EICR fault?

[Mojo42]

Still training so please be gentle!

During a practice of a EICR I found class 1 fittings on a lighting circuit. Cpc's present at light fitting, but cpc's not present on ALL of the switch drops. Some switches had metal back boxes others had none at all, just screwed into recess surrounded by wooden batton. Firstly can the switches be used without any back boxes, and providing only plastic switches are used can class 1 lights still be used?

Any advice much appreciated

 

[malcolmsanford]

The BS 7671-2008 in regulation 530.4.2 does not allow the use of plate switches etc to be fitted without a back box that complies to BS 4662 or BS 5733. This is not a new regulation and I would code the lack of back box as a 2.

Often in the past the use of a CPC was considered a "Luxury" when associated with a lighting circuit. I can still remember the older lads would cut the CPC out of a T+E on lights. I expect this is the case here. You most likely will find that the CPC as been snipped off at the light switch to stop it floating about.

You could see if there was slack and try and reconnect it, if you got enough slack you could crimp an extra piece on. If you do an R2 at the lights and confirm that the CPC is continuous from the light fitting back to the MET then you can leave them with no coding.

If you can't reconnect the CPC at the switch, and if all the switches are class II type then you could code it a 3.