| ViperGas Blog |
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| Gas Related Mobile Phone Apps |
| 08 November 2011 |
A recent article in the Gas Safe Register magazine, Registered Gas Engineer, highlighted the development of gas related software, i.e. mobile phone applications, or Apps for short, which are now available for the mobile phone. But are they any good or just a gimmick?
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| More and more women are deciding to take up jobs in the gas industry. |
| 18 August 2011 |
Caitlinn Davison is a Gas Safety Officer for a housing association. She tells us why she decided to enter the gas industry.
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| Social Media - Facebook and Twitter - a useful tool or a waste of time? |
| 14 July 2011 |
| Some time ago we discussed the use of 'social networking' to provide a model that could used by the gas industry as a means of self regulation. That is, the 'social network' of registered installers exchanging views and items of interest with each other for the general benefit of the individual and the group. Perhaps it is time to look at this again and consider how some of the more popular networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, could be used to provide an essential service to the gas installer. |
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| Personal CO Monitors - should all installers now have one? |
| 22 February 2011 |
Carbon monoxide charity CO-Gas Safety is calling for all installers to be equipped with personal air/alarm monitors (PAMs) following the death of a gas installer who died of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning while installing a central heating system.
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| Technical Experts and Publications |
| 19 January 2011 |
The gas industry now relies quite significantly on the use of normative documents, for example British Standards and the Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers Procedures (IGEM).
The normative documents are used as the foundation for the ACS scheme and provide the basis for many supporting publications. Many organisations responsible for the development of a standard use a similar process to achieve the end product. In the majority of cases the development work is entrusted to a technical committee, formed of ‘industry experts'. But what is an 'expert'? According to Neils Bohr, Danish physicist and Nobel prize winner, an expert 'is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.'
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| Support Area |
| 08 December 2010 |
The ViperGas website includes a dedicated support area which provides a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and 'How To' guides as well as the facility to raise individual support tickets.
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| Forms, Forms and more Forms....... |
| 17 November 2010 |
Never has the gas industry had more administration responsibilities than at the present time. Hardly a days goes by without another form being made available for completion by the gas installer. Many of the forms are of course, necessary, but one wonders if so many are required and more importantly if there is a simpler and more cost effective method available to record and save essential information.
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| The Name Game. Are we engineers, fitters or installers? |
| 20 October 2010 |
| In a newspaper article, the chairman of BAE Systems, Dick Olver, opened a can or worms regarding the use of the term ‘engineers’. Mr Olver is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, which represents Britain’s 400,000 professional engineers. In Mr Olver’s opinion ‘gas fitters, photocopier repairmen and other technicians should stop calling themselves 'engineers' on the grounds that they were devaluing the term. |
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| CPA1 Assessment – Do we need to prove competence to use a piece of equipment? |
| 03 March 2010 |
| So the Industry’s Standards Setting Body (SSB) has ratified the decision to include the use of a Combustion Analyser as a prerequisite for all engineers who undertake initial, or reassessments, for HTR1 and CEN1, from 1 February 2010. But do we need this assessment, and if so should it be a prerequisite for some of the appliance categories? |
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| GSR Identity Cards and Non Registered Installers |
| 12 November 2009 |
| A recent BBC rogue trader programme highlighted the number of unregistered gas installers plying their 'trade' in this country. According to the programme new research has estimated there are probably around 7500 illegal gas installers operating in the UK, responsible for a quarter of a million jobs each year. But how do you get 7500 illegal installers, to change their view of life and join the Gas Safe Register, with all its technical competence and financial requirements? |
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| Mobile Edition. Just what the HSE wanted. |
| 24 September 2009 |
The HSE Domestic Gas Review stated that a Haynes Type Workshop Manual approach to standards could potentially make installation and servicing easier to understand and therefore safer.
This would seem to infer that some current standards, and in all probability other publications based on those standards, are difficult to understand and may possibly contribute in some way to unsafe situations. |
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| Social Networking – A method of self regulating the Industry? |
| 19 August 2009 |
It is hard to pick up a newspaper or go on-line nowadays without coming across the term ‘social networking’. That is, the sharing of information and problem solving by a like minded group of people.
In recent times, however, the networks seem to focus on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.
There is nothing new in social networking, the gas industry has always used networks to share views, seek advice and problem solve. (In my day it was done in the fitter’s workshop and local café, but I don’t remember every calling it social networking!).
The question we should be asking is whether social networking could provide the basis on which the gas industry regulates itself, or at least makes a contribution to the process.
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| The Gas Safe Register |
| 08 July 2009 |
| The Gas Safe Register became the official stamp for gas safety in Great
Britain and the Isle of Man on 1 April 2009. CORGI gas registration is
not valid or recognised by law in these regions. To work legally on gas
appliances and installations you must be on the Gas Safe Register. So
what, if any, are the differences between the two organisations, and
what affect will a change of register have on the gas industry? |
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| Gas Industry Unsafe Procedures 6th Edition |
| 15 June 2009 |
| The 6th Edition of the Gas Industry Unsafe Procedures has now been released and unlike previous versions copyright restrictions have been removed. The procedure provides essential guidance for competent gas installers on how to deal with Unsafe Situations, based on an assessed risk and the application of 'best practice'. |
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| British Standards – Get Ready for Changes |
| 05 May 2009 |
| For publishers of gas technical manuals the years 2004/2005/2006 were extremely hectic and costly, due to the vast number of British Standards that were amended and released during this period. At one point it was almost impossible to keep pace with the flow of changes and that period looks as though it is about to repeat itself – but is it all necessary? |
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