Minor Crisis.

[Sean Regan]

Not a good start to the day,


Woke up to find the central heating hadn't come on. The thermostat in the hall was reading 10c.
Bit of a problem, as the code on the boiler display didn't tell me what was wrong, when I looked at the fault codes list in the instructions.
Bigger problem, as my friend who installed the boiler four years ago and only serviced it a month or so ago was away.
O.K.
I''ll call British Gas. I'm paying them a fortune at the moment for gas and electricity, so they can come out and fix it.
I don't mind what it costs.
There was an answer the moment I rang.
Unfortunately, it was an automated message and I had to listen to a two minute lecture on Covid before being asked to press any buttons.
I chose the one for, "home care customers" this is for people who pay monthly what equates to a fortune for a call-out on a rare occasion when a boiler will break down.
I could have got another new boiler, for what I would have paid over four years, as by now, it would have cost me, over £1,000, for this service.
I pressed this button, as I expected to get a quicker response.
I did,
another automated message to tell me I was in a queue and it would be an hour before I would get a response, let alone someone to come out and fix it.
I know the weather is unusually bad, but if I were paying this sort of money monthly, I'd be "less than pleased."
Anyway, I thought it couldn't be much, so had a think about it. I remembered on a couple of nights I'd noticed a small amount of water on the patio under the vent pipe on the kitchen wall.
All combi's "vent" a small amount of water.
With our's the little pipe comes out of the kitchen wall and the water dips into a bit of 1.5" drain pipe that connects to the waste from the washing machine and dishwasher. I worked out maybe the water dripping down this vertical pipe had started freezing to the side of the pipe over a few days. So the water was dripping onto the patio meaning that there was a chance that the little pipe was frozen too.
So I pulled the connection off the little pipe and a cup-full of water came out of that pipe. I poked a screwdriver up that pipe and some slush came out.
Turned the boiler back on and we were all systems go!
I've left the connection off the end of the pipe so it can carry on dripping onto the patio.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I am waiting for that to happen. I lagged all the outside pipes, including that one, but when we came home the other day the copper pipe to the outside tap was spouting water through the lagging. Still, I now know what to look at first if the boiler stops before it thaws.

 

[Sean Regan]

I checked our gas consumption today, I don't send the readings in until the middle of next week.
As it's been very cold, the boiler has been on almost continuously from around 7.30am to 11.00pm. We don't go to bed until gone midnight, so the house stays warm enough until then.
At a rough guess, gas has probably cost me £250 for the past month. The electricity "tumble dryer charges" will probably be the same at around £160.
So my total bill will be around £400. That's £150, more than what it was last month. I'm not that bothered. I'm quite philosophical about it. No point being cold. .
I've noticed news reports with interviews with people complaining about energy charges and that they can't afford to heat their homes, some with, "smart phones" in their hands, maybe they have, a "heating app?"

 

[DirtMechanic]

I checked our gas consumption today, I don't send the readings in until the middle of next week.
As it's been very cold, the boiler has been on almost continuously from around 7.30am to 11.00pm. We don't go to bed until gone midnight, so the house stays warm enough until then.
At a rough guess, gas has probably cost me £250 for the past month. The electricity "tumble dryer charges" will probably be the same at around £160.
So my total bill will be around £400. That's £150, more than what it was last month. I'm not that bothered. I'm quite philosophical about it. No point being cold. .
I've noticed news reports with interviews with people complaining about energy charges and that they can't afford to heat their homes, some with, "smart phones" in their hands, maybe they have, a "heating app?"

Ouch! Sharp phone barbs!

There are 12v dc heating wires for vehicles such as have diesel fuel because that fuel grows viscous when cold. I am sure such a wire is available for home pipe use though it may well be line voltage ac. Paired with a thermostatic switch of some sort for temp control to your preference you might automate your recently discovered "poke and drain" method of heating your home.

I learned long ago that since copper is highly toxic a copper drain line will never clog with biological growth unlike pvc. I also learned that a copper wire or wires run the length of a pvc pipe internally was an easy plumbing trick that can help keep a plastic line clear. Perhaps too an internal wire might work for heating. Not our type of problem here in the deep south but an interesting one to me. I wonder what you will end up with once you decide. If nothing else I suppose you could wiggle a wire about to free the line inside a wall. I pull a fishing line tied to a balloon through a pipe with a vacuum. 3\4 of the pipe diameter usually clears any solder or obstruction. Electrical shops have a variety of small umbrellas and such for the purpose.

 

[Sean Regan]

Here in "the Tropic of Trafford" as I call it, the recent extremely cold weather is unusual.
Yesterday, the temperature was back up to +14c.
As we say, "If you don't like the weather here in the North-West, hang on for half an hour.
OK, it took longer this time but, that's unusual.
I don't anticipate any further problems with a frozen combi vent pipe. Well, nothing a poke with a screwdriver wouldn't fix.
As I type this at 5.45 pm, it's still +14c.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Here in "the Tropic of Trafford" as I call it, the recent extremely cold weather is unusual.
Yesterday, the temperature was back up to +14c.
As we say, "If you don't like the weather here in the North-West, hang on for half an hour.
OK, it took longer this time but, that's unusual.
I don't anticipate any further problems with a frozen combi vent pipe. Well, nothing a poke with a screwdriver wouldn't fix.
As I type this at 5.45 pm, it's still +14c.

We have the same weather evidently, it is to be -10C Friday but would rather be 15.