It's Gas Safety Week! Find out our top tips for staying safe

As it’s Gas Safety Week, we thought we’d share our top tips for gas safety in the home.

Badly fitted and poorly serviced appliances can cause gas leaks, fires and even carbon monoxide poisoning, so it’s important you know how to keep you and your family safe. According to information from the Gas Safe Register, 1 in 9 homes contain boilers that are unsafe and 1 in 11 cookers inspected are hazardous too.

Dave, our Gas Safe registered engineer from Hertfordshire, shared his advice:

• Make sure you use a Gas Safe registered engineer to fit, repair and service your kitchen appliances and boiler. You can check (and find) engineers at the Gas Safe Register website

• Have all your gas appliances (boiler included) regularly serviced and checked every year. You can set an alert on the Gas Safe Register website to email or text you a reminder to get your appliances checked each year.

• Be aware of the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning such as drowsiness and flu-like symptoms

• Check for signs that your gas appliances aren’t working properly, e.g. a gas flame should usually burn blue but if it burns yellow or orange, there may be a build-up of carbon monoxide

• Fit a carbon monoxide alarm to alert you to any problems

• Keep any vents or chimneys clear; these are vital to ensure gas appliances burn properly

• Use your gas appliances for the use they were intended for, e.g. don’t use a gas cooker to heat your room

• Know what to do if you smell gas and who to notify immediately

How to check a Gas Safe ID card

All our boiler engineers are Gas Safe registered and will carry their Gas Safe ID cards when they’re working. This contains important information about the engineer: who they are, their license number and the work they’re qualified to carry out.

When one of our engineers comes to your property, they may show you their ID card or have it on display. If that’s not the case, however, you can ask to see it as they should be happy for you to check.

There’s information on both the front and back of the card, so it’s important to check both sides. On the front of the card will be:

• The engineer’s photo: so you can check the engineer at your property is the person the card relates to

• The business they work for: all our engineers are part of a network but will be individually employed too

• The start and expiry date: Gas Safe engineers must renew their licenses annually, so it’s important to check they have a current license. If the date has expired, contact the Gas Safe Register

• The license number: each registered engineer has their own unique license number. This is at the top of the card and embossed across the middle

• Gas Safe security hologram: official Gas Safe ID cards have a hologram with the Gas Safe logo on it

Even if all the details on the front of the card are correct, you should still check the back of the card. Not all Gas Safe engineers can work with all types of gas appliance or carry out all gas work.

On the back of the card will be a full list of qualifications that your engineer holds. These list the name of the work they’re qualified to undertake along with the expiry date.

You should check the engineer has the qualification needed for the work required. E.g. if they’ve come to service your boiler, it should list ‘Gas Boiler’.  Also make sure the qualification hasn’t expired.

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