That's a good reason not to do it. The gas is going somewhere and if you can't smell it its not escaping. It may be building up somewhere dangerous.
If you know where its going then it may be safe.
Its unlikely to be cheaper unless the standing charge is quite high. You would need a heat pump to get near the cost of gas heating using electricity.
Nah. It was just a joke.
On the general question of competency, though, bear in mind that gas is 'slipperier' than water. So, it leaks more easily, and even if you are used to general water plumbing, you need to be that much more careful with gas.
Also, if you incorrectly size pipework for a water system, the worst that generally happens is your bath fills rather slowly. There's more downside with gas.
If you are going to consider DIY-ing it, you need a manometer before you start.
That wasn't my experience after I fitted a new boiler.
Nope. 'fraid not.
For a few years some people have said they can smell gas near the meter cup board which is at the top of my stairs. For the past few years the meter re aders have said they can't smell gas so it's OK, and I've said my meter is over 27 years old, but apprently that doesn't mater, even though my electri c one has been replaced 3 times. This year I decided NOT to use my gas fire from mid july and as a test I re corded all my meter readings (everyday) from about xmas 2013. From mid july to mid sept with No gas appliance used I measured a usage of
1 cu foot of gas. When the meter reader called (I purposfully didn't submit a reading)to read the meter in mid september he opened the cupboard and smelt gas, I thought at bloody last someone else can smell it. he phoned the emergncy no. and a bloke came out within ~30min. He found a leak in the pipe to the meter which he said was his resposibilit y. He found the leak using an electrical meter think it was 80ppm, he then use d the soap spray and found a leak in the pipework near the meter. He replaced the pipework and no further leak was detected with the elec. me ter.He then used the manometer as a final check and said I still have a leak, he capped off teh meter and left a safety notice in the meter cupboard and said I'll have to get someone in to repair the leak. I didn't bother readin g the safety notice, as I wasn't prepared to uncap my supply as I thought t hat'd be illegal.
A friend recommended someone (gas safe)and I got them to come over. He found I had a 0.5mbar drop in pressure. I have a cooker outlet with a baynet connector that he disconnected in case it was that, but it could still be the pipework to that. he then went to check the fire, which he said was too old to service. So he said he'll have to switch off the valve issolating the fire so it cou ldn;t be used and for testing the pipework. ON trying it he said it could be 'generating' CO "see the orange flame", I thought orange, red, blue was OK and yellow was CO. My CO detector has never detected CO, it's an electricical one.
I'll check, there was a sticker which he never stuck and a noticed both of which are just loose laying in the gas meter cupboard. It was a large sticker and would have covered the meter.
As recomented by the bloke that first switched off my gas. Yes I emailed two of them, no answer in two weeks so stared asking recomendations from further afield
to 'test' a person compendancey in anither I've think I've read enough.
I understand that, I;'d never done plumbing, buit on reading about it I did n;t find it difficult to replace my kitchen sink and install a new bathroom including bath and WC, and I attempted it because I thought what's teh wor se that can happen leaky pipes, I'll drown, or the old lady downsairs will have a moan at me. But I do understand that gas is a little differnt.
well if they don;t I assume they'l get the blame if soemthing is leaking. I don;t think it';s fair that if IO pay someone to check it them I'm to bla me if it's wrong that was my point.
My experience is that I couldn't find someone willing to check over my work, even though I was willing to pay.
In the same circumstances, I managed to find someone but it took a lot of phone-calls and a lot of persuading. Getting the paperwork from him was another story. But I got it in the end.
So did he do a drop test with the cooker unplugged and the fire isolated?
There are some out there that will. You might find the medium sized firms are batter setup to do this kind of thing since they will be more used to working with a small number of registered managers overseeing a larger group of unregistered fitters.
A mate found one a few years back when he wanted me to do a boiler replacement for him. Since he was renting out his place at the time I told him I would only do it if he found a fitter willing to do the final test and sign off. The firm in question basically seemed to be run by one bloke who spent most of his time taking exams in this that and the other - racking up competencies so that he could sign off a wire variety of work, and then a team of a about ten fitters working under supervision. We agreed that I would do all the work, and he would make the final gas connection and commission the boiler. (it was interesting to note that he did not appear to be able to do pipe size calcs, since he insisted that the gas supply pipe be upgraded to 22mm on a rule of thumb estimation it seemed. I worked out the 15mm pipe in place was actually adequate for the 24kW boiler coming out, let alone the 15kW one replacing it! Not that I was going to argue in the circumstance) .
case it was that, but it could still be the pipework to that.
couldn;t be used and for testing the pipework.
I do not have a gas cooker, he removed the baynet vconnector and replaced i t with am 'end cap' is what I'd call it. He isolated the fire and found the 0.5mbar 'leak' still present.
The nationalgrid bloke left TWO safet triangles in the meter cupboard. text below white on red or yellow text,
Nationalgrid metering
WARNING The outlet connection to this meter contains a sealing disc THE REMOVAL OF THE SEALING DISC, CONNECTION, TESTING, PURGING AND COMMISSIO NING OF THE INSTALLATION PIPEWORK AND APPLIANCES *MUST* BE CARRIED OUT BY A GAS SAFE REGISTARED INSTALLER
---------------------------------------- SAFETY WARNING You are warned that this gas appliance/installation has been classified IMMEDIATELY DANGEROUS........
This appliance/installation is dangerous and has been disconnected for YOUR SAFETY. It must not be reconnected until a 'GAS SAFE' registared installer has carried out remedial work on the appliance/installation to render it s afe to use. It is an offence to continue using an unsafe appliance/installa tion: DO NOT REMOVE.
------------------------------ This is why I thought I wasn;t allowed to work on the gas suply in my home.
I also assume that even if I was gas safe trained (as another friend is) th at the person still needs to be registared as gas safe.
i.e a corgi 'engineer' without the new gas safe cert. would NOT be allowed to work on my gas but could on his own.
Well I was thinking along the lines of :- my gas bloke was there for 1:10mins he did the checks, and capped off the c ooker and charged £70 which I thought was quite reasonable. If I decide I want the pipeworked checked I'd be prepard to get the floorbo ards up ready and be willing to pay someone the same ~£70 per hour for se arching for the leak. i.e using the manometer and the spray. I can't see th at finding the leak will take more than 2 hours. I'm prepareed for them to disconnect the cooker pipework and seal it off.
This is what confused me, if I consider myslef compendent or a compentend p erson did the work why does it need to be singed off ?.
Sounds similar to how it works here administrators are paid more to order a £1000 item than the person deciding on which £1000 product is the best and most suited to the task.
I strongly suspect that there is no legal requirement for a gas safe fitter, it's just very strongly worded to prevent people ignoring a dangerous problem.
You most certainly need to get a COMPETENT person, the only real requirement required.
Tim
They are trying to make the point that if you survive the explosion resulting from reconnecting the gas again without fixing the leak then they will very probably sue you. Your insurers won't pay out either.
Here are a couple that a "gas safe" fitter did earlier:
(actually a few in that neck of the woods)
Didn't see a reference in there to the work being done by registered fitters, though the fact a Housing Trust had ordered the work, one would hope so!
"Suspended sentence"? What he did was not negligent - it was way worse - I don't even have a word for that.
"Negligent" is burning the cables with your blowlamp and not noticing.
Noticing that you've charred the cables the wrapping a bit of tape around then next to a copper gas pipe is pre-meditated AFAIAC.
I don't really want to ignore saftey warning notices, and if they say it must be a gas safe reqistared person then that's who'll I'll get. Whether or not they are COMPETENT is NOT my problem as how am I to know.
Same goes in B&Q with the ladders the staff use, nothing about being COMPETENT in using ladders those ladders are for B&Q staff.
I've seen lots of safety notices I even produce my own. If a notice says hard hats must be worn or ear defenders must be worn then if I ignore such warnings I wouldn't consider myself COMPETENT.
If I saw a gas safe engineer or any gas working smoking while working on alive gas pipe I wouldn;t consider them COMPETENT even if they had a cert. to prove it.
I still don;t realy understand the flame colour IDing of CO.
Take a look at the sort of fires I was considering.
They all look pretty orange to me.......
n case it was that, but it could still be the pipework to that.
it couldn;t be used and for testing the pipework.
ed it with am 'end cap' is what I'd call it. He isolated the fire and found the 0.5mbar 'leak' still present.
SSIONING OF THE INSTALLATION PIPEWORK AND APPLIANCES *MUST* BE CARRIED OUT BY A GAS SAFE REGISTARED INSTALLER
YOUR SAFETY. It must not be reconnected until a 'GAS SAFE' registared insta ller has carried out remedial work on the appliance/installation to render it safe to use. It is an offence to continue using an unsafe appliance/inst allation:
) that the person still needs to be registared as gas safe.
wed to work on my gas but could on his own.
I thought they wanted someone compedent, and who is it up to when deciding whther the person is compedent or not. ?
Makes you wonder why the safetyu notices specify a gas safe worker rather t han a compendent worker doesn't it ?
"An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Laffin, an employee at AWL Plumbing and Heating Ltd in Swinton , had damaged live electrical wires while installing the boiler.
Manchester Crown Court heard Laffin had burnt them while using a blow torch to solder together gas pipes that ran alongside them.
He wrapped plastic tape around the cables instead of repairing them, despite them being badly charred.
The investigation found one of the damaged cables had burnt through the tape and gradually burnt a hole in one of the gas pipes."
My jaw dropped. What a prat!
I agree. It doesn't give you confidence in the "Gas Safe" certificate if what the second guy did fails to merit a custodial sentence.
whisky-dave put finger to keyboard:
Only if all your pipework joints are easily accessible; or rather, the leaking joints (there may be more than one) are accessible and further testing after fix shows a within-limit pressure drop.
Not sure if that would be acceptable - someone in the future might want to re-connect the pipework, without knowing it was leaking. Yes, it should be tested, but don't know if it's against the regs.
Try checkatrade.com - I've had two or three competent tradespeople via that site, one of them a gas man.
John Rumm put finger to keyboard:
I got a lot of that when I decided to install my own gas boiler. Undoubtedly some people were well meaning, but the implication that one is too stupid because one doesn't instinctively know some part of the regs or other is annoying.
BTW Mr. Rumm, it was one of your posts that encouraged me to do the job myself. I've not quite forgiven you yet ;-)
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