I've Got Gas

I always believed I didn't have an option for gas, until my flat was listed as being in an area that was getting a refit, some queries started to happen, and some inspectors came out for a look. It turns out I had gas all along, it just required a supply number and an account set up. It'd been sitting dormant so long that the council didn't know about it. The short story is that since Monday afternoon I've got gas.

When I first got the letter explaining what was happening and that there'd be an open day where we were supposed to choose a fireplace and fill in the forms etc as well as ask any questions we had, I spotted on the form "do you want us to leave a point for a gas cooker" I jumped at that as I grew up with gas central heating, gas cooking etc so when I moved into my all electric flat I had to adapt. Simple things like turning the hob on and having to wait for it to heat up were annoying, or turning the hob off before the cooking is done, knowing that it'll take a while to cool down which can continue to cook the food. I also made a point of mentioning it to the guys just in case it didn't make it to their forms.

Between that form being filled in, and the work being done, my cooker must have gotten wind that it was going to be replaced and decided to throw a hissy fit. A couple of months ago I awoke to find the oven door had exploded and the glass was everywhere. I'd put it down to some flaw in the door that gradually weakened with every heat up and cool down sequence that it eventually shattered. I've been without an oven since that morning. All it's done is force the plans to buy a new cooker higher up the priorities, but as I was going to be getting gas, I wanted to wait until I had a gas point so I could buy a gas cooker. Now I need to start saving.

I've spent the last couple of days getting my old boiler and storage heating radiators ripped out and replaced with a fancy new gas central heating system with boiler and radiators. I also have a new mantelpiece and electric fire which looks great but I doubt I'll be using too much. I'll be great as a top up for unexpectedly cold snaps, although I also have a 1hr boost button on the central heating for the same thing so we'll see as time goes by which one gets used more.

The work was mostly all done on Monday, with a team of around 7 workmen turning my flat upside down between 8am and around 3pm. All of the work was done on Monday, with a couple of unforeseen extras needing another visit. The cupboard my old boiler was in had to be ripped out and a new cupboard built around the new one, this was a full days work by the joiner today. This is all done apart from the need for a new door which had to be ordered and will be a few days yet.

As much as the upheaval has been awkward I have been very impressed with the guys who did the work. They've done everything they can to blitz through the work with as much care as they could, they haven't damaged anything and have been accommodating when I asked them about different stuff as they were working. I guess it helps when you (as the client) are as open to an easy approach than a pedantic one. At one point with the electrician putting in the external (to the cupboard) switch for the boiler it was going to take him a lot of time and effort to sink the switch as the wall wasn't in the best shape, but an external fitting would be quick and easy, which was fine by me.

I did have a couple of cold days which was to be expected considering it's the middle of November in the UK, but the difference is amazing. With my old storage heaters I had to try and predict the weather the following day, as they charge up overnight with the lower rates of electricity, then dissipate during the day. I've lost count of the number of days where I got it wrong and either had to open the doors to help cool the place by wasting the heat, or had to top up the heat with the fire and use additional electricity in peak times. This is in addition to the fact that storage heating is very inefficient in terms of electricity to heat.They had to all be individually controlled too.

These storage heaters were put in I'd guess in the 70's and have been obsolete for a long time, it was only a matter of time before they got upgraded.When people were suddenly allowed to shop around for their choice of electricity and gas supplier I couldn't switch, as the storage heating was a legacy 3 stage meter that only Scottish Power could deal with. My storage heaters were the only thing preventing me from switching, so now they're gone I'll be investigating other suppliers.

The most impressive part is how even the heat is distributed now, instead of being warm mainly around the storage heaters that were switched on, getting gradually cooler the further away you get, with doors etc helping distribute or hold in the heat, I now have one central control point which spreads the heat to every radiator. I will of course have to spend some time going through the manuals for each new appliance to try and get a good balance between warm enough and energy (and money) efficient. For the first time I have a radiator in my bathroom which can only be a good thing.

Spending a large part of Monday with my PC switched off, the carpets up, the phone disconnected as well as furniture piled up so I couldn't even get offline use of my PC was hard. It's amazing how much you rely on something when it's gone. Luckily it was all back up and running by teatime, and today's visit was almost exclusively about work done in the kitchen so I could use my PC all day while it was going on.