Unsecure chicken perches

[Couperman]

I went on line last night to check our energy usage/bill. There is an energy usage tracker on the site which compares current usage with previous years so you can aim to be more efficient and save the planet. Until recently we had been doing really well.....

 

Looked last night and our gas usage had gone up by 85% for Jan/Feb compared with last year

 

This seemed to coincide with having our meter changed last year. At first I thought it was a mistake with the meter switch from imperial to metric but when I thought about it that would have made our usage appear less.

 

On further investigation, after turning off the boiler and isolating the hob, the meter was still turning albeit slowly

 

I have occasionally thought I could smell gas but it is difficult to tell when you live near to a bio-diesel plant that spews out sickly smells all day and night.

 

It's bad enough being hit with super size gas bills, but the thought of gas oozing out under the floor for months while the open fire burns merrily a few feet away is quite worrying.

 

Anyhow, I've isolated it at the meter and called the emergency engineer, who has spookily just turned up as I typed that.

 

Oh well at least we didn't wind up in orbit.

 

Kev.

[The Dogmother]

Noooo! thank goodness that you spotted it, but I bet you'd rather it hadn't happened. I hope that it's an easy one to fix Kev.

 

I had a leak directly form the meter, spotted it late one night... baby asleep upstairs etc, Transco told me to turn it off, not to operate any switches and to take the baby and stand outside (in the freezing cold)

[Couperman]

The Engineer has just left.

 

It was quite a large leak apparently in an old lead supply pipe to a gas fire we no longer have installed.

It got a tick in the IMMEDIATELY DANGEROUS box

 

He's capped the old supply off at the meter so we are all safe again and the gas is back on.

 

I am glad he could quickly sort it out otherwise he would have blanked off the meter to make it safe and I would have had to call out another gas plumber to sort out the leak, probably at great expense. As it is, it cost me nowt other than the massive gas bills that is.

 

So well done Northern Gas Networks, turned up in under an hour, and fixed it in ten minutes

 

Looking at the on-line history thing it would appear that the pipe stared leaking around OCTOBER 2010 So we have been sitting on a time bomb for six months!

 

Thank god for air-bricks, underfloor ventilation and old draughty houses otherwise the area from where I am now typing from could easily be a crater.

 

Kev.

[The Dogmother]

Thank goodness for that Kev!

[Goosey Lucy]

Oh my word!

 

Can you claim back any money for the escaped gas? Unlikely i know but maybe worth a try?

[Chucky Mama]

Thank goodness that you checked.

[Old Speckled Hen]

Blimey, security of gas supplies is one thing I'm sure we all take for granted.

The only gas I have here is bottled for the cooker but those of us with mains/tank gas should maybe turn off our appliances now and again to check..........frightening!!!

[Couperman]

If it wasn't for the on-line energy tracker thing I probably would never have noticed as I pay by direct debit and don't pay as much attention to the bills as I should.

 

Along these lines I have come up with an idea and have emailed E-On to suggest it.

 

"Dear Sirs,

 

I have a suggestion for your excellent on-line energy tracker service.

 

I monitor my energy usage on-line although not as frequently as I should.

 

I checked recently and found that my usage had gone up by 85% compared with the same period last year.

As I knew that I hadn't changed habits and the weather wasn't drastically different from last year, I immediately suspected I had a gas leak.

This proved to be the case. Although I couldn't smell the leak under the floorboards, a significant amount was escaping and it classed as 'Immediately Dangerous' by the Emergency Engineer.

 

If it were not for the energy tracker I may never have known about about the situation under my floor until it was too late. Looking at the tracker it appears I have had a significant gas leak for a number of months and I feel lucky not to have had an explosion, especially as we also have an open fire (you can't get a better source of ignition than that!).

 

Can I suggest that you add a warning system to your energy tracker which generates e-mails to customers in circumstances such as mine when gas usage dramatically increases?

 

This would be an extremely useful tool from a saving energy/money point of view but more importantly I believe it would be an excellent safety measure.

 

I would appreciate any feedback you may have regarding this suggestion.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Kev"

 

Do you think they will go for it?

 

Kev.

[Old Speckled Hen]

Yes, why not.

My oil tank "sender to delta fuels when I need a top-up" has an emergency email warning when there is a sudden reduction in levels......I think it's used mainly to spot if somebody's nicked your oil while you have been away (a not uncommon crime in rural parts).

I'm sure something along those lines could be done?

[The Dogmother]

That sounds like a good idea Kev.

 

I don't know about your supplier, but our meter readers are supposed to gain access to the property at least once a year to 'verify readings and check that the meter is safe', I don't know how wide-reaching their search ought to be as I've never seen one with a gas sniffer meter and the last bloke asked me to check the reading myself (I'd just submitted it online) as he was scared of my dogs - who were shut in the kitchen. I wonder if they are supposed to check any such leaks?

[Old Speckled Hen]

Oh come on, Claret........your dogs are really scarey

You can't blame him!!!!

[The Dogmother]

they do a good display of noise then roll over to show their tums Having said that, Ruby did a good job of protecting me when the bloke jumped me in the park a couple of years back..... Cyrus is more likely to lick you to death

[Couperwife]

the worse part about the gas leak was the fact that we have a gas hob...

 

so yesterdays dinner should have been:

 

steamer - cooked on the hob

gravy - made on the hob

following cup of tea - water boiled on kettle - on the hob...

 

I had to go and buy a kettle and an electric steamer or we would have been eating turkey...just turkey, no gravy, no veg, no nothing hmmmm, nice!!

 

 

cathy

x

[sari]

This is really interesting, as mine had significantly increased too..I did put this down to it being much colder, having swine flu and being home for a lot longer... and a few of the Thermo rad valves not working...I shall look into it,..thanks for the warning..

[sadietoo]

Thanks for the heads up Kev..

and thank goodness you are all safe!

[Aunty e]

Blimey! Our gas usage was so enormous when we moved to this house last year that I got out Transco - came very quickly and we did have a leak, but not a dangerous one and wasn't to blame for our huge gas bills. Thank heavens for the woodburner is all I can say, or we literally couldn't have afforded to keep warm this winter, our gas bills for last winter were around £300 a month. This winter they were about £70 I go online and do meter readings all the time, just to get an adjusted bill and cross off a bit more of the woodburner cost - it's going to have paid for itself within two years.

[Couperman]

Well i got a reply from E-On.

 

I think they might just do it. They are a bit worried about false alarms from incorrect billing, however.

 

 

"Hello and thank you for your email.

 

I'm sorry that you had a gas leak and am glad that the Energy Tracker enabled you to identify it before any damage occurred to you or your property.

 

Your suggestion to add a warning system to the Energy tracker is excellent. However, if an account is billed incorrectly, the Energy Tracker for that account would also be incorrect. Therefore it is possible that a warning email could be sent to a customer in error.

 

We are in the process of improving the Energy Tracker and once we have completed this we can look into the possibility of adding a warning system

 

Thanks again for your feedback and please do not hesitate to contact us on 0845 301 5933 if you have any further queries."

 

 

So we will have to wait and see.

 

Kev.