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Interesting - is that there to increase safety during the test and avoid 500V appearing on random metalwork for any length of time? Or is it to detect and test any parallel paths?See Regulation 643.3.1
The CPC of the circuit being tested is probably isolated from all the others CPCs and the Earth, so you would not see a leak from N to true Earth (e.g. a screw, etc, that is touching the N copper and in to plasterboard, etc) as it would not be guaranteed to complete the circuit from true Earth to CPC and back to your IR tester.
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Basic idea is this (sorry for poor diagram):
View attachment 61176
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So IR testing with the CPC isolated will pick up on an internal cable fault (say N to E), but not for external faults (N to some other CPC or true Earth).
Interesting, I'd never really appreciated that. Though a screw piercing only N through plasterboard, would not be detected in any case would it? What would the viable parth to earth be for a screw, assuming it wasn't into a metal stud or in very wet plaster at time of test?
I guess it would pick up where the neutral for one circuit was damaged where it passed through the backbox of a different circuit or where rodent damage allowed the exposed neutral of a lighting circuit to touch cpc of a power circuit running alongside it in the loft.
I'll admit I've sometimes done the IR after first fix, mostly to check that plasterers haven't damaged a cable, and then not rechecked once connected.
On EICRS I usually do them with the cpcs connected, if only because it is sometimes hard to be sure which one is which anyway in a poorly installed board. (Though RFCs have to be located anyway of course)
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Just to add, I'm fairly sure on previous NICEIC inspections when they check my testing procedure (Usually a RFC continuity test, R1+R2 and then IR) they have never mentioned replacing the cpc before testing.
Obviously it's more to see the procedure than to actually do the test at that point, but maybe I'll get brownie points for ensuring I do at the next one - or he'll ask what I'm doing that for!
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