Earlier in the project the plumber had been responsible for laying all the soil pipes that had to be installed in the flooring foundation level, the around house drainage pipes and drilling the large (150-200mm) holes in the concrete roof for the flue pipes for the three stoves. (See earlier posts).
Unlike the electrical wiring in conduit piping that I wanted visible (see previous post), in order to avoid adding more piping that would be visible, I wanted the plumbing to be in the floor. The project was now at the point where all the piping needed to be in place before the concrete floor itself was laid.
In addition to the straightforward water supply and waste run offs for the various sinks I wanted a simple shower arrangement in both bathrooms that would be in keeping with the nature of the house and the simple natural environment of the surroundings. Having researched far and wide I came up with a simple design and asked the plumber to make my design a reality. The result is great - see below.
Given the abundance of sunshine hours the obvious choice for water heating was solar using a thermo-siphonic system. However I did not want the standard system of having insulated tanks located on top of the solar collectors as these arrangements detract from the visual simplicity I was seeking. What I wanted was a large insulated tank located within the house that would store the hot water.
Given the need for a wood fired cookstove for the late Autumn, Winter and early spring months it seemed sensible to find one with a back boiler that could supplement the solar water heating over this period. Unfortunately such a system is not common in Crete so I had to do some serious research and come up with a "circuit diagram" for combining the solar and wood fired systems. After a lot of debate and scratching of heads the plumber installed the piping necessary for this hybrid system.
An added bonus of this hybrid system, in heating terms, is that the cookstove I selected, requires a small (up to 4000 Btu) heat sink radiator in order to dispel any excess heat when the cookstove is going full bore and the water temperature is already high, say, on a bright sunny but cold day. I decided that this would best be placed in the nearest bathroom.
At the same time he was installing this pipework I also asked for a couple of "air tubes" to be incorcorated into the floor, one for the masonry stove and one for the cookstove, to provide draught vents for each of the stoves.
 |
| Master Plumber Crete style. |
 |
| The scullery/back kitchen piping. No it is not two cold pipes going to one of the wastes one is hot but the plumber ran out of red tubing!! |
 |
| One of the bathrooms. |
 |
| A view of the first bathroom and the pipes running to the "tank room" and coming from the kitchens likewise. |
 |
| The custom made simple shower. |
 |
| Moving the position of the pipes for the main room kitchen to accomodate a redesign of the future drawer units. |
 |
| The additional pipework to accomodate the hybrid hot water system. |
