Gas Safety Regulation for 2022 introduces some new changes to building owners and building operators in Victoria. These amendments in the regulation would ask the building owners as well as operators to adhere to new requirements for maintaining gas-fired equipment. It applies to all building owners and operators from 1st June 2022. If you are a building owner or operator, it is important to have a clear idea about these amendments and what to expect as a result of them.
What exactly are the new amendments in Gas Safety Regulation for 2022?
In the Gas Safety Regulation for 2022, there are two prominent amendments to note. They include:
- AS 4575 is now mandated since the prescribed standard that needs to be followed when servicing gas appliances that belong to Type A should come under a part of the standard gas installation.
- All the gasfitters would now require going ahead and completing an online record for the servicing work they offer. This has to be done through the newly introduced VBA online portal. While completing the online record, they will also need to provide a copy of the same to the customer. It needs to be done within five days of work completion.
What makes these new amendments more challenging for building owners and operators?
It requires a lot more additional time to take care of record keeping. As a result, there would be an increase in the cost and time for maintenance activities. When maintenance techniques come to offer their services, they will need to gather a lot of additional data as well. That’s because they need all data to proceed with completing their documents.
On the other hand, providing a copy of the document to the customer is quite challenging as well. That’s because maintenance technicians are using hand-held devices, and they will need to work along with back-office staff for documentation work.
According to expert industry stakeholders, it would now require around 15 minutes to inspect each appliance. That’s because essential data related to the appliance needs to be observed and recorded. This would eventually enhance the cost and time required to complete gas-fired equipment inspection and maintenance. At the end of the inspection, it is also essential to test the units individually to make sure that they are working. This would surely be an overhead for all entities who are responsible for offering the service.
There’s no other option available as of now than to keep records and maintain them. However, collecting and keeping such data is a challenge for the Type A boiler technicians as well. That’s because they will need to use calibrated CO meters to get the job done.
Calculating the impact
As you can see, these new amendments to the Gas Safety Regulation act would create a significant impact on overall property inspections. We can’t assume that the maintenance companies would go ahead and absorb this cost. That’s because they already have to deal with many other overheads while offering their services. As a result, the additional cost would eventually be put on the property owner or property operator.
A large-scale company, for example, maintains around 1,700 to 2,000 Type-A items within the premises. They include space heaters, cookers, leisure appliances, water heaters, and many more. The additional burden of inspecting these items would eventually increase the overall cost to thousands of additional dollars. Hence, property owners and property operators will need to keep this in mind and take appropriate measures to minimize the impact.
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