Gas Safe news

FROM THE EDITOR

Comment

How are you? Yes really, how are you doing? Inside this issue, we’re taking a look at how mental health has affected people’s working lives through the first year of the pandemic.

HSE’s figures make for shocking reading: nearly half-a-million people reported that their stress, depression or anxiety were caused or made worse by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, and more than 17 million working days were lost. The figures are backed up the charity Mind, which suggests that the mental health of two in five employees got worse.

HSE recognises these challenges and its Working Minds campaign provides support and tools to help employers to promote good mental health at work.

There’s support available from other organisations too, including Band of Builders, who talk to us this month about how they have been helping and supporting tradespeople when times get tough. MENTalk, too, encourages men to feel comfortable to talk about their feelings.

We’re all guilty of bottling things up, and it can sometimes feel lonely when you’re working on your own. But however you’re feeling, as that TV ad used to say, it’s good to talk.

Nicki Shearer, editor

Gas Safe Register, PO Box 6804, Basingstoke, RG24 4NB.

Email: enquiries@gassaferegister.co.uk, register@gassaferegister.co.uk or technical@gassaferegister.co.uk Managing editor: Scott Darroch scott.darroch@gassaferegister.co.uk Editor: Nicki Shearer editorial@registeredgasengineer.co.uk News: Jennie Ward news@registeredgasengineer.co.uk Publisher: Peter McCreary publisher@registeredgasengineer.co.uk Technical consultants: Gary Aymes, Carl Banister, Jonathan Palmer, Jonathan Stirling Production: Mark Turpin Advertising enquiries only: Ian Carter ian@rgemagazine.co.uk

Additional print subscriptions £25 per year email: wgardiner@circdata.com, Tel 01635 869 868

The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Gas Safe Register. The publishers will accept an advertisement or other inserted material only on the condition that the advertiser warrants that such advertisement does not in any way infringe copyright or contravene the provisions of the Trade Descriptions Act. All copy is subject to the approval of the publisher, who reserves the right to refuse, amend, withdraw or otherwise deal with advertisements submitted to it at its absolute discretion and without explanation. All advertisements must comply with the British Code of Advertising Practice. ABC membership approved 19 March, 2009. Calls to phone numbers starting 084 and 087 cost up to 7p per minute plus your service provider’s charge.

Registered Gas Engineer is written, designed and published by The Team on behalf of Gas Safe Register. 30 Park Street, London, SE1 9EQ

CIRCULATION: Jan-Dec 2021 80,070

Are you ready to renew your registration?

Many businesses will soon be receiving their invitation to renew registration. Planning and doing it early will help to make it a smooth process.

There are some simple steps you can take to make renewing your registration as straightforward as possible. More than ever, it’s a good idea to get everything in place as soon as you can so that any potential issues can be resolved before your ID card runs out.

You’ll receive your invitation to renew eight weeks before your registration expires. If you manage your account online, you’ll receive your invitation via email. Make sure that all your details held by Gas Safe are up to date: once you’ve logged into your account, you’ll see the ‘Renew’ option under the Account Management menu. You then have two options:

Update registration

details: Choose this option first if you need to make any changes to your registration, including adding and removing engineers.

Make payment to renew:

If all your details are up to date, just enter the payment details and renew.

When your payment has been processed, Gas Safe Register will email you confirming that your registration has been renewed, and you should receive your new registration certificate and updated ID cards for you and

Don’t forget

If you don’t renew your registration before your renewal date and you wish to remain registered, you will have to re-apply for Gas Safe registration and you will lose your existing registration number.

any engineers you employ within the next 10-15 working days.

If you don’t manage your account online, you’ll receive your invitation in the post with an invoice for payment.

Valid qualifications?

You must have a valid core qualification – CCN1 or COCN1 – to renew your registration. Make sure all your qualifications are valid before you renew and that you have up-to-date qualifications for the categories of work you carry out.

Changing your trading title

If you’re going to change your trading title, please make sure you request this with Gas Safe Register before you renew. The Register has to carry out additional checks, so be sure to allow enough time for this to be completed before your renewal date. This is so your ID card(s) and registration certificate will

Fees from 1 March 2022 (ex VAT)

New registration fee Non-web registration Web registration Operative fee Replacement card Updated card Work notification (telephone) Work notification (web) Notification reprint £354.00 £160.50 £140.00 £26.50 £15.00 £10.00 £3.60 £2.25 £5.10

Are you ready to renew your registration?

have your new company name, if the change can take place. Your business cannot trade under the new name until you receive confirmation of the change from Gas Safe Register.

It’s free to change your trading title, just go online to complete the request or email

Register@GasSafeRegister. co.uk Did you know?

Nine out of 10 businesses renew their registration online, saving them time and money – and helping to protect the environment too. If you haven’t got an online account, it’s easy to set one up: just call Customer Services on 0800 408 5577.

Read all about Gas Safety Week 2021

If you want to find out more about Gas Safety Week and how the industry got together to champion gas safety, the 2021 report is now available. Print advertising, social media, YouTube and huge support from around the industry once again helped the campaign to reach millions of people, helping to keep them gas safe.

Scott Darroch, Head of Strategic Communications & Engagement, says: “Once again, we’ve enjoyed great support from the industry for the week, and the coverage both we and key partners have enjoyed has really helped us get out important gas safety messages to the public.”

You can read the report at:

www.gassaferegister.co.uk/ gas-safety/gas-safety-week/

This year, the 12th Gas Safety Week will be on 18-22 September 2022.

Correction

In the article ‘Hydrogen projects picking up the pace’ in last month’s Registered Gas Engineer, we made a labelling error on the definitions of the ‘colours’ of hydrogen produced by different methods. Thank you to those readers who took the time to get in touch with us about this.

The generally accepted definitions are: • Green: hydrogen produced through electrolysis, where the electricity supplying the electrolyser is itself from renewable sources • Blue: hydrogen created from reformation of methane, either by SMR (steam methane reforming) or ATR (auto-thermal reforming), where the carbon is captured and stored.

Listen to your home’s whispers, urges new Gas Safe campaign

From mysterious cracks in the ceiling to suspicious sooty black marks, three-quarters of homeowners have a niggling feeling about something in their house or flat that they haven’t got around to fixing.

According to new research from Gas Safe Register, in a study of 2,000 people who own their homes, 50 per cent said that not acting when they got that niggling feeling has ended up costing them more money in the long run than an early fix or maintenance would have: the average outlay per homeowner is estimated at £1,876, and one in 20 had to fork out £5,000 or more.

Gas Safe Register’s Winter House Whispers campaign has a crack team of the nation’s top ‘house whisperers’, including TV property expert Martin Roberts and the head of Which? Trusted Traders Raj Kakar-Clayton, to help the nation better understand the risks to their health, wealth and safety if they let niggling feelings fester.

Martin says: “After 20 years in property, I’ve heard every shoulda, woulda, coulda going when it comes to regrets about dealing with niggles too late. The costs can be high financially if repairs or replacements are needed, but you can’t put a price on the health and safety of your family.

“Having unsafe gas appliances can not only put you at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning but they can leak gas and, in some instances, lead to fires and explosions. Learn to listen to your home.”

The costliest niggles, if left ignored, include rotting wooden decking (£3,344 average cost to fix), lazy yellow flames on gas appliances (£3,250), black sooty marks or stains on/around gas appliances (£3,239), leaking pipes (£2,520) and boilers making rattling and banging sounds (£2,333).

Bob Kerr, Gas Services Director at Gas Safe Register, says: “We want to help everyone become a house whisperer when it comes to their own home, to help them get to grips with what those niggling things they notice, but put out of their minds, might mean for their wealth, health and safety.

“This is of particular relevance to gas safety. As temperatures continue to plunge, gas boilers are under more pressure than ever. And, although it may seem like a niggle at the time, it’s always better to be gas safe than sorry.”

WiFi Inside

20% Hydrogen Ready