The HHIC - the Heating and Hotwater Industry Council - have revisited the Benchmark scheme and updated the commissioning checklist for boilers, to bring it in line with 2020 standards and beyond.

The Benchmark scheme started in 1999 and promotes the improved quality of installation, commissioning and servicing of heat and hot water systems. The Checklist hasn’t changed much since its creation and in the words of Stewart Clements, Director for HHIC, ‘a lot has changed since then, and it is important that the scheme reflects modern day best practice, standards, and legislation’.

You can find copies of the new Benchmark Checklist and other scheme documents on the installation instructions supplied with products you buy and install. Alternatively, they can be found on the HHIC website. Visit www.hhic.org.uk/resources for more information.

Filling out the Benchmark Checklist is already a means of meeting the commissioning requirements within Part L of the Building Regulations. Stewart Clements goes on to say, ‘embracing Benchmark is the most straightforward way to help make sure you comply, as the documentation is already supplied with the appliance’.

To make things easier the HHIC are investigating ways to make the Checklist digital. This would allow installers to complete the Checklist at the same time as registering the installation with Gas Safe, saving installers valuable time.