Certificate required when working on central heating boiler or gas fire

  • Annelies den Breejen
  • The basis
  • 20 December 2024
  • 1 min
  • Managing and growing
  • Rules and laws

Does your business work on gas combustion plants? If so, you must have a CO certificate. The government wants to use this to reduce the number of carbon monoxide poisonings.

CO certificate compulsory

Since 1 April 2023, only certified businesses are allowed to install, maintain and repair central heating boilers, geysers, gas fires, gas stoves, and flue gas ducts: the gasketelwet (gas boiler act). Service technicians from those businesses must have a certificate of competence. Clients may only use a certified business now. Keep in mind that a client may ask for that certificate.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a dangerous gas. Every year there are ten to twenty deaths and more than 200 hospitalisations due to carbon monoxide poisoning. With the gas boiler act, the government wants to reduce the number of victims.

Step-by-step guide to CO certification

Sector organisation Techniek Nederland has a step-by-step guide (in Dutch) for businesses wanting CO certification. In five steps you apply for certification:

  1. Determine which CO certificate suits your business: InstallQ BRL 6000-25, KIWA BRL K25000, NHK BRL, or an umbrella certification. All mechanics working on gas installations must obtain a certificate of competence. To do so, they must pass a theory and practical exam.
  2. Complete the CO Certification Quality Manual that applies to your business.
  3. Apply for the chosen certification. You do this by applying to one of the five Certifying Institutions (CI, in Dutch). A CI issues certificates or quality marks and regularly checks whether you still meet the requirements of the certificate.
  4. Make sure that the quality of your work always meets the requirements of the certificate.
  5. Inform your clients about your CO certificate. This is how you show that you work safely on gas appliances.

Register gas combustion plants

Customers can check whether you are certified in the public register of gas combustion plants (in Dutch). This lists the installation companies authorised to work on gas combustion installations.

Enforcement

Municipalities check whether businesses comply with the law. If a non-certified company does work on a gas combustion plant, a municipality can fine the company.

The municipality can also fine a person or organisation that commissioned a business that is not certified.