If you have commercial premises and have a commercial boiler, you will need to ensure that you arrange for regular servicing. This is not only because it is a legal requirement, but also because it helps to prevent problems from occurring in the long-term and keeps your boiler functioning at the optimal level. You can find out everything you need to know about servicing your commercial gas boiler here.
Why Service Your Commercial Boiler?
There are 4 reasons why you should arrange a commercial boiler service on an annual basis:
- To comply with the law
- To ensure operational efficiency
- To prevent damage in the long-run
- To guard against breakdowns of your heating system
What Are The Legal Requirements For Servicing Commercial Boilers?
If you’re a landlord of any type of commercial premises, you are legally required to protect anyone who uses the site. The types of premises covered by this legal requirement include:
- Offices
- Industrial spaces
- Retail premises
- Residential properties
- Hotels
- Educational establishments
- Hospitals
- Care homes
- Licensed outlets
- Prisons
To this end, it’s imperative to ensure all commercial gas appliances are serviced in line with the manufacturer’s guidelines. You are also legally obliged to have a yearly gas safety inspection of the premises performed by a qualified and registered engineer.
Copies of the gas safety certificates must also be retained for at least 2 years following the date of inspection. Should you fail to do this, you could be subject to criminal proceedings by the Health and Safety Executive. The consequences could be extremely severe, with the standard penalty being a fine of £6000 for every breach and/or six months’ imprisonment.
In the worst-case scenario, if somebody is accidentally killed due to your negligence and non-compliance, you could be charged with manslaughter. Your insurance will also almost certainly be invalid for non-compliance. This would leave you exposed to any legal ramifications.
Ensuring Operational Efficiency
Boilers that are regularly serviced are not only less likely to break down, but they’ll run a lot more efficiently. Commercial boilers have to be serviced in line with the guidelines from the manufacturer or the warranty will be invalidated.
Nevertheless, even if the manufacturer only recommends a service interval of every 3 years, your legal requirement to carry out yearly safety certification is not voided. Servicing will also help to save money in the long-run.
Although maintenance will cost you money, it will be much cheaper to maintain the boiler correctly than to have to install a brand new system should it break down – not to mention the cost of disruption to your business.
Preventing Damage
Boilers are increasingly made from several different metals, and some fail because of galvanic corrosion which can cause the heat exchanger to fail. Should your boiler fail for this reason, you cannot claim on the warranty as it isn’t viewed as a manufacturer’s defect, therefore regular maintenance is the best way to prevent this problem from occurring.
How Is A Commercial Boiler Service Carried Out?
Commercial boilers must be dismantled when they are serviced so the working components can be accessed. Any error codes will be read to identify specific issues that require addressing. The burner, combustion fan, and heat exchanger will be cleaned and checked, and the condensate siphon, strainers and probes will also be cleaned thoroughly.
The water pressure will be checked, as will the ionisation current, the combustion, flue gas outlet, air supply connections, non-return valves, and air vent. Sometimes, parts will need to be replaced and, if your boiler has one, the magnetic filter will need checking and cleaning.
The system will then be tested to ensure the pH and inhibitor levels are appropriate. Finally, the error codes and service interval indicator will be reset before reassembling the boiler ready for use.
Using Qualified Engineers For Commercial Boiler Servicing
With water, electricity and gas mixing in very close proximity, there’ll always be an element of risk. This is why you need to use a qualified and experienced engineer to service your commercial boiler. Servicing a commercial boiler yourself should never be attempted since you’ll be risking not only your own life but the life of anyone else in the building.
Also, your warranty will be invalidated. Furthermore, you could cause irreparable damage to your central heating system, not to mention the fact that you are breaking the law since no Gas Safety Certificate can be obtained.
Having your commercial boiler regularly serviced is affordable and will cause minimal disruption to your business when compared with the cost of replacing a whole heating system. If you need to arrange a commercial boiler service in Surrey, contact us today. We’re looking forward to helping you comply with your legal obligations.
