I went to quote for remedial work in a flat yesterday. The client is selling the flat and wants an EICR for the purposes of the sale. The last week they had an NIC electrician who performed an EICR, which they then sent to me. Worth mentioning at this point that a neighbouring flat had caught fire due to a suspected electrical fault, so attention extra attention to detail here would be necessary.
There was a C1 on the EICR as well as a couple of C2's. The C2's were wooden backboxes, and metal light fixtures with no CPC.
The C1 was no earth from supply to C.U.
First alarm bell was that the client wasn't aware of the significance of this C1.
The second alarm bell was that all insulation resistance readings were >500 meg ohms, and it's an old installation.
The third was that the customer told me the previous electrician was in a rush when he was there.
So I got there, and started referencing the EICR against what I saw. First thing I noticed was that the one ring main was labelled as being on a 32a CB, when in fact it was on a 16a breaker. Hmm. So as I normally do, I did a few of my own tests to check the results against the EICR. R1 end to end was around 0.32, fine - that checked out, but for RN it was 0.48. On the EICR R1 was 0.33, and RN was 0.34. Fourth alarm bell.
I didn't even both doing end to end R2 on the ring as one end didn't even reach the earth bar, the tinned strands had simply been twisted together behind the fuses with one end in the earth bar, though there was a an entry for R2 on the EICR, which surprise surprise was exactly what you'd expect it to be if R1 and RN were both in fact 0.33.
At this point I decided to stop, and that the previous electrician hadn't really done an EICR, he'd just walked around bit, opened the fuse board, done a couple of tests and decided to fabricate results as it was too much work.
Oh also, as it only took me two minutes, I rectified the C1 before leaving and tested, all it cost me was 30 cm of 16mm.
I need to get back to the customer today to inform them of what I found, and also tell them that I'm unable to quote for the remedial work without having an accurate EICR to work from. I'm tempted to report the electrician to the NIC myself, but unsure as to leave that decision to the customer or not.
What would you guys do in this situation, it's a new one for me.
Thanks
There was a C1 on the EICR as well as a couple of C2's. The C2's were wooden backboxes, and metal light fixtures with no CPC.
The C1 was no earth from supply to C.U.
First alarm bell was that the client wasn't aware of the significance of this C1.
The second alarm bell was that all insulation resistance readings were >500 meg ohms, and it's an old installation.
The third was that the customer told me the previous electrician was in a rush when he was there.
So I got there, and started referencing the EICR against what I saw. First thing I noticed was that the one ring main was labelled as being on a 32a CB, when in fact it was on a 16a breaker. Hmm. So as I normally do, I did a few of my own tests to check the results against the EICR. R1 end to end was around 0.32, fine - that checked out, but for RN it was 0.48. On the EICR R1 was 0.33, and RN was 0.34. Fourth alarm bell.
I didn't even both doing end to end R2 on the ring as one end didn't even reach the earth bar, the tinned strands had simply been twisted together behind the fuses with one end in the earth bar, though there was a an entry for R2 on the EICR, which surprise surprise was exactly what you'd expect it to be if R1 and RN were both in fact 0.33.
At this point I decided to stop, and that the previous electrician hadn't really done an EICR, he'd just walked around bit, opened the fuse board, done a couple of tests and decided to fabricate results as it was too much work.
Oh also, as it only took me two minutes, I rectified the C1 before leaving and tested, all it cost me was 30 cm of 16mm.
I need to get back to the customer today to inform them of what I found, and also tell them that I'm unable to quote for the remedial work without having an accurate EICR to work from. I'm tempted to report the electrician to the NIC myself, but unsure as to leave that decision to the customer or not.
What would you guys do in this situation, it's a new one for me.
Thanks