From the 15th to the 21st of September the Gas Safe Register is running Gas Safety Week, an awareness program to help tenants and homeowners understand how to keep their gas appliances serviced and how to tell if an engineer is officially Gas Safe registered.

Keep your gas appliances safe and protect your family

Landlords and homeowners should get their gas appliances and boilers serviced every year by a Gas Safe engineer, we’ve created a handy guide detailing the process of most boiler servicing to help you understand what happens during a boiler service and below we’ve included some tips on staying Gas Safe.

• Always use a Gas Safe engineer to fit, fix, replace and service ANY gas appliance in your home, this is a legal requirement put in place to keep you and your family safe.
  
• Purchase an audible carbon monoxide alarm for your home and locate it near your gas appliances, this will give you a warning if any appliance is leaking carbon monoxide.
  
• Regularly check your gas appliances for warning signs of improper working, these include yellow flames, black marks on or around the appliance and a large amount of condensation in the room.
  
• Have your gas appliances serviced by a Gas Sage engineer every year to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning and ensure your appliances are safe and to regulations.
  
• Only ever use a gas appliance for its intended use, for example, avoid using a gas barbeque inside and never use a gas oven to heat a room.

Un-serviced and badly maintained gas appliances can leak gas into your premises, leading to Carbon Monoxide poisoning and possible fires or explosions. By always getting a Gas Safe engineer to work on your gas appliances you can protect yourself and your family from injury or illness.

But how can you be sure a Gas Safe engineer is genuine?

Don’t get caught out by a bogus engineer

Bogus engineers posing as being Gas Safe registered put thousands of lives at risk every year and costs homeowners, landlords and tenants around £100 million per year to have their work rectified.

Poorly installed gas work can cause Carbon Monoxide poisoning and explosions, both of which can be fatal and cause long term health problems.

Don’t just rely on a friend’s recommendation on a Gas Safe engineer and don’t take the engineers word for it. Always ask the engineer to show you their Gas Safe Registered ID card and if you ever suspect that an engineer has faked their Gas Safe Registered ID card contact the Gas Safety Register immediately on 0800 408 5500.

Below is an example of a Gas Safe Registered ID card, always make sure you ask your engineer to show you this card and ensure it is in date before allowing them into your property to carry out any work.

While a Power Flush engineer isn’t required to be Gas Safe registered as they carry out no direct work on Gas Appliances and Boilers all Power Flush Wizard engineers are Registered allowing us to carry out boiler repairs, replacements and services, for more information on our Central Heating and Boiler work please see our sister site WizardHeating.

For more information on Gas Safety or how to get involved with Gas Safety week please visit the Gas Safe Register Website.