Phil’s Diary - [Blog @ http://www.philsdiary.net/]
So, today while Abi worked at home two things happened. First our new sofabed/futon got delivered, and assembled for us, so now we’ve got somewhere to accomodate people should they visit (“if you build it, they will come”). The second was a plumber who came to fit our gas cooker for us. This didn’t go so well.
Firstly, this house was built about 35years ago, and originally had blown air heating. I’m not sure how the heating unit was powered, but there was a gas supply, which fed through to just behind the cooker spot, and is currently capped.
Anyway the gas bloke un-capped the terminal, turned the gas on, and observed no gas coming out. This is bad, especially when you’ve just bought a new gas cooker.
He had a poke around and found an old pipe going back to the gas supply, that may have been the supply for that cooker point, and possibly the blown air unit. The problem he had was that he didn’t know where else the pipe went.
His prognosis was that he’d need to rip up the bathroom floor, put a splitter in the supply to the new central heating, and then plumb that down to supply the cooker. At a cost of around 300quid, plus a recked bathroom floor. Not good at all.
Anyway, my first thought was pressure testing the old pipe, may confirm that all exists are capped, in which case he could use the old pipe. No more floor ripping up needed.
Despite that I went for a dig around the house to see if I could find the terminal for the old heater. Upstairs is a sizeable cavity behind one of the dividing walls. So with a digital camera, I managed to get a good look around it (there was no way I’d have got my head in there). Digital cameras are rather handy. Anyway, here’s the cavity, looking up and looking down (click for 1600x1200 images).
I was intrigued by that copper pipe at the bottom. It was fitted in the same way as the other central heating pipes, so I suspected it was put in at the same time. The problem was I didn’t know why it was there. There aren’t any radiators around, so it seemed odd.
Anyway, I traced it down through into the kitchen, down the back of a shelving unit and then under a cupboard until it ended up right by the cooker spot looking like this:
Which it seems is a bayonet socket, designed for attaching gas hoses from gas cookers. I tested it and it even has a gas supply.
So it seems I misled the fitter by pointing him at the wrong socket, and he was a tad too short sighted to see the other point, just by it.
But either way, I’ve learned a little bit more about my house, we’ve saved a shed load of money, because now we just need a hose connecting, no floor boards need to be removed etc. etc.
And like I said, I’m indebted to my small Canon Ixus no end, for fitting into the corners that my head wouldn’t go, and for looking round corners that I couldn’t.
Posted by Phil on November 09, 2004 09:50 PM | Categories: Thoughts
MOVED IN NEW HOUSE, THE GAS BOARD VISITE THE HOUSE AND EVERYTHING WAS FINE, BOUGHT A GAS COOKER, THE INSTALLER CAME AND TOLD THAT THERE IS NO GAS POINT TO CONNECT MY COOKER,TO WHOM SHOULD I TALK TO NOW?
Posted by: TSHAL at November 17, 2004 4:24 PM
Yeah - digicams are nice for that. Even better may be the WiFi-enabled webcams - let you get continuous footage of the passage as you poke it around. Dunno's I'd get one just for that, but . . .
Come to think of it, Canon's software includes Remote Capture if you have a long-enough USB cable to connect to a laptop. Even better than a flip-out LCD ala A80/A95 and G series.
Posted by: Jon at November 10, 2004 1:45 PM
I would be scared having gaspipes in the house without knowing whether they were connected. If I were you I would do the preasure testing anyway.
Fireworks are fine but not indoors.
Posted by: sjon at November 10, 2004 7:40 AM