Gas Safety Week 2022

From 12-18th September, Gas Safety Week will be celebrating its twelfth year with their main goal being to keep the nation gas safe.

You can use the Stay Gas Safe website to find out how gas safe your area is and follow our tips below to keep your home and appliances safe.

Get an annual Gas Safety check

Make sure you get a Gas Safety registered engineer to check and service your gas appliances at least once a year.

You can add a boiler service to any of our home emergency policies for £8.47 a year and one of our Gas Safe registered engineers will check your boiler once a year to ensure it remains in good working order.

If you think your gas appliance isn't working as expected, get it serviced immediately - don't wait. Signs to watch out for are:

• a yellow floppy flame (it should be blue and crisp)

• brown/black marks around the appliance

• the boiler pilot light keeps going out

• there's more condensation than normal on the insides of your windows

Checking a Gas Safe ID card

Our boiler engineers are all Gas Safe registered and as such will have Gas Safe ID cards when they're working. The card contains important information about the engineer: who they are, their licence number and the work they're qualified to do.

The engineer may have this on display when they arrive at their house but if this isn't the case, you can ask to see it.

Fit a carbon monoxide detector

Getting your gas appliances regularly checked is the most important thing you can do to minimise the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

However, installing a carbon monoxide leak detector - or an audible carbon monoxide alarm - is important too. These will alert you when carbon monoxide is detected, however you shouldn't rely on these alone.

Stay alert to the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning

You can't see, smell or taste carbon monoxide and some symptoms can mimic a common cold or flu, so it's important to know the symptoms so you can stay alert.

• Headache

• Dizziness

• Nausea

• Breathlessness

• Collapse

• Loss of consciousness

If you, or anyone in your household, is displaying these symptoms, get outside as soon as possible and see your doctor/visit a hospital. They will be able to run tests (either a blood or breath test) to check for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Smell gas? Report it immediately

You should call the National Gas Emergency Helpline on 0800 111 999 to report any suspected gas leak and follow these guidelines to keep your household safe:

• Open all the doors and windows you can

• Turn the gas supply off at the mains and leave it off until you've been told by a Gas Safe engineer that it can be turned back on

• Don't light matches, lighters or naked flames, e.g. candles

• Avoid turning on light switches or anything electrical