Heating Engineers - Hydronics qualifications

[IGP]

Do heating engineers have hydronics qualifications to install any type of heating system? 
 

I thought they were only legally required to be Gas Safe?

 

Only reason I ask is I was having my boiler serviced and the engineer slapped the flow temperature right back up to full. I asked him why and his response was basically “the boiler modulates to be efficient” which struck me as like he didn’t actually know what he was talking about in terms of efficiency. I’ve heard others say similar things which rings alarm bells that it’s not just the ‘one bad apple’. 
 

Surely engineers should know how to make efficient systems and if not, shouldn’t be mandatory when installing any wet heating system? 

[TonyT]

Boiler servicing is boiler servicing to me.

 

 

balancing/ optimising is another visit

[SimonD]

You are correct, if they're working on a gas appliance, they only have to be Gas Safe registered which requires ACS qualification and centres on gas safety. There are other qualifications a heating engineer can do such as low temperature heating system design etc. but they're entirely voluntary. The decent ones will go on additional training to know what they're doing and talking about, like to this place https://heatingacademynorthampton.co.uk/

 

But technically, the engineer should not have whacked up the flow temperature but put it back to where it was when he found it and if he had an issue, provided some recommendations - again not law but etiquette he should have learned while training

 

In the last couple of years additional training material has been added to the curriculum,e.g. recently I was tested for OFTEC and that test now includes heat loss calculations, so it is is at least moving in the right direction, but not nearly fast enough IMHO.

 

Most engineers don't really know how to make the systems efficient - just the other day I walked into a house built recently to fix a problem with the heating where the developer had put in 2 30kW boilers and the whole thing was permanently wired up to room stats through 5 zones all powered by separate pumps with all pumps set to no3 regardless of the size of the zone! All running at 70c flow temp. No timer at all and the stats were relay, so no modulation. I wonder who installed that system? Certainly not someone with good knowledge of energy efficiency, nor heat loss apparently. I've told the owners we can switch off and isolate one of the boilers, add modulating controls, reduce the flow temps and probably lose the huge low loss header and combine the zones to make 2 max. We'll see.

 

But as @TonyT says, balancing and making efficient a system is well beyond an annual service.

 

 

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, IGP said:

Surely engineers should know how to make efficient systems

Engineers should.

Technicians may not.

 

Really about time the term 'engineer' was protected.  Most places require a higher level qualification at least.  In the UK all you need is a printer.

Self identification could be killing people.

[JamesPa]

3 hours ago, IGP said:

 

Only reason I ask is I was having my boiler serviced and the engineer slapped the flow temperature right back up to full. I asked him why and his response was basically “the boiler modulates to be efficient” which struck me as like he didn’t actually know what he was talking about in terms of efficiency. I’ve heard others say similar things which rings alarm bells that it’s not just the ‘one bad apple’. 
 

 

What were you expecting, whacking the flow temp up to max minimises the probability of another call out because its cold, which is the primary driver for many. 

 

You don't need to take that from me, several who are apparently in, or linked to, the trade have told us on this forum that minimising call-outs is a/the primary motive.  I dont doubt that there are many who do not take this approach, but it appears that there are also many who do.

Edited December 23, 2023 by JamesPa