How to check an electrical worker on the EWRB register
Ask who will connect the heat pump
Get the person's full name, or their registration or practising licence number. The Electrical Safety Certificate you'll get at the end records both the certifier's name and that number, so it's a fair thing to ask for up front.
Search the register
The EWRB's 'Search the register' tool is at kete.mbie.govt.nz/EW/EWPRSearch. It tells you whether a person is a registered or licensed electrical worker.
Check the licence is current, and its classes
The EWRB says a licence lists the classes of registration the worker holds, and the public register shows whether it's been suspended.
Look at the licence on the day
It can be a card or digital. The EWRB says to check it hasn't expired and the photo matches the person in front of you. A digital licence has a QR code that opens the worker's profile on the register.
Match it to the paperwork
The Certificate of Compliance should arrive no later than 20 days after the work, and the name on it should be someone you found on the register.
What the electrical registration covers
Prescribed electrical work is a set of electrical jobs regulated under the Electricity Act 1992, such as installing, maintaining and testing electrical fittings. Only registered and licensed electrical workers can carry it out or supervise it, and Tenancy Services' heating guide says heat pumps need a licensed electrician to install them.
The register lists electrical workers, so you're checking a person, not a company name. Ask the business which of its people will do your connection.
Some jobs need a second check. Work on the main switchboard, main cable or main earth may also have to be inspected by a licensed electrical inspector, which your electrical worker arranges. Keep the inspection report with your CoCs.
Checking a gasfitter on the PGDB register
If the job is a flued gas heater or anything else on a gas supply, you need a gasfitter. The PGDB regulates plumbers, gasfitters and drainlayers and runs their registration and licensing. It describes Certifying Gasfitter as the highest qualification; the other classes include Gasfitter, Restricted Gasfitter and Limited Certificate Trainee Gasfitter.
The PGDB's public register shows a tradesperson's registration and licence history, any conditions on their licence, supervision arrangements and disciplinary decisions, so you can see whether they've been disciplined in the last three years. You can search it by name, town, city or postcode, company name or class of registration. Use it to check someone you're thinking of hiring: the PGDB says a search for any other purpose may interfere with a person's privacy and is prohibited.
The PGDB also suggests asking to see the licence before work starts, on a phone app or as a card. Once the work is connected to the gas supply, the gasfitter has 20 working days to give you a gasfitting certificate. That's working days, unlike the electrical CoC, which EWRB says is due within 20 days, and your gas supplier may ask for a copy before it supplies gas or refills LPG bottles.
Refrigerant: an industry licence, not a law
There's no government licence for refrigerant work on heat pumps in New Zealand. What exists is an industry arrangement. On 25 November 2011 the Commerce Commission authorised refrigerant wholesalers, up to 100% of them, to agree to supply refrigerant only to customers trained and licensed to handle it safely, or holding an approved test certificate.
The credentials that arrangement named are a Refrigerant Licence from the Refrigerant License Trust Board (RLTB), or an Approved Handler or Approved Filler test certificate issued under the Environmental Protection Authority's authority. The RLTB is a charitable trust that two industry bodies set up in April 2011 to train people in handling refrigerants safely, and when the arrangement was approved, its Refrigerant Licence was valid for 30 months.
It's voluntary at heart. Even in 2011, the Commission recorded the Motor Trade Association's concerns about the lack of regulatory backing and the scheme's voluntary nature. So ask which credential the technicians hold and when it runs out. We don't know of a public register you can search for it, so seeing the card or certificate is the practical check.
Leave the wiring and the gas to the registered trades
Connecting a heat pump is prescribed electrical work for a registered and licensed electrical worker. The PGDB says homeowners can't install, alter or repair gas appliances, including gas and flue pipes and commissioning. If someone offers to skip the electrician or the gasfitter, say no: the certificates are your evidence that the work was tested and is safe to use.
What should be in the paperwork
- A Certificate of Compliance for the electrical work, showing it's electrically safe, meets the standards and has been tested.
- An Electrical Safety Certificate with the certifier's name, registration or practising licence number, and the date of connection.
- For gas work, a Gasfitting Certificate of Compliance or a Gas Safety Certificate.
- An inspection report, if the switchboard, main cable or main earth was worked on.
- Any installer details the brand's warranty needs. Rinnai NZ says claims may be invalid without its accredited installer's details.
Who the certificates go to
Electrical certification documents go to the person or company that contracted or authorised the work, or to the owner or occupier if that person isn't available. If a landlord or property manager arranged the job, ask them for copies.
Registration warning signs
- The name on the register doesn't match the person doing the work, or their licence has expired.
- Nobody can tell you who will connect the heat pump.
- A refrigerant card held up as a government licence. There isn't one.
- No Certificate of Compliance, or a promise to send it that stretches past 20 days.
- A gasfitter who won't show their licence before starting.
- Recent disciplinary decisions on the PGDB register that nobody can explain.
What you can look up, and what they must hold
You can
- Search the EWRB register for the person connecting your heat pump.
- Search the PGDB register for a gasfitter.
- Check the licence card, or scan the QR code on a digital one.
- Keep the CoC, ESC and any gasfitting certificate together.
- Note the installer details your brand's warranty asks for.
Leave to a licensed installer
- A current electrical practising licence for the connection.
- A refrigerant credential the wholesalers accept.
- Issuing the CoC and ESC on time.
- Arranging an electrical inspection where it's needed.
- The gasfitting certificate for any gas work.
What we'd do
What we'd check first
We'd look up one person before anything else: whoever will connect the heat pump, on the EWRB register, with a current licence. That covers the part of the job the law actually controls. For refrigerant, we'd ask to see the card or certificate and not worry that there's no register to search, because there's no government licence behind it. For a gas job, we'd give the PGDB register the same look before the gasfitter starts.