Life without gas

Crikey, MOnica, we do take life, as we know it, very much for granted don't we?

I hope you get back to normal soon.

We do take it all for granted, don't we.

What some people don't realise either is that, if the electricity goes off which ours used to do frequently, the gas central heating will go off too as the pump is driven by electricity.

What a mess ! , we have a gas hob and electric oven , in case there is a power cut , our gas is in a tank . Between kitchens , when we were renovating DD1 lent me her induction hob from the caravan , it was brilliant . We had a log burner too and I heated hot water on it . I remember the days of strip washing in a freezing Bathroom when I was a child , not something we want nowadays

I must remind DH to check that there is enough gas for the barbecue now summer's over!

Oh gosh, strip-washing - brrr! I hope the gas people sort it out sooner rather than later, Monica! At least you sound pretty well organised. Maybe buy an inexpensive fan heater for warming up your bedroom, too?

Oh not good - I think it's the lack of hot water which is the worst as we can always use the microwave or have a takeaway but there's no way round not being able to have a shower. Our boiler went off between Christmas and New Year a couple of years ago so we had to boil the kettle for everything. Hope it gets sorted out soon.

Civilisation as we know it is a very fragile thing.
We are so dependent on our creature comforts, we need to be reminded occasionally just how precious these are and how much we take them for granted.

We were once without electricity for 10 days after a bad storm. We had gas from a tank, and could cook with that, but as you say the gas boiler needs electricity to work.
After that we bought a generator (petrol). Someone had lent us one to give the freezers a boost.
I don't think we had a proper wash all that time! I'll never forget it. No phone or internet either.

We frequently didn't have electricity when we lived in a Third World country and had to heat up water for 'bird' baths in multiple saucepans on a gas stove.

At least it was a hot climate but that meant daily washing was a very necessary requirement On one memorable occasion we had no water either, and I had to bathe my small daughter in heated-on-the gas-stove bottled water - talk about Cleopatra!

We used to have electricity cuts as well when we first moved here - and in another house, although the longest was only 24 hours. It was winter (isn't it always?) and we sat in the kitchen with a couple of gas burners turned on - and the window open so that we didn't asphyxiate ourselves.

During the power cuts of the early 1970s, DH realised we could connect our tiny black and white tv to a car battery, so charged up an old one in the garage and when we had a power cut in the evening we would just connect up the tv and watch that, wrapped up in blankets to keep us warm.

Monica
Is the stove a multi fuel? or just wood. I ask because we used Extracite on ours and could keep it going for 3 days.

petra, It is wood burning only, the multi-fuel grate was a quite expensive extra. We are not tempted to risk it as my sister used solid fuel in our, admittedly ancient, wood burner in France and ruined the grate.

Fortunately, the weather is not too cold, and as I said, we live in an old house with the stove in a huge double sided brick chimney/bread oven, which also goes through the 2 main bedrooms and 2 days of the stove burning has heated this up like a storage radiator, it is warm to the touch, so we are managing without the heating.

It is the lack of hot water that is the problem,but as soon as it is light enough to get to the wood shed and bring wood and kindling down, I will light the stove and then go to the sports centre a mile away and have a shower and hair wash.

You have my complete sympathy. We came home from a posting abroad, to take over a house we had bought, in one of the worst winters for years. Just before New Year, with DH having gone back to Germany, the CH boiler burst, flooded the utility room, and we were left without heat or hot water. The children thought the world had come to an end - they’d never been so cold! It being New Year we couldn’t get anything done about it for a few days and anyway the insurance company wanted to send a loss adjuster. It was almost two weeks before it was sorted out but fortunately there was an open fireplace which still had a back boiler connected to it so we bought some solid fuel and had heat in one room and hot water. I remember what it was like to grow up in a house with no bathroom, and one cold tap in the kitchen. No thank you! I hope you get it all sorted out soon, MOnica.

Just returned from the sports centre, having had a proper shower and hair wash. The first for three days. It is amazing how much better this has made me feel.

I think we forget how hardy we were in childhood, uninsulated draughty houses, freezing cold every morning (before global warming) until a fire was lit - and not very warm then. Hot water dependent on back boilers or temperamental Ideal stoves in the kitchen.

I can remember staying with an aunt and uncle where my bedroom was so cold I got into bed fully dressed, undressed and put my night clothes on once I had warmed the bed up. Pushing my day clothes down the bed so that they were warm when I got dressed (in bed) in the morning.

Thanks to insulation, an efficient modern stove and a big chimney, we are keeping satisfactorily warm. It is the lack of hot water that is the real problem.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201811/medium-484737-bf17a4385349e8d4270c8d72c1b90927.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201811/medium-168461-2db65b6deb571d21a12f911de25e4e06.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201811/medium-963141-2881-water-heater-pipe-model-360x300.jpg

The stove could be used for hot water.
I made a coiled copper pipe that fitted around the flue pipe of my stove in my workshop to heat radiators.
There are other ways too to utilise the heat from the stove for hot water, and some have the option of a built in back boiler from the manufacturer.

That was my childhood, too, Monica. I did say to dh the other day that I don't know how we didn't die from hypothermia in the winter of 62/63!

Our house was old and rambling and in poor condition. My grandad had a coal fire in his room and there was a paraffin heater in the sittingroom and that was it for heating apart from the gas stove. I recall having my clothes in bed with me, too. Also the hot water bottle that became icy-cold by the middle of the night. I vividly remember our bathroom pipes being frozen and my mum washing my younger brother and me by filling the kitchen sink and sitting us on the draining board and sloshing water over us.

The good old days? No thanks!

Oh I'm sorry to hear you have no hot water, I understand the difficulty. This happened to me last year when outdoors was snow and ice. First two weeks in March. Do you keep turning on the tap only to be sorely disappointed? It's habit.

I moved out of the hothouse that was my grandparents house at eighteen years of age. My grandma had it on twenty four hours a day at full pelt.

They had gas central heating put in as soon as it became widely affordable. I was five. Tiny little brass pipes on the inner walls.
Before that it was coal fires and paraffin heaters. Yes also getting dressed/undressed in bed.
Once I'd moved I missed the heat so much.

Moved into my own house which had a parkray with back boiler and I was freezing.
Until the nineties my hot water source was solid fuel or wood stoves.

The coldest place I lived had half the rooms upstairs over an arch that led to the stable yard. No heat would stay in those rooms. Included in those was the bathroom.
My very tough outdoorsy husband was nearly in tears at the relentless cold . If you are cold in your own home there is nowhere to go to be warm.

We have a back-up immersion water heater in case the boiler doesn't work. Belts and braces.

This Summer I went through the disruption and mess of a completely new central heating system, which meant that every room was affected in some way.
The Central Heating engineer asked if I would like my electric shower converted to be supplied by the boiler.
No way! If the boiler ever fails I have a gas fire, I can heat the kitchen from the electric oven and have an electric shower.

Just had gasman at door. They still haven't found the leak, so we will be gasless for another couple of days.

We are adjusting to this new world. Thanks to the stove and the chimney the house is now quite cosy. We just have to remember to put more wood on regularly.

Going to the sports centre for a shower worked out quite well, so we will do that every other day. Dishwasher and washing machine are cold fill, so no problems with them

Badenkate, to have an immersion heater you need a hot water tank. In previous houses we have had a hot water tank heated from the boiler with an immersion heater fitted as well. But our current home has 2 combi boilers that just heat water on demand so no hot water tanks to put an immersion heater into.

We have always worked on the basis that having two boilers, it was very unlikely both would break down at the same time, so if one bathroom and half the house had no heating and hot water the other half, with its bathroom would. Losing the gas supply to the house was never factored in, it is such a rare occurrence. Nobody I know has ever had that happen to them.

"Losing the gas supply to the house was never factored in, it is such a rare occurrence."
That's reminded me of something else, sorry, another hard luck story.
In one house we lived in we had a propane gas tank, buried. For the central heating system, hot water, and cooking. One winter there was a spell of very cold weather and the pressure valve on the tank froze up. For about 2 weeks.
Luckily we had a wood burning stove, and electricity. But it was still a trying time.

Glad you managed a hot shower and hair wash M0nica better than a tin bath in front of the fire

When we needed to replace our old boiler our gas fitted suggested a combi boiler.
No way.
I wanted to keep our back up immersion heater
Also our airing cupboard where the copper tank is situated has double hanging rails very useful for drying clothes.

We have an electric shower in family bathroom.
Our hob is gas but grill/oven are electric.
As another poster said 'belts and braces.'

However if both gas and elec were to go off then we would have to decamp to my sister's
to sit next to the log burner.?

I still have a back boiler but have only used it sporadically so far. I do have an electric shower and am thinking of buying an oil heater as they are supposed to be very economical. Good luck with you gas (op)

Day 5: The gas authorities have now decided, not only to repair the leak but replace our gas supply pipe. It seems it is made of steel, and yellow plastic is now mandatory so when they come across steel supply pipes they replace them. This applies to half the houses cut off. This will presumably delay further the return of service as normal .