I was newly married in the 70's at Upavon when the Gas central heating was fitted. It happened when 46Gp became 38Gp. The new AOC said Gas was the future as it would be cheaper than Coal. Nobody pointed out to him that Upavon was in the Middle of Salisbury Plain with the nearest Gas supply at least 10 miles away, hence the Calor Gas tanks were fitted and the rest as they say was history. Motley is so right the cost was out of this world. As an SAC in Sep 77 when my twins were born Gen Office rang me up and said you now qualify for supplementary benefit. They claimed it for me and it was paid straight into the bank. I had the audacity to get promoted to Cpl in Feb 78 and promptly lost it, so was no better off. The 70's were the days of Wilson's Labour Government Irish pay rises where they gave you 1% and then put up our rent etc by 5%. Its bad now but I fear it's going to get a whole lot worse!