Part P and plumbers (again)

Hi,

quick 'post and run' with apologies if this is covered in FAQ.

My Corgi registered plumber who is replacing our central heating sub-contracts to an electrician to do the 'Part P' bits.

The electrician has quoted for 3 extra bits of work:

(1) Replace existing rewireable fuses with miniature circuit breakers (2) Upgrade main earth cable (3) Main equipotential bond cable to incoming gas.

(2) and (3) seem potentially reasonable (although the electricity meter was replaced by the leccy board and the gas reinstated by another Corgi plumber about a year ago when we moved in, without any mention of these). There is an isolation switch between the meter and the distribution board.

However is it required by Part P that rewireable fuses are replaced by plug in MCBs?

The quote is £198+VAT

As far as I can see I can replace the fuses with items from e.g. Screwfix such as

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£7.25 a pop. I was thinking of doing this anyway. I presume I replace e.g. 30A with 32A etc.

This comes to around £60.

So is £180 including VAT a reasonable price for adding some earth bonding and certifying to Part P or is the electrician making a lot of his money on supplying and fitting the replacement fuses?

£200 for wiring in and certifying the boiler is included in the main quote, so this is extra work to bring the whole installation up to Part P.

My obvious option is to ask for a price for just the earth bonding, but I would welcome guidance on how much is reasonable (which is obviously a bit difficult as you can't see the installation).

3 bedroom semi with the gas meter in the attached garage.

TIA Dave R

Reply to
David WE Roberts
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Fool boy - the 'isolation switch' is a Wylex RCOCB 240v 80A load 100mA trip.

So the whole installation is protected by a RCOCB - do I also need individual RCBs to be Part P compliant?

Also, having just checked again, I can see a separate earth feed coming into the consumer unit. This may, however, be earthed to a part of the pipework which is being replaced. I can see earth bonding to the main stopcock in the kitchen.

The main consumer unit is Wylex - presumably I can just plug in the replacement MCBs without having to replace the carrier it plugs into?

TIA

Dave R

Reply to
David WE Roberts

No, you also replace the carriers. Not a difficult job. Just make sure isolator is off, as removing the carriers exposes the live busbar.

Reply to
Tim Morley

Wire fuses are compliant with the latest wiring regs, and their safety is comparable to mcbs, for almost all of us. The exception is in the case of the craziest sector of society, who might replace the fuse wire with thick mains wire for reasons that make no sense to anyone.

Traders like to quote for work that doesnt need doing.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

The carrier (plastic bit) has slots different to the equivalent fuse. They come with the mcb and are easy to change. The metalwork behind stays the same. A 5 minute job. The cover will require a slot removing to accommodate the extra depth of the mcbs.

Reply to
<me9

Thanks for the info. so far.

From a bit of Googling today I think that (1) and (3) are not Part P notifiable, although (3) is probably required by Corgi regs.

(2) is the only think likely to be connected with Part P.

if I have a main earth cable already, presumably it only needs upgrading if it is of insufficient diameter?

Nobody yet has suggested costs for this kind of work.

What would you expect to pay to have your earth cable upgraded?

TIA

Dave R

Reply to
David WE Roberts

... but which is easy to do.

Reply to
Ed Sirett

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