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plumber786

Hi all my acs has booked 20th aug. please share your knowledge about acs exam, like questions, practicle and how much time they give for theory questions. Thanks Regards johny
 
Read all the questions carefully, the answers are in the documents supplied by the centre.
Makesure you're gemed up on Fluing, Ventilation regs & pipe sizing calulations.
In the practical, they are looking for the right answers & that you are confident in yourself.
Look at the installations, start at the meter & methodically inspect them for faults.
Makesure you know the tightness testing,gas rating, ventillation & safety cut off procedures.
Get to know & be able to identify all the different types of safety & control devices.
Stay cool & act confidently, & you'll get throught it ok.
 
will depend on what you are covering and what course you have been on.
I did the full gas NVQ so had already done loads of exams prior to the acs and did mostly practical for the acs,
some other lads that were on level 3 plumbing were covering less subjects but sitting more exams.

you need to work through it methodically, there is no race to get through but also you can't waste time.
the faults on appliances in my experience were things operating in an unsafe way, some were apparent immediately, others might not have been instantly obvious until warmed up.
you have got a few weeks to swat up yet, don't panic and hope it all goes well
 
You'll be alright, dont know anybody who has failed their gas. I enjoyed the paper tests the most :) just be prepared to get beasted in your practical, they tell you how crap you are just to put you under pressure, at the end they tell you why they have done it etc :) when i sat my ACS, i read the Gas book like a bible!!
 
Koogatubac said:
You'll be alright, dont know anybody who has failed their gas. I enjoyed the paper tests the most :) just be prepared to get beasted in your practical, they tell you how crap you are just to put you under pressure, at the end they tell you why they have done it etc :) when i sat my ACS, i read the Gas book like a bible!!
Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply and it's true I'm reading my viper and GSIUR like a bible, I'm not joining this industry just for money, I respect and love this job!!! Thanks again for your kind reply
 
Passed mine this Wednesday, you will overlook the complete obvious looking for somthing trivial. Read the questions and make sure you have ticked the boxes that you mean to put too!

You'll be fine!
 
500 said:
Passed mine this Wednesday, you will overlook the complete obvious looking for somthing trivial. Read the questions and make sure you have ticked the boxes that you mean to put too!

You'll be fine!
Click to expand...
Congrats mate, which college? How many appliances you installed or service during practical session and how many open and closed book question we have to answer during theory session? Best of luck for your future in gas industry!
 
500 said:
Passed mine this Wednesday, you will overlook the complete obvious looking for somthing trivial. Read the questions and make sure you have ticked the boxes that you mean to put too!

You'll be fine!
Click to expand...
well done 500 did the guys give you a tough time ?
 
plumber786 said:
Congrats mate, which college? How many appliances you installed or service during practical session and how many open and closed book question we have to answer during theory session? Best of luck for your future in gas industry!
Click to expand...

Cheers!

It was at Salford College, Winton gas centre.

Worked on a few appliances, gas rated, analysed, serviced, loads of faults to look for and a few question papers, think there were 5/6 papers, ccn1, cenwat 1 and cpa1. all open book.
 
plumber786 said:
How many appliances you installed or service during practical session
Click to expand...

You don't install or service anything. The hardest thing you may be asked to do is a gas rate or trace a leak (exciting stuff). It is all about recognising faults and knowing controls (most of which you will never see in your lifetime).
Just read your books and think logically. Nothing hard about it.
 
Koogatubac said:
You'll be alright, dont know anybody who has failed their gas.
Click to expand...
hey i'm new here, the first time i did my ticket there was a bloke who never shut up talking all through the lessons, and he failed on the pipe tree?? he was at it for about 40 mins and could even connect the PE pipe so the instructor sent him home :D last time i did it i thought there would be lessons but the guy just said this has changed in the gas regs now here's your ventillation paper, so revise first :D
 
Hi all,

I recently passed my ACS exams with appliances. I studied hard for around 4 weeks before the exams and used the Logic book which I think is excellent. Obviously when it comes to the exams you will be nervous but a lot of the questions in the multiple choice exams are common sense and most of the time you will know the answer without having to refer to your books (if you study). The closed book exams is not difficult and will cover basic questions. The time given for the multiple choice exams is plenty and I doubt you will need all of the time allocated, its roughly 2 minutes per question. You dont have to do any installations in the practical exams. But you will work on ILFE and radiant fires, water heater, room sealed and open flued boilers and cookers. A lot of it is fault finding and using common sense to asess whether faults are NCS, AR or ID.

Study and you will pass.

Good luck.
 
Hey everyone...

I'm new to this forum but wanted to say good luck to all those taking exams soon.

I'm thinking of starting a Domestic Gas Engineers course with a company called 'Trade Qualified' - has anyone got any experience with them?

Basically, I'm a fulltime Firefighter and looking to get a skill for some part-time work in my days off. I understand the trade isn't a path to riches but with the network of contacts within the brigade I'm hopefull I can get a steady few jobs per month.

The Trade Qualified course is ACS and is broken down into 8 seperate weeks of practical training. 3 of these weeks will be out on jobs with a Gas Safe engineer to build up my portfolio, another 6.5 weeks will be in house training with the rest of the time for exams... Does this sound right for a complete newbie (no gas or plumbing qualifications) to be able to register with Gas Safe? - The college says it is.

I'm not naive though, I've already contacted a number of companies with regards to gaining experience a couple of days a week throughout my course duration which I expect to take anything up to 1 year.

Any advice given would be much appreciated...

Suds.

P.s - I guess when qualified I'm looking to start out on simple jobs such as boiler services and inspections. I'm aware that I need to know my limits and am looking at gaining a wealth of knowledge and experience before going crazy!!!!
 
it doesnt seem long enough if you dont have any gas quals, bpec run a gas foundation course which is 28 weeks (14 theory/13 practical/1 exams) and plenty on here give that pelters so im not sure how everything would be covered in the course you are talking about
 
Sudburys said:
Hey everyone...

I'm new to this forum but wanted to say good luck to all those taking exams soon.

I'm thinking of starting a Domestic Gas Engineers course with a company called 'Trade Qualified' - has anyone got any experience with them?

Basically, I'm a fulltime Firefighter and looking to get a skill for some part-time work in my days off. I understand the trade isn't a path to riches but with the network of contacts within the brigade I'm hopefull I can get a steady few jobs per month.

The Trade Qualified course is ACS and is broken down into 8 seperate weeks of practical training. 3 of these weeks will be out on jobs with a Gas Safe engineer to build up my portfolio, another 6.5 weeks will be in house training with the rest of the time for exams... Does this sound right for a complete newbie (no gas or plumbing qualifications) to be able to register with Gas Safe? - The college says it is.

I'm not naive though, I've already contacted a number of companies with regards to gaining experience a couple of days a week throughout my course duration which I expect to take anything up to 1 year.

Any advice given would be much appreciated...

Suds.

P.s - I guess when qualified I'm looking to start out on simple jobs such as boiler services and inspections. I'm aware that I need to know my limits and am looking at gaining a wealth of knowledge and experience before going crazy!!!!
Click to expand...

Why come into a job thats dead?! Ill happily swap jobs!!
 
plumber786 said:
Hi all my acs has booked 20th aug. please share your knowledge about acs exam, like questions, practicle and how much time they give for theory questions. Thanks Regards johny
Click to expand...
think you should ask the centre to prepare you for the assessment
 
hello Sudburys, i've been doing it for more than 10 years although i'm a commercial gas fitter (i do domestic comercial boilers and catering) and a boiler is a boiler, i mainly repair forced draught boilers and condensing boilers anything from 15kw to 1800kw and you always find the same faults no matter how big they are, it sounds ok too me, as long as you're confident and most importantly competant you'll be fine :D
 
Koogatubac said:
Why come into a job thats dead?! Ill happily swap jobs!!
Click to expand...


As I said... I'm looking at getting qualified in order to supplement my future income, not to replace my current.

And dead? lol thats like all the black cabbies telling me theres no money in the job anymore :D. Fair enough there may be more engineers to share out the jobs available (and lets not forget the big companies offering annual services for a monthly fee) but there are a lot of boilers out there that need a qualified person to service them and I'm pretty confident that through friends and colleagues I should be able to offer a cheap enough price to secure some regular jobs.

And no you can't have my job!!! :6::grin:
 
i have my acs exams in 10 days, i have been going through books and studied for written papers, how can i/should i study for practical assessments
?
 
richardgas said:
i have my acs exams in 10 days, i have been going through books and studied for written papers, how can i/should i study for practical assessments
?
Click to expand...

Just read up on your notes and know steps of gas testing, purging, pressures, gas rating, pipe sizing. Unsafe situations, chimney blocks, how to test chimneys. Fga. And most of all BE SAFE if your not safe you will fail! As long as your safe they will point u in the right direction
 
The main thing is to expect multiple unlikely faults on any installation.
E.g, flue joints upside down.
 
On your acs your given ALOT of faults to identify and say their not to be used on gas i.e speedfit joints or a hosepipe lol its actually fun in a strange way, just the way your shown a setup and the examiner says "any comments?" one guy i was in with was like "no all looks ok" he got beasted for it. Just take your time and show that you know your stuff. You wont learn anything until your actually on a job. Every situations different
 
@ Kirkgas

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply, sorry its taken me so long to get back on here but I've had a few things going on that needed dealing with.

I've read both of your replies and I am still very interested in doing a Gas Engineers course. Like you, I am slightly concerned about the short length of the course offered by Trade Qualified (8 weeks but not consecutive) although I have been assured by them that no previous experience or knowledge is needed and completion of the course will qualify me competently.

This is a copy of thier course outline on the website:

Domestic Gas Engineer – DGE1 Course Qualifications

Gas Foundation Certificate – Bpec Certified
Portfolio of Evidence (Not in itself a qualification but you cannot get qualified without it)
Accredited Certification Scheme (ACS) for Gas Installers/Fitters and Engineers
CCN1 - Core Gas Safety (Now includes Combustion Performance Analysis- CPA1)
MET1 - Domestic Gas Meters
CKR1 - Gas Cookers and Hobs
HTR1 - Gas Space Heaters (Gas Fires)
CENWAT - Domestic Gas Central Heating Boilers & Gas Water Heaters (An updated combined qualification that replaces CEN1 & WAT1)

DGE1 Course Structure
Stage One – 15 Days in Centre to gain the Gas Foundation Certificate
Stage Two – 20 Days of which 5 days are In-Centre and the rest off-site for Portfolio work.
Stage Three – 4 Days in Centre for ACS examinations

As you can see, it says that it is Bpec certified so surely it must be up to a decent standard?

I have looked at a couple of different courses but it seems that I can't get any good reviews on them as people only seem to think 5 years apprenticeships are good enough. Again, I'm only looking to do very small jobs to start with as a way of supplementing my current income and will happilly work for free with a larger local firm to gain that all important experience.

I will have another look at the Bpec Gas foundation course but one of my problems is that I need to be able to study part time due to my current job.


@ Paulsanderson

Thanks also for the advice, much appreciatted.
 
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Forgot to say -

I have bought the Bpec Domestic Gas Safety Manual to start reading through to start building up my Gas knowledge. Can anyone suggest a different/better beginners Gas Engineers book to use aswell?

Thanks
 
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Sudburys said:
@ Kirkgas

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply, sorry its taken me so long to get back on here but I've had a few things going on that needed dealing with.

I've read both of your replies and I am still very interested in doing a Gas Engineers course. Like you, I am slightly concerned about the short length of the course offered by Trade Qualified (8 weeks but not consecutive) although I have been assured by them that no previous experience or knowledge is needed and completion of the course will qualify me competently.

This is a copy of thier course outline on the website:

Domestic Gas Engineer – DGE1 Course Qualifications

Gas Foundation Certificate – Bpec Certified
Portfolio of Evidence (Not in itself a qualification but you cannot get qualified without it)
Accredited Certification Scheme (ACS) for Gas Installers/Fitters and Engineers
CCN1 - Core Gas Safety (Now includes Combustion Performance Analysis- CPA1)
MET1 - Domestic Gas Meters
CKR1 - Gas Cookers and Hobs
HTR1 - Gas Space Heaters (Gas Fires)
CENWAT - Domestic Gas Central Heating Boilers & Gas Water Heaters (An updated combined qualification that replaces CEN1 & WAT1)

DGE1 Course Structure
Stage One – 15 Days in Centre to gain the Gas Foundation Certificate
Stage Two – 20 Days of which 5 days are In-Centre and the rest off-site for Portfolio work.
Stage Three – 4 Days in Centre for ACS examinations

As you can see, it says that it is Bpec certified so surely it must be up to a decent standard?

I have looked at a couple of different courses but it seems that I can't get any good reviews on them as people only seem to think 5 years apprenticeships are good enough. Again, I'm only looking to do very small jobs to start with as a way of supplementing my current income and will happilly work for free with a larger local firm to gain that all important experience.

I will have another look at the Bpec Gas foundation course but one of my problems is that I need to be able to study part time due to my current job.


@ Paulsanderson

Thanks also for the advice, much appreciatted.
Click to expand...

its all in the sales spin, as stated the bpec "GAS FOUNDATION CERTIFICATE" is a certified course, this is avery basic intro into gas to ascertain whether you are potentially able to learn the gas via a set of exams based on basic core knowledge, once you have this cert you are eligible to join a training course to learn all the modules and work towards the ACS exams and full qualification, the 28 weks i mentioned, include the basic gas foundation cert, the theory training and the portfolio building all of which takes 28 weeks, i'm not convinced it can be done any quicker,
the bpec manual is quite good although there are about 20 typos in it, send me a PM with an email address and i will send you the correction sheet i have made up for it (while i wait on bpec sorting it officially)
 
I bet it is offered and can be done in the time given which is both very scary and very wrong.
 
Hi,

I tried to pm you but it seems I don't have enough post counts to do so... Unfortunately I realised this after writing a long message about finally understanding how it was written as a sales pitch and that the course probably wouldnt go through the whole 20 modules that I'm reading in the Bpec manual - and then losing it all because I tried to submit it. lol.

Would you only reccommend a course found through the Bpec site then? thanks for all the advice...

suds
 
These training companies should be banned, they are full of crap and its all about BUMS on SEATS
& £££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££ of YOUR HARD EARN CASH.

I know from experience, anyone thinking of taking this route should air on caution............
topdog
 
topdog said:
These training companies should be banned, they are full of crap and its all about BUMS on SEATS
& £££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££ of YOUR HARD EARN CASH.

I know from experience, anyone thinking of taking this route should air on caution............
topdog
Click to expand...
Na, pay your money, get the bit of paper, learn on the job, just like others, when fings go wrong & ya blow some one up, just run away quick after nicking ya money of cor's.
 
chris watkins said:
Na, pay your money, get the bit of paper, learn on the job, just like others, when fings go wrong & ya blow some one up, just run away quick after nicking ya money of cor's.
Click to expand...



WHAT are you talking about...........is that a london joke or am I missing something, being Welsh....
 
Sorry topdog, silly London humour (or not), just trying to reflect what some peoples idea of gas training is !!!! Those companies have been out there trading for a long time so somebodies got to be using'em.
 
chris watkins said:
Sorry topdog, silly London humour (or not), just trying to reflect what some peoples idea of gas training is !!!! Those companies have been out there trading for a long time so somebodies got to be using'em.
Click to expand...



Yes there are plenty of people parting with their hard earn cash to learn the gas trade, but a lot of them are giving people the wrong information as to how long it takes.
 
topdog said:
These training companies should be banned, they are full of crap and its all about BUMS on SEATS
& £££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££ of YOUR HARD EARN CASH.

I know from experience, anyone thinking of taking this route should air on caution............
topdog
Click to expand...

is this very route not the way you got qualified? some are good some are bad just like your good selves who are now qualified and doing a range of work from very poor to very good, a lot depending on their attitude rather than aptitude
 
Sudburys said:
Hi,

I tried to pm you but it seems I don't have enough post counts to do so... Unfortunately I realised this after writing a long message about finally understanding how it was written as a sales pitch and that the course probably wouldnt go through the whole 20 modules that I'm reading in the Bpec manual - and then losing it all because I tried to submit it. lol.

Would you only reccommend a course found through the Bpec site then? thanks for all the advice...

suds
Click to expand...

i work in various bpec centres (private and colleges) so i know the bpec course very well, but im sure there are others available via other certification bodies, you will learn from plenty on places like this about the good and the bad, but i have trained many decent people over the 6 month courses who have brought plenty into the gas industry from their vast experience, gas is gas, nothing any more special than other peoples jobs, its all about the workers attitude to doing a goo, fair job and not always about being "time served" because i talk from experience when i say i have assessed a right few zoomers who have a bit of paper to say they are time served and have 15+ years experience
send me an email to [email protected] if you want any further info
 
kirkgas said:
Its all about the workers attitude to doing a good, fair job and not always about being "time served" because i talk from experience when i say i have assessed a right few zoomers who have a bit of paper to say they are time served and have 15+ years experience
Click to expand...


So experience works for you but not the student!
 
Last edited:
just retook mine could not belive how many questions on u and se ducts

ant
 
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