Passed my NICEIC Assessment today.

[Goody]

Well done mate.

If i can just say..... i have noticed recently that assessors are asking applicants to do a little more practical than normal.

Every time i have had mine, he has barely asked me to do an RCD test.

That must be true. When I said that I have upgraded the Main Protective Bonding and that water & Gas are OK, he said that he could see the gas was bonded but not the water as it was under the floor board. So he asked me to prove that the water pipe was definitely bonded. I had to use a fly lead, connect it to the MET and attach a probe at the other end and the other probe to a central heating pipe.

I zero’d the lead (with the fly lead attached) before testing but kept getting zero for the continuity reading. He then asked me to remove the bonding connection for the gas, zero the leads again and test. Voila, I got 0.03 ohms and he was truly convinced.

He said, I didn’t have to do Insulation Resistance test on the conductors for that ring but simply asked me to explain how that’s done and what voltage I would apply.

When he asked me to do Zs at the sockets, I connected the leads to the socket, pressed the “Test” button and the reading showed up instantly. He asked me, “don’t to you think that was quick”, I then realised I had wrong setting on my meter- I had L&N instead of L&PE. When he started giving me his feedback, he said he knew a chap who had been testing for Zs for one whole year without even realising he had L&N setting instead of L&PE on his meter. He also gave me some tips on zero’ing the test leads.

One more thing, he asked me to zero the Zs test lead (with three pin plug) before doing Zs testing. I showed him my home-made gadget and nulled the leads using it and he looked impressed.

 

[rob121]

First of all well done, just going throught the application process at the moment!

In regards to your bonding cable, was he happy with you just doing a cont test on the pipework? I was going to use my house for one of the jobs in my application but who ever done the electrics put the bonding cables behind the panelling so didnt have access to the joints and seen as were renting, I didnt really want to start cutting the place up. I thought bonding connections needed to be readily accessible to confirm there connections. Just interested to here what your assessor said about it?

Cheers,

Rob

 

[Geoffsd]

he said he knew a chap who had been testing for Zs for one whole year

Thought my meter was slow

Well done.:rockon2:

 

[Goody]

First of all well done, just going throught the application process at the moment!

In regards to your bonding cable, was he happy with you just doing a cont test on the pipework? I was going to use my house for one of the jobs in my application but who ever done the electrics put the bonding cables behind the panelling so didnt have access to the joints and seen as were renting, I didnt really want to start cutting the place up. I thought bonding connections needed to be readily accessible to confirm there connections. Just interested to here what your assessor said about it?

Cheers,

Rob

Yes, he was happy with me just doing a continuity test on the pipe work. Make sure you can prove to him that the continuity exists between MET and the Gas pipe and Water pipe respectively. Try not to cut corners in your testing and keep your sheets with test readings, because he questioned me about one of the R1+R2 being 0.51 ohms as others were in the range of 0.20 ohms. I showed him a twin socket that read 0.24 on one outlet and 0.51 ohms on another and he was happy with that but only suggested that I should have opened it up and cleaned it.

He is not there to catch you but just to assess you on your testing capabilities and your ability to interpret the test readings. He checks everything in great details and nothing misses his keen eyes.

Best of luck to you!

 

[Mr Mike]

Super job Goody. It is great to read of your success and you passing on valuable information and tips to your friends.
Well done sir !!!!!

 

[rob121]

Thanks Goody, think im going to use some work at my home address instead then. As I say only thing that stopped me was not being able to see the bonding connections which I thought was a must. Anyone else care to coment on this? Is it just a case of making a note on the cert that saying that bonding connections had been concealed?


Also how did you null your three pin plug?

Cheers again Goody,

Rob

 

[malcolmsanford]

You use to able to null the BS 1363 plug with a sixpence, but there are devices available with Fluke. You could make up a short piece of cable with a croc clip either end, and leave it in the meter.

Yes as per 526.3 every connection should be available for inspection and testing, but often on bonding in existing installations this can not be done. Just as goody said you prove the connection and indeed make a note on the EIC under existing installation.

What size is the bonding cable on the installation

 

[Goody]

Thanks Goody, think im going to use some work at my home address instead then. As I say only thing that stopped me was not being able to see the bonding connections which I thought was a must. Anyone else care to coment on this? Is it just a case of making a note on the cert that saying that bonding connections had been concealed?


Also how did you null your three pin plug?

Cheers again Goody,

Rob

Please look at the pictures below. I have simply shorted all the three using a bit of 1.5 mm[SUP]2[/SUP] bare copper lead, connected my meter’s three pin socket lead, pressed “Zero” and pressed “Test”. In theory if you do this once the meter will store this info in its memory for that given lead and you do not have to “Zero” it every time you use it.

I have explained to him that I have already “Zero’ed” the lead couple of days back but he still wanted me to show how that was done.

​

 

[Kelrich]

Well done mate ive got mine soon going through elesca, your list of checks has given me a better idea of what to expect thanks

 

[Goody]

Well done mate ive got mine soon going through elesca, your list of checks has given me a better idea of what to expect thanks

Also make sure you have all the neccessary warning labels in place included the label that tells when the next inspection is due.

 

[truckster]

Well done mate. I'm sure your learning experience has helped many others on here.

 

[rob121]

Thats a good idea, have got an old single gang socket that I can "convert"

The bonding cables are both 10mm. Have just found the gas one this morning whilst out in the garden, its buried about 6 inches down between the meter and where it enters the house. The water is a definate no go though as its all been boxed in, then a kitchen put in front. Was going to disconnect all bonding conductors to stop any parallel paths then do cont test. Did a quick test this morning with them connected and the gas mains was 0.02ohms and the water was 0.4ohms, although I suspect these will change when measured individually. I will have to disconnect the boiler cpc aswell as this could alter the readings slightly.
What would be the maximum resistance I should expect? Obviously the resist back to the met will be low but if the clamp hasnt made a good connection then im wondering what value would require attention. Its about a 10 metre run so should expect a fairly low value so 0.4 seems on the high side!

Cheers

Rob

 

[malcolmsanford]

For 10 meters of 10mm I would be expecting a reading of about 0.01/2 but don't forget that if your using a MFT then these sort of tolerances are not exact, as our meters are not that sensitive. I think though that 0.4 could be a little high as you say

 

[rob121]

Yes will be investigating a little more. I will try scratching the copper pipe a bit where im testing from. Just hoping it doesnt go through the roof when I disconnect the bonding to the gas.