A Cure For Haunted Houses & Hotels - Explanations for noises, lights, and hings that go bump in the night

 When I was a busy freelance travel writer for newspapers and magazines I went to visit a family-owned countryside hotel. 

At the bar, my husband and I got talking to the owner. I had researched the hotel, and found that in the old days, under other owners, it was supposed to be haunted. Yet the current hotel publicity of the website and brochure made no mention of this attention-getting and memorable fact.

I asked him, "Is your hotel haunted? Has anybody seen a ghost? Why on't you mention it?'

He told me, "When we first opened, we had a visitor who claimed the hotel was haunted. She said one of the rooms felt cold. She was a ghost-hunter. I let her stay the night for free. She did not see the ghost.

'I was getting a lot of complaintes about chilly rooms. So we put int double glazing. The chill went away. No more complaints.

'The ghost hunter came back. The room was no onger chilly. She said the ghost must have gone way. So we don't mention the ghost in our literature.'

That seems to me to be a very rational answer.

I've also read lots of stories about unnerving noises in houses. The noises turn out to be a wasps' nest

Or other creatures.

Unnerving Noises

We had noises. They were either magpies hopping about on the conservatory roof, trying to crack open fruit nd nuts..

Or the fridge turning itself on and off. The dishwasher on a new cycle. The washing machine or spin dryer on a new cycle.

The radiaators with air locks. The boiler with air locks.

The central heating turning itself on and off with a timer

We also had cats running along the fence. Foxes mmating with dreadful screas.

The gaardener letting himself into the back garden through the side gate with a key. My faather in law who had a key going to the bck garden to trim the roses and prune trees.

Worried About Being Watched

I also had the feeling I was being watched. I was. I caught the culprit. It was a fox.

Fox in a London garden. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

 I mistyped that as fax. In the olden days, a fax would come through at night. I have also been alarmed by the sound of the printer turning on and off when I was printing something. There is a delay between pressing print and the prininting starting..

Mysterious Light

Finally, those lights and ghostly figures. What are they?

Floaters in your eyes. Reflections in your spectacles.Relections of the house lights in the window pane which look like lights outside.

Flow worms and fireflies.

Cars driving pas whose headlights shine through your window.

Bumps In The Night

Somehing knocked my bed in the night. What was it.

1 My husbnd returning fro a trip to the bathroom.

2 A small earthquake. Reported in the newspaper next day.

Mail

Mail comes through the letter box. Leaflets are dropped in. Parcel deliverers get no anser and leave a note helf way though the letter box.

Door Knocking

Deliverers ring, get no answer, and leave. Popel who are lost knock to ask the way, then realise they are in the wrong street nd toddle off.

A passer-by  

How The Heating Works - in your hotel or holiday home or home - how to turn it off in summer

Temperature controller for radiators. Centigrade. Five to twenty five. Photo by Angela Lansbury, copyright.

Problem
The temperature rose. I could not turn off the heating.

Heating has always been a mystery to me. Whether I am at home, in a hotel, a place I've rented, or in somebody else's flat when they are asking me, and everybody else, what to do.

How do you know what is affecting the boiler and what is turning the radiators? Where is the controller? What do the mystery numbers mean? What temperature do you set?

Answer
Now I know. My son who had a degree in engineering explained. I can't believe how simple and obvious it is, once you know.

Finding The Controller
I remember watching an electrician looking for a flat's heating controller and finding it on the lounge wall. I always wondered how he knew which sets of dials operated what.

What Is It Operating?
You can tell by both the location and the temperature setting.

You might have a dial or two in the kitchen in the boiler cupboard or timers next to it. They set start and stop times.

Is It Working?
You go into a new flat and nothing seems to happen when you fiddle the dials or set the times. Is it a 24 hour clock or a 12 hour clock. Aha!

So before you call out somebody to check, you can do your own check.

If you can't see which is which, you should be able to tell within ten minutes whether the water has got hotter, by turning on the hot tap, and within an hour whether the radiator is working, by feeling it. (Make sure it is turned on, as well. Look at the radiator. Does it have a dial?)

Story
I turned off the switch in the hot cupboard but the kitchen and house were still stifling hot. I called my son to come and help.

Finding The Controller
He asked, "Where is the temperature controller?"

What controller?

He walks into the hall and looks. "Look! There's a dial on the wall."

"Oh, yes. Outside the water boiler cupboard. I thought it operated the water boiler. How do I know it regulates the radiators and temperature of the rooms?"

Checking Temperature Range
"Look at the temperature. What does it say?"

"Er? Five to twenty five. It is centigrade. I grew up with fahrenheit."

"This is centigrade. What is boiling point?"

"A hundred?"

"Yes. In theory a boiler goes up to a hundred. But this only goes up to 25. That would be pretty cool for water. So it isn't boiling water; it's warming the air.

"In centigrade body temperature is much lower than boiling point, about 28ish. You swim in water that's about 30.  A hot tub would be much hotter. Let's say 40 maximum - you can look it up and check.

"The control setting in an airing cupboard is controlling the boiler. The cupboard gets hot and can stay hot for hours, when the room temperature has gone down, so a controller measuring the heat in the air would not tell you the right thing if it measured the temperature in your cupboard. The boiler might be set to run at 50-60 degrees centigrade. Not a hundred, because people would keep scalding themselves.

Boilers temperature controls start at 50 degrees. Not five. So your dial going from 5 degrees to 25 is not heating water but the air, so it is not for the boiler but the radiators.

How The Dial Works
"To pick up the temperature of the house, the dial is in the living room, sometimes the corridor. If you've just moved in, look around at eye level in the living room and corridor. The electrician just walks into the living room or corridor, then scans the walls, turning his head, until he spots a little box on the wall. He might ask you where it is first. If you don't know, he finds it."

Air Conditioning
"In Singapore in a community centre, the box controlling the air conditioning is usually by the door. The leader of the club often knows what to do without calling the management."

"That's air con, in a public building or hotel in a hot country.

Controller Position
Let's continue looking at the heating. To pick up the temperature of the entire flat, rather than the kitchen cupboard, the controller will be in the living room or corridor.

Setting Temperature
"You set it to a temperature like 20 degrees. You'll find advice all over the internet and sometimes in a leaflet with your electricity bill. If your bills are too high in winter, you may want to turn down the temperature.

How Room Temperature Controller Works
"When the corridor gets lower the controller turns on. It's a heat sensitive dial. It aims at the target temperature, and turns on until you reach the target temperature. Then it turns off. When the temperature goes down again, it turns back on."

The Moral Of The Story
I have lived in the UK, USA, Spain and Singapore and stayed in numerous buildings and been to conferences and clubs. Now I shall look at every controller, for lights, air con, or heating, and learn what to do.

Next time it won't be somebody else explaining to me. It will be me explaining to somebody else. I dare say the same applies to you.

Tips
http://www.thehottubandswimspacompany.com/about-us/blog/item/576-what-is-the-best-temperature-for-your-hot-tub

Hot Tub Temperature
PS The hot tub temperature, according to the industry, should not be above 40 for health reasons. 38-9 max would be about right.

The lowest temperature is about 7, even when nobody is using it, not zero, to be sure it doesn't freeze and cause damage.

http://www.ragsdaleair.com/blog/why-wont-my-central-air-conditioning-unit-turn-on-4/
Best tip - make sure it is not set to heat. Set it to cool. Just think about it. You told the poor controller to heat and then you told it to cool.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.  Please share links to your favourite posts.