The aim, with LPG, was to improve boater safety by reviewing key elements of gas safety, while linking design, commissioning and maintenance together as crucial factors to gas system success. There is scant academic work existing that relates to the inland waterways, and virtually no academic research into gas safety on boats. It is hoped this project will open the debate and encourage other projects.
Why LPG on boats?:
- LPG is in widespread use on boats for cooking and heating: with an estimated 60,800 of 80,000 vessels, or 76% understood to have LPG systems.
- The sector is undergoing demographic change: it’s estimated the liveaboard population has grown from 15% in 2011, to 27% in 2020 (CRT research).
- There are areas of intense concentration of liveaboard boaters, for example there are an estimated 5,000 liveaboard vessels in London alone (CRT research in 2018), mainly off-grid and using LPG daily.
- Correct gas system installation, testing and maintenance is obviously crucial to safety.
- But it’s not just fire and explosion risk, longer term health considerations, such as chronic CO exposure and other products of combustion e.g. formaldehydes, needs to be considered.
- Academic work in other sectors shows link between neurological illness and poor appliance operation; Prof Ben Croxford is a notable author in this area.
Research Method
Each of the three key elements depends on the other for our safe system to exist. For each of the key elements, there are other interdependent factors that must all be present. When these factors are lacking or missing, the key elements are at risk of failure and that compromises out safe gas system. The research project considered each of these factors throughout and the method was designed with these in mind.
The research method had three main focus areas:
- Incident data gathering.
- Stakeholder interviews.
- Experiment and assessment.
However, throughout the project there was relevant Standards analysis, including:
- ISO 10239, the British Standard
for LPG installations on boats;
- PD 54823, a guide for maintenance and commissioning;
- Gas Safety Installation and Use Regulations (1998) which defines the UK legal position.
For incident data gathering, the main source was the Boat Safety Scheme database, with results from 89,000 BSS examinations used; the support of the BSS was crucial to this. These results enabled analysis of gas leak incidence, correlation of leaks to specific faults, and comparison between the private sector and hire sectors. Research also included HSE data (e.g. RIDGAS) and other gas industry sectors such as domestic and caravans were considered, however, the available data is poor and boats are rarely featured in RIDGAS data.
Interviews included three sections.
Consumers: 55 in-person boater interviews were completed (including a London location for diversity). Boaters were asked a variety of questions relating to gas safety and in particular service habits and understanding of relevant safety frameworks and legislation. Reasons for service habits were gained and considered against the changing boater demographic.
Registered gas engineers: 30 in- person interviews were completed. Engineers were asked to explain what issues they see in the sector, where the current problems for safety lie and about their general understanding of legislation. This enabled understanding of view from the professional engineer group.
Corporate: This included varied industry suppliers and manufacturers including appliance manufacturers and BSI, who were interviewed regarding specific issues relevant to boat gas safety. Uptake from organisations was disappointing, and lack of expert knowledge or historical context was apparent due to staff turnover.
Experiment and assessment Involved testing of gas systems in theory and practice to assess the design; unique testing that has not previously been completed on this scale. In some cases it was the first time a vessel had been assessed by a marine professional.
Two main experiments were completed:
Theoretical assessment of 59 gas systems with a bespoke made “installer’s mate” calculator. 59 in-service boat gas systems were physically measured and data from appliances gathered, and the system assessed for design correctness. Practical assessment of 55 of the 59 gas systems followed, with manometer testing to PD 54823:2016 to confirm how the system performed / operated. This allowed the research to see whether a system was a) operating and performing correctly, and b) if not, why not; be it design, maintenance or component failure.
The results are incredibly interesting and, in some cases startling, for the first time give an overall picture of boat gas safety in the UK, including future challenges. The work identifies errors in standards, issues with national training frameworks, low levels of safety awareness among consumers and misinformed engineer knowledge. Early results include changes to training materials, direct input to the ISO 10239 review, a HSE investigation, representations made to BSI, CEN and ISO including a paper for mandatory system commissioning (http://www.smallcraftservices.com/technical). Presentations to stakeholder groups have been made, calling for an overhaul of the national training framework and alterations to published documents. Several important future work areas have also been identified.
By Tom Keeling.
Tom Keeling works as a marine surveyor, BSS examiner, and gas safe registered engineer on the inland waterways in the United Kingdom. He is a chartered marine engineer and a full member of IMarEST. Throughout 2021-2023, Tom completed an MSc degree in Engineering for Marine Professionals via MLA college / Plymouth University. The main project focused on LPG as a domestic fuel on inland waterways boats.