Doh! Run out of gas – LPG content….

So, recently moved into new house. Village doesn’t have mains gas, so our central heating and hot water is run off big LPG bottles.

Having a small baby in the house, we have the heating on for a short time in the morning. Except this morning, no heating and no hot water. Boiler light is flashing.

Looks like the four big gas botles at the side of the house are empty…

Doh..!

Surely cheaper to go with a large gas tank installation from the likes of Calor etc? ( one of those big green things )

I’m not too sure how those four cylinder systems work, but is there a manual change over tap or is it done automatically ?
It’s worth going outside to check that all four really are empty.

Out of nothing but curiosity and not particularly relevant to your problem, how do you know when you are running low on gas? If you have an oil system there are level gauges that show how much fuel there is but they don’t have these on gas cylinders. Pressure won’t work either until the liquid has all evaporated and you only have vapour in the cylinder by which time you are effectively empty anyway. Is there some sort of weighing mechanism or do you just have to guess?

I’m not too sure how those four cylinder systems work, but is there a manual change over tap or is it done automatically ?

We have two big cylinders to supply gas for the hobs on our cooking range. They are set up with an automatic changeover switch that is fixed to the wall. The changeover switch has a sort of guage built in (not very accrate).
Each big cylinder lasts 3 years and we use the hobs a lot. I’d hate to think how much it costs to run the CH off them!! That said, we’re on oil and I’m not sure it’s that much cheaper 🙁

Looks like the four big gas botles at the side of the house are empty…

From experience – if you are using them for heating you can easily use 1 and a bit a week during winter months. I was always forgetting to order them, but handily there was a place in my local town who used to sell refills, but at a price!

If you are planning on stopping, then long term you’ll be way better off if you can get a bulk tank installed. We had a ‘mini’ bulk tank installed at our last place as the regulations as to where they can be sited are less stringent than the big tanks.

Good job your house isn’t wired up like that CDC place in The Walking Dead then 😉

<meaningless unless you watched the last episode>

Nice spoiler allthepies 😐

I can’t see that I’ve given much away 🙂

you saying the cdc explodes? 😥

gonefishin – Member
Out of nothing but curiosity and not particularly relevant to your problem, how do you know when you are running low on gas? If you have an oil system there are level gauges that show how much fuel there is but they don’t have these on gas cylinders. Pressure won’t work either until the liquid has all evaporated and you only have vapour in the cylinder by which time you are effectively empty anyway.

Well our old gas tank had a guage (big tank use to replace 4 large gas bottles), no idea how it worked but it did work…

>you saying the cdc explodes?

Who said that ?

You did, didn’t you?
Nooooooo, will there be a 2nd series?
How can there if thy all die in the cdc explosion????

or was it AL?

If you get a gas tank, be careful who you go with as I believe only the supplier can refill the tank, you can’t shop around.

Oil tanks on the other hand, anyone can fill it. Unfortunately, anyone can empty it as well. Gas tanks are theft proof.

Your cylinders, on the neck of each bottle should be a tare weight…the weight of the empty bottle. Grab your bathroom scales and weigh them, if its considerably heavier, there is still gas in there 🙂

You can also get magnetic strips which detect the level of the gas, downside is they only work when you have been drawing gas for a while as its the liquid gas boiling off into vapour that creates a cooling effect, and allows the gauge to work. Not sure if they are used for domestic situations but its common to use them on gas bottles for campervans/bbq’s. If you are drawing lots of gas you will see the condensation line on the bottle, this is the gas level.

Also, check what the flashing boiler light is for, it could be for various other faults such as low water pressure or a boiler fault.

My god, a busy day and I forgot about this thread…. 😳

Anyway, it seems that (a) they’re supplied by Calor (so that means I need to go with Calor to replace and (b) there’s a changeover switch that flips from one pair to the other pair when the first set are empty.

Now, it could be a boiler fault, but a check of the manual suggests there’s an ignition issue. The fact we’re also not getting hot water suggests there’s no gas….

Oh, and the plan is to have a wood stove installed some time, which at least will give us an alternative heating source.

Cheers all.

they’re supplied by Calor (so that means I need to go with Calor to replace

not strictly I don’t think – calor will want their empty bottles back, but you can get gas from anyone, they’ll want to supply it in their own bottles though. I use BOC for butane and argon in my workshop and pay and annual hire on the bottles, other places you might pay a deposit on the bottle instead of a hire. So I’d expect you might get a bit of cash back from calor if you hand the empties back and shop elsewhere. But elsewhere will want some money from you.

maccruiskeen – cheers. makes sense.

technically the gas bottles are rented [ H & S iirc]and the contents purchased they will want them back but you will never get a deposit back IME.
Other suppliers are almost always cheaper and use their own bottles which may or may not require a deposit.

cheers junkyard.

I think, in this instance, I’ll have to go with Calor (mainly to take the chill out of the baby’s room).

Thankfully it’s warmer that the l;ast time I had a central heating issue – last house I bought, boiler had a terminal failure a month after we purchased. It was November, minus 5 outside and never got above freezing inside. Brrr!

You should consider switching to a heat pump

Thankfully it’s warmer that the l;ast time I had a central heating issue – last house I bought, boiler had a terminal failure a month after we purchased. It was November, minus 5 outside and never got above freezing inside. Brrr!

A place I lived in a few years ago had the newly fitted heating condemned by Corgi and the installer prosecuted. A new contractor had to lift all the floorboards and pull out all his gas pipes and start again.

It was January and the work took 2 weeks – while this was being done there was water main replacement going on in the street outside – so we either had no water or dirty water. Then the waterboard accidentally cut through the mains cable… so we were in black out too. We were half expecting the oxygen to be cut off next 🙂

At the time I was researching an exhibition I was curating about disaster relief. Sitting in the dark, wrapped in blankets with a candle and a crate of bottled water, with all the furniture stacked up, carpets rolled back, and half the floor torn up – the work was proving a bit more ‘method’ than I’d anticipated.