Electrical Inspection for Church

There are so many little things that can be picked up that I would be very surprised if any installation is totally 100% passable. See how much is wrong then decide the bets way forward.

This advice is worth what you paid for it.

Expecting someone to teach you a skilled job in a 1 minute posting is surely a bit optimistic.

NT

I know the basics, what I am looking for is pointers to the sorts of things they may pick up.

I know that all wires should be properly terminated in approved connectors, etc. - I just hoped for a few other pointers of things which might be picked up.

John - I think what the others are saying is that you sound as if you are treating this like passing an exam; if you don't know what is required from a professional point of view and you have some sort of responsibility, then you actually shouldn't really be in that position of responsibility. Or at least you shouldn't be trying to address safety issues without really having adequate knowledge and training - remember that it is the public that you are responsible for and the insurance company are quite rightly ensuring that their contract with your church is a reasonable business proposition.

Just let the inspection go ahead and then address any problems it finds.

Rob

Perhaps you have a congregant who is qualified? An appeal from the pulpit?

This document

Hi Rob,

thanks for the advice.

I have a good working knowledge of electrics but it tends to be more at the making it work level rather than following the rules (you should try sitting in on the arguments at work about whether 7671 applies to railway signalling). I do the various small jobs like replacing light fittings and adding the emergency lights (with proper spurs and fused outlets). However much of the wiring is old (red/black PVC - no rubber that I have found so far) - I am only interested in the things which I can go looking for and rectify in advance.

However, I am keenly aware that it must all be safe and apply the same standards that I do at work in ensuring the safety of my colleagues.

Never having been responsible for a building where such an inspection was required, I was just interested to know what to expect.

Johnm

In a previous parish I was involved in the maintenance of a NICEIC periodic inspection was required and carried out:

Expecting someone to teach you a skilled job in a 1 minute posting is surely a bit optimistic.

NT

At least start with an inventory - perhaps get 3 people to conduct them independently and then compare them.

If you want to save costs on such a job my recommendation would be to already have provided the correct equipment to allow the tester to reach those high up places. The cost of him assembling and disassembling tower scafold is quite expensive. Ditto for the cupboard that the CU is in. He does not want to spend 20 minutes clearing buckets, flags and bibles out of the way to put a pair of stepladders in there! (I have been there)

I would say correct labeling of the CU/fusebox is the main starter. Anyone looking at a 20 way CU with no labels will soon start to upset.

I do know know if your time spent there is volunteered time or paid for. If it is paid for then it will still save your church money if you follow those tips.

Two other tips. If the church has been tested before do you have the old test sheets? Ask the guy when he quotes how you can help him. He will not bite (probably).

Adam

You could ask if there's an electrician in the congregation, or a friend of someone in the congregation.

Thank you for the help

In article , ARWadworth writes

Many thanks - labelling the CUs is something that I had meant ot do.

I (as are most people in churches) a volunteer and hence just do my best (with safety top of the list)

The church lighting is accessible by ladder, how much would you expect the tester to want to go up and look at - are we talking sample lights or every one?

The message from Cod Roe contains these words:

Old is liable to be defined as unsafe -- even when it itsn't.

One very common problem in churches is with the semi-open tubular (as opposed to sealed tubular) convector heaters -- there are liable to be considerable leakage currents. This is a "problem" more or less exclusive to churches and an "understanding" electrician carrying out the inspection will be aware of that fact. They're that way even when new, but with older ones blowing them out with compressed air can help.

Your biggest problem is going to be finding a qualified electrician who has some practical knowledge of the problems peculiar to church installations. If there's heating involved, they can be very large and difficult to understand.

I've seen an electricity supplier installing grossly underrated meters for church heating circuits. I pointed it out to the guys on the job, but they told me I wasn't qualified and told me to get lost. So I left them to it. Two of the three meters on the heating circuits burned out the first time they were used. The next heating bill was VERY low :-). But then, I'm not qualified :-). If they'd been a bit brighter they might also have realised that the supplier's time switch had never performed any useful function because they'd never figured out a simple way to wire it up ..... the load control wires simply disappeared into trunking where they terminated without doing anything useful at all :-). So much for restricted tariff!

So put your effort into getting an electrician who's been on the installation end of a few church systems, especially if it's a physically-large installation.

Thanks for the advice, the heating is gas (although we do have electric fan radiators in the church to "blow" the heat from the pipes).

The only high current is now the organ blower.

John

In article , Appin writes

The message from John contains these words:

No particular problems then, other than that church installations tend to be rather old and a little peculiar in that they're usually little-used for their age -- often used for only an hour or two a week, so may be in very good condition compared to similar items in everyday use. A less-than-sympathetic inspector can have a field-day.

To be honest, I wouldn't have thought that a blower for an organ is likely to be more than a horse power or so (unless it's something like a four-manual jobbie!), so you're only talking a few amps for that...

In message , John writes

burning bushes, water changed to wine, man nailed to a tree ?

a church which has a lightning conductor is proof that there is no more faith

I haven't a reference, but the one at the Albert Hall takes a jolly sight more than a couple of kilowatts. It managed to almost drown out the (large) school orchestra when it helped out at the finale of the school proms.