gas - what are the regs?

[lancashirelass11]

I had thought that bringing our Cannon gas cooker (with jets converted to LPG) to our holiday home would be easy, but am beginning to wonder if I am missing a trick here.  The previous (French) owner left us an old but serviceable cooker, connected to a flexible hose that ran through the back of 2 kitchen cupboards to a smallish butane gas tank in the corner of the kitchen.

I naievely assumed that we would bring the cooker over, unscrew the hose from the back of the old cooker and screw it back onto the new cooker.  Know next to nothing about gas and less about plumbing, but unscrewing a pipe from one place and screwing it into another was more like putting a plug in the wall.

However, we are having a few wobbles about whether the fittings we have bought, or already have in France are suitable (see my earlier posts), and now I am wondering if we do need a registered gas fitter to do this for us.  Plus my man in the (very good) hardware store thought that no cookers would run off butane as "it doesn't get hot enough" and that it was illegal to have an LPG (butane or propane) indoors.  He also said it was necessary to run the cooker hose to a wall mounted fitting which led onto the gas tank.

I'm getting the idea that it is legal to have butane indoors in FRance, but for some reason only one tank (but I will have two in total if you include the gas heater tank) and that butane will get hot enough ('cos that's what we are using now), and surely our French guy would have had the cooker fitted legally????   

Grateful for any advice about what the regs are in France so I can decide whether we need a plombier or not.

Thanks

[Etoile]

We've just shipped our UK bought DeLongi range cooker to the Charente and hooked it up a treat. Fitting the correct jets was fun as at 46 I am much to old to be able to see the tiny numbers on them. However, trial and error soon got things working. We have actually gone from LPG in the UK to mains gas in France, so the other way around. We were also lucky that there was a flexible pipe coming from a fitting on the wall which fitted our cooker.

I think there is a lot of nonsense spoken about gas. If the thread fits, the joint is tight, and there are no leaks, there is no problem. From a safety angle it is as simple as that. PTFE tape can help to ensure a good connection and a smear of washing up liquid on the joint will reveal any leaks as bubbles.

Like so many trades these days the lawmakers like to bring in rule after rule which the trade lap up because it allows them to shroud their professions in mystery and charge accordingly.

[Anton Redman]

Links below give many of the facts plus a source for the full regulations

 

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1/1206729/ShowPost.aspx#1206729

 

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1160508/ShowPost.aspx

[lancashirelass11]

Thanks Anton,

We are arriving in France with the new cooker on Sunday, so if you hear of any incidents involving gas bottles near Bourg you'll know it's us!

 

louise

[Anton Redman]

Do not think I will hear anything explosion will probably remove my ear drums. Best of luck

[Le Plombier]

The standard size Butane bottle is permitted, do not use Propane inside

Use the correct regulator and flexible hose, they must be suitable for Butane at 28mbar pressure

However you are only permitted to have a single bottle inside the property

You might be best to get a professional to install a multiple bottle Propane set externally and pipe the supplies to the cooker and heater from this bottle set

You would get a certificate of conformity and be sure the installation is safe

I am registered for gas installations in France and I can advise you that the regs are complex and each property needs to be surveyed to establish what must be done to comply

Le Plombier