UK Tenant Having Electrical Safety Test Carried Out - What to Look For?

[LukeD]

True, maybe he has found a way of installing CU,s without fitting breakers.

Referring only to the board .As once a board is fitted there any many options to populate it depending on budget etc .At the end of the day they are still cheap .

 

[nicebutdim]

Referring only to the board .As once a board is fitted there any many options to populate it depending on budget etc .At the end of the day they are still cheap .

Once fitted there are indeed many options for populating a board, but I'd be inclined to put a little more thought into the process before simply buying 'a board' as the end result could be far more expensive than initially hoped.

Someone throwing in a cheap board might find themselves needing to replace dual busbars with a single bar that no one stocks. Maybe required breakers are expensive or not readily available. I'd be concerned by any spark who fitted an unpopulated board with no real plan about the finished job or no consideration given to the installation being protected.



As for other posts in this thread? OP asked some basic questions and (understandably) provided little in the way of detail. While it's very likely a fairly cheap board would do the job, making such an assertion without being in possession of a lot more information is, quite frankly, daft.

 

[GBDamo]

Go on then,I will bite.
please post a link to this £50 consumer unit.

I see them all over the place in wholesalers and screwstation at Al. Maybe not quite £50 but seen a splitty 12way for £59+, can't remember where but there was a pallet load of them in at the trade counter.....

Everyone I do see though is type AC RCDs no SPD.

 

[EricMark]

I have tried to find out what is required with the EICR, English law I can find, Welsh law coming in 1st December, but the law does not seem to detail what is required, it talks about fit for human habitation, and smoke detectors are required, but wading thought the law I find nothing, only find anything with guide to law.

The English law does not follow the standard practice, normally the only current using equipment covered in an EICR is the lights, anything else is inspected with the inspection and testing of in service electrical equipment loosely called PAT testing. And it does not cover the DNO equipment, where normally there is a visual inspection.

Welsh law it seems refers to a PIT (periodic inspection and testing) but not actually found the bit in the actual law. It seems more about notice which must be given, right of access etc. Here in rural Wales we are seeing a mass exodus of landlords before the deadline, social media is full of people looking for new rental accommodation, seems the labour government is full of good intentions, but they have not thought it through, and the work from home revival has resulted in a good market to sell homes in the country.

The PIR (periodic inspection report) had 4 main codes, but the IET felt code 4 was unhelpful, it was does not comply with current regulations, and now we have three, with C in front so showing new code system. C1 is dangerous and there is very little debate as to what falls into that category. But the C2 potential dangerous and C3 improvement recommended are rather fluid.

We have code busters and best practice guides which help, but in real terms it is down to the inspector to decide C2 or C3 or of course not worth raising, and the limit or further investigation options.

It does not really matter if a non compliant £50 consumer unit is fitted or a fully compliant £300 model, the main cost is the electrician who fits it, seems false economy to fit a non compliant unit, and the electrician is laying himself open for future claims.

One in not forced to follow BS 7671, the rules allow one to follow an equivalent, however not if self certifying, but the real question is does the lack of RCD protection or SPD mean the installation fails? If not potentially dangerous in 1970, why is it potentially dangerous now, what has changed?

Well some things have changed, practise of using semi-conductor devices before the isolation transformer, and the adoption of TN-C-S earthing, the use of non conducting pipe work, which also means removal of the main earth, technically we bonded the pipe work to the earth, but in real terms often the pipe work was the earth.

I know as a young lad I made a mistake and accidentally connected line to earth, and it ruptured the 13 amp fuse in my dad's house, but some 30 years latter found there was no earth, at least not good enough to blow a 13 amp fuse, also since wired before 1966 no earth on lights, and rubber insulated cables, so needed a full re-wire, but the question remains what happened to the earth?

Because we can now stop bonding all in the bathroom if protected with an RCD, we have a potential danger that a plumber will remove and not replace bonding even when no RCD, so we have that phrase, potential danger, so hard to justify not having RCD protection.

We also have "Every installation shall be divided into circuits, as necessary, to:
(iii) take account of danger that may arise from the failure of a single circuit such as a lighting circuit
(iv) reduce the possibility of unwanted tripping of RCDs due to excessive protective conductor currents produced by equipment in normal operation." since 2008, so not new, we can of course measure the back ground leakage and if under 9 mA consider it as being OK. But if a freezer full of food is lost, or worse, it is damaged without the house holder realising the food has defrosted, we have both expense and a potential danger, there's that phrase again.

But there are no hard and fast rules, code 4 has gone, so not complying with current regulations has gone, so up to the inspector what codes he awards.

 

[Dodgy Landlord]

I had no idea I'd stimulated so much discussion - I haven't been getting notifications for this thread!

By way of an update for you all (I really do appreciate your responses, it was really good of you all), the work is complete. It was a total, total nightmare, but it's complete. I think I saw someone mention how bad it would be depended on how much DIY the landlord had done? Yes, well...quite a bit as it turns out.

I honestly think I saw the Sparky's soul depart his body at one point. There was a fault on one of the circuits that he couldn't pin down to any of the sockets, and that's when we started finding the hidden mystery sockets that had been blanked off all over the house (one half way up a bathroom wall which hadn't been blanked off just plastered over, one behind a wall unit in the kitchen, one in the middle of what we think used to be an archway - that's not even all of them). At one point it looked like he was going to have to be there for a third day, but thankfully for him he managed to locate and repair the fault because I think he was starting to reconsider his career choices by that point. Poor bloke. Excellent sparky though, I'll definitely be going to him if I need any cosmetic things done like fitting lights.

Once again, thank you all - I'm sorry I didn't get back to you all sooner.

And yes - the landlord did put the rent up.

 

[DPG]

I had no idea I'd stimulated so much discussion - I haven't been getting notifications for this thread!

By way of an update for you all (I really do appreciate your responses, it was really good of you all), the work is complete. It was a total, total nightmare, but it's complete. I think I saw someone mention how bad it would be depended on how much DIY the landlord had done? Yes, well...quite a bit as it turns out.

I honestly think I saw the Sparky's soul depart his body at one point. There was a fault on one of the circuits that he couldn't pin down to any of the sockets, and that's when we started finding the hidden mystery sockets that had been blanked off all over the house (one half way up a bathroom wall which hadn't been blanked off just plastered over, one behind a wall unit in the kitchen, one in the middle of what we think used to be an archway - that's not even all of them). At one point it looked like he was going to have to be there for a third day, but thankfully for him he managed to locate and repair the fault because I think he was starting to reconsider his career choices by that point. Poor bloke. Excellent sparky though, I'll definitely be going to him if I need any cosmetic things done like fitting lights.

Once again, thank you all - I'm sorry I didn't get back to you all sooner.

And yes - the landlord did put the rent up.

Many thanks for letting us know.

 

[Markyd]

I suspect the distribution board will require replacement. You can buy a CU for about £50. Light switches and sockets are cheap as chips. Perhaps sockets and switches. The CU will need to be replaced by a registered electrician. Buiklding Regs Part P. But as far as the cabling is concerned, the big job, there's no particular reason why it should need replacing. If it passes the EICR insulation tests then it should be ok. Age isn't the deciding factor.

Yeh Ones that dont meet regs anymore

 

[Markyd]

I don't know where you shopping dude.
Heres one. Dual RCD plus MCBs. Probably way more than you need. £67.
View attachment 99527

Nope Doesnt meet regs.....Do you know what you are actully talking about