Gas, copper and cold

Hello! And happy 2026 :D

Last month I hinted that I'd move down to monthly updates, which I'll do at the end of this month instead. Until then, there's plumbing to do.

I finally got my shit together and ordered copper pipe, as trying to find reliable info on gas systems is a nightmare. The problem was, I have big boi burners — 8kW total, with a 2.2kW oven (the yet-to-buy instant boiler will be around 13kW). I probably won't run them all on maximum at the same time, but I want enough power at the appliances without flickering or yellow flames.

Now all the online tools for this were either too fancy or not applicable, so I made a gas pressure drop calculator with the help of GPT 5.2, and with the oven and hobs at full tilt it gives me an acceptable drop of 0.5mbar with a 12mm pipe (10mm internal diameter, or ID). The previous pipe was 1/2" and about the same ID, and the next size down might've worked but just let me over-engineer. I was tempted to go with 15mm for a minute as there's a dearth of fittings (valves especially) for 12mm pipe compared to 10/15/22, but that'd be harder to bend. I also ordered some conduit for the run through the engine bay.

Anyway that's all for next week, this weekend I joined my dad, brother and his girlfriend for the coldest sailing trip I've ever been on; my face was numb. That said it was delightful, truly type 2 fun, and we sailed to Piel Island for the night. There's a lovely pub which was luckily open, so we inflated the dinghy and zoomed ashore for drinks and, to our delight, some of their leftovers from NYE.

And there were so many seals!

Until next Sunday,

- Nick