Whether to disconnect gas supply following heat pump installation

steveinfinity · 17 July at 8:36AM

We had a Vaillant Arotherm Plus 7kW heat pump fitted by British Gas a couple of weeks ago. They did a brilliant job and we're very happy with things, although we've only used it for hot water so far.

We no longer have any gas appliances and I'm considering disconnecting from the gas supply in order to avoid the standing charge. Has anyone any experience/ advice about this?

I've approached Octopus who sent me a form to fill in. My hesitation comes from a paragraph in the form which states that following the work there is a 12 month period in which I can have the meter reinstated but then..

"If this period expires, the Gas Transporter will contact you directly to facilitate the permanent removal of the pipework and termination of the MPRN".

Obviously, I don't want to have my drive dug up so that the pipework can be removed. Has anyone been through this process? What do they actually do?

QrizB · 17 July at 8:38AM

It's common that, a year after having the meter removed, the gas transporter (often Cadent) will want to remove the pipework.

There will be a certain amount of digging.

MattMattMattUK · 17 July at 8:57AM

steveinfinity said:

We had a Vaillant Arotherm Plus 7kW heat pump fitted by British Gas a couple of weeks ago. They did a brilliant job and we're very happy with things, although we've only used it for hot water so far.

We no longer have any gas appliances and I'm considering disconnecting from the gas supply in order to avoid the standing charge. Has anyone any experience/ advice about this?

I've approached Octopus who sent me a form to fill in. My hesitation comes from a paragraph in the form which states that following the work there is a 12 month period in which I can have the meter reinstated but then..

"If this period expires, the Gas Transporter will contact you directly to facilitate the permanent removal of the pipework and termination of the MPRN".

Obviously, I don't want to have my drive dug up so that the pipework can be removed. Has anyone been through this process? What do they actually do?

It may depend on specifics of installation, but my understanding is that they do not remove all the pipework, just a portion of it so that someone cannot illegally recommission the capped pipe. For friends who have had this done it involved them digging down through the pavement at the boundary and removing a section of pipe there, then spraying some kind of filler into the section if pipe on the customer's property, it may vary by transporter, property and engineer.

steveinfinity · 17 July at 9:04AM

QrizB said:

It's common that, a year after having the meter removed, the gas transporter (often Cadent) will want to remove the pipework.

There will be a certain amount of digging.

Thanks for the reply. This doesn't sound ideal and is what I feared. I was hoping that they might be able to dig up the path outside my property and do the termination work there, rather than dig up my driveway.

29.67p per day (£108/ year) is something I'd rather not pay but might be preferable to a repair bill for the driveway.

I'd be interested to hear of other people's experiences on this.

FreeBear · 17 July at 10:27AM

I've had an old gas pipe decommissioned here. The gas board just dug a hole the other side of the road and disconnected the pipe from the gas main. Removing the feeder pipe to my property would have entailed digging a trench across the road, 20m up the side of my house, and then breaking up a concrete floor inside. Way too much effort, so the pipe was left in place.