Archive for the ‘Plumbing’ Category
Registered Plumber And E.ON Water Save Scheme
Energy conservation and efficiency is once more hitting the plumbing industry headlines with news of the latest initiative from the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE), who have joined forces with energy company, E.ON, to launch the ‘Save Water Save Money’ campaign.
CIPHE registered plumbers and professional heating installers will be able to play a significant role in helping to protect the environment, save homeowner’s money and also obtain their annual membership of the CIPHE paid by E.ON. It also represents a powerful reinforcement of the need to complete approved and recognised training to qualify as a plumber in order to register for the present scheme and future industry initiatives.
The scheme involves the simple fitting of a free E.ON ShowerSave flow regulating device, which reduces water wastage by creating a constant flow of 7.6 litres of water every minute, irrespective of changes in water pressure and, consequently, can help customers save 10,000 litres of water a year and reduce household energy bills.
Each E.ON ShowerSave device, which carries a 15-year warranty, will enable plumbing and heating professionals to test if the current shower flow rate is of a level that would suggest that the homeowner would benefit from fitting an E.ON ShowerSave.
As a positive incentive, registered plumbing professionals will have their 2011 membership of the CIPHE – an important trade body credential - paid for by E.ON if they complete the installation of 200 devices by the end of March 2011. Membership discount will be given for those who complete less than 200 but a complete year’s paid membership plus a discount applied for the following year will be given to all those who fit more than 200 units.
Qualified plumbing and heating installers are now expected to take a significant role in helping to drive forward energy efficiency by providing energy assessments on existing installations and advising on the new green energy technologies.
The entry route for both men and women interested in training to become a plumber is open to all levels of background experience on the industry standard City & Guilds Plumbing NVQ 6129 level 2. This course introduces all the necessary foundation knowledge and practical skills which enables a student to progress through the required levels to be fully competent and industry ready.
Heat Pump Event For MPs Boosts Training Confidence
The Micropower Council held a special renewable green energy event at the Houses of Parliament last month. In addition to 30 Peers and MPs, including Greg Barker MP, the Minister of State for Climate Change, the demonstration was attended by senior Civil Servants and interested parties, with over 170 guests able to talk directly to Micropower Council members.
The event was held to demonstrate how air source heat pumps have quickly established themselves as one of the most efficient and effective low carbon alternatives to gas and oil heating. In addition, over the past two years, live winter trials have been conducted to confirm how effective air source heat pumps can be throughout a British winter.
As a result, an Ofgem carbon score has been approved, which can be used for both CERT (carbon emissions reductions target) and CESP (community energy saving programme) funding schemes.
The event organised through The Micropower Council aimed to send a clear message to Westminster that industry is already working together to develop the products that will help reduce energy use and are ready to scale up production with Government support.
The government has set a target of 15% of energy, to be derived from renewables by 2020, and a significant growth in installing ground and air source heat pumps is seen as part of the drive to meet this commitment. Heating accounts for over 35% of the overall CO2 emissions for the UK each year. Installing a heat pump provides an opportunity to reduce carbon emissions, save on fuel and provide a sustainable solution.
The market value for both ground and air source heat pumps in the residential, commercial, public and industrial sectors is forecast at more than £50million in 2010 which, when added to installation costs of about £13million, gives an overall estimate of around £65million.
Heat pumps are used to heat buildings and water in the commercial, industrial and residential sectors. In many European countries, heat pumps have been an accepted system and technology in all three sectors for around 20 and 30 years.
The future of the plumbing industry will be very much dependent in knowing how to understand and assess green energy requirements and correctly install the new renewable energy appliances. Becoming a plumber at an approved and accredited trade skills training centre, which can provide dedicated green energy knowledge, will play an important role in the transformation process, as well as embarking on a solid career path.
Both men and woman, from any background, with or without prior experience or training can become plumbers. The entry level course to gain all the necessary foundation knowledge and key practical skills is the City & Guilds NVQ 6129 level 2.
Courses can be taken over different time periods according to personal circumstances and there’s opportunities to train on a series of weekend plumbing courses.
Plumber Retraining For A-Rated Boilers
Changes to Part L of the Building Regulations means that plumbers will no longer be able to specify B-rated condensing boilers from October 1 onwards. It is therefore, being recommended that installers of SEDBUK Band B boilers should urgently seek advice.
However, installers can continue to fit Band B boilers until April 2011 - but only if the order was taken before October 1, 2010. Oil-fired combination boilers, can also continue to be installed.
Until now, many plumbers were comfortable with the less efficient technology and carried on installing what they knew and recognised. It may often have been the case that when a Band B boiler was removed, installers saw a familiar boiler with just a secondary heat exchanger to extract more heat, being put into place. The incoming changes to the Building Regulations mean that the fitting of these types of boilers will be no longer legally permitted.
Sales of Band B boilers are reported to account for approximately 10-15% of the UK market, or around 150-180,000 boilers each year. Often, these boilers are bought through DIY chains, or the internet and are very price sensitive.
It therefore, means that any plumber who still gets the majority of their work from installing Band B boilers, should be strongly advised to book themselves onto a training course as soon as possible for the new Band A boiler, which offers increased flexibility of positioning and flueing.
As a result of the urgent demands for safe, clean, green energy, many of the former methods of heating are being rapidly made obsolete. Today, those who enter the industry to train as a plumber, at an accredited skills training centre will learn both the theory and practical knowledge necessary to meet the demands of modern plumbing as well as for the prexisting water supply and heating systems.
The first point of entry is the approved City & Guilds Plumbing NVQ 6129 level 2 course, which introduces the required foundation knowledge, including Building and Water Regulations, Health & Safety, water supply, heating, boiler and radiator systems, as well as the key and common plumbing principles of pipework, valves and drainage.
Flooding, Drainage and Digital Plumbing!
In recent years, the UK, in common with other countries, has been on the receiving end of what appears to be unusually, excessive rainfall and land flooding. Whether the cause is due to major shifting climate change, or periodical, abnormal weather patterns is the big debate.
We know that in the UK, flooding has always occurred in one or more areas, every year, and costs millions of pounds in repairing the damage caused to thousands of homes, businesses and agricultural land. Property and landowners have shouldered the main responsibility for safeguarding their properties, but often passed onto plumbing contractors to sort out. Now the government is stepping in to take more precautions against flooding.
The government have launched a new scheme in Gloucestershire to help deal with potential drainage problems, which should make life much easier for plumbers! They have produced digital drainage maps so any ongoing drainage issues can be identified early enough in order to be able to fix it before escalating into a more serious matter.
The drainage contractors will use portable equipment that can receive GPS location data to show chambers, manholes, catch pits and the drains location to be recorded. Although the procedure is so far being operated in Cheltenham and Gloucester, other councils have already shown a lot of interest in the new scheme.
Domestic customers can hire local drainage companies to map drains in land around their homes to obtain a record of where any pipes run beneath the ground, whether a smallholding or a detached property with a large back garden.
The development of technology like GPS within the plumbing industry has been greatly facilitated in recent years with the urgent concerns of climate change as a result of man made carbon emissions. This has led rapidly to the renewable sources concept and the bringing in of green energy, now playing an increasingly important role in plumbing services.
Anyone who wants to train to be plumber, has many exciting course options to learn the specific skills of solar energy or heat pumps installation. All students will be required to start their career path on the industry recognised and approved City & Guilds NVQ Plumbing 6129 level 2 course, which provides all the underpinning knowledge and practical skills necessary to be able to progress to the next course level, on the way to be considered a qualified ‘competent’ plumber.
New Homes Bonus Scheme A Boost To Skills Training
Last week, it was announced that English Councils are to be offered extra money for every newly-built home, as part of a coalition government scheme, “New Homes Bonus”, aimed at easing housing shortages and which will also offer an incentive to local authorities.
This once again, is good news for the construction firms and trade service suppliers who will be involved, and is a boost to the construction industry as a whole. It also provides reassurance and optimism for future job prospects to the many people who are currently training to be an electrician or learning the plumbing trade.
With endless media talk of slow recovery from recession and slowdown in trade growth, it’s always good to hear the news on the ground, as it were, from the frontline of the trade industries.
Under the “New Homes Bonus” programme, the Government stated that it will match the council tax raised on each new home for a period of six years to help boost house building, which has been at a lower level, due to slow recession recovery.
There were 120,000 homes built last year and there are 4.5m people in England who are on council waiting lists.
The Government, ” ..will not tell communities how or where to build … but the New Homes Bonus will ensure that those communities that go for growth reap the benefits of development, not just the costs”.
There will be undoubtedly, many men and women who currently are looking to start a new career that will provide a more steady future. The skills of construction industry trades such as plumbing, electrical, gas and building are always in demand, and with the widespread use of green energy heating and lighting systems being increasingly adopted across the UK, future career prospects look to be assured.
City & Guilds NVQ courses are the recognised, established route for entry level students and the leading UK skills training centres can also provide accredited renewable energy courses within a dedicated classroom environment.
Gas Safe Plumbers To Provide Safety Certificate
We have all read or seen on the TV, the horror stories that are reported when a Gas appliance was incorrectly installed as a result of a lack of knowledge and proper qualified training. Schemes have been set up by official trade bodies to try and help customers avoid the cowboy element of the trade industry and ensure they are protected and their property is safe when having gas fitting work carried out.
Syntegra Consulting, the national energy consultancy based in Reading and London recently launched ‘Green Surveyor’ a new division aimed at the professional plumbing industry.
The intention is to establish a nationwide network of Gas Safe plumbers to provide nationwide gas safety certification and associated letting compliance related safety certification services to homeowners, landlords, property agents, solicitors and small businesses covering all areas of the UK.
As part of the team they will be offered live opportunities to undertake work locally at competitive prices as a result of leads and instructions generated by the Green Surveyor on-line and media based sales and marketing campaigns.
Homeowners and landlords will benefit from Green Surveyor’s one-stop-shop expertise in the areas such as gas safety certification, residential and commercial Energy Performance Certification, Electrical Safety Certification, Portable Appliance Testing, as well as the provision of Green Surveyor Letting Compliance Packs, Property Agent Services and Fire Risk Assessments.
Individuals who wish to enter the professional industry and become a Gas Fitter are required to undertake full and approved training at an accredited skills training centre in order to be fully qualified at the required standard. Only fully trained, qualified and experienced personnel can enter the Gas Safe register to self certify as well as being eligible to join other approved schemes such as Green Surveyor.
Often a popular and a key route will be to learn and qualify as a plumber on structured NVQ 6129 course levels before undertaking gas training, and thus, provides an all-round knowledge and skillset for future work opportunities within professional industries.
Solar PV Rise In UK Fastest World Growth.
It’s official - new research suggests there has been a very dramatic increase in the number of homes in the UK that are being fitted with solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. This has now made the UK the world’s fastest growing market for this kind of technology!
Figures released show that the installations of PV systems in the UK will amount to 96MW in 2010. This means that it will represent a 1,500 percent increase from the 6MW of energy that is generated by this kind of technology in 2009.
The large increase has overtaken the rate of growth of the UK’s nearest rival, Spain, whose estimated percentage of growth is around 730 percent. PV subsidies have been introduced in many other countries around the world with rapid market growth being achieved in each instance. In the UK attractive feed in tariffs to promote PV have been adopted. This is causing more people to get on board than ever before.
With over 40,000 systems installed in the UK alone, solar power is becoming the leading source of providing alternative energy. In the UK we receive sufficient sunshine to provide up to 70% of our annual domestic hot water needs from a well designed solar installation and this type of system will also reduce harmful emissions by up to 500 kg per square metre of panel per year.
Energy efficient heating and lighting technology is now an urgent priority and it’s becoming clear that undertaking green energy training in Solar PV installation or heat pumps is going to directly benefit trade skills trainees.
Knowing how to make a green energy assessment and undertake the required installation will be of direct relevance to experienced electricians and plumbers, who wish to upgrade their service provision.
Training to be a plumber or electrician now involves working with the installation of renewable Green Energy for use in the home or workplace. AbleSkills have built dedicated renewable energy training workshops in conjunction with energy assessment courses to supply an increasingly vital service.
For those who wish to make a new career in the electrical or plumbing sector, entry level training without any prior knowledge or experience, can be undertaken on a City & Guilds NVQ Level 2 course – Electrical 2330, or Plumbing 6129 - which provides foundation knowledge and introduction to the required practical skills before qualifying to progress onto Level 3.
Female Plumbers Urgently Needed!
Even though, a major trade skills training centre will always see a regular small number of female students who wish to enrol on courses to train to be a plumber or learn tiling, it has been estimated that six per cent of people are unaware that female plumbers even exist!
This is all the more remarkable, as a new study has found that 57 per cent of respondents polled claimed they wanted to see more women in the plumbing industry, showing quite clearly there is an obvious demand for more female plumbers!
Back in 2001, an Equal Opportunities Commission report stated there were only 17 registered female plumbers! The figures seemed to confirm the opinion of the Commission that women had traditionally been directed into gender–oriented careers such as childcare, and were less aware or encouraged to look at alternative opportunities.
Plumbing, in common with other construction trade skills had always been looked upon as a traditionally male-dominated industry – 9 per cent polled said ‘plumbing was a man’s job’ - although in recent years, attitudes have changed and many people believe qualified female plumbers are just as capable of doing the job as their male counterparts. Many local authorities across the UK are now trying to attract more women into the trades, including plumbing.
Another finding from the recent study revealed that 12 per cent of respondents said they would feel safer and more at ease hiring a female plumber to do the job, especially, of course, the elderly and vulnerable. It is an unfortunate fact, that because elderly people have been taken advantage of by men in the workplace, they in particular, would appreciate more female representation within the industry.
In today’s uncertain employment climate, gender roles with regards work abilities and opportunities are going to become less important. Career changes for both men and women needing income in new work areas are likely only to increase. Trained and qualified personnel in trade skills are always in demand, especially in the residential sector and unlikely to change, no matter any fluctuations in the marketplace.
The City & Guilds NVQ Plumbing 6129 level 2 course is open to all interested to learn to become a plumber, regardless of previous experience and abilities. Many flexible options are always available to cater for differing schedules, which means the ability to learn Plumbing Theory at Home or train on weekend plumbing courses. Once achieving the first step, a student is able to proceed onto the next required training level and develop knowledge and skills which will provide a secure springboard to launch a rewarding new career, whether you’re male or female!
Heat Pumps Installed In Off-Gas Town
It is an encouraging sign for both the recovering UK economy and the development of renewable energy, that the latest news of a heat pump system, installed to replace an out-dated coal fire in the North of England, looks like kickstarting the scheme operated by Community Energy Solutions (CES), in partnership with housing provider, Home Group.
It’s also gives tremendous encouragement to the plumbing industry as a whole, who are heavily investing in Green Energy, not least the major leading trade skills trainers, who have recognised the importance of the government stated intention to increase reduction in CO2 emissions over the next ten years.
Cockfield, in County Durham, is one of dozens of towns and villages across the UK which is still classified as an off-gas community, meaning it has no mains gas supply providing power to the surrounding homes. As a result housing providers and homeowners are forced to look for alternative ways of heating their properties.
CES, which operates primarily across the North East and Yorkshire, specialises in providing affordable energy solutions to single properties and entire communities which may not have access to methods such as gas or simply want to improve their energy efficiency. Together with Home Group, a new air to water heat pump (ASHP) system was specified, which would see an outdoor unit, indoor hydrobox and domestic hot water cylinder fitted to replace their old coal fire and solid fuel back boiler.
The system works virtually like a fridge in reverse, with the outdoor unit drawing in air and using a heat exchanger to transfer the ambient heat to water which is then pumped around the property as conventional central heating to radiators in each room. The system is designed to maintain a constant temperature in the home and removes the need to have the boiler constantly turning on and off, which increases comfort and reduces cost.
After the success of the installation, Home Group and CES now hope to continue their partnership to roll out the installations in properties across the region. CES also plan to install an additional 2,000 heat pumps across the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside throughout the next year.
Training to install heat pumps is set to become a key green plumbing requirement and students who first enrol on an entry level Plumbing NVQ 6129 course should certainly consider progressing onto approved green courses for heat pumps and solar heating, which will help with their future work prospects in the plumbing industry.
Construction Industry Upward Trend Gives Optimism To Trade Skills Training
A landmark occasion was highlighted in the news this week as the 2012 Olympics reached the July 27th planned opening date, now exactly just two years away.
The construction industry in London continues to benefit from preparations for the 2012 Olympics. The £303 million Aquatics Centre and the £80 million Velopark are among the key stadium building projects to have started on site over the last year, while work has also commenced on the Olympic Village.
Recent trends within the construction industry as a whole, seem to show a continuing, if cautious improvement in the recovery from recession. Various news reports for the last quarterly show that renewal of work on building projects, temporarily halted in the last two years, have helped with improving work prospects across the industry trades.
This is encouraging news, especially for those currently in Electrical NVQ 2330 training or on a Plumbing 6129 level 2 course. The slowly returning confidence spells optimistic prospects for the many men and women thinking of entering the industry by enrolling on a training course at an approved skills learning centre.
Individuals searching for a new career and are thinking to train as a bricklayer or learn tiling, the prospects for employment in the private residential housing market have started to pick up during the second half of 2009, cutting the decline for the year to just 11%.
During the first five months of 2010, the sector continued its recovery, growing by almost 50% compared to the same period of 2009. Examples of residential housing projects set to begin early in 2011 around the capital, include a £9 million, 2 year construction of 157 flats and 2 Commercial Units at Bow Common Lane, East London and a £137 million regeneration scheme in the Borough of Brent to develop 1, 800 units across South Kilburn.
Electricians, plumbers, tilers, bricklayers and plasterers possessing formal City & Guilds NVQ qualifications could be elegible to participate in any number of identical projects mushroomimg around London and the South East, according to experience, employment and apprenticeship status.
