Boiler servicing

Pincher

Neither would Welsh canaries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-15688020

I can accept that there is no such thing as methane poisoning, and that you only die from explosion, suffocation, and carbon monoxide if any. All perfectly good reasons for putting in extra ventilation, which I did, when renovating the kitchen.

cbrpaul

Extra ventilation !!! :eek:

I couldnt wait to brick up the 6"x4" air brick in my living room that was for the old back boiler i had removed 3 months ago !!!

benjus

I own a house in the East Midlands which is rented out. I normally pay about £65 for the annual service and gas safety certificate. This is using the boiler manufacturer's local service agent (I previously used an independent gas servicer who was slightly cheaper, but on one occasion when the boiler broke down he couldn't source a replacement part).

bengasman

Pincher wrote: »

....I can accept that there is no such thing as methane poisoning, and that you only die from explosion, suffocation, and carbon monoxide if any. All perfectly good reasons for putting in extra ventilation, which I did, when renovating the kitchen.

If you felt the need to install extra ventilation for those reasons, you clearly hired a worldclass gasfitter to do your gas work. It would have been safer and cheaper to have it done reliably.

Pincher

bengasman wrote: »

If you felt the need to install extra ventilation for those reasons, you clearly hired a worldclass gasfitter to do your gas work. It would have been safer and cheaper to have it done reliably.

Have it done reliably: who by?
I have seen an IPHE guy turn up to fit a hot water cylinder without even a hose for draining it: fortunately I brought one, just in case. Nice commissioning paperwork, no leak so far.

Even if the best engineer installed the pipework, there is no guarantee that the pipework will not corrode years down the line, valves will not stick, O rings and gaskets will not fail. The extra ventilation is behind the units, so it's not a direct draught. It's a fail-safe set up just in case.

I used to work on 99.98% availability systems. Backups have backups. If London goes down due to flood, earthquake or terrorism, the back up system autmatically goes live in Switzerland.

I think in failure scenarios, not dream of mystical perfect plumbers.

gas4you

IPHE means diddly squat. Just another scheme to take your hard earned money!

Pincher

gas4you wrote: »

IPHE means diddly squat. Just another scheme to take your hard earned money!

What isn't diddly squat, then?

Get the Queen to create a Royal Order of heat engineering knighthood. The shield is a radiator with flames underneath.
You wear the shield like a badge on your overall like a Star Trek communicator. Do a TV advertising campaign with a knight in shining armour coming to a damsel in distress without heating.:D

bengasman

Pincher wrote: »

Have it done reliably: who by?

A recommended Registered Gas Installer of course.

Pincher wrote: »

I have seen an IPHE guy turn up to fit a hot water cylinder without even a hose for draining it: fortunately I brought one, just in case. Nice commissioning paperwork, no leak so far.

You can buy a IPHE membership, it does not have any tests of competence and means less than nothing.

Pincher wrote: »

Even if the best engineer installed the pipework, there is no guarantee that the pipework will not corrode years down the line, valves will not stick, O rings and gaskets will not fail.

Wrong again, there is a gaurantee. Gaspipes are by law required to be corrosion proof, and dito for other gas carrying parts.
If the equipment is maintained as per instruction, there is no more risk of leaking than that the petrol tank of your car suddenly starts spilling.

Pincher wrote: »

I used to work on 99.98% availability systems.

That sounds suspiciously like public sector or a quango, and we all know how useless they are; lots of clowns doing lots of boxticking but poor results at enormous costs. It all falls into place now.

Pincher

bengasman wrote: »

A recommended Registered Gas Installer of course.
You can buy a IPHE membership, it does not have any tests of competence and means less than nothing.

The IPHE guy was alright, but like all independents, there's only so much he can fit into a van. The first manual valve he fitted trickled,
but fortunately there was a spare.

Found a Gas Safe guy last year, huge Transit, young and intelligent. Left his apprentice to do the powerflush, and then brought in a Gas Safe trainee to do the welding. Comes back to inspect, no pump in floor standing boiler, and he had to get a Grundfos and redo some of the pipework. Commissioned, boiler sounds good. A few days later, when doing the invoice, I asked about the inhibitor: he forgot! Two months later, gas smell, called Heat Team under warranty: a valve was loose, probably not closed completely during commissioning test. I made sure I saw the Gas Safe ID before he started. Knowledge ansd skill wise, nothing wrong, but he was just too busy being a business man to do the job properly.

bengasman wrote: »

That sounds suspiciously like public sector or a quango, and we all know how useless they are; lots of clowns doing lots of boxticking but poor results at enormous costs. It all falls into place now.

I doubt the public sector has 99.98% availability outside the military.
It costs a lot of money to get to 99.98%, which is two hours down time a year. There is no such thing as down for maintenance: you have another system running when you fix the broken one, and you have a third standing by in case that one goes down. We had five.

Chatted to a HMRC computer programmer once, it's hopeless.
If they farm out the software to a third party, every change request will cost millions, and there are also data protection implications. So they develop the software in-house. Because they suffer from the delusion that programmers are menial labourers, they get low grades and low pays. So if you are good, you can make more in the private sector. Personally, the ever changing tax rules, with legacy effects will drive any programmer crazy.

Canucklehead

gas4you wrote: »

IPHE means diddly squat. Just another scheme to take your hard earned money!

We've been done this road before.....membership fees aren't onerous and the CIPHE plays a significant role in the industry.

Canucklehead