Doing your own electrical work

[Dave]

The following has just been lifted from the caretakers web site

***quote*** If you are not a qualified electrician with certification up to 16th edition of the IEE regulations you cannot work on any electrical installation.

Individual Councils will have even more prescriptive rules i.e. our state that ALL contractoprs working on electrics where ANY installation variation work is undertaken MUST be NICEIC registered in addition to fully 16th edition qualified.

This means that anyone working on electrical circuits, including the replacement of switches and sockets must be at least 16th edition qualified.

It is worth noting that the first prosecution of an unqualified person who worked on the electrics in HIS OWN HOME has just been successfully concluded.

In effect this means that anyone working on elecrtical circuits anywhere has to be 16th edition qualified.

***end quote***

Anyone care to comment?

Dave

[Mr Fuxit]

Is that a fact?

[Owain]

This is asking for a lawsuit as NICEIC are not the only trade organisation and insisting on them to the exclusion of others would probably be anticompetitive. And most operatives in NICEIC firms probably won't be qualified.

However, if it's what the Council's insurers want, it's what the council gets.

On really? There is NO requirement for qualifications; there is a requirement for membership of a self-certification scheme or a building control application in certain circumstances (Part Pee) - which only applies to dwellings anyway, not schools.

Bollocks. They can be NICEIC registered, which does not require operatives to be qualified, only a designated supervisor in the company.

Owain

[John McLean]

No, there are other bodies who can allow self certification: Napit, ECA etc., if the electrical work requires notification to the local building authority, under part p.

Jaymack

[Geoffrey]

..snip..

Tough. I've got a bedroom to decorate and it needs the sockets moving off the skirting boards and a couple of new ones installed. I will not be paying someone to do this for me as I am perfectly capable of doing it myself. I am also perfectly capable (probably more capable...) of forging an invoice from a qualified electrician

Now I do hope that no-one will dob me in.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Lots of mistakes. Seems to have been written by someone who has rather too little grasp of the issues to actually understand the point they were trying to make, whatever is was.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Dave saying something like:

Got any further info on that? Sounds like a load of bollocks from the organisation.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Reference?

[Jeff]

"Dave" wrote >

AIUI - this only applies to domestic work. I am not qualified and cannot do work at home where there is a possibility of endangering the lives of 3 people

But at work I can do anything I like to endanger the lives of 350 people ( and if the fire is big enough shut an international airport )

Ho Hum ..... must be some logic in this somewhere

Regards Jeff

[nightjar]

Wrong. There are no statutory requirements for installations other than domestic installations. I can't rewire my house, but I can rewire a factory with a three-phase supply. It is also sloppy to refer to the 16th edition IEE regs, when the law refers to them as BS 7671:2001.

Council rules are Council rules and do not necessarily match statutory requirements. However, NICEIC registration does not qualify anyone to self-certify for Part P unless they also register under the NICEIC Domestic Installer Scheme and NICEIC is not the only body that can recognise people as competent persons, capable of self-certifying an installation.

That may be true in the case of the Council rules referred to. Elsewhere, it is not true even of domestic installations, unless the wiring is in a kitchen or is a special installation: locations containing a bath tub or shower basin, swimming pools or paddling pools, garden lighting or power, hot air saunas, electric floor or ceiling heating systems, ELV lighting installations (unless pre-assembled and CE marked), solar photovoltaic power supplies or small scale generators.

...

Whoever wrote this has no understanding of the law.

Colin Bignell

[Dave]

Many thanks for your positive answers :-)

I thought that I was on the right lines before I posted. Like all who have answered me, I also think that it is a load of B*ll*cks.

I might even post to that forum and point them in the right direction.

Thanks again

Dave

[Andy Dingley]

Anyone got details of what really happened ?

[Nick]

So, am I now prohibited from replacing a broken switch or broken dual 13A wall outlet ?

I thought it (Part Pee) was intended for correct wiring specification / installation practice and "deeper stuff", not repairs and replacements to "surface" stuff.... - can anyone confirm this ? ( as opposed to "guess at what is meant")

Thanks,

Nick

[Frank Erskine]

No. The ODPM site says that you can replace/repair items - anywhere.

[Nick]

Hi Frank,

Thanks for confirming that - I am sure the authorities, if they ever knew, would much prefer to see a safe wall socket rather than a broken unsafe one in a kids bedroom - or anywhere for that matter....

Cheers,

Nick

[Andy Dingley]

Why?

Part P is a _tax_ measure, not a safety measure. Don't assign good or sensible intentions to the regulatory bastards, it only encourages them.

The purpose of John Prescott is a self-perpetuating bureaucrcy and an ever-increasing stream of ever-larger lunches. Fuck him and the pair of Jaguars he rode in on.

[Nick]

Hi Andy.....

Of course ! - I was blinded by reason and the need for safe working practices... I guess non-compliance will take similar status and penalties to tax evasion then....

I used to smile at people emigrating to avoid all this recent (~10 years) bureaucracy but now I am seriously taking note and wondering which country I could tolerate.. France would be the obvious choice but it's full of the French, arrogant selfish bastards, so maybe Spain ?

Nick

[Huge]

*applause*

[Andy Hall]

I'd say *ovation*....

[Doctor Drivel]

It is definitely for safety. John is doing a brill job.