Should you come across a commercial catering LPG installation, the BSS Manager's guidance is that you need to follow this sequence of information as most examiners will not be deemed competent to help the customer and the only solution will be to ring the BSS Office.
Only those BSS Examiners qualified to undertake examinations of non-private boats to the 2002 BSS requirements may examine non-private boats. From this point forward they will be referred to such as ‘qualifying examiners’.
Qualifying examiners may come across LPG systems on non-private boats ranging from normal set-ups to full blown catering kitchens.
Qualifying BSS Examiners who are not Gas Safe registered can only undertake a tightness test on non-private boats if:-
- a bubble tester is fitted; or,
- a tightness test conducted by a suitably qualified Gas Safe registered engineer is observed and recorded.
Qualifying BSS Examiners who are Gas Safe registered may conduct a tightness test on non-private boats using a manometer provided the LPG system arrangements are similar (in volume, fittings, etc) to the boat LPG installations they are used to.
It is unlikely that such systems will have bubble leak indicators to observe and other indicators that the arrangements are not similar to the installations Examiners are used to include:
- There is no test point in the system; and/or,
- The type of PVC-covered steel hose is not recognised and cannot be identified; and/or,
- There is a secondary regulator that delivers a lower mb flow rate for the appliance; and/or,
- An appliance has its own regulator - supplied by the manufacturer to permit installation/use in countries where operating pressures are different; and/or,
- There is an electric interlock/solenoid device - the solenoid device, AC powered, means that the LPG does not flow downstream of the device to the appliance unless the ventilation (canopy) is switched on; and/or,
- The canopy is a significant safety feature with specific sizing requirements including overhangs to front and sides of the appliance.
In the event qualifying examiners come across gas systems on non-private boats that are dissimilar to the usual boat LPG installations they are used to, please ring the BSS office. We predict that a suitably qualified Gas Safe registered engineer may need to be found to conduct the tightness testing, and the test witnessed by the examiner.