I’d like your opinions on a scenario I’ve come across. A certificate was produced which contained errors and while there were still faults on the installation. This was corrected, but some time later further faults became apparent. What should I do?
Here’s some detail –
I’m a retired electrician. A family member got a builder to extend a Victorian semi they’d bought, and the builder arranged for an electrical contractor to do the full rewire the house needed.
The whole project was plagued by delays and issues. Towards the end the builder asked for payment for the electrical work. I advised they ask for a certificate before completing the payment, so a certificate arrived and I was asked to have a look at it.
There were a few issues on the certificate. The diversified load seemed set to match the 60A cut-out while than the collection of circuits they had installed implied 80A. There were a few measurements missing. My main concern was that every IR value was identical – 200Mohm @ 500v. I would have expected a bit of variation. Maybe this was the max value the test instrument could report, so I looked at the tester id but this didn’t name the device, just had an asset number.
The certificate had been signed as reviewed and sent to Local Building Control.
I passed my concerns to the family. They said there were existing RCD trips faults still on the installation, sparks at a light switch and the electrician was present investigating these.
The trip fault was cleared by separating a ring into two separate radials, using circuits labelled as ‘spare’ on the certificate. Seven of the 12 circuits were labelled differently on the certificate and the CU, four of them had different mcb current ratings.
A couple of months later, when the faults were cleared, I spoke to the owner of the electrical firm. He agreed to retest and confirmed the installation was now correct. My family had had enough hassle and didn’t want any further action.
First Question: what would you have done?
Some 18 months later, I changed a socket for them, and found the ring cpc was not continuous at that point. One earth cable had ‘necked’ at the terminal screw and come away from the connector.
Then the occupier happened to touch two metal-faced light switches at the same time ... and got a shock. I tested for earth and found several switches on one lighting circuit not grounded. The circuit was wired with distribution in the switch boxes rather than ceiling roses – there’s lots of downlight spots – but reconnecting the one disconnected cpc I found did not fix the fault.
Second question: Would you take it up with the Installer, or with NICEIC, or just fix it and grumble?
Here’s some detail –
I’m a retired electrician. A family member got a builder to extend a Victorian semi they’d bought, and the builder arranged for an electrical contractor to do the full rewire the house needed.
The whole project was plagued by delays and issues. Towards the end the builder asked for payment for the electrical work. I advised they ask for a certificate before completing the payment, so a certificate arrived and I was asked to have a look at it.
There were a few issues on the certificate. The diversified load seemed set to match the 60A cut-out while than the collection of circuits they had installed implied 80A. There were a few measurements missing. My main concern was that every IR value was identical – 200Mohm @ 500v. I would have expected a bit of variation. Maybe this was the max value the test instrument could report, so I looked at the tester id but this didn’t name the device, just had an asset number.
The certificate had been signed as reviewed and sent to Local Building Control.
I passed my concerns to the family. They said there were existing RCD trips faults still on the installation, sparks at a light switch and the electrician was present investigating these.
The trip fault was cleared by separating a ring into two separate radials, using circuits labelled as ‘spare’ on the certificate. Seven of the 12 circuits were labelled differently on the certificate and the CU, four of them had different mcb current ratings.
A couple of months later, when the faults were cleared, I spoke to the owner of the electrical firm. He agreed to retest and confirmed the installation was now correct. My family had had enough hassle and didn’t want any further action.
First Question: what would you have done?
Some 18 months later, I changed a socket for them, and found the ring cpc was not continuous at that point. One earth cable had ‘necked’ at the terminal screw and come away from the connector.
Then the occupier happened to touch two metal-faced light switches at the same time ... and got a shock. I tested for earth and found several switches on one lighting circuit not grounded. The circuit was wired with distribution in the switch boxes rather than ceiling roses – there’s lots of downlight spots – but reconnecting the one disconnected cpc I found did not fix the fault.
Second question: Would you take it up with the Installer, or with NICEIC, or just fix it and grumble?
