Building regs: "Part L" question...

[sambuca2907]

Hi all - Trying to find out if someone can help with with this small problem I've got! I'm trying to find a sensible solution for it!

I'm a fully qualified electrician, Part P registered, 2391 booked in June. I completed last year a small utility room extension consisting of 7 GU10 spots, 3 in a row at high ceiling level, and a grid of 4 over the appliances. This was self-certified by myself in compliance with Part P.

Recently the builder has had the council inspector round to sign off the extension, and he has said that it has failed on Part L... He says 2 out of the 7 lights need to be low energy.

Who in their right mind would install 5 of one type of fitting in a room and 2 totally different... the customer would not be very happy at all! I have read Part L of the regs and I think you can "play around" with this rule a bit, by for example changing older lights within the house for low energy instead. Would this keep the council building inspector happy? Or... would a solution be to change 2-3 of the lights in the extension to 3Watt LED's?

I need to make changes to allow the council inspector to pass the building work, but what is suitable!? The customer requested halogen GU10's, and won't want 2-3 of them a different type or colour!

The other thing is that I have worked on sites with £200,000 worth of Lutron equipment controlling 230V GU10's..... hundreds of them, so many in fact that we nearly popped a 100A 3-phase main fuse turning them all on...! How do these big houses pass these regulations??? When the inspectors are so petty with the small expensions...?!

 

[acat]

Its one out of every 4 page 133 of building regs, would customer agree to low energy wall lights?



Chris

 

[Sav]

Hi,
Change the high ceiling ones to normal pendants with the new 2 pin low energy light fittings in them, once its been signed off.........THE CUSTOMER MUST HAVE CHANGED THEM BACK TO THE GU10's AFTER YOU LEFT THE JOB !!!!

Its not right and I am not saying you should do it like that, but I have seen it done like that, and more than once.

Sav

 

[sambuca2907]

Yep I've been reading over the regs, one in 4, or one per 25m2 of floor space. There are no wall lights installed, just Gu10's, and the job is finished now!

Just wondering about page 134, about a third of the way down, "the approved document recommends flexibility"... as in... could I change for example the light in the downstairs toilet to a crappy energy efficient eye-sore instead...?

 

[sambuca2907]

Hi,
Change the high ceiling ones to normal pendants with the new 2 pin low energy light fittings in them, once its been signed off.........THE CUSTOMER MUST HAVE CHANGED THEM BACK TO THE GU10's AFTER YOU LEFT THE JOB !!!!

Its not right and I am not saying you should do it like that, but I have seen it done like that, and more than once.

Sav

"normal pendants" - you mean like this... Crabtree 6" Pendant Set - Screwfix.com, Where the Trade Buys ?

 

[Sav]

The ceiling rose and the flex are the sam, but the lamp holder itself is different. It holds the square type energy saver lamp in it. Similar to a mini tube light with 2 pins that clip into the lamp holder itself.

My laptop is very slow and I cant download at the moment, or why not try these lw energy GU10 lamps made by Halolite

Sav

Halolite GU10 Low Energy Mains Voltage Halogen 11W Lamp - Screwfix.com, Where the Trade Buys

 

[sambuca2907]

The ceiling rose and the flex are the sam, but the lamp holder itself is different. It holds the square type energy saver lamp in it. Similar to a mini tube light with 2 pins that clip into the lamp holder itself.

My laptop is very slow and I cant download at the moment, or why not try these lw energy GU10 lamps made by Halolite

Sav

Halolite GU10 Low Energy Mains Voltage Halogen 11W Lamp - Screwfix.com, Where the Trade Buys

They will stick out of the fittings! I'm thinking that the corridor part is just to light up the corridor.... and I could change these 3 to 3W LED's.... so it can pass the inspection...

 

[Spudnik]

Unfortunately we are at the hand of the BCO and they can pretty much demand whatever they like, however daft it may seem.

As the others have said, its probably less hassle installing either 2 LE downlights, or if there are pendants, swap them for LE.

Once it has been signed off, you can return and put back the original fittings.

 

[Madmole]

As you can get 3W LED GU10's (240v) that are as bright as 50W and exactly the same size, just swap the bulbs. I have swapped all 16 of ours in the house to the LED's and saved a lot of leccy. Only drawback is they produce almost NO heat. A bonus in the loft cnversion but not so good in the kitchen in winter

Plus they last far longer and come in instantly unlike compact flourescents