Appendix 11
Gas safety procedure flowchart
For use when moving a bed into a room with a gas appliance
Further information
HSE Gas Safety Advice Line: 0800 300 363
Gas Safe Register website:
To find local engineers who are on the Gas Safe Register
HSE Gas Safety website:
For much more info about gas safety including information leaflet: INDG 238 Gas appliances – Get them checked Keep them safe (
Legislation
The relevant legislation is the Gas Safety (installation and Use) Regulations 1998. This can be downloaded for free from the HSE (
Regulation 30 is particularly relevant to the installation of beds as it covers rooms intended to be used as sleeping accommodation:
Regulation 30 Room-sealed appliances
(1) No person shall install a gas appliance in a room used or intended to be used as a bathroom or a shower room unless it is a room-sealed appliance.
(2) No person shall install a gas fire, other gas space heater or a gas water heater of more than 14 kilowatt gross heat input in a room used or intended to be used as sleeping accommodation unless the appliance is a room-sealed appliance.
(3) No person shall install a gas fire, other gas space heater or a gas water heater of 14 kilowatt gross heat input or less in a room used or intended to be used as sleeping accommodation and no person shall install an instantaneous water heater unless (in each case) -
(a) it is a room-sealed appliance; or
(b) it incorporates a safety control designed to shut down the appliance before there is a build up of a dangerous quantity of the products of combustion in the room concerned.
(4) The references in paragraphs (1) to (3) to a room used or intended to be used for the purpose therein referred to includes a reference to -
(a) a cupboard or compartment within such a room; or
(b) a cupboard, compartment or space adjacent to such a room if there is an air vent from the cupboard, compartment or space into such a room.
185 Under regulation 30(2), non-room-sealed appliances used for water heating, space heating and central heating of 14 kW or more gross heat input should not be installed in accommodation designed for sleeping purposes such as bedrooms, bed-sitting rooms and the sleeping areas of caravans. However, such heating appliances, of less than 14 kW gross heat input, may be fitted in these rooms/areas provided they incorporate a device which turns off the gas supply before a dangerous level of fumes can build up (regulation 30(3)). An instantaneous water heater, which is not room-sealed, may not be installed in any room unless it incorporates such a device.
186 The prohibitions in regulation 30 each extend to any cupboard or compartment which is accessed from the accommodation or room concerned (see regulation 30(4)). They also extend to any cupboard, compartment (eg cubicle) or space adjoining the accommodation or room concerned, where ventilation for safe operation of the appliance is provided via the accommodation or room concerned. Spaces adjoining the accommodation or room concerned where there is no air vent from the space into the room, ie which are provided with ventilation for safe operation of an appliance from another source, are not included in the prohibition. The rooms subject to the restrictions in regulation 30 are not only those actually being used as bathrooms, shower rooms or sleeping accommodation, but also those known to be intended for such use, at the time when the appliance is installed. The references to ‘bathroom’ and ‘shower room’ in this regulation include any room not purpose-built as such, but containing a functioning bath or shower, and the restrictions on appliance installation apply accordingly.
187 The prohibitions in regulation 30 also extend, in certain situations, to appliances fitted in rooms converted, or intended to be converted, by landlords into sleeping accommodation (see regulation 36(11)-(12)).