ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: The markets of twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad are flooded with inferior quality gas heaters due to absence of enforceable quality control standards, interviews with shopkeepers and stakeholders revealed.

With winter fast approaching, the sale of gas heaters has increased. It has been observed that most of the gas heaters, particularly those within the range of common man, are of poor quality. The price of heaters varies between Rs170 and Rs3,000. Each year in winter, several people lose their lives due to gas leakage or other fault in heaters. One can only hope and pray that this year no such incident will happen.

Officials of Consumers Rights Corporation of Pakistan (CRCP) told Dawn that they had conducted a survey on gas heaters being sold in market in connection with their study on energy conservation and the results were being tabulated. However, preliminary findings suggested that most of the heaters available in the market were not suitable for use, they said.

“The only difference between the heaters of various brands that we have noticed is that of decor, show-casing and to some extent the type of clay used in the heating element,” Salman Humayun of the CRCP said. Experts on gas supply and appliances, in their comments, said such heaters affected consumers in a variety of ways. They said faulty heaters affected environment and health besides inflating utility bills.

They said poor quality heaters churned out lot of unburnt methane, which was hazardous for environment and health. “The exact impact on health has not been documented so far,” they regretted.

The solution to these problems, experts believed, was installation of three sensors, which would cost an additional meagre amount of Rs32.

These sensors closed down the heater in case oxygen limits went below the accepted standards, they added. The manufacturers of gas heaters, when contacted, said installation of sensors would make heaters costly and hence unaffordable for the common man.

However, a large number of consumers said they were ready to spend Rs32 more as it would be in their own benefit.

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that under pressure from the CRCP and consumers, the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority has agreed to formulate standards for gas heaters. — Zahra Syed