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An increase in electricity demand?

AncientMariner
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-50613678


"Electric heaters and cookers were being offered to elderly or sick customers, and those with young children."


Certainly if we lost our gas supply, whilst we aleady cook electric, our heating is gas fired CH. To maintain comfort levels I could see three or four 2 kW fan heaters being utilised for much of the day. As for domestic water heating, a kettle or two. 


I seem to remember a previous gas problem where the local gas supplier took round electric heaters to affected houses and blew a few main fuses....???


The photograph of the SGN vehicle with a sat dish and two air conditioners has me wondering. If the a/c units are to get rid of excessive heat build up, then besides the load of the TWO a/c compressors, I wonder what they have in the van - besides a rather large gene??


Clive
  • 0
    Some of the oil boilers have an electric immersion heater fitted in them as a back up, but they will never fill a bath and a shower would not be to promising,  a bed bath with a flannel maybe.


    Andy B.
  • 0

    Sparkingchip:

    If it happened here I would currently be changing our hot water cylinder as it does not have an immersion heater boss, never mind an immersion heater and I would not fancy trying to retrofit a boss given the age of the cylinder. Some things are best left well alone!


    The alternative would be to drop an electric boiler in alongside the existing gas boiler, but given the age of our heating system I cannot foresee that ending well either.


    So plan C would be to rip the basket gas fire out and burn something in the old fireplace, though we do live in a smoke control area, not that many of our neighbours respect it.


    Andy B.




    If you don't fancy fitting a threaded boss, how about a Willis External Immersion Heater?  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Willis-External-Immersion-Heater-3kW-Element-Copper-Shell/111708731476
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283144443114

    Having here to rely on our combi boiler for domestic hot water, a flow heater inserted into the pipework would be a reassuring back up for when our combi boiler fails to ignite for whatever reason. There are Heatrae Sadia flow heaters 4, 6 & 12 kW but I don't think intended for domestic HW but radiators.

    I wonder what the maximum kW element can be fitted in a Willis?


    Clive

  • 0

    Sparkingchip:

    If it happened here I would currently be changing our hot water cylinder as it does not have an immersion heater boss, never mind an immersion heater and I would not fancy trying to retrofit a boss given the age of the cylinder. Some things are best left well alone!


    The alternative would be to drop an electric boiler in alongside the existing gas boiler, but given the age of our heating system I cannot foresee that ending well either.


    So plan C would be to rip the basket gas fire out and burn something in the old fireplace, though we do live in a smoke control area, not that many of our neighbours respect it.


    Andy B.




    I have fitted one or two 2 1/4 inch mechanical immersion heater flanges Andy, in copper cylinders and iron tanks. It is doable.

    https://www.stevensonplumbing.co.uk/immersion-element-mechanical-flange.html


    Z.

  • 0

    perspicacious:

    But hasn't the headroom above a flight of stairs remained the same?


    Regards


    BOD




    Under beams as well?


    Andy B.

  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    But hasn't the headroom above a flight of stairs remained the same?


    Regards


    BOD
  • 0
    Why do you think the minimum ceiling height for habitable rooms was removed from the Building Regulations allowing cellars and lofts with low ceilings to be turned into habitable rooms, particularly in student and other HMOs?


    Andy B.
  • 0

    One of the risks is an appliance without a “flame failure device” fitted on either a burner or a pilot light, and the liability involved with unintentionally filling a property with unburnt gas





    It is interesting to think that at the time that much of the gas pipes were going in, in the era of far the more explosive and poisonous coal gas, many houses had coin slot meters, and flame detection was not yet invented.  Presumably, when the meter ran out and  the flame went out , if you then put the money in without first turning off the lights, gas fires, cooker if you had one etc , it would cheerfully fill the room with gas. I know it figures in the odd Agatha Christie story, but I presume there were not soo many accidents, as folk were very aware and thus  more careful. Or perhaps homes were more draughty, so it never built up.


    In that way we mix a Victorian infrastructure design with 21st century safety rules, and create a delay. One could imagine an ECV that shuts off if pressure is lost, but it is not what is done.
  • 0
    If it happened here I would currently be changing our hot water cylinder as it does not have an immersion heater boss, never mind an immersion heater and I would not fancy trying to retrofit a boss given the age of the cylinder. Some things are best left well alone!


    The alternative would be to drop an electric boiler in alongside the existing gas boiler, but given the age of our heating system I cannot foresee that ending well either.


    So plan C would be to rip the basket gas fire out and burn something in the old fireplace, though we do live in a smoke control area, not that many of our neighbours respect it.


    Andy B.
  • 0
    Worrying in the context of talk that gas burning appliances in homes may be phased out in the foreseeable future!


    Some home energy efficiency measures could obviously limit demand, as could home electricity and/or heat generation and storage. However the capital costs and payback period would be prohibitive for most householders. Local energy production may also be impractical/uneconomic in many situations.  


    The talk of “phasing out gas boilers” caused me to reflect on my own situation, ie could I replace gas with electric?  I haven’t tried to work this out properly, but I can get adequate central heating and hot water from my compact wall mounted gas boiler (Worcester Greenstar) running for a small fraction of the day.  The same energy could probably be delivered by an electric boiler of more modest rating (say 3 KW) running for longer? But what if everyone in the street/city/country did that?        

  • 0

    Alan Capon:

    Air in the system is only part of it. One of the risks is an appliance without a “flame failure device” fitted on either a burner or a pilot light, and the liability involved with unintentionally filling a property with unburnt gas. Each property has to be visited and the main gas valve secured in the “off” position. Only then can gas be re-introduced into the pipe network. Once the mains have been filled and purged with air, each property needs visiting again, to turn the main valve back on and complete safety checks. 


    Regards,


    Alan. 




    Some years ago a gas main was being replaced in Worcester and a unused supply pipe that had not been capped was reconnected by mistake, there was a huge explosion in the large terraced house.


    These things are easy to do.


    Andy b.

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