Can anybody offer me some advice please?

[Darren6645]

Hi, I am not an electrician and don't confess to being one, hence the following questions.
I am in the process of renting my house, and I have decided to have my electrics tested to receive an electrical safety certificate, I know this is not a legal requirement but I thought it would give me piece of mind. The electrician has been and the first thing he did was open the meter box outside, he looked at the meter and then told me I would have to have my main earth cable upgraded from 10mm to 16mm? When asked why he said it doesn't comply with the new regs? All main earth cable must be 16mm. He then proceeded to tell me 16mm cable was expensive so he would run another 10mm along side the existing 10mm to save me money?
My questions therefore are do I need a 16mm upgrade to my main earth as I would have thought the inspection was to asses the property based on the appropriate regs with respect to the year the house was built, which in this case was 1995?
If so is it okay for him to run another 10mm?
Sorry for my ignorance but if anybody can help I would much appreciate it. I don't mind spending the money but I do mind being taken for a ride!
Thank you.

 

[randyrat]

Sounds like you should get someone else to do the inspection for ou.
An "Inspection" is just that...Your current electrical installation will be inspected, and you will be given a comprehensive inspection report detailing the installations shortfalls and potential danger areas. Other than work needed to be done immediately to prevent danger, the Inspecter should do nothing at all outside the inspection.
Your report will highlight anything not up to curent regs standard, and will recommend changes on a 1-4 grading system. 1 means must be done ASAP, 4 means not up to current regs. NOT BEING UP TO CURRENT REGS DOES NOT MEAN THE INSTALLATION IS UNSAFE. Other than the items picked up as "1's" , whether or not you decide to have the work done is up to you. Obviously the 1's are potentially dangerous, and you should have them done. That's your decision. The Inspection is just an Inspection...nothing more..

Hope this helps
Randyrat

 

[ian.settle1]

Hi, I am not an electrician and don't confess to being one, hence the following questions.
I am in the process of renting my house, and I have decided to have my electrics tested to receive an electrical safety certificate, I know this is not a legal requirement but I thought it would give me piece of mind. The electrician has been and the first thing he did was open the meter box outside, he looked at the meter and then told me I would have to have my main earth cable upgraded from 10mm to 16mm? When asked why he said it doesn't comply with the new regs? All main earth cable must be 16mm. He then proceeded to tell me 16mm cable was expensive so he would run another 10mm along side the existing 10mm to save me money?
My questions therefore are do I need a 16mm upgrade to my main earth as I would have thought the inspection was to asses the property based on the appropriate regs with respect to the year the house was built, which in this case was 1995?
If so is it okay for him to run another 10mm?
Sorry for my ignorance but if anybody can help I would much appreciate it. I don't mind spending the money but I do mind being taken for a ride!
Thank you.

Answer to this is the inspection is carried out to the current regulations at present 17th Edition BS7671:2008, with what you are saying then a house that was built in the early 70's and wired to the 14th Edition and should be inspected to that regs and not the current regs.

 

[OilBeDamned]

Hi, I am not an electrician and don't confess to being one, hence the following questions.
I am in the process of renting my house, and I have decided to have my electrics tested to receive an electrical safety certificate, I know this is not a legal requirement but I thought it would give me piece of mind. The electrician has been and the first thing he did was open the meter box outside, he looked at the meter and then told me I would have to have my main earth cable upgraded from 10mm to 16mm? When asked why he said it doesn't comply with the new regs? All main earth cable must be 16mm. He then proceeded to tell me 16mm cable was expensive so he would run another 10mm along side the existing 10mm to save me money?
My questions therefore are do I need a 16mm upgrade to my main earth as I would have thought the inspection was to asses the property based on the appropriate regs with respect to the year the house was built, which in this case was 1995?
If so is it okay for him to run another 10mm?
Sorry for my ignorance but if anybody can help I would much appreciate it. I don't mind spending the money but I do mind being taken for a ride!
Thank you.

16mm earth is dear, is he buying 500m of it?

Tell him you want it upgraded to 16mm as putting in 2 of 10mm on top of being rough as feck is pretty much pointless.

Any new installation when I worked for the electricity board got either 25mm aluminium conductor with 16mm earth or 16mm copper conductor with 16mm earth as a general rule.

Only when the premises were larger did the size of cabling go up.

 

[stean]

Sounds to me that he either doesn't fully understand what he is talking about, or he's trying to make a bit of cash for xmas!

There are two ways of working out the size of your main earthing conductor, tabulated and calculated.
It sounds as though he has opted for the tabulated route, in which case the chances are that it would indicate that your cable is to small.
However if you use the adiabatic equation I reckon your cable would come within the required paramiters.

Hope this helps you and doesn't confuse you any further.

 

[randyrat]

Theres a chart in the on site guide. It specifies earth size dependant on incoming conductor cable csa for TN systems. dependng on his incoming, 10mm main earth conductor may be absolutely fine. This guy is just trying to squeeze him for cash....

 

[Darren6645]

Thanks lads,
As I thought he's just trying to pull the wool and get some extra cash out of me. I will ring him tomorrow and tell him what I have found out and if he is still happy to issue the certificate without any extra work then I'll accept otherwise I will scatter him and get another electrician to provide the inspection and certificate.
Will keep you posted thanks again for the information.
Cheers,
Darren.

 

[Spudnik]

If thats all he has found then IMO you should get a 'satisfactory'.

Although 10mm maybe undersized, i would be more concerned with high EFLI readings.