The big heat exchanger gets spruced up

The heat exchanger that we've been using to heat Stream 7 since 2011 got a little banged up over the winter. It was time to haul it out and re-build it. Yesterday, five members of the team (Hilary Madinger, Bailey Kimbel, Luke Ginger, Wyatt Cross and Jon Benstead) stripped it down, cleaned off the impressive biofouling of mosses and filamentous algae, re-built it with new couplers and clamps, and plumbed it back into warm Stream 8 (with the help of Eoin O'Gorman and Bruno Gallo from the London team). All in one afternoon. Not bad.

The heat exchanger looked a little sad the day we pulled it out. Alternatively, it looked a lot like an art installation on the hillside. Here's the stream ecologist that fell to Earth...

Here are a few shots of the team re-building the heat exchanger yesterday. Left to right are Wyatt, Luke, Bailey and Hilary.

All put back together again.

The heat exchanger back in place and flowing again, with Wyatt making an ill-informed bid for a place in the 'Studmuffins of Science' calendar. Mr June, anyone?

So our fingers are crossed that the heat exchanger is good for a bit longer. We're now in our fifth year of warming and trying to keep it going a couple more years.