I joined a crew for sailboat races recently. One of the crew was a young German just returned to the USA after his wedding in Germany. I asked him what the mood was in Germany and what people are saying about the natural gas situation. He said the government officials (through the media) implored citizens to conserve electricity and natural gas. That all went away when they announced that natural gas storage level was at 75%. What people do not understand is TOTAL storage in Germany is only 1/5 of what they use in a winter. It is a buffer. If natural gas delivery from Russia is already being restricted, at any moment Russia could completely shut off all of Europe and send it's citizens into deep freeze this winter. Germany would burn through that 1/5 storage in a week. There simply is not enough delivery capacity for liquified natural gas and there isn't enough natural gas from the USA to make up the loss from Russia even if delivery capacity existed. There have been recent winters in the USA that the country came within DAYS of running out of natural gas. Pray for a mild winter across the northern hemisphere...this could get ugly.

The thing is, unless you cancel your direct debit, turning off the gas meter does not save you any money, you still have to pay the unit charge/rate you have been given!!!! Only applying to electric heating and hot water which is another story….

My heating broke last January, the hot water still worked but not the radiators, I still need to get it fixed but managed to go from January to Spring without heating so it can be done. Just had a little oil filled radiator for when I needed it.

It's going to be a scrooge Xmas Ebenezer Al 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I wouldn’t encourage regular movement of the lever valve (ECV) it’s a moving mechanical part & overtime & usage it can begin to leak!…as a gas engineer myself we are taught to always spray test this valve after being used as it can (albeit rarely) fail. Be careful how you use it & be careful with the advice you give Al.

My energy firm advised me to turn the Gas off as my Energy app keeps charging me. But their system says im not so go figure. Cheers for educating me on how to do it. Thank you

Thank you .. I wanted to know in the case of an emergency.

Why won't the energy company allow you to cancel your gas account? Surely it could be shut off as you show and then a tamper proof seal applied to the tap, and then the standing charge wouldn't apply. When I have made enquiries concerning this all energy companies talk about is complete removal of the meter, purging the system and capping off the supply, all at cost to the customer. I don't wish to permanently remove the supply, just cease using it for whatever length of time.

Tip: Turn off your air conditioner in the winter, and turn off your heat in the summer so, you've got all the bases covered. 🤪

Buggering about with getting the pilot light off and lit again. How much gas *does* the pilot light use?

The missus always insists on me reading both the gas and electric meters, as the suppliers never send anyone round to read them, even tho they are both located in boxes outside the house. Not good, as meter readers are supposed to legally check earth continuity bonding and presence of emergency lever shut off valves, as well as any evidence of ... (draw your own conclusions Al) No vicious dogs patrolling, just a menopausal, nagging wife and a curmudgeonly man (Dats me!) We wouldn't "spoil" another couple. The suppliers were always overestimating our consumption too. So, she'd ping or call thru the actual readings, insisting on speaking to a real life person. The response from the suppliers was along the lines of... You can pay in advance for the overestimated spring/summer consumption and as such, your 1/4ly payments will even out across the year as you'll use more during autumn and winter. That was 3 or 4 years ago. Recently, I've instructed her to deliberately phone or ping thru extra Kw/hrs or CuMs of gas consumption, as it is all too obvious that the cost would be going up. Pay in advance at a lower unit cost. Naughty, I know. Now, some suppliers are demanding that photographic evidence of meter readings is sent thru to them. Imagine my shock! There's a video of the former US Pres. Orange Man, talking at a convention or gathering where he stated specifically that it was a bad idea for europe to be overly dependent on russian gas imports. The camera panned to the german delegates and they were laughing. God help the germans this coming winter. In fact, God help us all.

Getting the boiler to start with air in the pipe can be a pain as it will not start because of air in the pipe and you have now way to purge it out so you are rather stuck.

just like mine is, no point it being on when the boiler does not work, will be staying that way for a while yet.

show the viewers how to reverse the meter mr D

Unfortunately still get charged every day regardless of use

Can I ask why? Don’t you still have to pay the same amount?

How do you tap the gas