Defined Scope - advice needed please :)

[cornburn]

After a few years of installing spurs when needed for my AV installs and signing them off myself (all commercial premises - nothing domestic) I'm looking at investing a bit of money into a course to fill in any gaps. I'm also starting to get bigger jobs fall in my lap such as full computer suite installations, where quite often 3 or 4 rcbo ring circuits are needed.

So, I could really do with some advice after spending the last few hours reading over this forum, the NAPIT site, NIC site etc.

I want to have a piece of paper to prove competance to install new circuits, spurs and occasionally small boards. Some of the sites we work at have old 3 phase catridge fuse boards, so it is necesarry to install a small 3 way or 5 way RCD board next to it, powered through a spare fuse on the 3 phase. Being able to write out PIRs and convert small rewireable fuse boards to new 17th boards is also something that could be useful in the future, although isn't required at the moment.

How much of this could I get through a defined scope sceme or would it be too much? 90% of the work I do is just a fused spur for a fan, projector, aircon unit etc but I need to think of the future and the bigger projects I am being asked about. I have got away up until now with minor works jobs, as all the sites are commercial and I do have a BTEC in Electrical Engineering which I feel shows competancy for the jobs I am doing. After college I went more down an IT route and it's only in recent years my career seems to have gone full circle

Whatever I choose to do it needs to be a short course as I can't do evenings and would prefer to take a week off work to concentrate on the course fully.

Any advice that anyone could give would be greatly appreciated, there seem to be a lot of options and I don't mind spending the cash but I want to know it's going in the right place. As I have no interest (and never will) in getting into doing domestic work I'm not sure which course would suit.

Thanks in advance for any opinions!

What about this one?

City & Guilds 2392 Electrical inspection course

After several years working with another electrician it's really the testing and learning about filling out every aspect of the certs that would be most useful to me. Think I've decided against joining any competant persons scheme for now though looking at the prices. If I can get most of the criteria on paper then that's good enough, don't want "NIC" on the side of my van anyway in case the Fluke gets nicked!

There's also one like this

PTT : PROACTIVE TECHNICAL TRAINING Inspection & Testing - Completion of Certification

Just for the certs. Might want something a bit more useful though. Will wait for some replies as I'm just running around in circles on the internet!

 

[Spudnik]

..... such as full computer suite installations, where quite often 3 or 4 rcbo ring circuits are needed.

You have to be very careful of this type of installation.

IT suites and three phase design are a WHOLE different ball game and there are a number of regs that need to be read and understood.

A short cut course will not give you this information.

However, if you think that this type of install may not effect you much, then it should be ok.

 

[cornburn]

Hi Jason

Could you please elaborate a bit more? Almost all the boards we work and test from are 3 phase but full of circuits only using one phase. It is full installs we want to be able to do - we already install all the Cat5, Av equipment and benching and it's important to the customers to receive a whole package. The problems we have is that a lot of the boards and wiring are from the 60s and haven't been updated, so it's necessary to install small RCD boards for all the new modern kit that's going in.

I really need something practical for now as we're being asked about the work and getting some big jobs come in, then I'd like a plan for the next couple of years of where I'm going to continue on from there with my learning.

Also when you say "However, if you think that this type of install may not effect you much, then it should be ok" what is the "it"? One of the courses I linked to or just carrying on as I am? It's a minefield, I've had quite a bit of experience and very willing to learn but time is money and I can't take the time off to do numerous courses unfortunately. I get the hands on experience most days but could do with something better than just reading up to fill in the gaps.

 

[bomdiddly]

computer suites can get quite involved with high integrity earth,earth leakage,functional earths,ups systems

 

[cornburn]

computer suites can get quite involved with high integrity earth,earth leakage,functional earths,ups systems

Well all we generally do is try and keep max 10 machines on a ring, and always use a ring instead of radial so the earth's double bonded, also using 2.5mm singles in dado instead of twin and 1.5mm earth . UPSs aren't an issue as it's not an MI6 control room, it's a classroom full of thin clients used to teach kids how to type Most of the best installations we see around other schools are designed the same as ours, and many aren't up to the same standard and lots of local sparks just extend a current ring or radial around the room from a current wall socket.

Anyway, advice on a course was what I posted the question for, has anyone got anything helpful to point me in the right direction of what would be most suitable for the work we do?

Thanks

 

[ajelec10]

As with undertking any electrical installation, even before you start work on adding new circuits and altering existing ones you need to carry out an assement of the general charcteristics and nature of supply this will include maxium demand calcs, assessing earthing and bonding arangements and also being able to design your new installation corectly its not good practice to just 'copy' what's been done before, my advise is to sub the work out to qulified electrician rather than spending money on short courses as they wont give you the electrical experience you require to be able to carry out the tasks you need to do.