Thames Water.

[Tim+]

It?s still very much current practice.

Tim

[Andrew]

I had one until about 2006. Made by electrolux and it had an electric heater, but they also sold kits that allowed it to run on gas or paraffin. Any source of heat really. It was completely silent which was their main selling feature in this country. My house was built in 1976 with a 1/2 inch gas point in the kitchen for just such a fridge but you could also get gas tumble driers in those days too.

We had one in the path labs at Barts in the 70's, but it leaked and filled the whole path block with ammonia. We had to get LFB out to ventilate the building and chuck the offending fridge out.

Still common in Oz I believe for people in the outback. These days I expect solar panels with batteries and an inverter would be more effective.

[Andrew]

I think the problem is frost heave which snaps old-fashioned pipes, of which there are many, many miles.

Add on 44 tonne lorries and 32 million cars.

[Nightjar]

You can use solar panels as the heat source for Electrolux cycle fridges.

[Tim+]

You still can but given that you can buy a heat pump based machine for very similar money with the same low drying costs these days I think their day is past.

Tim

[Tim+]

I find the concept of the soil freezing to sufficient depth to freeze mains implausible or ?frost heave? affecting buried mains. I?m not denying the association between the cold weather and the leaks, just that I think the explanations sound unlikely.

Tim

[Steve Walker]

You can probably ignore the cars. Many, many years ago, a TV programme (it may have been Tomorrow's World) did a story about axle loading and badly loaded trucks. This was back in the days of a 32 ton maximum. They tested and concluded that one badly loaded truck caused as much damage/wear and tear as 125,000 cars!

SteveW

[Vir Campestris]

Road damage is proportional to the 4th power of the weight. This formula is widely used.

Andy