LPG Gas Engineer

How do you find an LPG gas engineer to work on your boiler?

Knowing where to start when you need a new LPG appliance installed or serviced can be a little daunting.

The first place to look is the gas safe register, here you will find every registered gas engineer in the country.

Someone who is gas safe registered is not necessarily registered to work on LPG appliances.

The register has a freephone number 0800 408 5500 that you can use.

Once you get through, tell them you want someone who can work on your LPG appliance in your area.

You should get details of 3 local registered companies who will be able to work on your appliances.

Now you have the details of the local companies, invite them to come and quote for your work.

When the LPG gas engineer arrives, ask to see their gas safe card, while at the same time ask if they will be doing the work or someone else.

If someone else you will need to see their card before they start.

The gas safe card will have details of the person in question, you should see a picture of them on the front, the gas safe number and expiry date, which is always the end of March.

Turn the card over and you will be able to see what appliances they can work on for both LPG and natural gas.

Everybody who works on gas must carry their card with them if no card you should ask them to leave till they can produce it.

Before you engage someone to take on your required work, do a little research first.

Go to Google or Bing and enter their details, most tradespeople now days tend to belong to some sort of online directory, where their customers can leave a review of their work.

This should give you some idea of what type of service they offer.

Next, you should ask for proof of public liability insurance, just because they gas safe registered it does not mean they are fully insured, they should be, you never know, so ensure you check.

Ask as many questions as you can about the work you want to be carried out.

After any new gas appliance (excluding flueless cookers) has been fitted, the Building Regulations in England and Wales require that the installation must be notified to your Local Authority. 

Your engineer needs to do this, normally through gas safe. 

Similar requirements exist in Isle of Man and Guernsey.

You will receive a certificate confirming registration. 

Make sure you keep it safe as if you decide to sell your property the certificate will be required to complete the sale.

Now you have chosen your LPG Gas engineer, agree on the cost, a time and date for the work to commence.

Ask how long the work will take and what type of payment they except.

Once all the work is completed you should receive a commissioning certificate, for boilers you will also receive a benchmark book with details of how the boiler has been set up.

This book is a legal document and must be filled in, signed and dated by the engineer.

If not completed your boiler will not have any warranty, so make sure this is done.

When the work is completed you can leave an honest review of the LPG engineer on one of the trade directories for other potential customers.

LPG Gas engineers are not as common as natural gas engineers because it involves taking a lot more exams and cost.

New Boiler Regulations

Update To Boiler Building Regulations

 

If you are in the market for a new boiler there is a new regulation that everyone has to comply with be it a homeowner or installer.

It’s called boiler plus

 

From the 6 April, any new boiler installed will now need to have a time clock and room thermostat fitted as standard.
All new combination boilers will also need the above fitted as well,

Either, a flue gas heat recovery, weather compensation,

 

load compensation or some form of smart control.

 

Every new boiler will need to meet the new ERP efficiency rating of 92 percent.

This new legislation is part of the building regulations part L and must be followed by law.

 

Failure to comply with this new building regulation could lead to prosecution,
not just for the installer, but the homeowner as well.

The homeowner may only want a new boiler installed and no controls fitted, but under the new regulation,

the boiler installation must comply with law.

This regulation comes originally comes from the EU and applies to England.

 

So what does this mean for the Gas Safe Installers?

 

First, it will mean the Gas Safe installer explaining to their customers that extra controls are now needed

For the boiler to comply with building regulations and as such the price will rise.

The best and probably cheapest way to comply with this new regulation is to install a smart thermostat.

 

First it’s a room thermostat, second, it’s a time control as well as a weather compensate.
These smart controls need to connect to your home broadband, so they can check the local weather and adjust the boiler accordingly.

They also work via an app that you download on to your smartphone.

 

Most of the boiler manufacturers are now producing their own controls which can be fitted on to the new boiler internally or externally.

These controls tend to be on the expensive side though but comply with the new regulation.

 

As an installer myself I think this new regulation may cause a problem,

I come across many people who find it difficult just to raise the funds to have a new boiler installed,

now with the extra costs involved in upgrading the controls, it could become a problem.

It’s bad enough now when you tell the customer the cost of a new boiler, some think you are having then over,

So now you have to explain that it’s not just a new boiler installation but also a control upgrade as well.

LPG Gas Safety Checks Suffolk

LPG Gas Safety Rules

Living in a rural area has its advantages, like the freedom of countryside and the wild animals roaming around, the disadvantages though is normally, no natural gas supply to your home.

Roughly around 80% of homes in England are connected to the mains natural gas grid, the other 20% use either oil or LPG to cook and heat their homes.

If you are one of the lucky people who live in the countryside, then you will know if you want to cook on gas, the only way would be to have LPG installed.

This would normally consist of 2 LPG gas bottles, a change over valve that the bottles connect to, and a cooking appliance that has been converted to work on LPG.

You could even run your central heating system on LPG, the set up would be a little different, but basically the same.

Having LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) is just like natural gas, the only difference is you store the gas in the garden in bottles or a storage tank.

LPG gas safety is just as important as natural gas.

Always have all your gas appliances checked over and serviced at least once a year, by a registered gas safe engineer.

All gas safe engineers carry a gas safe card with details of what gas and appliances they can work on.

Ask your engineer for his gas safe card and check all the details.

On the front of the card will be a picture of the person in question, an expiry date, which is normally the end of March every year, you should also see a licence number which is raised off the card, this is for people with impaired sight.

Now you have checked the front of the card, turn it over, you will see 2 columns, one for natural gas, and another for LPG, this is the one we are interested in.

Let's say you want your new cooker installed, look on the card for cookers in the LPG section, if you cannot see cookers then the engineer is not registered and cannot work on your cooker.

If any of the details on the card are not correct, you need to ask the engineer to leave your property.

One last check you could do is visit the gas safe register online, and check the engineer's details, this will verify if your engineer is fully registered or not. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

Should you let the engineer carry out the work required, you will leave yourself open for prosecution, punishable with big penalties. The engineer could also be prosecuted and removed from the gas safe register.

Gas Bottles

Most gas suppliers when they deliver your gas will normally change your empty bottles for you, but should you need to change a bottle over yourself it's a simple process.

This is where LPG gas safety comes in.

First, you need to have the correct size spanner to undo the hosepipe connected to the gas bottle.

Depending on what setup you have I would advise switching everything off before attempting to change the bottle, once off, isolate the bottle itself by closing the valve.

Now once everything is switched off you can start to undo the hose connection from the bottle.

Swap your bottle over, tighten the hose and you will be ready to go.

LPG gas safety should always come first, gas in the wrong hands is dangerous.

If you ever have any doubt about one of your gas appliances always isolate it, or switch the gas off completely on the bottles and call in the experts.