wrote in message
...
In uk.d-i-y Ed Sirett wrote:
Tony Bryer wrote:

1 year later got a Corgi man in, he came into the front room
and said "You can't have an open gas fire in a room with a
ceiling fan"

Uh? I can see why you can't have an extractor fan and gas fire
but a ceiling fan only stirs up the air in the room, without
changing anything. Any gas experts care to comment?


This is a new one on me. It is certinaly not in GSIUR 1998 or AFAIK any
BS normative document.

All of which points to a thickie CORGI misunderstanding something he
thought he heard someone once say down the depot, turning "need to be
watch the ventilation if there's a fan in the room", where "the fan"
referred in its context (a polysyllabic word and abstract concept
beyond the reach of our jobsworth) to an *extractor* fan. This mention
of an [extractor] fan has been transmogrified in the simple neural
circuitry of our man who can't wait for proper gold braid on his lapels
into "fans bad". After all, if he overinterprets the reach of some sacred
Regs he's never actually read, nor read a rational guide to, what's the
effect? More work for him, and naff-all chance of being corrected. Whereas
if he errs on the wrong side, and lets something go which is potentially
unsafe (and in the context of ambulance-chasing, the standard for
"potentially unsafe" need mean only "superficially similar to a situiation
which might increase a marginal risk by another small margin"), his
precious behind is in danger of a slap.

This kind of incentive to over-strict application of regulations, and folk
extension of their scope and meaning, is a peril which seems very rarely
addressed by "self-certifying" trade body regulation schemes.
Self-regulation
has a natural bound where the cost of over-compliance lies with those
being regulated; where such costs fall on the *customers* of those
responsible for interpreting the regs "on the ground", the dangers of
creating inappropriate incentives are considerable. Any carry-over to
the forthcoming role of the NICEIC for domestic electrical installation
is left to the imagination (which rules out most of the junior ministers,
then ;-)

During the summer I fitted a ceiling fan in the bedroom, but because of the
ceiling height it is installed below the recommended minimum level, I'm six
foot tall and it whirls away about eight inches above my head!.

Looking at the instruction/installation booklet it states.. "Do not use
ceiling fans and open gas heating appliances at the same time in the same
room".. it doesn't say they shouldn't be fitted.



Stefek