Maintaining Your French Heating Boiler The obligation is contained in a set of public health regulations called the Règlement Sanitaire DÊpartemental (RSD), which states that space and water heating equipment must be checked, cleaned and regulated at least once a year. These RSDs are not widely understood, and like many laws in France they are probably honoured as much in the breach as the observance! According to the public health body the l'Institut de veille sanitaire, there are around 6000 incidents of carbon monoxide poisoning each year, 300 of which are fatal, and around 40% of which are caused by a lack of boiler maintenance. Although primarily aimed at reducing CO2 emissions, the RSD regulations have recently been reinforced by a law introduced in June 09, which also specifies in greater detail the annual maintenance requirement. The new law requires that all boilers fuelled by combustible gases, liquids or solids and with a power rating between 4kW and 400kW must be serviced once a year. Servicing of a boiler must be carried out be a qualified and registered tradesman (normally plumber or heating engineer), who is required to provide a certificate of servicing within 15 days of completion of the work. The certificate must be retained by the owner for a minimum of two years. The service should take around an hour and comprises a range of operations including cleaning of certain elements, replacement of the jet in the case of a diesel boiler, carbon monoxide measurement, and verification of the security system on the boiler. The level of the charge is likely to vary from anything between EUR80 and EUR160 depending on where you live and the type and age of boiler you have installed. VAT is payable at the rate of 5% for all dwellings at least 2 years old.
Maintaining Your French Heating Boiler As an alternative to calling out your plumber or heating engineer each year to maintain the boiler, some companies also offer an annual maintenance contract that will include breakdown support. You can find a list of heating engineers and qualified plumbers on the site of the Fédération française du bâtiment, or through pages jaunes. No penalties are stipulated for non-compliance with the legislation, but in the event of fire or other incident caused by a failure to maintain the boiler, then you can guarantee that insurers and the police would be most interested in this information! For more information about take a look at their site