Gas Applicance Check Project

1 GAS APPLIANCE Check Project Dr. Ben Croxford February 2007 A report on a Project funded by the UK Health and Safety Executive. Dr Ben Croxford Bartlett School of Graduate Studies University College London 1-19 Torrington Place London WC1E 6BT Bartlett School of Graduate Studies Gas Appliance Check Project - i - EXECUTIVE 1 OVERALL 1 HOUSING STOCK 1 OCCUPANT 2 HOUSEHOLD 2 HOUSEHOLDER 2 GAS APPLIANCE 2 PROBLEM GAS APPLIANCE 2 NATIONAL 2 CARBON MONOXIDE 3 CARBON MONOXIDE EXPOSURE 3 HEALTH 3 3 1 INTRODUCTION .. 4 2 METHODOLOGY .. 6 SAMPLE 7 3 SAMPLE 8 GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE OF THE 8 NATIONAL AND LOCAL HOUSING STOCK 8 Housing stock by 8 Housing stock by 9 Housing stock by tenure.

2 9 Location of gas meter .. 9 NATIONAL AND LOCAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC 10 Age profile of households .. 10 Occupants per household .. 10 Benefits .. 10 HOUSEHOLDER 11 Priority Service Register .. 11 Carbon monoxide awareness .. 11 Appliances checked on move in? .. 11 4 CP14 ANALYSIS .. 12 LOCAL 13 CP14 s by house type .. 13 CP14 s by age of housing .. 13 CP14 s by tenure .. 14 HOUSEHOLDER 14 CP14 s and older 14 Number of residents and CP14 s .. 14 CP14 s for households in receipt of benefits .. 15 Detailed analysis of CP14 s by age of household members and 15 EXTRAPOLATIONS OF RESULTS TO HOUSING STOCK OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND WALES 15 NOTES ON CP14 16 5 GAS APPLIANCE ANALYSIS.

3 17 18 Cooker CO emissions (into the room) .. 19 Kitchen ventilation systems .. 20 20 Boiler CO (flue gas concentration).. 21 GAS FIRE, LIVING 22 Gas Fire, living room, CO emissions (into the room).. 23 GAS FIRE, 24 Gas Fire, other, CO emissions (into the room) .. 24 Gas Appliance Check Project - ii - GAS WATER 25 Water heater CO (flue gas concentrations) .. 25 6 CONCLUSIONS .. 27 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .. 29 8 REFERENCES .. 30 9 ANNEX 1: HOUSEHOLD CARBON MONOXIDE RISK AND HEALTH .. 31 GENERAL 31 INDIVIDUAL 31 HEALTH SYMPTOM REPORTING AND CP14 31 CO EXPOSURE RISK: 33 Cooker risk assessment .. 33 Gas fire risk 33 Boiler risk assessment .. 33 Overall risk 33 CO EXPOSURE RISK: 34 EXAMPLE RISK ASSESSMENTS FROM INDIVIDUAL 35 10 37 APPENDIX A: EXTRA INFORMATION FROM 37 Brand information for gas 37 Household details compared with national figures where 37 General Health.

4 38 Analysis Notes .. 38 NOTES on Gas suppliers .. 39 NOTES on 39 NOTES on 39 NOTES on General Health .. 39 NOTES on CP14 39 NOTES on RIDDOR .. 39 NOTES on Warm Front Reporting .. 40 NOTES on Replacement Cookers .. 40 APPENDIX B : HOUSING SURVEY 41 APPENDIX C : HOUSEHOLDER 43 Gas Appliance Check Project - iii - FIGURES FIGURE 1 : AREA COVERED BY THE SURVEY, EXCLUDING 3 HOMES FROM MILTON KEYNES.. 8 FIGURE 2 : DISTRIBUTION OF COOKER AGE ACROSS THE 19 FIGURE 3 : MEAN CARBON MONOXIDE CONCENTRATION MEASURED FROM COOKERS SPLIT BY THEIR AGE RANGE.. 19 FIGURE 4 : MEAN CARBON MONOXIDE CONCENTRATION MEASURED FROM COOKERS SPLIT BY MAINTENANCE WITHIN THE LAST YEAR.. 20 FIGURE 5 : DISTRIBUTION OF BOILER 20 FIGURE 6 : MEAN CARBON MONOXIDE CONCENTRATION MEASURED FROM BOILERS SPLIT BY THEIR AGE RANGE.

5 21 FIGURE 7 : MEAN CARBON MONOXIDE CONCENTRATION MEASURED FROM BOILERS SPLIT BY IF THE OWNERS HAD A MAINTENANCE CERTIFICATE OR NOT.. 21 FIGURE 8 : MEAN CARBON MONOXIDE CONCENTRATION MEASURED FROM BOILERS SPLIT BY AGE AND IF THE OWNERS HAD A MAINTENANCE CERTIFICATE OR NOT.. 22 FIGURE 9 : DISTRIBUTION OF GAS FIRE 22 FIGURE 10 : MEAN CARBON MONOXIDE CONCENTRATIONS MEASURED FROM GAS FIRES (MAIN ROOM) SPLIT BY THEIR AGE RANGE.. 23 FIGURE 11 : MEAN CARBON MONOXIDE CONCENTRATIONS MEASURED FROM GAS FIRES (MAIN ROOM) SPLIT BY MAINTENANCE IN THE LAST YEAR OR 23 FIGURE 12 : DISTRIBUTION OF GAS FIRE (OTHER) 24 FIGURE 13 : MEAN CARBON MONOXIDE CONCENTRATIONS MEASURED FROM GAS FIRE (OTHER) SPLIT BY THEIR AGE RANGE.

6 24 FIGURE 14 : MEAN CARBON MONOXIDE CONCENTRATIONS MEASURED FROM GAS FIRE (OTHER) SPLIT BY MAINTENANCE IN THE LAST YEAR OR NOT.. 25 FIGURE 15 : DISTRIBUTION OF WATER HEATER 25 FIGURE 16 : MEAN CARBON MONOXIDE CONCENTRATIONS MEASURED FROM WATER HEATERS SPLIT BY THEIR AGE RANGE.. 26 FIGURE 17 : MEAN CARBON MONOXIDE CONCENTRATIONS MEASURED FROM WATER HEATERS SPLIT BY MAINTENANCE IN THE PAST YEAR OR NOT.. 26 FIGURE 18 : DISTRIBUTION OF GAS BILLS (DATA FROM 505 HOMES).. 38 FIGURE 19 : FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION OF GENERAL 38 Gas Appliance Check Project - iv - TABLES TABLE 1 : GAS APPLIANCE Check 7 TABLE 2 : HOUSING STOCK BY 9 TABLE 3 : HOUSING STOCK BY 9 TABLE 4 : HOUSING STOCK BY 9 TABLE 5 : GAS METER 9 TABLE 6 : HOUSEHOLD AGE 10 TABLE 7 : OCCUPANTS PER 10 TABLE 8 : PRIORITY SERVICE REGISTER 11 TABLE 9 : CARBON MONOXIDE AWARENESS (RESPONDENTS COULD TICK SEVERAL OF THESE ITEMS).

7 11 TABLE 10 : BREAKDOWN OF OVERALL CP14 S 12 TABLE 11 : TOTAL CP14 S ISSUED BROKEN DOWN BY HOUSE TYPE (SOME HOUSE TYPE INFORMATION MISSING) .. 13 TABLE 12 : CP14 S ISSUED BY AGE OF 13 TABLE 13 : CP14S ISSUED BY 14 TABLE 14 : TOTAL CP14 S ISSUED BROKEN DOWN BY AGE 14 TABLE 15 : TOTAL CP14 S ISSUED BROKEN DOWN BY NUMBERS OF 14 TABLE 16 : TOTAL CP14 S ISSUED BROKEN DOWN BY BENEFITS 15 TABLE 17 : TOTAL CP14 S ISSUED BROKEN DOWN BY AGE AND BENEFIT 15 TABLE 18 : ESTIMATE OF TOTAL NUMBERS OF CP14 S ACROSS ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND 16 TABLE 19 : TOTAL CP14 S ISSUED BROKEN DOWN BY APPLIANCE TYPE (INCLUDING NCS DETAILS).17 TABLE 20 : COOKER VENTILATION SYSTEM 20 TABLE 21 : QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONDENT SYMPTOM 31 TABLE 22 : HEALTH SYMPTOMS AND CP14 32 TABLE 23 : HEALTH SYMPTOMS AND PROBLEM 32 TABLE 24 : COMMENTS FROM HOMES OF RESPONDENTS REPORTING 3+ HEALTH SYMPTOMS BUT WITH NO CP14 32 TABLE 25 : PREVALENCE OF CO RISK CATEGORIES ACROSS THE 34 TABLE 26 : PREVALENCE OF ANY HEALTH SYMPTOM REPORTED BY CO RISK CATEGORY ACROSS THE 34 TABLE 27 : BANDED HEALTH SYMPTOMS REPORTED BY GROUPED CO RISK CATEGORY ACROSS THE 34 TABLE 28 : GAS COOKER BRAND 37 TABLE 29 : BOILER BRAND 37 TABLE 30 : GAS FIRE BRAND 37 TABLE 31 : HOUSEHOLD GAS 38 TABLE 32.

8 HOMES WITH REPLACEMENT COOKERS 40 Gas Appliance Check Project - 1 - Executive Summary A large snap shot survey of every element of each gas appliance in nearly 600 homes was carried out over the summer of 2006. Experienced CORGI registered gas engineers carried out the checks along with surveys of the house and of the householder. The gas engineers followed the guidelines laid out in section 26(9) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 (OPSI 1998) in assessing whether gas appliances and/or their installations were At Risk (AR) or Immediately Dangerous (ID) as specified in the Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure (CORGI 2005).. A flue gas analyser (FGA) was also used to measure concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) in the combustion products produced by the appliances and to provide an indication of the possible concentration of CO emitted into the room.

9 Due to time and money pressures the full procedures used to carry out these measurements were not those specified in BS 7967-2: (2005) Carbon monoxide in dwellings and the combustion performance of gas-fired appliances Part 2: Guide for using electronic portable combustion gas analysers in the measurement of carbon monoxide and the determination of combustion performance. The methods used for each appliance type and the implications of this and results from all the measurements taken can be found in the detailed appliance type analysis in section 5, and in the risk analysis section in Annex 1. The engineers found that: 22% of homes had a gas appliance installation that was rated either AR or ID, In total 96 appliances were found to be Immediately Dangerous and disconnected, three of these situations were rated as particularly dangerous by the engineers, Gas fires were found to be the most frequently problematic appliance.

10 45% of occupants questioned had received no information on CO risks and only 3% had heard of the Priority Service Register. The homes surveyed were mainly from the South and East areas of Greater London and as such do not necessarily constitute a representative sample of homes in the UK. The sample substantially over represented, terraced housing, and housing built between the wars . The sample had a much higher proportion of pensioners and a higher proportion of those on benefits than the UK as a whole. However the sample did cover a range of housing types, house ages, tenures, occupant densities, occupant ages, and socio-economic status allowing limited extrapolation of the results to the UK population.