Is this not legal?

[Goody]

If someone registered with NICEIC as a Domestic Installer but not registered under “Electrical Condition Inspection Report (ECIR)” scheme, in theory he should not be doing a PIR. Is this right or wrong? But the reg. stipulated that PIR should be done by a competent person. I have seen survey reports from Estate Agents that said "Condition of electrical installation should be checked and a report obtained from a NICEIC Electrical Contractor." There was nothing that said that Electrical Contractor must be registered under “Electrical Condition Inspection Report (ECIR)” scheme. I am sure this topic was discussed time & time again, please, pardon me:banghead:

Cheers!

 

[tony mc]

If I was the landlord I would want a copy of the report not just the letting agencys say so.

At least Dick Turpin wore a mask!

 

[Engineer54]

Spin,

Those Wylex wooden open back CU's were produced in the millions, have you ever heard of one catching fire, i and i bet no-one on this forum has either?? The wood is hard wood and a seasoned and treated hardwood at that!! The dammed things are far more robust than the thin plastic one's of today, ....so long as they were mounted on non-combustible wall or structure, they were more than sound!!!

The times i've heard this crap about those old Wylex CU's being a fire risk, ...But no-one has ever seen or know of one actually catching fire, ....Probably because they Don't!! lol!!! Just another of the multitude of myth's that abound in our industry!!!

And here we have the NIC yet again trying to rewrite the rules. How can a that CU be a code two if it meets a previous IEE Regulation requirements??...

 

[Deleted member 26818]

I must admit, that I find it strange that fire doors are manufactured out of wood or metal.
The few plastic types have a wood interior, and are basically a wooden door with a plastic outer skin.
Also, as far as I'm aware, plastic produces toxic fumes when burnt.
The NICEIC consider wooden Consumer Units a code 2, whereas plastic ones are considered acceptable.
Perhaps in the NICEIC world plastic doesn't burn?

 

[HandySparks]

Also, as far as I'm aware, plastic produces toxic fumes when burnt.
The NICEIC consider wooden Consumer Units a code 2, whereas plastic ones are considered acceptable.
Perhaps in the NICEIC world plastic doesn't burn?

When I was designing enclosures for electronic equipment, one of the criteria for selecting plastic material or parts was their flammability rating. If I remember right, UL94 V-0 was the spec for the most fire-resistant plastics; the plastic stops burning when you remove the source of heat.

As to toxic fumes, that's also possible to control, ie LSZH insulated cable.

 

[Engineer54]

When I was designing enclosures for electronic equipment, one of the criteria for selecting plastic material or parts was their flammability rating. If I remember right, UL94 V-0 was the spec for the most fire-resistant plastics; the plastic stops burning when you remove the source of heat.

As to toxic fumes, that's also possible to control, ie LSZH insulated cable.

Don't stop the CU melting down into a blob though does it?? lol!! An electrical high resistance fault can keep the heat source going for hours on end. Which is why you see so many of these plastic CU's and accessories totally destroyed when faced with such faults. Try and set fire by a heat source to seasoned hardwood it can scorch may even glow a little but spontaneous combustion, ...very little chance!! Soft wood is a completely different matter though. ...lol!!

 

[mydigitalhome]

More important are you insured to do PIR (EICR) reports. To illustrate asked a friend who had been doing testing for last 20 years superb electrician. Only to find when he questioned his insurance company that he was not actually covered. He was told that testing was not added automatically to insurance policies and was normally an extra. However in case his they agreed they were at fault and added "testing other peoples work" to his policy FOC. (If he had originally installed the installation and then tested same board 5 years later it would have been ok under his old policy docs) No doubt they will sting him next year. Spoken to a few electricians now about this and it looks like this is a general problem and people not always covered/insured to do certain works due to not reading their policies carefully.

 

[HandySparks]

More important are you insured to do PIR (EICR) reports.

I think "are you competent?" is more important than "are you insured?".

See this thread:
http://www.electriciansforums.net/i...demnity-insurance-pirs-eicrs-waste-money.html

Insurance is only of any value if it'll pay out when required. Otherwise, it's a false comfort and a waste of money.

 

[sedgy34]

If someone registered with NICEIC as a Domestic Installer but not registered under “Electrical Condition Inspection Report (ECIR)” scheme, in theory he should not be doing a PIR. Is this right or wrong? But the reg. stipulated that PIR should be done by a competent person. I have seen survey reports from Estate Agents that said "Condition of electrical installation should be checked and a report obtained from a NICEIC Electrical Contractor." There was nothing that said that Electrical Contractor must be registered under “Electrical Condition Inspection Report (ECIR)” scheme. I am sure this topic was discussed time & time again, please, pardon me:banghead:

If the guy is domestic installer hes proved to be competent cause hes registered deffinately legal

 

[Electricalwork9]

Competent person is the requirement

 

[SparkyBrad]

Bearing all this in mind i find it very very strange that you can buy PIR and EICR from the NICEIC website without being a member at all! I have to admit that they are different colours for non member, domestic installers and approved contractors. So if this is the case then surely there is no law against undertaking the reports. It is nothing more than a window in time describing the condition of the installation. If something went wrong at a later date then it would be difficult to point the finger at the sparks who did a report 2 years ago! Most of the time we undertake these reports so that estate agents can jump through hoops! The old numbering system was pretty good, but so much was a 3 or 4 that landlords would never get the work completed anyway, putting the onus back on them! They're happy cos they have their report, we are happy cos we have given our view and they have paid us, even if they choose to ignore everything we have said.