Gas mains work broke my boiler

axsanexvoice

My central heating has been on non stop since last year, turned down in the milder months and up during the cold snaps we keep having.

National Grid are replacing the pipes in area with plastic pipes and also re-locating meters outside the property.

I live in a cul-de-sac off the main street - they started digging holes on the street this week. On Tuesday I return home from work and house is freezing, boiler is still running but no flame.

Looks like gas was turned off during the day so flame went out. I checked with others on street and two other properties lost gas during the day too.

Now, trying to re-light the boiler the pilot light won't stay on. I blame NG - the lack of gas and my boiler running this way to have caused the problem.

National Grid, after much faffing came to take a look this eve (Wednesday) - so been without hot water and heating for 24 hour by now.

The guy blamed to boiler for being old and by just looking at the boiler determined that the thermocouple had gone, though he claimed not to be a boiler repair person and could not fix it.

Also, he denied that NG would turn the gas off and on without notifying anyone and that normal process would be for someone from NG to check the appliance when gas is restored.

It seems to me that NG are :

a) Not prepared to admit they made a health and safety foobar by turning gas off/on without notifying people and not going through correct process

b) Not accepting any responsibility for my boiler not working any more.

btw, another resident on my street is having exact same problem with his boiler since supply was turned off/on on Tuesday.

Any advice on correct way to complain about this? The health & safety element seems to me to be a serious issue.

Also, I now have British Gas coming tomorrow to look at my boiler (signed up for the year cover with them today) - hopefully they can establish what the problem and cause is but I want to claim the costs back from NG. How to do this with success?

Thanks for any advice & thoughts.

Clod & unwashed in Cambridge.

edit: NG want my car off the drive in front of house on Friday so they can dig a hole and also access my property to move the boiler - not likely in my current mood.

macman

How could your boiler be 'running' without a flame?
BG will not cover a pre-existing fault, so that's not the way forward.
'Someone' from NG would not be qualified to repair your boiler, only an RGI can do that.

ollski

Not a chance I'm afraid, they are lending you their supply and upgrading it is a condition of being attatched to it. Your boiler is designed to be easily relit if there should be a failure in the gas supply, if it doesn't their is a fault with the boiler. It's not caused by the temp. disruption that has just shown you the fault is there.

POPPYOSCAR

Why do they want to move your boiler?

ollski

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Why do they want to move your boiler?

suspect 'boiler' is in fact meter.

chanz4

say goodbye to gas then "edit: NG want my car off the drive in front of house on Friday so they can dig a hole and also access my property to move the boiler - not likely in my current mood."

If you dont, they will jsut not connect you to the grid again and once gone YOU will have to pay for it.

macman

I suspect we're not getting the whole story here...

gas4you

Thermocouples can fail at any time. This just sounds like an unlucky coincidence.

How big is the pilot light when it is on?

daveyjp

If the boiler won't light its faulty and needs fixing.

kaya

lol, its not there fault you have a dodgy thermocouple ! they didn't break your boiler it was already broken but the fault only became apparent when the gas supply was cut off for essential maintenance/upgrades , you don't have a case to argue here im afraid so get the thermocouple replaced and get on with your life

lemontart

National Grid will NOT move your boiler, If you believe the problems with your boiler to directly connected to the works they have carried out you will need a written report from a registered gas installer to start with. Pass this report to National Grid and take it from there,

But from what has been said it does sound like a normal boiler fault.