The Gas Man Cometh

The gas man arrived this morning to inspect the tank after the pressure release yesterday, and to change the valve. He decided it would be prudent to burn off some of the gas in the tank to reduce the pressure; for the technically minded amongst you the tank has a rating of 15.6 Bar and the valve is designed to release gas at 14.7 Bar so we had clearly reached that. When he checked this morning it was at 10 Bar but he burned off enough to take it down to 6 Bar, and advised me to hose it down once an hour for the rest of the day to keep it cool.

The problem is that a previous owner of the house had painted the tank and the colour and type of paint were not enough to reflect the heat of the sun. It has never (to our knowledge) been a problem before but the heat and sun over the last few weeks have been exceptional.

We were due a tank replacement next week anyway but the engineer has arranged for it to be brought forward to tomorrow morning so that should be tomorrow's Blip sorted too! I have to say I have been seriously impressed by the service from the gas suppliers, Avanti, and all this is covered by our standing charge of £15 a quarter!