Those in Sheffield without any gas

It is. Mains gas is at 35 millibar or so after the regulator. It's a bit higher in the mains - one site says 70 millibar - but still in the millibar range. Water is at several bar - I think 10 bar is the maximum, and below 1 bar is too low. So water is at between 100 and 1000 times the pressure of gas. In fact, gravity is enough to do the job. 1 bar is about 10 metres height of water. Submerging a broken gas main in a metre of water (100 millibar) is enough pressure to flood the pipes.

There are of course gas distribution pipes that run at much higher pressures. These aren't connected directly to customers, and usually avoid residential areas as much as possible.

Mike

This one has memory loss

"I've never known anything like it, I've lived here for 70 years and I've never had anything like this.

It was a water pipe installed in 1970

that burst

This. My lad's gas CH boiler failed just after one Christmas. It wasn't worth repairing as it was a crap Feroli unit. He had to go for two weeks in January in Scotland till a new boiler could be installed. 2x 2KW convector heaters kept the house perfectly reasonable in that period in a 4 bed 3 floor mid terrace.

Our school underwent a building expansion which included a new gymnasium, changing rooms and showers. The bloody showers still didn't get hot except for first lesson in a morning.

Maybe it was that nasty black alkathene stuff that goes brittle after about 40 years.

There is a 3 inch run of that stuff to the wholesale plant nursery just behind me. Southern water have been out 5 times to fix leaks in that pipe over the 2 to 3 years. The pipe follows the line of a gree lane/bridlepath lines with trees. I suspect in the decades since the pipe was installed the tree roots have reached it and are now causing the movement which breaks it.

Still doesn't explain how water got inside a major gas main, unless the water leak created a sinkhole and the gas pipe sagged and broke.

Severe memory loss because she should also remember 1947 as well as 1962/3

I recall a story recounted from an experience in 1962, where the lavatory pan froze.

I suppose if they ran the local pipes at higher pressures the gas would leak out anyway!..

Well more renewable energy would be nice!, as its only 2 GW of bloody wind this evening!..

I do! I do!

In the 1947 winter my dad worked in a factory that was breaking up rifles that were WWII surplus. The workers persuaded management to either give away or sell the wooden parts as firewood. I distinctly recall seeing rifle butts burning in the grate. Being oiled they burned well.

In the 63 winter the only way to get to the coffee bar was either to walk or go by motorcycle. Consequently the bikers had the pick of the girls that walked up from the adjacent mid-30s housing estate <vbg>

Those houses now sell for seven figures. The coffee bar is a Chinese restaurant. My motorcycle is still on the vehicle register.

They do run higher pressures, but then reduce it for the supplies at street level.

The factory and offices that I worked at in the '90s, had a 6 barg, 4" supply (IIRC) - causing major disruption when they had to dig up the dual-carriageway to install it.

Prior to that, testing gas-turbine driven generator sets could only be done on gas from our LNG storage tanks, to about 6MW and from our

Posted: Dec 08, 2022

It depends on what we run out of first.

Paul

The boarding 'school' that Phil the Greek favoured only had cold showers.

Council.

No, the point is they didn't predict the demise of those, not base an entire world hemisphere's energy policy on pretending it would be as problem.