Families in the Pan area of Newport have been left without heating and hot water following a fault with the biomass system serving their properties.
The outage was first reported last night (Thursday) at around 20:00, with residents being informed via email.
Barratt Homes has described the outage as ‘unforeseen’ Island Echo understands. No estimated time frame as to when a fix is expected, has yet been given.
The whole of the Bluebell Meadows and St George’s Gate estates have a system which burns wood chippings to provide heat and hot water.
It is understood that some vulnerable residents are being given temporary heaters this morning (Friday).
Taking to Facebook last night, the Pan Meadows Residents Association has said:
“PMRAC are aware that the biomass system is currently out of action again. Please be assured that we are keeping a running log and will be looking into the ongoing viability of the biomass system now that the estate is fully built.”
UPDATE @ 12:45 – In a message to homeowners in the area, Barratt Homes has said:
“The outage communicated by Pan Management Company CIC last night was due to an unexpected and unforeseen failure within the plant room, potentially due to the extra demand imposed by the recent cold weather and last nights storm event. Specifically, one of the plate heat exchange units failed within the plant room, which prevented the water within the network from being heated.
“Our team worked to restore service yesterday by operating through a single heat exchanger. While this has allowed the network to function, it is currently running at reduced temperature and pressure until we can resolve the failure of the other unit.
“Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience this has caused. We want to reassure you that BDW Southampton is applying all efforts and resources to resolve this matter as quickly as possible.
“We appreciate that this issue comes at a time of challenging weather conditions, and we are working
diligently to minimise the impact on residents.“Given the current cold temperatures, and in line with our approach during the previous outage, BDW Southampton will reimburse residents who wish to acquire temporary heaters during this period. Note the maximum value of each individual heating unit is limited to £100 and for those households with families we will re-imburse the costs for up to 3no. units. In addition BDW Southampton hold stock of a number of heaters, should residents not be able to source their own. All correspondence on both the supply of heaters and re-imbursement should be directed to [email protected].
“Thank you for your patience and understanding while we work to restore full service. Further updates will be provided as soon as possible.”
UPDATE @ 16:15 – In an official statement, Barratt David Wilson Homes Southampton Division has said:
“We are very sorry for the recent outage to the biomass heat network, likely caused by increased demand due to the cold weather.
“The network is now working giving residents hot water and heating, although it is running at a reduced level. We are working hard to get it back to full performance and are providing heaters or re-imbursement costs for temporary heating to anyone that needs it.”
All those people relying on one heating system, to me sounds mad, as we can now see it can’t keep up with demand.
That’s the climate con for us, can’t beat
a good roaring open fire.
EVERY network should have capacity for increased demand….that’s no excuse. Not to mention the disgusting practice of putting a limit on reimbursed costs of emergency heating.
And then being told they cant reimburse and to take back to the shop, lovely email this morning
And then when you go to ask for reimbursement of heaters you get told they cant reimburse and take them back to the shop!!