Thanks to the group.

Whyever not?

IMHO it's much easier to become an electrician as the manual skills are much less, at least for small domestic work; industrial with MI, SWA and conduit/trunking takes more practice to do a neat job.

You can get the textbook qualifications (16th Edition, Inspection and Test) quite quickly if you can find a college (or the IEE) doing them as full-time courses; most colleges do them on evening or day release over a year fpr youngsters at the "this is how you strip a wire" stage.

Getting a history of installations that can be inspected for a Part Pee certification guild seems to be the hard bit for someone starting up.

Owain

Cheers, I'm might look into it as I enjoyed doing it quite a lot !! :-) all my experience is in Invitro medical devices as a Biotech Engineer, so being made redundant has not left me many options as I do not want to relocate. Plenty of well paid jobs in the industry but none based in North Wales. I wouldn't mind doing domestic installs and according to the BCO there is a severe shortage of electricians and plumbers in the area. I wouldn't expect to earn what I was earning but a living would suffice :-)

I suppose you could pay the building notice fees either at your cost, or at least from your profits in order to carry out the work at no additional cost to the client. While not ideal it could simply be considered another startup cost.

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At =A360 odd a pop not too bad really, and I suppose it would be deductable :-)

As an aside, the BCO does not require full testing, he was happy just to come back on completion with his plug tester and go around the sockets :-). I would like to test the disconnection times myself though just for peace of mind. Is the kit available reasonably priced to do this? I wouldn't have thought so.

By the book you are meant to have formally calibrated test equipment. I think you'll find that you can get kit that will do all the things you need it to for around the £400 quid mark. You need a continuity tester that tests to 0.01 Ohm most multi meters wont do this. You need a 500V insulation tester. You need a Loop Impedance/PSC tester and you need an RCD tester. You can get all these in the same box for around £400.

you are supposed to get them recalibrated or rather recertified every year, um yeah right.

You don't usually measure MCB or fuse disconnection times directly. Instead you measuring that the earth loop impedance is low enough that it would trip the protection quickly enough.

Saves *you* having to buy all that expensive test gear, at least in one go.

Probably around £500 for a full set and remember it needs periodic recalibration.

Owain

Cheers, I'm not paying that :-( I'll just get an RCD tester =A320 or abouts

Become a handyman, that's what I did when I was made redundant and I wish I done it 20 years ago.

How do you get around Part P on the leccy side?

Ignore me, just read youre website !!

Testing RCDs isn't AFAIK required by the Regs.

You're best off starting with a decent megger. The windy-up ones can be picked up cheaply. Not calibrated of course. Don't think anything else was used much before 15th Edition.

you put the live wire in the right terminal, but make no mistake in thinking that it is an adequate form of testing for a self-employed electrician.

Owain

Indeed! (would be £88 round here), also some councils will increase the fee based on the value of the job.

You could probably buy most of the bits from eBay for about £150 - £200, then fork out for calibration.

Thanks, I'm going to be looking into than in much more depth before I make move. I would like to give it a try though, i've always been an advocate of enjoying your job :-). I'll research it further and have a fresh start next year, hopefully :-) I'm thinking of offering my sevices for free to the local sparkies for experience. I think theres nothing better.

And _if_ you can find a college that will take someone who is not already employed in the trade. It's a definite catch-22, at least round here.

MBQ

Oh yes it is. See 713-13-01 for the requirement and Section 11 of the OSG for a procedure.

BCO is happy to test with his little martindale plug tester and be on his merry way :-)

Ah yes (although it's 713-12-01 in my rather old edition) - "its effectiveness shall be verified by a test simulating an appropriate fault condition and independent of any test facility oncorporated in the device". MCMCMMC.

I was meaning that AIUI the RCD test doesn't have to verify the operation of the RCD within the specified time/current curve of the BS, just check it goes click.

I suppose that's the sort of RCD tester one gets for twenny quid.

Yebbut he's a BCO; *you're* wanting to do the job properly.

Owain

The preceding bit says "where protection against indirect contact or supplementary protection against direct contact is to be provided by an RCD ...". Therefore I think that to verify "its effectiveness" you certainly do need to do more than just "check it goes click."

Quite. I suppose this is the effect of BC not being allowed to pass on the cost of proper testing. They're now using a cheapskate DIY approach...

By the wording of the regs I dont beleive I can insist on them testing either !! catch 22 !! if they want it testing they have to pay, if I want it testing I have to pay !!

What tests would be carried out apart from earth continuity, RCD disconnection times, I take it a dielectric strength test would be one at least.

Cheers