabbing an empty dustbin and a length of hose pipe I rigged a siphon from the tank and drained as much oil off until it was below the split.
Now safe from any leaks, I had to decide what action to take. Across the road from our house there is a plumber he would know.
The plumber said he could get a new tank transfer the oil into it then after the winter when the tank was empty put it in the position which the old one had vacated. That sounded the safest option and as I pointed out to him, that his house was lower than ours and seven hundred and fifty litres of oil would flow down the drive and across the road into his property.
“Leave it to me I will do it” said the plumber.
So there we were a split oil tank, a dustbin half full of oil, waiting for a new tank.
The new tank arrived, within a day the plumber had installed it but not connected it to the system.
“I can transfer the oil” I said confidently thinking of the small hand pump I had which fitted into an electric drill and would do the job.
“OK” he said “When you have done it I will connect it to the system”
The electric drill was a battery powered model and I had a spare battery. So armed with a couple of lengths of hose pipe, my trusty hand held pump, the spare battery on charge I began the operation. The drill lasted for about twenty minutes until the battery went flat. No problem I picked up the fully charged second battery pushed it into the drill and began phase two. Five or ten seconds later the battery failed. Well it was the oldest one. Resigned to charging up the original battery, which took about half an hour, I went and had a cup of coffee.
Refreshed, I approached the task once more, twenty minutes later the battery gave out again back on charge. This was going to be a long job but I had time on my side.
So it went on in twenty minute sessions pumping about five litres a minute I reckoned I would have it done in about a day.
Disaster! My ever faithful hand held pump that I had for about twenty years disintegrated, died, ceased to be a pump and became a piece of junk.

What to do now? After a great deal of thought I came up with a great idea. Washing machines have a pump, powered by mains electricity, no need for the drill. Off I went to my friendly electrical store, saw the manager and had access to as many scrap machines as I needed. Turning one upside down, there was the pump snip the wires undo four screws and there it was a self contained, pump running of the mains that would have the job done in a couple of hours. A simple wiring job, some plumbing fittings and it was ready to go.
Plunging the pipe deep into the old tank, and the other end into the new tank, I turned the pump on. It ran, but no oil came through. Back to the bench take it apart. Then it dawned on me, the pump was in the bottom of the washing machine so that the tub full of water was higher and pushing the water through. I was trying to lift heavy oil up and into another tank. It would not work a day wasted!
Resigned to the fact that I was going to have to BUY a proper oil pump I made my way into town. Explaining what I wanted to do I was sold a pump for removing engine oil from car engines, and heating oil. Running off twelve volt electricity it would have to be connected to the car battery. An hour later and thirty five euros lighter in my pocket I returned home. Rigging my battery charger to run it I connected the new pump into my transfer system. After studying the instructions it seemed the pump would deliver four to five litres per minute, but recommended that you did not run it for more than half an hour. It was very efficient and by my calculations it should take about four hours to transfer what was left of the oil. So run it for half an hour, give it half an hour rest then run it again. I worked at it for the afternoon then I decided to finish it the next day.
The following morning, I went to the old tank removed the lid to find that it was full again! The fuel had siphoned back through the pump overnight until I was back to square one! So the previous day I was running the pump for half an hour and then resting it for half an hour well you work it out! DOH!
Working all day, taking the hose out each time the pump was off I eventually transferred seven hundred and fifty litres of fuel oil into the new tank. Simple. Now all that’s left is to connect it to the existing system and we are ready for winter.