Under floor heating in house built late 60's

[chameleon]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/date ... 77.stmThis, which I remember quite well, is what brought about the removal of gas from the standard pre-fabricated high-rise blocks.It is the method of construction employed which was to lead to the event being so catastrophic. As I recall this left each sucessive storey sitting on the one below, their own weight in effect keeping the whole intact. The explosion blew-out the small locking key of the wall slabs, leaving without support and the inevitable collapse with the increasing weight dislodging the ones below.After this I recall the basic design of the juncture between floor and wall slabs was significantly changed to provide greater stability.Even today in the older blocks from that era, gas supplies are restricted to the lower levels (if present at all) and now generally run up the exterior faces of the building to each flat. You really don't want gas, piped or bottled, in these.    

[jonleeds]

Hi BlakeyI am aware of the gas explosion that occured in a London tower block killing 4 people and injuring more and I agree with the reasons for the council withdrawing the supply of gas to multi-storey buildings, what I was drawing attention to was the council have only in the last 5 years stopped the supply of gas to the flats where I live. Although they have done this for obvious safety reasons they have done nothing to improve the heating systems which residents must now rely on, i.e, electric powered storage heaters. Its unlikely they will do so either, from what I can gather from what people have said in this thread it appears that these obsolete storage heaters still appear to be the mainstay heat source for many council properties regardless of whether they are high-rise flats or houses. Still this is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the shortfalls in social housing standards. The government is advocating saving energy and spending millions on tv advertisments yet they would be better off spending the same money installing efficent / modern heating systems for people in council housing. I live in a block of flats which has seen minimum standards of improvement since the blocks were built in the early 1960's. Infact I have witnessed the council spend money modernising other blocks to a higher standard and then tear these very same blocks down a few years later. It makes me laugh to see the forest of new 'private' residential housing blocks that have appeared around the city centre. Des res'es they might seem now but in 30 years time when the once trendy architectural flourishes have lost their appeal they are sure to be tomorrows embarassment / slums. Anyway I am starting to ramble about the subject which I could do at length!! 'Nuff said

[BLAKEY]

jonleeds wrote: Hi BlakeyI am aware of the gas explosion that occured in a London tower block killing 4 people and injuring more and I agree with the reasons for the council withdrawing the supply of gas to multi-storey buildings, what I was drawing attention to was the council have only in the last 5 years stopped the supply of gas to the flats where I live. Although they have done this for obvious safety reasons they have done nothing to improve the heating systems which residents must now rely on, i.e, electric powered storage heaters. Its unlikely they will do so either, from what I can gather from what people have said in this thread it appears that these obsolete storage heaters still appear to be the mainstay heat source for many council properties regardless of whether they are high-rise flats or houses. Still this is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the shortfalls in social housing standards. The government is advocating saving energy and spending millions on tv advertisments yet they would be better off spending the same money installing efficent / modern heating systems for people in council housing. I live in a block of flats which has seen minimum standards of improvement since the blocks were built in the early 1960's. Infact I have witnessed the council spend money modernising other blocks to a higher standard and then tear these very same blocks down a few years later. It makes me laugh to see the forest of new 'private' residential housing blocks that have appeared around the city centre. Des res'es they might seem now but in 30 years time when the once trendy architectural flourishes have lost their appeal they are sure to be tomorrows embarassment / slums. Anyway I am starting to ramble about the subject which I could do at length!! 'Nuff said Nay Jon, you're not rambling at all and I agree with every word you've said. This particular block has been improved in bits and pieces but, compared with many others where I'm cross to say that many tenants have no appreciation whatsoever, it is becoming almost an embarrassment to invite anyone. The front and rear door assemblies have been totally ruined many years ago by etching, kicking and burning by several gangs of evil young thugs who used to give us Hell years ago, and the kitchens and bathrooms (44 years old) are abominable.To return though to heating, there is little hope of storage heaters on Economy 7 ever being any use - we have recently had the latest models fitted, but they still only heat up during the middle of the night, at enormous expense even on the "economy" rate, and by afternoon and evening they are practically cold again. I can't think of any solution to this - although the new halogen heaters (at around £10 -12 each to buy and cheap to run) are for me a wonderful alternative.    

[jonleeds]

It seems we must grin and bear it for the forseeable future Blakey, i have flirted with the idea of getting a wood burning stove of some kind as I am fortunate to live inbetween West Park and Horsforth where there is a profusion of woodland and therefore a virtually unlimited supply of 'carbon-neutral' fuel. The problem with this however would be the smoke produced which could on a windy day be blown right into the surrounding flats windows. I would surely be reprimanded by the ALMO if I caused this to happen. I have noticed in Bradford the council have installed some tower blocks with solar panels and wind turbines which supplement the electricity used by lifts / communal lighting etc but its not a solution for the power hungry storage heaters. Personally I tend to wrap up warm and have hot drinks to stave off the freezing cold, occasionally I will turn on my halogen heater but the cost of energy these days is prohibitive. I feel sorry for the elderly who have to choose between eating and heating in the winter. Apparently this winter is predicted to be one of the coldest we have had for years and the current weather we are having is an ominous precursor. God help them...

[raveydavey]

It's been a while, but storage heaters? Hmmm....the council have a bloody cheek installing these as "central heating" to meet government standards.As has been said, they charge up overnight then release heat during the day - now if that sounds advanced, it isn't as you're just heating up bricks that are ensconsed in the heater, so (as has been said) by tea time they're all but spent. If you're out all day then you're just paying to be warm when you get up and then heating the house while it's empty....The ones we've had fitted combat this shortcoming by having a small fan heater built into the base of each unit. We all know how economical fan heaters are, don't we...In addition to this, a fan heater has been mounted on the wall in the bathroom (rather than the panel radiator they told us would be fitted) meaning that bathroom is always cold unless the heater is on, which is largely due to the extractor fan vent letting in cold air from outside. The've also fitted a moden "fire" in the living room which is again no more than a glorified fan heater and a wall mounted convector heater in the kitchen. We were given NO choice at all in the matter - we were told what would be fitted and that was it.The problem is that where we live it's all electric (despite being a house) as it was built in the 60's and electricity was the cheap fule of the future...As for the council not moving people into homes that need work? Hah! We moved into our current home and within weeks noted that the main bedroom floor was sagging in the middle. After 3 months of inspections and reports, the council finally admitted that they knew there was a problem but didn't think anyone (ie, us) would notice. The result was that we then had to move out for a month while they ripped the upstairs floor out and replaced it, joists and all...