I own a fully featured Telegan Tempest T50 recently calibrated but I would suggest it offers no tangible benefit to me or my customers. As pointed out by Peter Turner (MD of Telegan) in that article “we are not in a position to advise heating engineers on how to use them”. A curious admission. Actually no one is in a position to offer advice on how to use them. No one we can rely on to back us up that is.

The author of the article comments that Registered Gas Installers (RGI) feel they have been left in limbo. It is not a feeling but a fact and it still remains a fact at the time of writing, one year later. I am ready and willing to engage with new technology in order to improve my professionalism but where do we go from here. No matter which way we turn the subject hits the buffers. I regret the stuff is largely for amusement only at present.

Peter Turner’s assertion that “The old way of checking the colour of the flame is inadequate in the twenty-first century” was and indeed still is mendacious scare mongering. My new CITB ACS notes still cite the old 0.004 and 0.008 C0/C02 ratio figures. As I have said before any flame picture delivering 0.004 or more would be considered At Risk (AR) by Australopithecus let alone a trained RGI.

We need the standard and we need it now. We need something definitive and authoritative to point to as we can with BS 5440 or Corgi handbooks etc My new CITB notes clearly state that FGA must NOT be relied on to determine whether or not warm air units or boilers with cast-iron heat exchangers need a strip down. CITB say they must be stripped down. I assume that includes British Gas. It also mentions back boiler units as well but that should be obvious I hope. RGI have absolutely no other guidance at present. Is that acceptable ?

The Article:

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Flue Gas Analysis

Electronic flue gas analysers are fast becoming an essential part of an installers kit. Gas Installer looks at some of the products currently on the market

THE proposed British Standard 7967 for flue gas analysers, which will lay down standards on how to use the devices, is now out in draft form and heading towards being finalised.

Manufacturers claim that they have been inhibited in the past about what they can and cannot say, and gas installers feel they have been left in limbo.

This is set to change. Legislation will certainly give a boost to the sales of flue gas analysers, and many gas installers who may have resisted using them will soon be regarding them as an essential part of their kit.

According to some estimates, only about a quarter to a third of gas installers are currently using flue gas analysers. But designs have improved, prices have fallen, and now is a good time to take the plunge.

“From the manufacturer’s point of view, legislation is long over­due,” said Peter Turner, Managing Director of Telegan Gas Monitoring.

“We will be able to refer people to the standard. At present, we are not in a position to advise heating engineers on how to use them.”

“The old way of checking the colour of the flame is inadequate in the twenty-first century.”

Cost-effective

The old skills are taking a back seat to scientific measurement. Flue gas analysers, he insists are “cost effective”.

“When you perform an annual service on a boiler, the flue gas analyser tells you if the boiler is working efficiently, and if it is, there is no point in stripping it down,” he said.

He concedes that customers might think they are being short­changed if they do not see their gas appliances actually being serviced.

The new stan­dard will join BS 7927, introduced in 1998, which lays down standards for the devices, and permits self-certifi­cation by manufac­turers.

Testo has backed this up with third party accreditation for its Testo 325 flue gas analyser, and is the first in the UK to do so.

The Testo 325 com­bustion gas analyser (£495 + VAT) which monitors flue gases, pressure, differential temperature and carbon monoxide spillage, has received its certification from the prestigious SIRA Test and Certification laboratories.

Kane International’s recently launched Kane 400 is now following the same route by undergoing certi­fication tests at SIRA.

“We don’t have to, but we are actively putting some of our in­struments for independent certifi­cation,” said Chris Collins, UK Sales Manager for Kane International.

The list price of the Kane 400 is £359 + VAT, but it was launched at an introductory offer price of £299 + VAT, which is likely to con­tinue throughout the summer.

Sales have been so brisk “that we are working hard to keep up with demand”, said Chris Collins. “A lot of people who had been reluctant are actually purchasing now.”

The Kane 400 is useful for domestic boiler work, through to “the smaller industrial end”. It can check for CO in a room, check boiler performance, acting as a full combustion analyser, plus being useful as a differential thermometer.

Flue gas analysers are a rising market, said Kevin Mileson, Marketing and Sales Director of Gas and Environmental Services, the British Gas approved test house based in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.

“We supply, sell, service and maintain products from Kane, Telegan and Testo.” Kevin Mileson names the Kane 400 boiler analyser, and the Telegan Sprint as products that are “selling very well”.

Compact

The modern analysers are compact hand-held instruments, easy to handle, with backlit displays and may have the ability to store re­sults for transfer to a PC or printer.

Advancements in electronics mean that sophisticated measure­ments and data storage are now possible in even the smallest de­vices at prices that would formerly have bought only the most basic model.

“Where in the past, you would have had to pay £l500 - £2000 for something the size of a briefcase, you can now get something that is small and compact for under £500,” said Steve West of Anton.

“We think Telegan’s Sprint 2000 is one of the best on the market. It is five instruments in one — gas analyser, gas leak detector, ther­mometer, and differential pressure meter and corrosion detector,” said Steve West.

“The basic Sprint costs £395 + VAT, and when also featuring a leak detector costs £445 + VAT, which is extremely competitive for a five in one.”

British Gas purchased 6000 Sprint 2000s last year for their ser­vice engineers. The contract was won against worldwide competi­tion, following extensive and rigor­ous tests by BG Technology’s Gas Research Technology Centre in Loughborough.

Corrosion detection is a relative­ly new facet of flue gas analysers. “When radiators corrode, hydrogen is produced, and this is detected,” said Peter Turner of Telegan.

Carbon monoxide, the poiso­nous gas produced by incomplete combustion, can cause health damage at low levels, with 30 parts per million over 8 hours being deemed unsafe.

The ratio of CO: C02 gives a measure of the efficiency of the combustion. Raised levels of poi­sonous CO indicate incomplete combustion.

Pollutants

More complex analysers for in­dustrial and commercial installa­tions may also monitor other pollutants, such as sulphur diox­ide (which can cause acid rain), and NOX oxides of nitrogen.

Telegan’s Tempest 50 (f775 + VAT) has the added facility of measuring NOX, and comes with a built-in printer and infrared link. British Gas engineers use the basic version of Tempest 50 in their investigation work into gas incidents.

With the market set to take off, there is no shortage of choice. HRPC has launched the new 5 in i Gas Probe Flue Gas analyser from BW Technologies, which computes combustion ef­ficiency on five different fuels — natural gas, LPG, L. Oil, H, and solid fuel.

It comes with a two-year war­ranty including the sensors, and costs from £399 + VAT.

As a flue gas analyser, Gas Probe will give the user si­multaneous readings of 02, CO, C02, temperature, and compute the combustion efficiency on five different fuels.

As a gas appliance tester, this instrument gives the engineer the CO/C02 ratio readings, ideal for determining the safe op­eration of domestic appliances.

Gas Probe is also a safety monitor for carbon monoxide and oxygen. As a carbon monoxide detector, it will detect and dis­play the CO level over the range 0 to 2000 ppm. It has a two-level built-in visual and audible alarm. With its internal pump, it’s just the job for checking for danger­ous CO levels in boiler houses and around boilers, gas fires, cookers and other appliances.

As an oxygen level monitor, Gas Probe will constantly moni­tors the 02 level, giving both an audible and visual alarm should the oxygen level become danger­ously low.

The instrument holds up to ten readings in its memory, and the data, including date and time, can be downloaded to an in­frared printer.

The low cost Gas Probe is bat­tery operated, giving approxi­mately 12 hours continuous use from just a three-hour charge. Its large, easy to read, LCD display has an automatic back light for use in low light areas.

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