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| The conversion of the
Isle of Man to natural gas |
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| Date:
16/10/02 |
Author:
CORGI |
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One of the biggest conversion programmes to take place since the 1970s, when natural gas was introduced to mainland UK, is currently being undertaken on the Isle of Man. IT is envisaged that natural gas will
eventually be supplied to all mains gas areas on the Isle of Man presently supplied with LPG/air. The first phase will cover the areas in and around Douglas and will encompass around 14,000 consumers, with the rest of the island – around 10,000 consumers – being completed at a later date.
Twenty CORGI registered operatives are
currently undertaking the first stage of the
programme. This entails visiting every
property and carrying out a gas tightness
test of the installation.
Exact details of every appliance connected to the gas supply will be collected. This will enable Manx Gas Ltd to determine whether the appliance can be converted to natural gas. The details of the appliance will also assist in ordering any new parts that might be
required for the conversion.
Manx Gas Ltd will carry out a detailed
safety check of each appliance to determine whether or not the appliance meets the full requirements of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations. Should appliances fail to meet these criteria, the appropriate action will be taken.
Any remedial work must be carried out if
the consumer wishes to continue using gas. This is very important, as any delay at this stage could hold up the conversion
programme. It is envisaged that the survey
will take around 12 weeks.
Once all the remedial work has been
carried out and the conversion kits are
available for installation the conversion
programme can commence.The main areas will be divided into sectors and the LPG/air supply network decommissioned and purged of gas.
Under pressure shut-off devices will be
installed to all the properties and appliances will be converted to natural gas using the new parts that were ordered previously.
The installation will again be safety checked and the natural gas introduced to the system. This process will be repeated until all sectors are complete. The complete conversion process will take approximately six months.
There are around 30,000 appliances in
the Douglas area alone which all need to be converted. Every type of appliance needs to have a correct conversion procedure drawn up before any work is carried out.
Appliance conversion
Every appliance connected to a gas supply using LPG/air will need to be converted to natural gas.
Some appliances may not be suitable for
conversion and will have to be replaced,
others will be costly to convert and a
decision will have to be made whether to
replace the appliance or convert it, but most appliances will be suitable nad conversion kits are already available for them.
Converting an appliance in most cases is
a lot more complicated than you may think. It is not simply a case of fitting new
injectors. A cooker, for instance, would
require a new oven thermostat as the bypass and calibration would have been adjusted to suit the fuel gas being used. At the time, this would have usually involved drilling out the bypass orifice and the low rates. Similarly the flame supervision device (FSD) would have to be replaced, as this would have been irreversibly altered to work on the
previous fuel gas.The hotplate and grill taps, if of a modern type, may only require
adjusting. However, some older types of
appliance may need to have new taps
installed.
New injectors can now be fitted and the
aeration adjusted to provide the correct
flame picture. Hobs however, may just need their injectors changing.
Combination boilers will need a new set
of natural gas injectors and in some cases a new gas-operating valve. Where a gas fire is installed, it is likely that the main operating tap has been altered making it useless for natural gas. This may also apply to the burner, as this could have been altered for use on LPG/air. It may have been necessary to enlarge the burner ports to allow the weaker gas mixture to burn at the correct pressure.
Natural gas The introduction of natural gas to the Isle of Man will bring many benefits. The gas appliance market will open up allowing consumers a wider choice of appliance.
A cleaner and more efficient fuel will
become available to everyone and installers will find that installing and working on natural gas appliances will be a lot easier, with no conversion necessary.
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