Loft Light Kits

[The Medway Handyman]

There I was in my local B&Q tother day when I noticed a bin full of Loft Light Kits. Batten lampholder, switch, junction box, 10m cable & clips in a bag for an all in one price.

New spec blue/brown/earth cable. No label about mixed wiring colours. I mentioned this to one of the guys who works there. He was aware of the regs & opened one of the bags to check - no label or any mention of it in the instructions.

He went off muttering in search of the store manager.

Presumably if Joe Public bought a kit & fitted it in a house with the old red/black/earth cable he would be contravening the regs, but would B&Q be in trouble for selling the kit?

The nations No1 DIY store should really know better IMO.

[John Rumm]

If M&S did loft light fittings.... ;-)

They are there to sell product, not advice. You could apply the same logic and say if the Medway Handy Van was clocked speeding, would it be Renaults fault for not spelling out you that really ought to keep to the limit in the handbook?

Probably safer to not offer advice with the products at all, otherwise they place themselves on a slippery slope of accepting some liability. If they say nothing then they can't be held to account

(they can still offer advice in "how to" leaflets that are separate from the products though).

[Frank Erskine]

It;s up to the installer to provide any necessary labelling, innit. A "kit" is merely that. The onus is on the installer to follow any requirements.

"Joe Public", in fitting a "kit" has to comply with regulations as appropriate - isn't that the whole idea of "regulations"

[meow2222]

maybe they do

NT

[ARWadsworth]

But electrical anywholesaler will also sell Joe Public any amount of kit he wants without asking questions and supplying stickers.

Adam

Adam

[Andrew Gabriel]

Why should there be? The installation might already have that label or it might all be in new colours anyway.

No.

They haven't done anything wrong here.

[Mike Barnes]

I doubt it.

They could *do* better. IMO it would be better to include (at fairly negligible cost to themselves) a label and information about when and where to apply it. What they've done isn't wrong, but it isn't optimal either.

[zaax]

I think I missed something here. Do you mean part p or something else?

[John Rumm]

Nothing to do with Part Pee, the amendments to the wiring regs for the harmonised colours require that if an installation uses mixed old and new colours, a warning label be fixed near the CU to indicate this.

[zaax]

Thats an insult to eletricans. If any electrican is not aware that they might come across the two types of colour coding should not be in the job.

[John Rumm]

Who said the label was for the benefit of electricians? Although it may give them something to think about on three phase installs.

[Lurch]

On Thu, 19 Apr 2007 21:45:09 GMT, "zaax" mused:

Also not really much use when hardly anyone bothers to fit aforementioned labels.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Sleaving cores to indicate live is one of my bugbears... I find it's been done wrongly so often that it really is just better when you find an installation where it's not been done at all, as it removes any danger that you might take any notice of the sleaving.

[Lurch]

On 20 Apr 2007 08:19:48 GMT, [e-mail] (Andrew Gabriel) mused:

You'd love my jobs then. ;)