When a qualified electrician examines a domestic installation in order to grant it a certificate, does he 'open it all up' to physically look inside as well as testing it or does he just test it with his meter to check the earth etc? Or does it depend on what sort of work has been carried out and on the electrician? PS. This should be titled Certifying Work and not Certifying Wok but I mistakenly left out the r and can't 'wok' out how to edit the title.
An existing electrical installation cannot be "granted" a certificate by anyone other than the person or company representative who installed it. If you are referring to an EICR (carried out by a third party) only an Electrical Installation Condition Report can be issued. This is NOT a certificate, as it states it is a REPORT. Certificates only apply to new work and cannot be retrospectively produced by someone else.
I was under the impression that if the home owner carried out certain electrical jobs (an outside socket for example) they needed to be 'passed' by a qualified electrician who would then issue a certificate.
What is the case then seneca? If I want to install an outside socket myself which I am confident I can do (I live in Wales BTW) how do I make it 'legal'?
There's nothing legal or illegal about it Frogger, because the bs7671 regulations are not statute. The only time that legality enters into it is for work that has to be notified to Building Control such as new consumer units and work in "special locations" such as bathrooms and some other situations and then notification to BC is then a legal requirement. Provide you consider yourself competent to do the job it's ok, just ensure that it's installed to the requirements of part "P" of the building regs. ie, rcd protected, suitable cable and protection for the cable, earth loop impedance satisfactory etc. If you're not able to do the testing yourself you could get a local sparks to check it for you (advisable) although he wouldn't issue a certificate. I am assuming Wales has the same rules as England btw.
Hello Seneca and thanks for your reply. I'm sure I read that in 2013 England relaxed some of it's part P regs but Wales has left them as they were. The joys of having a devolved government.
Yes, our lot have taken kitchens out of the notification requirement unless new circuit's are involved so people can now mess about as much as they like with their kitchen electrics as long as they're just altering or extending existing circuits!
In that case installing an outdoor socket on the wrong side of Offa's **** means the work is Notifiable to Building Control
Have you installed a "new circuit" ie taken from the consumer unit on it's own mcb or just taken it from an existing socket (in which case it isn't a "new circuit" by definition of the regs.)
I intend to run it from an existing socket but to replace the socket with a switched fused connection unit. I will be using 2.5 single core cable through a short length of conduit (once it's through the wall).
Hi Frogger, Installing an outdoor socket in Wales is notifiable (taken from the part p) document available here.
I'm glad you found that Fats, why our lot took things out of the notification rules Christ knows, especially kitchens! And outside sockets aren't notifiable here any more unless a new circuit, bloody daft I reckon, it could still be dangerous whether on a new circuit or not couldn't it.
No prob's Sen. Agreed mate. Outside is as close to true earth you can get, so it makes sense to keep it notified.
In section J, it states: ...and requires RCD protection. I know outdoor sockets do come supplied with an RCD fitted but if you install one that doesn't (and many do not), will running the external socket from a fused connection unit be sufficient?
No. If you don't intend using an RCD socket you would have to either use an RCD FCU, or provide RCD protection for the circuit you intend spurring from.
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