Electrical Regs and Business Requirements

May 17, 2016 3 Replies
T

Hi all


From discussions here for domestice premises, I understand that you do not have to make electrical installations compliant with current regs unless you make changes. Even then, entire installations don't need to be upgraded, just the earth possibly and the circuit concerned.



At work, an office with computers and stuff, we are not intending to make changes, just do a periodic inspection. The office was built in the late 80s and has never had an electrical inspection to my knowledge.



Am I right in thinking we can just test all circuits and maybe upgrade earth bonding? We have a three phase supply (about which I am totally ignorant) and the principle CU (all general circuits) and secondary CU (server room only) have MCBs only, no RCDs.



Thanks for any relevant feedback



Phil


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S

The Electricity At Work Regulations will apply, and electrical installations in the workplace must be safe. The installation does not have to be brought up to full compliance with current standards, but the EICR will identify any defects to be rectified.

Risk assessment also applies. Server rooms, service intakes and the like, may be considered accessible only by skilled or instructed personnel, so different (not necessarily lower) standards of protection can apply.

Owain

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T

Thanks Owain

Yes, the company doing the testing recently laid on additional services for a server room. Hopefully they won't find loads wrong with their own work that needs "immediate improvements".

Phil

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A

I would say that the lack of RCD protection on the sockets is only a C3.

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applies even though it is an office

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