Went to service a gas fire and the customer didn't have the MIs. Not a problem, I can try and look it up online, except that the data badge was so old and black, all the markings had gone. I couldn't tell if the fire was above or below 7kW, so if it needed ventilation or not. What would you have done?
Even if I could have identified the appliance, it's notoriously hard to find the MIs for gas fires on the internet, old and new. I was under the impression all gas appliances had a GC number but apparently small ones like gas fires don't need one!
Anyway, the law says that gas engineers cannot work on a gas appliance unless they have the MIs at hand. I think there should also be a law to make all MIs available. Here's my idea.
First to assign a GC number to all appliances to identify them, then add a QR code on the appliances. Both identifiers should be at the front in a visible place, not at the back or anywhere hard to find. Someone scans the QR code or enters the GC on a site and they get the MIs immediately for free, for any gas appliance, no exception.
Gas Safe already has a database of gas appliances as you need to select from a list when notifying. So they could have the MIs alongside them and make this public. Or just on the gov.uk site.
What do you guys think? A law would be needed to get all manufacturers to submit their MIs to this database but it shouldn't be too costly to set up. Unfortunately I don't see the gov innovating. They're too busy doing nothing. Look at sewage being dumped in the sea - been going on for donkey years.
Even if I could have identified the appliance, it's notoriously hard to find the MIs for gas fires on the internet, old and new. I was under the impression all gas appliances had a GC number but apparently small ones like gas fires don't need one!
Anyway, the law says that gas engineers cannot work on a gas appliance unless they have the MIs at hand. I think there should also be a law to make all MIs available. Here's my idea.
First to assign a GC number to all appliances to identify them, then add a QR code on the appliances. Both identifiers should be at the front in a visible place, not at the back or anywhere hard to find. Someone scans the QR code or enters the GC on a site and they get the MIs immediately for free, for any gas appliance, no exception.
Gas Safe already has a database of gas appliances as you need to select from a list when notifying. So they could have the MIs alongside them and make this public. Or just on the gov.uk site.
What do you guys think? A law would be needed to get all manufacturers to submit their MIs to this database but it shouldn't be too costly to set up. Unfortunately I don't see the gov innovating. They're too busy doing nothing. Look at sewage being dumped in the sea - been going on for donkey years.
