Annex D: Guidance for Completing Declaration
When you are entering your declaration you should enter as much detail as possible giving details of any standards that have been complied with and any testing or certification that has been undertaken. There are two reasons for this:
- Declarations that lack supporting evidence are more difficult to assess and they are much more likely to be targeted for auditing (for auditing, full information would be required by Energy Safety)
- A complete and detailed declaration provided to the public displays an image of quality and professionalism.
When completing this you need to bear in mind that downstream suppliers and installers must identify your appliance on the database before they can sell or install the appliance. Will the retailer be able to identify the appliance from the packaging? When the installer comes to install the appliance will the make and model markings on the appliance data plate be the same as what you are entering in the declaration?
If a person were to search the database on Supplier they will see a listing something like the following. While they could "View" the full declaration to get more detail will they be able to identify the appliance from the fields displayed?
Product Identification section
"Make" field:
A mandatory field indicating the make of the appliance. Please be consistent and not introduce variations (or misspellings) of the make such as: Bloggs, Bloggs (NZ) Lts, Bloggs Ltd, etc.
"Model" field:
A mandatory field indicating the model of the appliance. If there is a range of appliances covered by the same testing or certification documentation it may be possible to enter a series here but bear in mind that downstream users should be able to identify individual models.
"Serial No.s" field:
This is a non-mandatory field. It is intended for an appliance where a particular model may need two declarations because one model run was covered by one set of testing and a different run by another test regime.
"Other identifiers" field:
This is a non-mandatory field which can be used for other identifiers. For example, if you had listed a series above it could be used to identify the specific models in the "series" declaration.
"Input rating" field:
This is a non-mandatory field. It is intended to record the input rating of the appliance. This would provide "added value" to gasfitters when sizing an installation job
"Fuel type" field:
A mandatory field. Tick the fuel types that the appliance is safe (is rated) to use on. Note that the appliance standard (NZS 5262) requires that all "LPG" appliances should be safe to run on both butane and propane. "General Product" is the "LPG" most New Zealanders receive and is similar to the "Universal" LPG designation in Australia.
"Appliance category" field:
A mandatory field selected from a drop down list. Please familiarise your self with the list and select the appropriate category. The appliances are grouped into commercial and domestic cooking equipment; industrial; portable/camping; space heating; and water heating. If your appliance doesn’t meet any of the categories then please select the Other.. choice. You will be required to enter a description in the Appliance Type field.
"Appliance type" field:
A legacy field from an earlier version of the database. Now generally only used if there is not a suitable choice in the Product Category field
"Suppliers reference" field:
This is a non-mandatory field that could be used for such things as a stock code.
Standard section
This supplier declaration is a statement from you, (the supplier), that your appliance complies with the safety and marking requirements of Regulation 13 and 14 of the Gas Regulations. An appliance is not safe if it does not comply with NZS 5262. NZS 5262 has a list of approval standards that are (with certain additional requirements) considered to be a means of compliance with NZS 5262 and thus regulation 13. An alternative means of compliance is to be able to show that the appliance meets the European Directive on gas appliances 90/396/EEC.
The Standard followed... field is the heart of the declaration scheme in that it allows the supplier to demonstrate how their appliance meets the requirements of NZS 5262. If the appliance meets one of the means of compliance standards then most of the requirements of the regulations are considered to be met.
This field is a mandatory field with a drop down list that lists all the means of compliance standards and the European Directive. If you are not able to demonstrate compliance with one of these items you should select Not an NZS 5262 recognized standard.... You will then be required to fill in the next text field to record any other standard the appliance complies with that may be used to prove compliance with the requirements of Regulation 13 and NZS 5262. If the appliance does not meet any standards then the basis for declaring compliance with Regulation 13 and NZS 5262 must be given.
Entering "NZS 5262" or "Gas Regs R13" is not considered adequate. By making the declaration (that the appliance complies with Regulation 13), it is already implicit that the appliance complies with NZS 5262 therefore it is redundant to state NZS 5262, R13, etc in the "Standards followed..." field. Citing NZS 5262 may be acceptable if there is documented testing in other fields to support the statement. That is, if a testing laboratory has issued a test report citing compliance with NZS 5262.
It is also important that any standard cited is actually relevant to gas safety. For example, while an appliance may well have been tested to EN 61000-6-3 this standard is an EMC standard (electrical interference) and has no bearing on the gas safety requirements. Citing such a standard on its own with no gas safety standard mentioned may be considered to mean that the suppler has not taken"...all practicable steps.." as required by the Regulations.
Testing section
While completing this section is not mandatory, if you have claimed compliance with the Gas Regulations it is reasonable to expect you must have some means of demonstrating this compliance. If you do not enter any details in the Name, address... field you will be required to select from the associated drop down list and select either None or Don’t know.
When a product has been "approved" to a standard it usually means that the product has been tested to the standard in some manner and then the product has been certified as meeting the standard by the certifying agency. So generally if your product has been approved (say to Australian or EU regimes) the "test lab" and "test number" details should be in the next section (Certification).
The testing section is meant to cover any testing that has been carried out on an appliance other than testing done in conjunction with certification, such as testing to NZ fuel gas which would not be covered by an overseas approval.
Certification section
While completing this section is not mandatory, if you have claimed compliance with a standard it is reasonable to expect you must have some means of demonstrating this compliance. If you do not enter any details in the Name, address... field you will be required to select from the associated drop down list and select either None or Don’t know.
Whereas testing laboratories generally complete individual tests, third party certification involves certification that an appliance complies with a certain standard as a whole. In Europe, certification bodies are known as notified bodies. In the example above the certificate number indicates the agency (49 = Afnor); the year of issue (BN= 2002) and the actual certificate number (3638). Australian (AGA) approvals will have a four digit number.
Back to Top