Water in gas service main

wiseowl123

Hi,
I`m hoping that someone may be able to offer some advice or help with my current situation.
On tuesday 5th Jan woke to find that my gas boiler wasn`t lighting so the house was freezing cold and we had no hot water (combi boiler).I phoned British Gas to arrange for an engineer to visit (Homecare Contract) which they could not provide until the next day.(Wednesday)
When the engineer came he told me that the problem was that the gas pressure was too low for the boiler to light and he telephoned Northern Gas Networks,who maintain the gas infrastructure in the North.
An Northern Gas enginneer arrived about 4 hours later to tell me that the gas main had water in it and would need to be pumped out.
To cut along story short my situation is that the gas supply was pumped, from the connection at the meter ,the following day (Thursday) and about 6 hours later an engineer arrived to reconnect the gas supply to find it was still full of water.The following day (Friday afternoon) it was pumped again.This time from the pipe outside where it enters the house and for a glorious 24 hours I had a gas supply. By Saturday evening the supply had all but vanished again.I waited in all day Sunday but no one came.Then on Monday afternoon the supply was pumped again from by the meter and about 3 hours later the engineer who came to reconnect informed me that the pipe was still full of water.
Another pumping team will arrive tomorrow (tuesday) I`m told.
I am a working man.I have had to stay at home all day for 6 days from the last week to be available for these visits.Not only am I having to stay off work but i cannot even leave the house.We have no heating save a few beg and borrowed electric ones.No cooking facilities bar a microwave and no hot water to bath or shower.
Can anyone other any advice on how long I am expected to live like this.One day of gas in the last week!

lemontart

speak to Northern gas networks tomorrow their customer service line is open between 9 and 5.30am and request appliances they will provide you with fan heaters and a hotplate which should alleiviate some of your issues, unfortunately I doubt they will be able to give you time scale as it will take as long as it takes to get the water out, and with the freezing weather we have been experiencing it is a lot harder as frozen water is no doubt adding the problems as it defrosts not to mention the issues ngn are experiencing with the level of gas emergencies in area been way above average for this time of year.putting added pressure on manpower and delaying your gas getting turned back on whilst the engineers deal with the incoming emergency work.

I am sorry that this does not answer all of your problems but at least you can get heat etc with the applainces

Premier_2

wiseowl123 wrote: »

Hi,
I`m hoping that someone may be able to offer some advice or help with my current situation.
On tuesday 5th Jan woke to find that my gas boiler wasn`t lighting so the house was freezing cold and we had no hot water (combi boiler).I phoned British Gas to arrange for an engineer to visit (Homecare Contract) which they could not provide until the next day.(Wednesday)
When the engineer came he told me that the problem was that the gas pressure was too low for the boiler to light and he telephoned Northern Gas Networks,who maintain the gas infrastructure in the North.
An Northern Gas enginneer arrived about 4 hours later to tell me that the gas main had water in it and would need to be pumped out.
To cut along story short my situation is that the gas supply was pumped, from the connection at the meter ,the following day (Thursday) and about 6 hours later an engineer arrived to reconnect the gas supply to find it was still full of water.The following day (Friday afternoon) it was pumped again.This time from the pipe outside where it enters the house and for a glorious 24 hours I had a gas supply. By Saturday evening the supply had all but vanished again.I waited in all day Sunday but no one came.Then on Monday afternoon the supply was pumped again from by the meter and about 3 hours later the engineer who came to reconnect informed me that the pipe was still full of water.
Another pumping team will arrive tomorrow (tuesday) I`m told.
I am a working man.I have had to stay at home all day for 6 days from the last week to be available for these visits.Not only am I having to stay off work but i cannot even leave the house.We have no heating save a few beg and borrowed electric ones.No cooking facilities bar a microwave and no hot water to bath or shower.
Can anyone other any advice on how long I am expected to live like this.One day of gas in the last week!

A similar situation occurred in North London over Christmas, leaving many households without gas for much of the festive period.

This issue there was that once water enters the gas system, it flows around to various points, usually the lower areas of the local distribution network, and so although the engineers think the water has been pumped out, some other water can remain in another low pocket elsewhere, which can be forced out as attempts to resume the pressurised gas system take place.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8429493.stm

Btw, I heard that although homes were provided with alternative electrically powered heaters & cooking facilities during that time, the extra load on the substations because of all the extra demand meant that they then suffered electricity blackouts too :eek:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8427734.stm

C_Mababejive

This is what happens when you sell off utilities which should be owned and operated for the benefit of the people. Water enters the mains system often via leakages in older pipes such as cast iron mains or corroded metallic mains. Gas networks try to control leakage by keeping pressures as low as possible but lower pressures in mains= more chance of water ingress. Also,large parts of the network have been/are being replaced with plastic. Plastic has far fewer leaks so when the water flows into the plastic network,it can leak out again via the leaks!

As an aside, gas network operators used to be required (until late 2004)to carry out regular hygrometric testing to find out how much H2O was in the gas supply. This was tightly regulated. It could be inferred that if H20 levels were high, then there could be excessive water ingress via leakage in that area. This might mean that leaks would have to be found and pipes replaced. That equals expenditure. So what happened? Well OFGEM, the asset stripping regulator did a deal. They said that gas network operators no longer had to carry out widespread hygrometry and that the savings from such testing would be passed onto customers to reduce their bills.

Sounds familar?

So everyones a winner.

Now no one knows how much H20 is in the water supply as it isnt measured to the same extent.
Becuase we dont know,we dont have the same info on leakage rates/network conditions

Becuase we dont know about that..well hey..we have no driver to spend more on leakage and replacement.
Networks therefore spend less
OFGEM cuts their operating budgets

Loser>customer/consumer.

The supposed saving to customers equated to something like 6p each annually.

Refs
http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Markets/WhlMkts/CompandEff/GasQual/Documents1/9148-22104_scienco.pdf

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Pages/MoreInformation.aspx?file=9141-28904.pdf&refer=Markets/WhlMkts/CompandEff/GasQual

So then,as we stand,you could be being supplied with an excessive amount of water vapour in your gas stream which is being metered and sold to you AND also reducing the energy value you are buying,and no one would know.

If,like the OP,you are unfortunate enough to be being supplied with condensed ,high volume H20 under pressure then its tough. All they will do is pump it out,make you wait, and repeat again and again and again if it recurs.

Oh..as an aside,and a very valid point,perhaps you could contact your gas supplier and ask that they schedule a refund as you have been supplied with wet gas. If they dispute it,point to your various visits and ask that they carry out an analysis of the gas supplied to your home in order to measure the water content. You may well be being sold water vapour through your gas meter. If they blank you,make a formal complaint. Gas in expensive enough without buying contaminants in the form of water vapour/condensate.