The autumnal equinox was last night at 10:29 PM EDT.  It’s a magical moment marking one of the two times during the year that there are equal hours of day and night at every place on the planet.  Today is the first full day of celestial fall.  From now until the winter solstice the hours of daylight will steadily decrease and be less than the hours of darkness as winter eventually settles over the northern hemisphere.  Meteorologist and climatologists consider September 1 as the first day of fall, but either way colder weather is coming north of the equator.  Of course, winter in the northern hemisphere varies widely from mind-numbingly cold in the far north to very pleasant the closer one gets to the equator.  The southern U.S., in particular Florida, the Gulf Coast, southern Texas, and the desert southwest, have a winter climate that is particularly attractive to RVers from more northern states and the Canadian provinces.  Along with all of the migratory birds the “snowbirds” will be very much on the move by mid-October and generally have relocated to the Sunbelt by mid-December.  We will be among the last to go, but go we will.

Linda was up early again and off to the bakery ahead of the morning rush hour traffic.  I had finished breakfast and was finishing up yesterday’s blog post when Curt called from D. R. Electric Appliance to let me know that our new range was being delivered to them this morning.  He said they could bring it out and install it right after lunch so I gave him our address.

I called Bratcher Electric and talked to Karen.  I asked if it might be easier on them in terms of scheduling to have someone come out and convert the generator and do the annual maintenance and take care of the electrical project on a separate visit.  She agreed and said she we would call me back tomorrow morning to schedule it as she was not in the shop and did not have the schedule for this week in front of her.

I had gotten dressed this morning with the intent of doing some drywall work in the library, some electrical work in the garage, and possibly pulling the cover off the Aqua-Hot in the bus.  I turned up the thermostats in the garage and the library and set the temperature up so they would come on.  It was 64 in the library and 59 in the garage.  I set both of them to 65 and let them run.  The library got up to 69 and the garage got up to 70, so it looks like I may have to adjust the anticipators in those thermostats.  That wide of a temperature swing means the furnace(s) will not run as often but will run longer when they do.  More to the point, however, is that they should regulate the temperature (at the thermostat) to less than +/- 1 degree F.  If the thermostat is set to 70 the thermometer should read 69 or 71, it should show 70.  The Honeywell thermostats in the house work that way.

I decided to defer most of my tasks until after the new natural gas range was delivered and installed.  I did go online and find a manual for the White-Rodgers 1F78 (70 Series) non-programmable thermostat (we have 1F78-144s installed for the library and garage).  The manual I found online contained more information than the installation sheet that came with them, including diagnostic tables.  It turned out that this thermostat does not have an adjustable anticipator function other than a wire that can be clipped to produce a longer heating cycle when controlling a hydronic heating system.  If the cycle is too long (not shutting off when the set point temperature is reached) the really isn’t anything you can do.  The displayed temperature is adjustable, however, within a +or- 3 degree range, but the thermometers were supposedly set (calibrated) at the factory, so I’m not sure I want to fix the problem by changing them.  I put one of our refrigerator thermometers on top of the library thermostat to check whether it agreed with the built-in thermometer.  I then placed a call to Darryll ask about this and let him know that we had received his invoice yesterday.

I pulled the old range out of its space between the kitchen cabinets/counters and moved it to one side to so I had access to the alcove where it normally sits.  I unplugged the unit and closed the gas shutoff valve but I did not disconnect the flexible gas line.  I swept up the small amount of debris that had accumulated there, trimmed some wood shims that had been used to level the cabinets and were left sticking out into the range space, and then cleaned the floor.

Although we would have liked to have the range installed last Friday or Saturday, today was good enough if just-in-time.  Linda’s sister is arriving sometime tomorrow and we will probably have grand-daughter Madeline here starting tomorrow night or Thursday morning.  Marilyn leaves Friday evening and Madeline returns home either Friday evening or Saturday.  The arrangements are not yet finalized.  Her Jewish-run day care center is closed Thursday and Friday for Rosh Hashanah and we agreed to babysit her at our house, including overnight stays.  How fun is that?  Lots!  We are also trying to arrange to have RV friends from Canada come visit and dine with us at the house on Sunday.  The point is, we are getting our new range just-in-time for Linda to be able to cook properly for all of these people (and us; I consumed the last of her amazing home-made granola for breakfast this morning).

D. R. Electric Appliance arrived at 3:15 PM. They determined the easiest way into and out of the kitchen was through the front doorwall of the library and then through the kitchen door. I had measured the old kitchen range and the inside of our Honda Element and knew that the old range would not fit in the car (the width and depth are fine but the height is a problem) so I had the installers move it to the garage.  We will call the Salvation Army number and arrange for one of their trucks to pick it up.

Our new GE natural gas kitchen range.

It took the 2-man installation crew about 45 minutes, start-to-finish, to remove the old range, move it to the garage, unpack the new range, move it to the kitchen, remove all the packing tape, plug it in, hook up the gas, assemble the burners and slide it into its space between the base cabinets/counters.  They said we did not need a new flexible gas line and reused the old one.  I had opened the branch shutoff valve in the basement while they were working and they opened the shutoff valve at the unit as soon as they had the gas connected.  None of us smelled any gas so they started it up and made sure the five burners on top were working.  They handed me the invoice and I asked if they accepted credit cards.  They said I would have to call or go into the office for that, gathered up their tools and packing materials, and took off.

I tested the two ovens after they left as they indicated that if they didn’t work there wasn’t anything they could do about it anyway as they were not service technicians.  The oven controls are more complicated than the range burners, but I figured out how to set a temperature and turn them on.  I did not test the convection feature of the lower oven, the broiler in the upper oven, the timers (start and cook), or other features but I did set the clock.  Linda and I will have to spend a little time with the manual to fully understand how to use the ovens.

Another view of the new range.

The only installation issue we have is the iron gas pipe that comes up from the basement behind the unit with the gas shutoff valve is installed on top of it.  The pipe is too long and prevents the unit from being pushed back as close to the wall as we would like.  It can’t go flush to the wall in any event as there are vents on the back for the convection oven (I think), but it has open space at the bottom that would allow it to go back farther than it is now if the shutoff valve were closer to the floor.  The iron pipe is undoubtedly screwed into a 90 degree elbow just below the floor in the ceiling of the basement.  Fixing this will simply involve disconnecting the flex gas line, unscrewing the shutoff valve, removing the vertical pipe by unscrewing it, replacing it with a shorter one, reattaching the shutoff valve (or a new one), and reattaching the flex line (or a new one).  That’s all stuff I can do, but yeah, it will take me half a day (at least) once I have all the parts.

I drove to downtown Howell and found a parking spot right in front of D. R. Electric Appliance.  There wasn’t anyone in the store but I found Curt out back unpacking a refrigerator.  I paid him with a credit card and it was a good thing I drove to the store.  He said that if they take a credit card over the phone there is an additional 3% charge.  He wasn’t clear about who ends up paying the extra charge, but an educated guess says it’s the customer.

Linda sent me a text message at 4:37 PM that she was leaving the bakery.  She got home at 6 PM (traffic was very heavy) and was very excited to see her new kitchen range in place and ready to use.  As I expected, she would like to have it pushed in farther, so I guess I have another project.  She used the range to pan grill a couple of tofu hotdogs and microwaved some leftovers for dinner.  She read through the manual for the range and then worked on a grocery list for the next four days while I checked in on websites and e-mail.  I am still getting too many failed login attempts on the FMCA GLCC website, so I lengthened to lockout time from 1 hour to six hours.

Marilyn called to let us know that she had arrived at her destination in Lake Orion and her meeting was set for 8:30 AM tomorrow.  Linda will pick her up at 9:45 AM and bring her to our house.  Linda had developed a headache during the day and it was still bothering her during the evening so she took some medication and we turned in without watching any TV programs.