First of all, apologies in advance for being vague - I'm posting here having exhausted other options and am well outside my sphere of knowledge. (I've also read the FAQ). I will be as thorough as I can, so please also excuse the length of this post.
My mother, who lives alone, moved into a new house towards the end of last year. When the boiler was heating water she noticed an intermittent unpleasant smell (verified by other people, so she's not imagining it) and began to manifest irritated marks on her face. The smell is not that of gas.
After central heating engineers were unable to diagnose a fault, she had the boiler replaced with a new one. The intermittent fumes and skin irritation have continued.
The National Gas Emergency Service has visited twice. On the second occasion the engineer detected a problem with gas pressure to the house, and replaced the meter. My mother's neighbour also has problems with gas pressure in his house, so I am wondering about the possibility of a problem with the mains supply (i.e. perhaps the problem is confined to my mother's house).
My mother has attempted to get a professional to test the air in the house, in the hope of determining what's causing the smell and skin irritation, but has had no success (she lives in the Peak District so it would be a long way for an expert to travel).
The local council's environmental department have sent someone round to have a look, but he had no equipment to detect fumes and provided no practical assistance.
So with the context out of the way (and thank you for reading this far!) I have a few questions:
1) Can anyone think of a way to get the air tested properly? I had expected the council's environment agency to help with this, but they seem uninterested.
2) Is there anything else we can try to diagnose and resolve the problem? It seems that each agency is only interested in its own sphere of activity, and I think that we need a more holistic approach that looks at the whole scenario instead of isolated components.
3) Is low gas pressure a plausible cause of the problem? It has been tested three times, but only for a few minutes each time, and each occasion was in the afternoon (not peak demand). Is it reasonable to ask to have the pressure monitored for a sustained period, and if so, who do we ask to do this?
4) Are there any other potential causes that we should consider? One early contender was the position and orientation of the flue, but the boiler engineers seem to think that's not a problem.
Any advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. There seems to be no imminent danger but the situation is understandably distressing for my mother and I would really like to help her to get it fixed.
Many thanks in advance!
My mother, who lives alone, moved into a new house towards the end of last year. When the boiler was heating water she noticed an intermittent unpleasant smell (verified by other people, so she's not imagining it) and began to manifest irritated marks on her face. The smell is not that of gas.
After central heating engineers were unable to diagnose a fault, she had the boiler replaced with a new one. The intermittent fumes and skin irritation have continued.
The National Gas Emergency Service has visited twice. On the second occasion the engineer detected a problem with gas pressure to the house, and replaced the meter. My mother's neighbour also has problems with gas pressure in his house, so I am wondering about the possibility of a problem with the mains supply (i.e. perhaps the problem is confined to my mother's house).
My mother has attempted to get a professional to test the air in the house, in the hope of determining what's causing the smell and skin irritation, but has had no success (she lives in the Peak District so it would be a long way for an expert to travel).
The local council's environmental department have sent someone round to have a look, but he had no equipment to detect fumes and provided no practical assistance.
So with the context out of the way (and thank you for reading this far!) I have a few questions:
1) Can anyone think of a way to get the air tested properly? I had expected the council's environment agency to help with this, but they seem uninterested.
2) Is there anything else we can try to diagnose and resolve the problem? It seems that each agency is only interested in its own sphere of activity, and I think that we need a more holistic approach that looks at the whole scenario instead of isolated components.
3) Is low gas pressure a plausible cause of the problem? It has been tested three times, but only for a few minutes each time, and each occasion was in the afternoon (not peak demand). Is it reasonable to ask to have the pressure monitored for a sustained period, and if so, who do we ask to do this?
4) Are there any other potential causes that we should consider? One early contender was the position and orientation of the flue, but the boiler engineers seem to think that's not a problem.
Any advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. There seems to be no imminent danger but the situation is understandably distressing for my mother and I would really like to help her to get it fixed.
Many thanks in advance!
