Lots round here have been without water for 3 days now. Thames Water (in part) blaming it on increased demand after the thaw. Interesting theory - do people water their garden just after the snow goes?
Water pressure here has been poor for ever. To keep leaks down from the ancient infrastructure. Perhaps it is time Thames Water was privatized so they can raise money for investment. Or have I got that wrong? ;-)
The UK is very, very spoiled in lots of ways - perhaps to our empathetic disadvantage.
My Dads hometown in Sicily has the water on 06:00-08:00. Most houses have a tank and fill it when the water is on to use throughout the day. Best to keep a good reserve, as sometimes they forget to run the pump.
(First time I visited as a kid, they had to do some roadworks, and the water had to be on all day. My aunt took advantage and filled the 3x1000L tanks in the roof).
My second cousin in Florida wasn't allowed to build his house without a permanent supply of water. I had no idea drilling a 30m borehole could cost that much).
I believe there are similar restrictions (find water before building) in Spain too.
Sicily was the first time I saw a gas powered fridge ...
There are other reasons than watering the garden for using more water. The waste pipe to our bath froze up. (possibly caused by a dripping tap) So no baths for 3 days. Other people wouldn't have had baths because their boilers failed and they ddin't want cold baths.
Yes - the cold was sufficient to freeze some underground mains - which burst - certainly in Sussex and Kent.
You seem to have missed the explanation (that many pipes burst as a result of last week's weather) that I have seen or heard on TV, radio, online and in print. One major problem in your vicinity was due to be fixed this afternoon.
On top of that there is often a surge as people wash the salt/grid off their drives, cars etc.
On 05-Mar-18 4:18 PM, Jethro_uk wrote: ..
They have been with us as a commercial product for the best part of a century, although the technology dates from 1858. Very popular in caravans and boats.
We had one in the 70's, Dad worked for the gas-board and got discount.
Meh, there are people round here still snowed in... 6 days, some without water and/or fuel for space heating and/or food(*). Mostly along or off the back road to Nenthead, The snow blower has had a go at that today.
Hartside is still closed, two snow blowers and ploughs working on that for at least 3 full days now, they might get it open tommorow. I don't think they have done more than look at the B6277 past the Ski Tow.
(*) The less well prepared, but even the well prepared are now starting to phone out and say "Can some one come and dig us out please".
Ground heave due to the freezing that then fractures the mains.
1858? The one I know
is 1926. By a couple of guys called Einstein ans Szilard you may have heard of.
Andy
Given how old most of the pipework is, are you saying this is the hardest winter since it was installed?
You seem to have more information than we have. It did come on at a trickle this afternoon, but is off again this evening.
You must work for their PR department.
No. Nor is it the first winter that has led to burst pipes.
I am sorry if my source of information hasn't reached you yet. It's The Evening Standard.
No its corporate amnesia. In the old days the experienced people in charge, knowing the lack of maintenance over the years would get in extra staff when a big freeze was followed by a big thaw, and there would be people on the ground to fix it asap. However since experience costs money, we are now in the as and when needed type of employment and the knowledgeable people all went some years back. Thus you get a sudden demand due to lots of leaks springing up. If of course the pipes had been regularly checked and made good a lot of this could be avoided.
Brian
You mean dig the road up just to inspect the water pipe?
Yes, but to an 8 year old kid from London ...
I found out why, as there were power cuts every few days ...
As an ice making machine, rather than as a refrigerator:
AB Arctic produced a commercial refrigerator, based on an improvement to the original cycle, in 1923. Electrolux AB bought AB Arctic in 1925 and, as your article mentions, also later bought out the main Einstein patents.
It has been so long since a big thaw that most have moved on. The corporate memory has been lost in early retirement/redundancies.
The old technique was a sort of pole which the old guy who checked such things put his ear to and behaved pretty much like a stethoscope. You can hear leaks and free running water underground with such a device.
These days I expect they do it with headphones and an acoustic sensor if they bother to do it at all. Noisiest spot usually above the leak (and certainly above the place where water is falling the furthest).
Hell of a lot of potholes on the roads too now that the snow has cleared. All the bodge it and scarper "repairs" from last summer have lifted from ice expansion and been pulverised by passing snowploughs.
Recent reports suggest dowsing ....
Ground penetrating radar is the bees knees for finding hidden pipes and disturbed earth trenches. Pretty much the only way for the older yellow plastic gas pipes before they added a metallic strip.
We had a water company employee going around with a stick listening to the stop taps a couple of years ago. It was 3 in the morning.
I wonder if some of the reports of watercos employing dowsing/dowsers came from thick members of the public not understanding what they were seeing ??????
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