Weather winter 2010/2011

[mark smyth]

+9 here and only small patches of snow remain

[Hoy]

+9 here and only small patches of snow remain

The forecast says milder weather from Thursday here - with rain! I don't want rain now. With the very cold ground and much snow all will turn to ice.

[astragalus]

I learned years ago to plant the driveway beds with plants that were either tough as nails or very easily propagated.  I sometimes think that plowers aim for them but I know that isn't true.  In other years I've put reflective markers and that seemed to get worse results, almost as if the markers gave the plower a target.  Over the years there have been numerous plowers, but all seem to share the same unfortunate characteristics.  It's a very long driveway, impossible to do ourselves.  Also, because of the windy conditions here, it takes a big truck to handle the high drifts which come with anything over seven inches of snow.  This last storm gave us about 20" as near as we can figure.

[ChrisB]

Susan,  We've had exactly the same problem with a boiler only two years old.  We too have a BG service contract and it has been worth every penny we've paid in the past, and living in the sticks means we can't get trades people easily so it has given us peace of mind.  This time though, it took me almost an hour on the phone to them before I got to speak to anyone, and they said I'd have to wait a week for an appointment.  At the time I didn't know what the problem was, only that we had water leaking through one of the ceiling lights in the kitchen, which had come from water dripping from the boiler.  I said some rather choice words and they made the appointment for two days hence which brought us up to Christmas Eve.  When our boiler man came, all he did was saw the outside pipe off and let the water drip down and said they would come back once the weather improved to sort it out.  We are unable to drain it through the house as the boiler is upstairs and not near an outlet, so we are going to get a sensor installed in the new pipe that heats when it senses the temp dropping.  Why they didn't offer this when we got the boiler I'll never know, its this British thing where they deny there is cold weather here I reckon.  But its a happy ending, we had a warm Christmas when I thought we were in for a very cool one.  Whew!

[Tony Willis]

Chris I see they are advertising the sensor and heater on their website. It seems to me it should be part of a standard installation given the marginal extra cost on the whole system.

We managed 9.5c in some of the rooms today as we now have a mini heatwave outside although our daughters bedroom was 6c last night. This is a sure way to get them quickly back of to their own place. No thoughts of coming back to live with mummy and daddy!

Very difficult to get the wine to a reasonable temperature for drinking  this evening.

[ChrisB]

  Yes, Tony, I couldn't agree more.  Given the huge cost of putting in this new boiler, it should have been part and parcel of what we were offered.  Sorry about the cool wine.  Hope you get it all sorted out soon....

[Martin Baxendale]

In my opinion it's quite obviously a design fault and therefore the responsibility of the manufacturers and installers. If a car manufacturer sold cars with exhaust systems that clogged up in freezing weather so their cars wouldn't start, they'd all be recalled and the problem sorted. As you say, the cost of fitting a simple heater element to the condensate pipe with a sensor to turn it on in freezing conditions would be minimal compared to the cost of a boiler. What if someone went away for a few days and left the heating set to come on to keep the pipes in the house from freezing, but the boiler failed because of a frozen condenser pipe, the water pipes froze and burst, then thawed and caused a flood? The industry (manufacturers and installers) just don't seem to see it as their problem.

[Hoy]

At last! Today it seems the thermometer will break the zero point and move into the non-freezing regime!

[Martinr]

And clearly the industry still haven't learned this simple preventative measure should be standard. BG fitted our new boiler a week before Christmas and never even mentioned the possiblility of freezing in the condensate pipe (I knew about it from last Winter's discussion here). Luckily it didn't freeze in the recent cold spell. Our condensate is pumped so will tend to pass through the outside portion of the pipe in job lots instead of being drip fed - this may help. Absolutely agree it should be part of the standard installation.

[mark smyth]

have you seen on the news that 10s of 1000s of homes in N Ireland have no mains water and it could take until next week before underground pipes thaw. There was mention of a reservoir running dry but I missed what they said

+11 here today

[Hoy]

have you seen on the news that 10s of 1000s of homes in N Ireland have no mains water and it could take until next week before underground pipes thaw. There was mention of a reservoir running dry but I missed what they said

+11 here today

Here's the forecast: http://www.yr.no/sted/Storbritannia/Nord-Irland/Antrim/langtidsvarsel.html
Hope the water pipes will thaw! They cant be dug deep down?

[johnw]

[They cant be dug deep down?

Minimum here is 4 feet down for water lines. Owners 6.

johnw

[ashley]

Owners 6.

[Hoy]

[They cant be dug deep down?

Minimum here is 4 feet down for water lines. Owners 6.

johnw

Owners don't freeze but the waterpipes do!

[johnw]

Owners don't freeze but the waterpipes do!

Cremation or formaldehyde?

johnw