Came home from work to the sound of running water!

[DashcamDPR]

I thought my neighbour was jetwashing the path down the side of his house, odd, in this weather

I went inside and could still hear the sound of gushing water!!

Turns out it was a pipe at the side of my house, it had burst at a weak joint, fortunately it was the pipe going to the hosepipe and not a burst "further in"

I don't know what time it happened but I'm glad I finished work 2 hours early!! (and I'm not on a water meter)

Rang two plumbers, told them it just needed recoupling... both said "Yes it's £95 per hour, one hour minimum charge, plus £55 emergency call out"

HA no thanks, I'll bodge it with tape just to give me time to fill some water bottles, then I'll turn the water off and see what youtube can do!

One trip to screwfix, a pipe cutter, and a "coupler" and some PTFE thread seal later and the problems solved, all for £4.43

 

[kamkar]

DIY people for the win

A few weeks ago i had to fix my toilet as it was leaking, found a new rubber gasket put it on and everything was fixed for a few dollars and 5 minutes of work.
But last week the toilet started to leak again, so i took it apart again, removed some more calcium in the reservoir and presto back in operation and no expensive water leaking cuz my toilet are on a meter and water like anything else are expensive here.

Such a good feeling fixing something.

 

[DashcamDPR]

It is, and I'm less than a beginner when it comes to DIY. In general I'd rather pay someone to do it and then have someone to blame if it goes wrong, but when you know something "shouldn't cost much to fix" and get quotes like mine, it's time to change habits!!

 

[Rajagra]

I actually remembered to turn off the water to my hosepipe tap when the freeze set in.
On Thursday morning a water main burst in the street two doors down and there was a small stream running outside my house. I had to go to work dreading to see how it turned out when I got home, luckily the water people got it under control.
Yesterday I noticed the drain pipe from my bathroom had completely iced up and any water from there was just trickling down the outside of the pipes/wall and freezing. Good job I didn't empty any bathwater before sorting it out.
I managed to clear most of it then running hot water finished the job. Then the thaw set in so maybe I should have just waited. Same with the pathway in front of my house, I made the mistake of clearing the snow ... but there was packed ice underneath so I'd made it more dangerous. The powdery snow on top of the ice was the only thing creating grip. I broke two broom handles and a shovel clearing that ice.
Next time I'll just buy some rock salt.

 

[kamkar]

Here a few days ago we had a little town that was without heat for 24 hours due to a burst pipe.
Thats the problem with the Danish system of large decentralized electricity and heat plants, but it is actually very rare this happen, i cant even remember the time before that one.

But its a good system, when making electricity, why send the used steam to cooling towers " send it to peoples homes to be use instead.
We dont have a single cooling tower here, and where i did powder coating ( curing using 130 degrees warm ovens ) the excess heat was also recycled into the local heating grid.

 

[Nigel]

...
But its a good system, when making electricity, why send the used steam to cooling towers " send it to peoples homes to be use instead.
We dont have a single cooling tower here, and where i did powder coating ( curing using 130 degrees warm ovens ) the excess heat was also recycled into the local heating grid.

It's a good question, and I suspect there is a good reason that we don't have such systems here, but I'm not sure why. I suspect that the massive generators are more efficient than the little ones used for local generation and the profit that comes from selling the waste heat doesn't cover the loss of efficiency in generating electricity. Plus there is the cost of installing the pipes to carry the hot water.

We also don't have many cooling towers left in the UK since we have closed most of our coal power stations, and the remaining ones don't often produce clouds since they only get used when there is no wind or on cold winter days. Our gas power stations are more efficient so don't need large cooling towers, and our nuclear power stations are all too far from where the heat is needed to be able to use it, most of them heat the sea and help the fish farmers to grow fish instead of producing clouds.

 

[DashcamDPR]

I actually remembered to turn off the water to my hosepipe tap when the freeze set in

My hose feed is just branched off from my main water inlet and not isolated.... but honestly even if it was I'd have forgot anyway and it'd still have happened