Matthew's Journal

Those of you who have visited our house will know that it can get a little cold downstairs, due to a lack of radiators in the back of the house. We have gas central heating, but often need to light one or two of the gas fires to heat e.g. the sitting room.

Recently, we've been noticing that the gas fire in the sitting room has been going out (the one in the back room does too, but that's a more enclosed fire which vents to the outside directly). What seems to happen is that the pilot flame is too small, so doesn't heat the thermostat sufficiently, so the gas supply gets cut off. Turning the boiler on and off noticably affects the size of the pilot flame. I've yet to note the fire going out when the boiler wasn't running.

This morning, I could run the boiler and the fire OK, but it doesn't seem to work so well in the evening. Is this likely to be because there's a faulty gas supply to the house (that can't supply enough pressure to the various appliances), that the fires which go out are maladjusted, that the boiler is maladjusted, that it's just one of those things we'll have to put up with, or that it's something we should reasonably expect to be fixable?

FWIW, we have 3 gas fires (one of which I think has no thermal cut-out), a gas cooker, and a gas combi-boiler.

ETA: in response to a couple of comments, we had a gas safety certificate done when we moved in (March time), and we do have a CO alarm, which isn't complaining. When the fire is on it seems to be burning fine, and it doesn't leak gas when the pilot's gone out.