New member needs advice

[PRplumb82]

Hi,

im new to this forum so pleasd to meet u all, i always think its good to have other people in the trade that you can turn to for advice if needed...so nice one in advance for any help you throw my way !!

Basically been plumbing for 5 yrs first couple of yrs as plumbers mate, then my boss decided to put me out on my own fitting boilers, bathroom suites which ive been doing ever since up until last 2 months ..

i have just recently completed my ACS after completing 4 yrs at college in evenings
but it was very hard especially after working 10hr days) but managed to drag myself through and have just applyed to get on gas safe reg..

Thing is i have just recently moved companies to a firm that fits reniewable technologies and i am not really doing much domestic plumbing or heating anymore which i am really starting to miss especially heating, im mainly fitting soloar pv, solor thermal at mo, as a company we do fit heat pumps but i wont get a look in fiiting those coz im new there and theres other lads ahead of me in cue to fit those, plus the heat pumps we install use f-gas (refridgerent gas) which i have no experience of, so so far its mainly fitting the solar panels for me...

spose what im trying to get at is dunno if im making the right desision in going down the reniewables route, its taken me 4 yrs to get gas safe reg'd and get my skills on the domestic p&h up to a good standard..and now im not doin any gas work ect..the thing that i keep telling myself though is reniewables is a rapidly growing market place so ive got to be onto a winner??

my boss said to me in my interview im joining a growing trade not a dieing trade (gas)...im really not sure what 2 do??

Any advice just to see if im making the right desision would be much appreciated!!

Nice one cheers.

 

[Blackcatgas]

Id go with the renewables, get as much exp as you can while you can, your getting a head start on me, I think that gas will still be a part of our energy needs for the considerable future though, past my retirement at least (30years).

 

[PRplumb82]

cheers for the advice mate. Didnt really fancy speaking to any of the lads at work bout it, am just a little worried i am making the wrong decision...top man cheers for feedback

 

[CES]

Stick with renewables mate. We may not like it but the industry is heading in that direction and you dont want to get left behind.

 

[SimonG]

Welcome along, I'd follow the consenus, it may be not what you are wanting to do at the moment but its all about adding strings to your bow. I don't think gaining experience in renewables is a bad thing and you've always got the gas as a fall back.

 

[AWheating]

The way id look at it is if/when you decide to work for yourself in the future the more services you can offer your customers the more work you can go for. While you are in this job push to have them put through as many qualifications as you can.

 

[PlumbBobBob]

sorry to be devils advocate but have you been fitting boilers without being gas safe?

 

[PRplumb82]

cheers for the feed back lads much appreciated, its tricky when my head is pulling me one way and what i love doing is pulling me the other, think im defo gonna stick with reniewables now tho until i get right up to speed with all the technologies then assess my situation again then, il leave the plumbing and heating to the weekends, my own jobs like..

steveb - yes i have been fitting boilers without being gas safe, however i have always had a gas safe eng on site to supervise the work i have done and to sign the jobs off, which as i understand is acceptable and legal, that dont matter anymore now tho coz as soon as my acs certs come through il be getting on my companies ticket and be able to sign my own work off... passing my acs was the hardest thing ive ever done, i defo have a new found respect for any gas eng out there

 

[CES]

You do know that you have to have your own Gas Safe Registration in order to fit boilers as your "own" jobs? To do otherwise using your companies ticket makes you an illegal gas fitter. Unless of course your company has given you full permission to use their registration and will carry the can should anything go wrong.
Get your own ticket and you will find you will gain more respect from the rest of us on here who have been undercut by guys who trade using their day job ticket. While your at it, you should have public liability insurance incase anything goes wrong, if you don't and something goes bang, then you may well end up in jail.

 

[fuzzy]

cheers for the feed back lads much appreciated, its tricky when my head is pulling me one way and what i love doing is pulling me the other, think im defo gonna stick with reniewables now tho until i get right up to speed with all the technologies then assess my situation again then, il leave the plumbing and heating to the weekends, my own jobs like..

steveb - yes i have been fitting boilers without being gas safe, however i have always had a gas safe eng on site to supervise the work i have done and to sign the jobs off, which as i understand is acceptable and legal, that dont matter anymore now tho coz as soon as my acs certs come through il be getting on my companies ticket and be able to sign my own work off... passing my acs was the hardest thing ive ever done, i defo have a new found respect for any gas eng out there

dont understand how you would be gase safe to sign people off without being gas safe or even passed you acs?

 

[unguided1]

I am stunned at this resigned attitude, and the fact there is a need to ask a question like should I do renewables or should I do gas why does there have to be a choice who was it who decided that there had to be a choice, there should be one professional body that you show your qualifications to, with one annual fee why should we be forced to specialise when the appliance only represents only 10% of the whole system, I and I am pretty sure that many people on this forum have a whole wealth of customers some who have gas some who have oil some who have solid fuel and some who have renewables. If you turn up at a customers property and they have an oil boiler and you are gas safe registerd but you have been trained on oil but are not oftec registered do you tell your customer I am sorry but I can not touch that appliance because I am not oftec registered because I am lucky if I see to or three boilers a year and its not cost effective for me to be oftec registerd or do you just get on and sort it out.

So hopefully now people will realise that our industry needs to turned back in favour of a single registration body instead of costly multiple bodies

 

[franz]

This is a goverment issue.
your right unguided.
why cant one body take it on and control it?We can all register,get all the legal stuff from one source,all training questions from one governing body.
And then the customer can be safe and happy.

 

[fuzzy]

i understand but the trade is so diverse now im not sure we will ever get a single body registration

 

[unguided1]

I do not have all the answers and yes it will need some real thought but If there was just one super body even if it was designed for small business and one man bands it would mean that we could reduce our prices a bit to allow us to be more competitve against the cowboys, also to police the industry to protect the customer and the quality of work we already have building control who I have little respect for but If they had a specialised plumbing section with experianced heating engineers policing the industry, any customer who wants any new installation doing would have to contact building control to ensure that the work is done to regulations and all works to be notified what do you guys think would this be workable

The trouble with us english is we are quick to moan about the changes but we never protest, I have never been comfortable at being forced to specialise but then there was never anywhere to voice my frustrations, also the industry has been splintered for so long that I am in danger of sounding like crack pot

 

[PRplumb82]

thanks for feed back lads, dunno why your shocked unguided1 you obviously didnt understand my question, i have recently moved to a new company, the company i now work for rarely does gas work we pretty much only install reniewables, ive trained to become a gas engineer at my former company finally passed my acs and now im not really working on or installing gas appliances ect, i was just seeing what you experienced guys thought and if u thought it was a good move, thats all...

and fuzzy i dont get what your trying to say.. when i was training to become a gas engineer gathering my evidence for acs portfolio i fitted several boilers but i always has a supervising gas safe engineer on site to check over work i had done and sign off the installations for the company i was working for..hope this answers your question