Just had a go at wiring me new shed.

[addjunkie]

Anyone that isn’t Gas Safe is an unregistered gas engineer, they must not work on gas

our website is full of prosecutions involving unregistered gas workers

While I agree, I feel that the gas safe site should be more specific relating to gas used as fuel ie flammable gas.

for example co2 is a gas, many of us fiddle about with in our shed /garages when mig welding. Air used when scuba diving is also a gas, as is what we pump into our car tyres

 

[James1979]

Anyone that isn’t Gas Safe is an unregistered gas engineer, they must not work on gas

our website is full of prosecutions involving unregistered gas workers

Does that include doing your own on your own house?

Just wondering really. Doesn’t affect me as we are all electric. Well and a wood stove too but no gas

 

[Parm]

While I agree, I feel that the gas safe site should be more specific relating to gas used as fuel ie flammable gas.

for example co2 is a gas, many of us fiddle about with in our shed /garages when mig welding. Air used when scuba diving is also a gas, as is what we pump into our car tyres

Why don’t you take it up with gas safe?

ive just checked, below is what they say

 

[Parm]

Does that include doing your own on your own house?

Just wondering really. Doesn’t affect me as we are all electric. Well and a wood stove too but no gas

Yes

 

[James1979]

Yes

Cheers. Never really thought about it to be honest. Never needed to.

 

[Onoff]

Does that include doing your own on your own house?

Christ yes! Plenty of unsafe gas installs that have taken out adjacent properties.

 

[James1979]

Christ yes! Plenty of unsafe gas installs that have taken out adjacent properties.

I suspected as much but never really had cause to think about it!

 

[hermetic]

As long as you are happy with your soldering I would not change to the locknut style earthing connection as they, like the SWA glands and shrouds supplird today, are of excruciatingly bad quality! No soldering on mains voltages? we used to solder ALL three phase motor terminations with large eyelet lugs and I have installed some VERY large motors. Any evidence to show that crimps of any size are "better" than soldering usually comes from the manufacturers of the very expensive crimping equipment they want you to buy. ALL car wiring harnesses were soldered at one time, and in those days the "broken wire in the harness" faults that were brought to me always turned out to be something else! Car wiring harnesses today are a different matter, and are one of the reasons modern cars with electrical faults get scrapped because repair is too labout intensive. I have seen many failed crimps, even Hydraulically crimped terminations fail because of corrosion or heat cycling eventually increases the resistance and wrecks the joint. I remember one particular failure at a turkey hatchery on a 500 amp submain which against my employers advice was run in aluminium SWA four core. with hydraulically crimped terminations, fitted with the termination manufacturers own equipment and treated with anticorrosion grease and tape. The first crimp failure came after just over a year, and after the third it was ripped out and replaced with copper with soldered terminations which lasted till the company closed about 20 years later.
Phil

 

[daedalusminos]

There is a potential issue with soldering that hasn't been mentioned (I think) and that is that the flux can be (usually is) highly corrosive. What tends to happen is the flux wicks up the wire between conductor and insulation so can't be easily cleaned. Short term it's fine....years down the line it causes problems.

 

[hermetic]

Corrosive fluxes are never(or should never be) used on electrical work, there are many types of non corrosive fluxes, usually they work by excluding air from the joint rather than having any cleaning effect on what you are soldering. If everything is tinned first, soldering is easy and cheap, but not without H&S implications! There are many reasons for the introduction of crimping, "better" is not, in my experience, one of them.
Phil

 

[brightspark]

Do what you like in your own house, but please don't post it as fact on here

Ive tested many, many boilers, very few have anything other than excellent readings, unless they are knackard

dont even do what you like in your own home as far as gas safety goes its not just your life at risk its your familys and your neighbours

 

[bricol]

Does that include doing your own on your own house?

Just wondering really. Doesn’t affect me as we are all electric. Well and a wood stove too but no gas

It used to be allowed under Corgi, as far I as I was aware anyway, you had to be "competent" - and I guess half the street taking off proved you weren't . . .

At the risk of blowing up (no pun intended) our resident and well respected H&S person, I took a look on the HSE website at the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2018

Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 (GSIUR) as amended. Approved Code of Practice and guidance - HSE

Practical regulatory guidance dealing with safe installation, maintenance and use of gas systems, including fittings, appliances and flues. Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 Approved Code of Practice and guidance.

www.hse.gov.uk

and if I read it correctly, which I very well may not have:

Work in relation to a gas fitting

52 For the purposes of GSIUR, ‘work’ includes do-it-yourself activities, work undertaken as a favour for friends and relatives, and work for which there is no expectation of reward or gain, eg voluntary activity for charities. This means that anyone carrying out such work must have the necessary competence, as required by regulation 3(1). However, membership of an HSE-approved class of persons (under regulation 3(3)) is required only by businesses carrying out gas-fitting work

Paragraph 83 of the HSE publication of Gas Safety (Installation and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2018, specifically mentions DIY-ers again - and they have to be competent as explained in paragraph 85:

85 Competence is a combination of practical skill, training, knowledge and experience to carry out the job in hand safely, and ensuring the installation is left in a safe condition for use. Knowledge must be kept up to date with changes in the law, technology and safe working practice.

Those "employed" to do gas work, all busnesses including self-employed, must be a member of a HSE recognised class of persons - and the only one they currently recognise is GasSafe - although if you start another register, you can apply to be recognised too.

It does also clarify the premises it applies to, what gas it refers to, whether or not to cylinders, vehicles etc.

I always wondered how the bunsen burners at school were allowed - bits of rubber pipe jammed on gas tabs and then lit . . . well, someone else obviously did too:

(6) Nothing in these Regulations shall apply in relation to – (b) the supply of gas to, or anything done in respect of, a bunsen burner used in an educational establishment;

I had an interest a while ago as I, as a kid, watched my dad test for gas leaks of the gas wall heater he had just installed, with a lit match . . . even as a kid that didn't seem quite right . . . and as a older kid, saw my mum taken for a ride (not literally!) over a failed expansion tank by an expired membership Corgi business . . .

 

[Alan Reynolds]

No it didn't

Please, please stop posting nonsense

Do what you like in your own house, but please don't post it as fact on here

Ive tested many, many boilers, very few have anything other than excellent readings, unless they are knackard

I don’t think you understood my post. Could you explain your reply.

 

[Kayos]

I don’t think you understood my post. Could you explain your reply.

Gas safe did NOT remove any competency requirements, as has been very well explained above you cannot work legally on gas in your own house

Posting things your mate told you as fact just spoil things when people search

 

[Alan Reynolds]

Corrosive fluxes are never(or should never be) used on electrical work, there are many types of non corrosive fluxes, usually they work by excluding air from the joint rather than having any cleaning effect on what you are soldering. If everything is tinned first, soldering is easy and cheap, but not without H&S implications! There are many reasons for the introduction of crimping, "better" is not, in my experience, one of them.
Phil

Well firstly I agree with you about the quality of components these days. I also agree with you on the soldering aspect. Nevertheless, to save any arguments at a later date, I fitted the swa nuts and crimped the connectors. One guess as to what increased when we tested.

 

[Alan Reynolds]

Gas safe did NOT remove any competency requirements, as has been very well explained above you cannot work legally on gas in your own house

Posting things your mate told you as fact just spoil things when people search

Hold up. My friend is a Gas Safe registered engineer. It was his curiosity that led to him testing my installation as he was curious as to what the readings would be. He found it to be fine. I don’t see what your problem is with me relating the fact. I’m fully aware that you cannot work on gas installations without being gas safe registered now, but I never said you could. I just related what I did 35 years ago when it was under the Corgi umbrella and at that time you could . Boilers are much more complicated now and and require more knowledge. Even so, my electronic knowledge is still called on by gas safe engineers to help them diagnose faults on boilers. I may not be gas safe but I ain’t stupid and can probably fault find far better than most boiler engineers. I repair boards that go back in boilers and work fine again. A certificate doesn’t guarantee common sense does it.

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Last gas accident in Scotland , Seems that they are blaming old gas equipment. Shows the energy in these systems

 

[Kayos]

Hold up. My friend is a Gas Safe registered engineer. It was his curiosity that led to him testing my installation as he was curious as to what the readings would be. He found it to be fine. I don’t see what your problem is with me relating the fact. I’m fully aware that you cannot work on gas installations without being gas safe registered now, but I never said you could. I just related what I did 35 years ago when it was under the Corgi umbrella and at that time you could . Boilers are much more complicated now and and require more knowledge. Even so, my electronic knowledge is still called on by gas safe engineers to help them diagnose faults on boilers. I may not be gas safe but I ain’t stupid and can probably fault find far better than most boiler engineers. I repair boards that go back in boilers and work fine again. A certificate doesn’t guarantee common sense does it.

My issue is your statement that Gas Safe removed the competency requirement for working on gas in a DIY capacity, it is simply not true

Id also like to see you fault find on an old Vaillant or something like a Potterton Pro max, the notion all gas engineers (or most) are useless is a shockingly arrogant attitude

I did a full apprenticeship to get qualifications, in fact I have enrolled on a degree level course in building services engineering based on my gas qualifications giving me enough Ucas points

 

[bricol]

Gas Safe is currently the only recognised register of businesses (including self-employed) who can work on gas installations. Businesses

You can still work on your own installation under Gas Safety (Installation and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 as long as you are "competent" - that's where the problem is. Until the installation disintegrates into its component parts, taking the buildings and anybody in it with them, no-one has any clue you weren't.

What surprised me was "work undertaken as a favour for friends and relatives, and work for which there is no expectation of reward or gain, eg voluntary activity for charities" reads as to being allowed - as I thought that was a no-no under the old regulations and Corgi.

It would have been a lot clearer and simpler if they had banned all DIY work on gas installations, to avoid the self-certifying competency tests being self-applied to those like my dad . . .

But I guess, despite the obvious dangers with gas, its the start of a slippery slope . . . welding your own vehicle . . . working on your own brakes . . . wiring your own plug . . . changing your own light bulb . . . and I am well aware we all know people who really shouldn't be doing any of those!

 

[Parm]

You can still work on your own installation under Gas Safety (Installation and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 as long as you are "competent" - that's where the problem is. Until the installation disintegrates into its component parts, taking the buildings and anybody in it with them, no-one has any clue you weren't.

That’s a misinterpretation of what the law requires. You must be deemed competent before anyone works on a gas installation. It why folk do all the training, education and qualifications to become competent and gain Gas Safe

Unless you have a working knowledge, understanding and application of these or any regs a quick blast on the internet doesn’t maketh an expert

Competency isnt knowing what you know, it’s understanding what you don’t know.

People do work on thier own installation, when it goes wrong they usually go to jail