As of January 1st 2005, it became a legal requirement for all work on fixed electrical installations in dwellings and associated buildings to comply with BS 7671. This meant that anyone carrying out electrical work is required to notify their Local Area Building Control (LABC) that the work is compliant in relation to design, installation and inspection and testing.

Part P will apply to all electrical work in dwellings, whether carried out by professionals or DIYers. Some DIY work will require the submission of a building notice to the local authority and the payment of a control fee. Some minor electrical work will not be notifiable……..confused? Then  read on.

It is important to remember that you are not required to notify every work activity individually, if the main work activity will cover the works undertaken.

Below is a 12 point list of required notifiable electrical work.

1. Circuit alteration or addition in a kitchen/special location

 

This is to be used for alteration or addition in a kitchen/special location, for example the installation of an additional socket-outlet in a kitchen, or the alteration of a shower circuit within a location containing a bath or shower. This selection will exclude items 4 & 6.

2. One or more new circuits

This is to be used for installing one or more new circuits within an installation, for example installing a shower or cooker supply or adding new circuits due to an extension on a dwelling. This selection will exclude item 4 & 6.

3. Replacement consumer unit

 

This is to be used when replacing the consumer unit; this may also include the replacement of the meter tails. This selection will exclude item 6.

4. Rewire of all circuits

 

This is to be used where a rewire of all circuits has taken place. This work activity may also require additional work activities to be notified if undertaken. for example, when a rewire of all circuits includes the replacement of a consumer unit. This does not preclude the reconnection of suitable electrical equipment as agreed with the client. This selection will exclude items 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11.

5. Partial rewire

 

This is to be used when a partial rewire has taken place, for example when rewiring one or more circuits but not all circuits of a dwelling. This work activity may also require additional work activities to be notified if undertaken, for example when a partial rewire includes the replacement of a consumer unit. This selection will exclude items 4 & 6.

6. New dwelling

 

This is to be used when undertaking a new electrical installation in a dwelling or a newly formed dwelling. This selection will exclude all other items.

7. Lighting and or power outdoors

 

This is to be used when installing fixed electrical equipment such as an external socket outlet, garden lighting or supply to an outbuilding. This selection will exclude items 4 & 6.

8. Control wiring including that of fire/security/heating/cooling/ventilation systems

 

This should be used for the installation of any control wiring. Examples include central heating control wiring installations and security alarm installations. This selection will exclude items 4 & 6.

9. ELV (Extra Low Voltage) lighting within the building

 

This is to be used for the installation of ELV lighting when the wiring has been installed and terminated on site, other than the installation of pre-assembled CE marked lighting sets which are not notifiable. This selection will exclude items 4 & 6.

10. Electric floor or ceiling heating systems

 

This is to be used for the installation of electric floor or ceiling heating systems. This selection will exclude items 4 & 6.

11. Installation/alteration of a generator/solar voltaic system

 

This is to be used for the installation/alteration of a generator or solar PV system, for example the installation of a wind turbine, microCHP unit or a solar PV system. This selection will exclude items 4 & 6.

12. Upgrade or alteration to means of earthing

 

This is to be used when the existing earthing arrangements are being updated or altered, including the replacement of the earthing conductor. This selection will exclude item 6.

Example electrical works

The examples below are not an exhaustive list but will give some guidance as to what is notifiable electrical work.

Scenario 1 – Rewire of all circuits

Existing dwelling has been completely rewired with the exception of the intruder alarm wiring system, which is in a suitable condition for re-use*. The installation consisted of:

• ELV lighting (other than the installation of pre-assembled CE marked lighting sets) in the kitchen and bathroom

• smoke detectors

• new consumer unit

• external socket outlet

• garden lighting

This type of work activity would require the following selection from the list of 12:
4. Rewire of all circuits
3. Replacement of consumer unit

* The reconnection of any suitable electrical equipment must be agreed with the client and recorded on the electrical certification issued.

Scenario 2 – Partial rewires

Existing dwelling has been partially rewired; the wiring to a recently built flat roof extension has been untouched*. The partially rewired installation consisted of:

• ELV lighting (other than the installation of pre-assembled CE marked lighting sets) in the kitchen

• new cooker circuit

This type of work activity would require the following selection from the list of 12:
2. One or more new circuits
5. Partial rewire
9. ELV lighting within the building

 * The reconnection of any suitable electrical equipment must be agreed with the client and recorded on the electrical certification issued.

Scenario 3 – Installation of central heating control wiring to an existing supply point

The installation has an existing supply point for the new central heating system. The controls are wired from this point to various locations throughout the dwelling, for example room thermostats and programmers.

This type of work activity would require the following selection from the list of 12:
8. Control wiring including that of fire/security/heating/cooling/ventilation systems.

Scenario 4 – Installation of a means of earthing

The existing installation has no acceptable means of earthing and the means of earthing is to be provided by an earth electrode (TT system).

This type of work activity would require the following selection from the list of 12:
12. Upgrade or alteration to means of earthing

Scenario 5 – Conversion of a large individual dwelling into multiple dwellings

A large individual dwelling has been altered to provide multiple dwellings. The previous electrical installation has been removed and the incoming supply is adequate for the proposed development. Each new dwelling will have it’s own metered supply. The installation in each dwelling consists of:

• new consumer unit

• lighting and power circuits

• smoke alarms

• electric floor heating

• electric shower

This type of work activity would require the following selection from the list of 12:
6. New dwelling

What works are non-notifiable?

• Replacing accessories such as socket-outlets, control switches and ceiling roses

• Replacing the cable for a single circuit only, where damaged, for example, by fire, rodent or impact (Note 1.)

• Re-fixing or replacing the enclosures of existing installation components (Note 2.)

• Providing mechanical protection to existing fixed installations (Note 3.)

• Installing or upgrading main or supplementary equipotential bonding (Note 4.)

• Work that is not in a kitchen or special location and does not involve a special installation (Note5.) and consists of:

  • Adding lighting points (light fittings and switches) to an existing circuit (Note 6.)

  • Adding socket-outlets and fused spurs to an existing ring or radial circuit (Note 6.)

   Notes:

1. On condition that the replacement cable has the same current-carrying capacity, follows the same route and does not serve more than one sub-circuit through a distribution board

2. If the circuit's protective measures are unaffected

3. If the circuit's protective measures and current-carrying capacity of conductors are unaffected by increased thermal insulation

4. Such work shall comply with other applicable legislation, such as the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations

5. Special locations and installations are listed below

6. Only if the existing circuit protective device is suitable and provides protection for the modified circuit, and other relevant safety provisions are satisfactory

I’m off for a lie down now!

Put simply, no, well not today anyway. The difficulty with ELCB’s (Earth Leakage Circuit Breakers) is that they require an earth to operate effectively. Current operated ELCB’s do exist but for the purpose of this topic we are dealing with the BS 842 Voltage Operated type.

An ELCB works by detecting a voltage to earth, and in the event that this voltage exceeds its setting of 50V, then it will operate. The difference with an RCD is that it is designed to detect current, commonly 30mA.

As installations have been modified over the years, with the addition of supplementary bonding, it is often the case that parallel earth paths are in place in the installation, meaning that not enough voltage will arrive at the ELCB, rendering it useless.

Another consideration is that BS 7671 no longer recognises such devices, there are no test parameters, and I would imagine very few electricians would posses the necessary test equipment for such devices today.

On a final note, my personal advice would be to replace them with a suitably rated RCD should you ‘still’ have one in your installation.

A typical example of a domestic type ELCB is pictured below.

Historically, from the start of UK homes being installed with electricity up until the 1950’s, each room typically had only one or two socket outlets. Even well into the early 1990’s, many homes had only a couple of twin sockets at best. And the image below is more and more commonplace as our modern day demands are putting stress on our existing electrical installations.

The main reason for this kind of activity is that we have far more household appliances than ever before. We’ve had fridges, washing machines and tumble driers for decades, and possibly a TV or 2. Now there are TV’s in every room, satellite boxes, games consoles, mobile phone chargers. In my own office I have over 25 things plugged in!!! Luckily when I refurbished the house 15 years ago, I took the step of installing a dedicated ring to the office and dado trunking. I dread to think what those people who see it fit to decorate their houses with 50,000,0000 Christmas lights bodge together every year. Not to mention running flexes under the carpet and then walking all over them, the problem is on the increase.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out then, that trouble can quickly arise in terms of safety and in particular fire risk. In a 5 year period, there were approximately 13,500 fires in homes that were attributed to an electrical source of ignition, with approximately 30 deaths per year attributed to electrical causes.

Since 1st January 2005, electrical installation work carried out in homes in England and Wales have become subject to the revised Part P of the Building Regulations. This requires - among many other things - that: 'Reasonable provision shall be made in the design, installation and testing of electrical installations in order to protect persons from fire or injury'. It also requires that: 'Sufficient information shall be provided so that persons wishing to operate, maintain or alter an electrical installation can do so with reasonable safety'.

Electrical contractors and installers should know that these requirements apply to ALL electrical installation work carried out in such dwelling, and that failure to comply is a criminal offence.

In England and Wales, there is a recommended minimum number for what would normally be considered adequate provision of socket outlets in the home. It should be noted that in Scotland, the Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations 1990 place statutory requirements for the provision of socket outlets. These requirements will be exceeded in practice, but it is important to recognise that they represent the legal minimum in Scotland.

I can safely say, that is a frequently forgotten item in a periodic inspection report, as to the ‘adequacy of suitable accessories’. The attitude I have encountered from inspection engineers is, “There isn’t an item in the Schedules of Inspection for it, so why should I bother?” The new EICR has also seen this very modern day relevant inspection omitted from the Schedules of Inspection. Watch this space…..

I felt the strong urge to write and complain to the BBC about an edition of Cowboy Trap that aired on the 3rd June 2010. The edition in question was about some work a cowboy builder had done in a bathroom. The story cuts to Clive Holland talking to the electrician, who says that the lack of supplementary bonding in the bathroom has rendered the installation ‘a death trap’. The camera then shows the electrician installing supplementary bonding on all the bathroom pipe work. Now, in accordance with Regulation 701.415.2, a statement clearly states that.

Where the location containing a bath or shower is in a building with a protective equipotential bonding system in accordance with 411.3.1.2, supplementary bonding may be omitted where all of the following conditions are met.

1. All final circuits of the location comply with the requirements for automatic disconnection according to Regulation 411.3.2
2. All final circuits of the location have additional protection by means of an RCD in accordance with Regulation 701.411.3.3
3. All extraneous-conductive parts of the location are effectively connected to the protective equipotential bonding according to Regulation 411.3.1.2

As long winded as this sounds,  none of this was even mentioned by the electrician.

Furthermore, Clive Holland then went on to say that you MUST have ALL electrical work carried out by a Part P or NICEIC registered contractor!

Surely an NICEIC registered contractor, having checked that the above items are in place, would have mentioned that alternatives are available, and the requirement for supplementary bonding may NOT be required. Don’t get me wrong, better to be safe than sorry as they say, but it seems that hiring a Registered Contractor doesn’t mean you’ll get someone who knows all the answers.

The reply to my complaint is below:

Dear Mr Corbett

Reference CAS-117522

Thanks for your e-mail about Cowboy Trap which you sent to us some time ago. We apologise for the very severe delay in replying. It was due to a major fault in our systems which meant that our reply wasn’t sent when you first contacted us.

We can reassure you that at the time, the points in your e-mail were included on the BBC's audience log.

This is the internal report of audience reaction which we compile daily and which is circulated to all programme makers, commissioning executives and senior management. Your points, with other comments we received, were therefore circulated and considered across the BBC at the time.

I understand you had concerns with regards to information contained in the broadcast on 3 June and I note your specific reference to electricians and Part P or NICEIC registered.

We have discussed your concerns with the production team, and with regards to Part P, this is an extract from Elecsa website (Elecsa are certification body like NICEIC).

http://www.elecsa.co.uk/partp.aspx

"The Building Regulations are managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). Part P is an amendment of the Building Regulations introduced by the government, effective from January 1st 2005.

The Part P requirement is that “Reasonable provision shall be made in the design and installation of electrical installations in order to protect persons operating, maintaining or altering the installations from fire or injury.”

In short, electrical installations must be safe. Part P applies to fixed electrical installations in dwellings (including gardens and shared amenities in blocks of flats) and affects many of the typical jobs undertaken by electrical contractors, particularly work carried out in kitchens and bathrooms.

Work affected by Part P is subject to notification to, and inspection by, building control bodies. However, calling in a building control officer takes time and costs money. The solution to this problem is self-certification.

Part P Competent Person Schemes like ELECSA were introduced at the same time as Part P to permit firms that had been assessed as sufficiently competent, to self-certify that their work complies with all applicable requirements of the Building Regulations.

Self-certification benefits the householder because by using a Competent Person they don’t have to pay building control fees or submit a building notice. In addition, householders have the important reassurance that by using a Competent Person, they are using a firm that has been independently assessed and certified as competent to carry out the work.

Jerry Foulkes, Executive Producer, Cowboy Trap has also asked us to pass on the following:

"The viewer is correct it must be a competent person to carry out electrical work. They do not have to be Elecsa or NICEIC registered but they must be approved to be able to self-certify their work to ensure it complies with all current building regulations. The work done by the previous builder in this programme did not comply to building regulations. The purpose of the exchange between the presenter and the builder carrying out the remedial work was to underline the importance of hiring reputable and certified contractors to do electrical work. Building Regulations are often complex and technical, but the purpose of the series is to alert viewers to the kind of questions and checks they should consider before carrying out building work. Here we discovered the importance of earth bonding, and of hiring competent persons to install electric showers and lights in bathrooms and showers. We do make careful effort to cover a range of trade bodies and organisations, such as Elecsa and NICEIC during this long-running series."

Please again accept our apologies for the unfortunate delay and thanks for taking the time to contact us.

Kind Regards

Nicola Maguire

Currently the Part P scheme only applies in England Scotland and Wales. Scotland has gone a step further with the SELECT scheme, and proudly states that they work with the Scottish Government, Scottish Parliament, UK Government and European Union to promote issues of importance to SELECT and to provide authoritative input on behalf of the industry.

Northern Ireland on the other hand has none of this, it appears another bill would have had to be passed in order for Part P to apply in Northern Ireland, and this didn’t happen for whatever reason.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel however. An organisation called the Electrical Standards Lobbying Group. This group is made up of members of the Electrical Training Trust (ETT) the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA) and the Joint Industry Board (JIB).

The Electrical Training Trust is a training organisation comprising members who are drawn from the Unite union, independent electrical contractors and the Electrical Contractors’ Association.

An extremely well put together presentation to the Northern Ireland Assembly by the Group can be read here. Don’t be put off by the length of the paper, this is a refreshing breakthrough in the need for such a national scheme.

I have often tipped my hat in favour of such a National Register as most of you who read my blogs will know and hope that this gathers momentum into achieving such a scheme.

The popularity of surge protected socket outlets (and extension leads) still seems to be growing, I’m all for not having my PC blown up when there’s a dodgy neutral connection on the pole outside my house, but it doesn’t come without it’s hassles. Well for us carrying out periodic testing it doesn’t anyway.

It would be nice to put the meter across the installation (having carried out the relevant isolations and load removals of course!) and get >299Megohms, oh joy, but this is the real world, and we end up with a reading way below that stated in Table 61, and the realisation we are just going to have to test each circuit one by one.

I’d say most engineers will take the precaution of connecting the live conductors together and testing to earth, in accordance with Regulation 612.3.3, this is perfectly acceptable.

But what about when we still get a low reading? (usually around 0.3Mohms)

A simple check is to carry out the insulation resistance test at 250V, and see if the value markedly improves. If so, there’s a good chance there are surge protected socket device (SPD) and /or extension leads on the system.

Is this acceptable practice?

Yes, in the Notes below Table 61 of BS7671, it clearly states the following:

Where surge protected devices (SPD) or other equipment likely to influence the verification test, or be damaged, such equipment shall be disconnected before carrying out the insulation resistance test. Where it is not reasonably practicable to disconnect such equipment (e.g. fixed socket-outlet incorporating an SPD), the test voltage for the particular circuit may be reduced to 250V d.c., but the insulation resistance shall have a value of at least 1Mohm.

Why does this work? Well simply, the SPD is set to detect high voltages, your test instrument is pouring 500V into the system, so naturally the SPD comes into play. At 250V, the voltage is what the SPD expects. Some socket outlets, or spur units contain a removable filter, which will allow the normal testing of the circuit.

I’d like to draw all of your attention here. Someone has taken the time to start an official campaign to licence electricians in the UK. The website says everything that needs to be said, and I have given them my full support. I wish the campaign every success, and hope I will be able to make a difference by spreading the word.

Click the link below

Licensed Electricians Campaign

If anyone can find a Model Domestic Form in BS 7671, I’ll hastily apologise and eat my words. The good thing is I won’t have to, because there isn’t one. The Domestic form has been dreamt up by the various scheme operators to ‘make life easier’ for contractors and the recipients of their reports. It doesn’t stop here, it seems there are many different pads of paper you could buy, all with boxes in different places for every type of installation you could imagine.

So, is this helping the contractor? In my opinion, no. If I carried out periodic inspections on a variety of installations (which I do by the way) the last thing I want is to have to get used to a new layout each time I inspect a different installation.

As stated in my opening sentence, there isn’t a domestic form in the Regs. There is however a model Periodic Inspection Report which will do for just about any type of electrical installation from a house, caravan, marina or swimming pool. The report applies to all of these installations, in fact the only thing it doesn’t apply to is a petrol filling station.

How many of you have bought a pad of paper from one of the scheme operators to inspect a modular dwelling, or a transportable building, and wondered what to do with the rest of the pad?

The good news is that you no longer have to. With PIRform, you can title the report to whatever the installation is, without having to select from a mind numbing array of reports.

Whatever installation you are inspecting….

……here’s how it prints

Consistency and accuracy, it’s what PIRform is all about.

How long before the need for electrical certification, inspection and testing becomes a legal requirement? It’s a question I’m, often asked, by the public and people in the electrical industry. I wish I knew the answer, but unfortunately I don’t.

It’s always baffled me that there is a legal requirement to have a Gas Safety Certificate, but not for electrical installations. You can hear gas escaping, you can smell gas escaping, sure signs that something is wrong. None of these things apply to electricity though, but you can certainly feel it, and in some unfortunate instances all too late. I refer to this case, not too far from where our office is based in Cornwall.

The rental property in question hadn’t been inspected or tested since 1981, and the main earthing conductor had corroded away from the earth rod. A periodic inspection report would have found this, and a life could have been saved. What some contractors may also find worrying about this case, is that a number of electricians who have worked on the property in recent years are in the dock, answering questions as to why they hadn’t produced certification for work they did. Surely one of them would have picked this up if proper procedures had been followed. It’s not for me to say who is at fault here…. is it the landlord, electricians or the law? If you didn’t have to take your car for an MOT every year, I’ll bet most of us wouldn’t bother, but it’s the law, so we’re forced to. Why not with an electrical installation? Probably because the IET or the powers that be have little or no confidence in the quality of inspection and testing.

The electrical industry is very poorly policed where inspection and testing is concerned. In fact, according to the NICEIC, ECA and ELECSA, the biggest complaint they have to deal with on a daily basis is periodic inspections.

Electrical training courses such as the C&G 2391, Advanced Inspection and Testing. This course does NOT teach you how to become an Advanced Inspector and Tester, it merely teaches you to pass an exam.

What are the scheme operators doing about the quality of inspection and testing? Well two in particular are taking very positive steps to assist their members and help them improve the way they carry out inspection and testing. More about this at a later date.

To sum this up, until someone of importance is affected by this problem, it will remain just that, a very grey area indeed.

Rob

As most of you will know, the PIR is to have a facelift, for want of a better term. The IET have decided that PIR’s are to become EICR’s. The new form is a radical change from the existing PIR, and the thought process is that it will make things clearer to the guy filling it out.

At first glance, it’s terrifying, but once you start to drill down into what they have done, you will soon realise it all makes sense, (finally!).

What isn’t clear at first glance though, is the fact that any subsequent boards (not including the main board) will require a separate Schedule of Inspections for each board. That’s a lot of questions to answer, and an awful lot of writing should there be a common theme of deviation on the installation you are inspecting.

We have already discussed at length how PIRform will handle these changes, and feel that the up coming changes will benefit us, and ultimately you, the end user.

There are approximately 200+ pages of changes to the First Amendment, not to mention the Regulation numbers. Those who currently use the program will know that PIRform has the vast majority of the current Regulations built in. We plan to have both sets of Regulations available when the time comes, including any other changes relevant to the program.

Our aim is to have the EICR available on the day that the First Amendment is available, giving users the option to stay up to date with BS 7671.