Gas fire and power failures

[Brian S Gray]

I suspect this is a question for our Corgi qualified expertrs and hope it counts as DIY research since the manufacturers and installers of the gas fire (see below) are not being helpful. My aging sister in Yorkshire bought a Baxi Wentworth PCF deluxe. G.C.No 32 075 16A gas fire to enable her to keep warm when electricuty cuts in her area turn off the gas central heating. Only after it was installed did she discover that she had been sold a 'de-luxe' model which would not work during a power cut. Her enquiries of Baxi and the installer have produced no suggestions other than to buy a back-up generator. Can anybody suggest a better solution which is legal - other than disposing of the present fire and getting a cheaper model without the 'safety device' (apparently designed to chill pensioners faster during power failures) involved?

[Andy Hall]

Brian, this seems to be more of a product suitability issue than a technical one.

Did she specifically say to the installer that it was for use during a power cut? If so, then he should really get it swapped for something suitable.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Ed Sirett]

Having looked the model up on the web, it does seem to be an ordinary inset display fire.

It appears to be conventionally flued. It might be that the only reason that the model need electricty is for the electronic ignition, the device is still almost certain to have a oxypilot or some sort.

It might be possible to light the pilot manually? The manual may say. There is something to be said for low tech fires when the electric supply is dodgy.

BTW we have just had a 24 hour water cut, where upon you are really introduced to the benefits of water conventional tanks.

[Rob]

The Sale of Goods Act requires that the device must do what it was bought to do, and if it does not then the supplier must fix it, replace it or refund. Get your sister to quote the relevant act to the suppliers if they are dragging their feet. See

and

[Dave Plowman]

If it requires 12 volts from a wall wart, it would be easier to provide a

12 volt supply direct to it from a battery, rather than use an invertor and go back up to 230.

However, if you *were* going down the invertor route, a decent sized car battery would run the main central heating for several hours.

[Brian S Gray]

Thank you. - that is a thought.