Jan 30th, 2018

Author: donich_admin

Bloody Calor

In common with many people in rural Scotland we have no piped gas supply and are reliant on LPG for our central heating, water heater and gas fire. Aside from this, our only heating in the house is a propane heater I have in my office and an electric heater in R’s. So obviously it is a bit disastrous for us if we run out of LPG in the middle of a raw, cold winter month.

So last year we had to chase Calor about 15 times and virtually ran out of gas before they eventually came to refill the tank. They then assured us that this would never happen again as they would monitor our supply and come to refill the tank if we got low.

Guess what – R went to check this yesterday and the gauge was touching zero. He rang Calor and they said they would investigate. 24 hours pass and nothing happens. We have had to turn all the heating off as R is worried about what will happen if the tank runs entirely dry and starts sending air through the pipes instead of LPG. Also we can’t have a decent shower as although we have an electric immersion heater it does not do a good job on heating the water (at least in my estimation as I like it toasty). Today R has chased them twice and apparently they are coming today.

I looked up some reviews of the Calor service and there were some real horror stories. To give one example, a family with three young children who with the exception of lighting were entirely reliant on LPG (for both heating and cooking) and were left with no supply for over two weeks over the Christmas period.

To be honest, this is not really on. There is no way for example, that Scottish Power would be allowed to leave people with no electricity for weeks, or even to put them in fear that their supply would be terminated to the the extent that they would be turning out the lights and huddling in the dark. The supply of LPG should be guaranteed and enforced by law in the same way. I’m sure that I don’t need to mention that for anyone who was elderly or otherwise vulnerable that being left with no heating or cooking facilities could be life threatening. It seems that if you live in the Highlands you are a third class citizen that doesn’t need decent public facilities of any type.