I'm having a load bearing wall removed by a professional builder. Someone (probably me at this rate) will send building control a building notice for this work.
Around the same time, I'd like to re-wire the house myself. DIY. Certainly Part P notifiable.
What will building control want from me? Diagrams? What level of detail?
I've googled this and can't find any information. I've been trying to phone the local building control, but it seems they're not around this week(!).
You might find it cheaper to include both on the same BN...
Hard to say without knowing how your local BCOs work. Not all follow the intended letter of the part P law (because to do so would cost them!). So some will try to insist on having you pay for inspections etc.
Anecdotal evidence, plus discussions with one of our local BCOs would suggest that the number of electrical only BNs they receive would tend toward zero! (our BCO could not actually recall having received *any* when I asked him).
You would have to discuss with yours what they will accept. If going by the letter of the rules, then it ought to come down to paying a standard BN fee, and then the BCO will tell you at what stages in the work they would want to inspect. Any inspections should then be either done by them or by their subcontractor at their expense.
You may find the answers to the questions you get will depend on how confident the BCO feels that you know what you are doing. Having some plans ready for them may help (nothing sophisticated - but say topology diagrams indicating what circuits and outlets / lights etc are planned). Plus design notes on any non standard circuits if required (or a statement and reference to the relevant table in the OSG to say the circuits meet the definition of a "standard circuit" etc).
Alternatively you could equally find the BCO has no electrical knowledge at all and is not really in a position to engage in any discussion other than what their normal procedure is.
Make the initial approach as informal/unofficial as possible, as that might well get you an equally informal/unofficial response along the lines of don't bother to apply. Once you've done something more formal, that option has clearly gone.
If you say what area you're in, someone may have past experience with that office. There have been some cases where BCO's have made it all but impossible to DIY by not sticking to the rules themselves, in which case you probably make a mistake even starting down that route.
As I've posted before, the Approved Documents aren't the regulations, and they are always "optional", but you need to demonstrate that you can comply with the requirement (i.e., Part P) in some other way. The "the BCB can't charge extra" bit was slipped in to a revision of AD P, and has dubious legality. Anyway, it's now made irrelevant by the new charging regulations that allows a LA to charge extra where consultants are needed.
Don't you just hate government by statuary instrument?
When used for inappropriate things (in fact these days almost all things) it makes a complete mockery of the process of parliamentary scrutiny. On the few occasions something actually gets discussed in the house prior to becoming law, its all fairly meaningless anyway, since any provisos, guild lines, assurances, restrictions etc introduced at that stage, can all be swept away later without any further intervention being possible.
Yup I was aware of that (and do recall your comments from the past).
However anecdotally it does seem at least that some LAs were swayed when one mentioned said paragraph.
(you may recall there was also a memo from the now defunct "office of the deputy prime minister" that also explicitly stated that the intention of the legislation was that LAs should not charge extra etc)
Indeed - hence my objections to the use of SIs for this type of legislation. It was introduced with assurances that it would not burden householders unduly etc, and now those assurances have been quietly dropped. So basically Jo Public gets to cop for yet more pointless legislation that appears to be resulting in the exact opposite of the intended effect (i.e. a reduction in electrical safety)
(BTW I fully understand the LAs objection to the original enactment, given it placed many of them in a ridiculous situation of having to operate at a loss in some cases, and it also forced an ever growing remit of activities to supervise on to the BCOs)
I included complete, new-from-scratch electrics in a full-plans application for a chapel conversion.
This is what they got (obviously prior to 17th Ed):
ELECTRICAL
TN-C-S (PME) 100A supply to split load consumer unit with RCD protection. 25 mm2 tails, and 16 mm2 main earth bond. 10 mm2 equipotential bonds to water mains, and oil supply. Supplementary bonding & SELV in bathroom & shower. All installation and testing to
16th Edition wiring regulations. All circuits with diagrams and labels.
Circuits RCD protected:
40A Spare
32A Ring main, kitchen. 2.5/1.5 mm2 T&E.
32A Ring main, other ground floor rooms. 2.5/1.5 mm2 T&E.
32A Ring main, upper floor rooms. 2.5/1.5 mm2 T&E.
16A Radial, immersion heater. 2.5/1.5 mm2 T&E.
Is that the plans passed or the build signed off ? What will they require to sign off the build inc. electrics ? My building control will require an inspection certificate. Presumably I will need to involve an electrician in some capacity to get this. Simon.
Sorry - I should have made that clear - this was plans passed only.
Don't know. I'm MIET, so to have my new consumer unit connected, I downloaded the forms from the IET, did the tests (with a loaned 16th Ed tester) and filled in the data - of course the EDF guys *didn't even glance* at my so nicely prepared form.
Still not completed the rest of the work, so no completion certificate yet, but I suspect that EDF being happy bunnies will be sufficient for my BCO.
Grey area I believe. AIUI any competent person can run the tests and fill in the forms - but a relevant professional qualification may help ensure that it's accepted (by the BCO) without any quibbles.
Thanks - I shall try the same level of detail (I can't imagine what _more_ I could do!) and see what happens.
(isn't fire alarms on separate circuit considered bad practice? I connected them to a lighting circuit at the fuse box so there was no chance of the fire-alarm-only MCB tripping without anyone noticing; you'd notice if a lighting circuit tripped!)
Recommended practice is either on a frequently-used lighting circuit, or on a non-rcd separate circuit (or on it's own rcbo).
Many mains-powered smoke alarms now have batteries as ride-through on mains failure, and will chirp regularly to warn you of such. However there's no building regs requirement to have the battery-backed type.
I'm currently considering the best solution to use in the main open- plan area of my building - which has a woodburner with a tendency to smoke in some wind conditions.
AIUI the mute button on smoke detectors only does so for low smoke levels - higher levels always override the mute.
So that would suggest the options are either a fancy alarm panel that allows such things to be set/unset - or non-battery-backed alarms and the option of flicking the mcb/rcbo to disable them all (and not forgetting to reset them).
Mine beep, but have no battery that is replaceable. I assumed they are built in capacitors, or maybe Nicads onboard.
Put the smoke detectors on exit routes: that is what the regulations say. They are less to detect general smoke, than as a warning that escape routes are potentially blocked.
The level of smoke to trip an alarm here has always been in excess of what I can tolerate for any length of time.
If yours trip, you shouldn't be running the fire at all.
The detectors of alarms are required to: ... b) be permanently wired with an independent circuit from the distribution board (consumer unit), or supplied from a local, regularly used lighting circuit (there should be a means of isolating the supply to the alarms without affecting the lighting) ... NOTE: Where all circuits are protected by RCDs there is advantage in supplying fire detectors and alarms from regularly used lighting circuits.
All fair enough, but:
1) does "local...lighting circuit" mean local to the alarm, or will any one in the house do? I would have a separate alarm cable, connected to the upstairs lighting circuit at the CU itself.
2) "a means of isolating the supply to the alarms without affecting the lighting"?! The whole point of putting them on the lighting is to avoid this (i.e. you _know_ if they're switched off) - do they really mean putting the smoke alarm power feed on a switch near the CU?!
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