corgi-group.com

The latest proposed web developments should be interesting and promises a Registered Installers site with password protection. The ‘exclusive extranet’ for Registered Installers which currently exists is of course not exclusive. Access is with Corgi Registration number and Card Serial Number, both of which I regularly give to customers on Benchmark documents and the new Corgi Gas Safety Certificates.

Will individual gas fitting operatives (employees) be given access I wonder or will they continue to be disadvantaged and put at risk ?

Energy Saving Trust

The new website reported on page 8 is not new at all but it is still well worth a visit if you have not been before. Changes appear to be principally cosmetic.

Part L in focus

A refreshingly blunt comment (page 8) from John Thomason of Atmos Heating Systems on the subject of Part L and C02 emissions which we can’t reproduce for copyright reasons. The bottom line observation is that new homes are extra homes. Poignant stuff that needs to be echoed if energy efficiency is to really take off. The authorities need to crack the nut of existing homes. Manufacturers have delivered and Installers are ready to deliver. The subject will never take off without some real ‘encouragement’ from on high. They either want change or they do not.

Landlord’s Gas Safety Checks

A tenant in Ruislip has a £600 bill from the county court for persistently failing to allow access for the annual gas safety check. We had one like that but the Landlady has now sold the property. There are those devices that can be installed to automatically cut off the gas after a set period. I wonder if they’ve been outlawed ?

Dodgy Parts

Baxi/Potterton referred some cloned parts to the HSE following tests and an Installer has written to Corgi to ask if cloned PCBs advertised on a TGI insert last month are compatible. Corgi’s answer is that you must check with the appliance manufacturer concerned. We agree but Corgi should insist that any insert (which they get revenue from) should carry a health warning. We say Corgi have a duty of care in law and should check first before accepting such advertising. Not to do so is cynical at best.

Rooms converted to bedrooms

A vexed subject as the HSE can offer no definition for a temporary bedroom therefore Corgi can obviously not offer any advice on the subject other than the broad observations offered. As we have said before, if a room contains a bed when we arrive, then it is a bedroom and treat it as such. Corgi have done their best in this difficult area but at the end of the day, if you attend, it is on your head.

Temporary bedrooms (ground floor adaptations) to meet the needs of disability are in my experience (and I have a great deal in that arena) anything but temporary. Students tend to have friends ‘crashing down’ for the night more often than most of us and that should not be overlooked. I reckon all gas fires without an ASD should be phased out as soon as possible.

Flue Gas Analysers

Interesting technical article from the now well known Arthur Hobbs which concludes with a clear caveat, warning that FGA is not an alternative to recommended good trade practice or regulations: We agree.

Except …

“.. where a business can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the HSE that its procedures for the use of combustion ratios for diagnostic purposes will provide a comparable level of safety to the methods recommended by the appliance manufacturer for maintenance of an appliance. For further guidance, companies should contact the Safety Policies Department of the HSE.”

That sounds very much to us like one rule for a privileged few and one rule for the rest of us. We think that the ‘further guidance’ should be out in the fresh air for all to read, including the public ? Time we found out. If anyone wants to start a lobby group let us know and perhaps help defeat another restrictive practice designed to profit the fat cats to the detriment of Installers and consumers: More dark actors playing games ?

We also suggest you wait for the British Standard to appear first. You know what happened last time.