I have tried to find out what is required with the EICR, English law I can find, Welsh law coming in 1st December, but the law does not seem to detail what is required, it talks about fit for human habitation, and smoke detectors are required, but wading thought the law I find nothing, only find anything with guide to law.
The English law does not follow the standard practice, normally the only current using equipment covered in an EICR is the lights, anything else is inspected with the inspection and testing of in service electrical equipment loosely called PAT testing. And it does not cover the DNO equipment, where normally there is a visual inspection.
Welsh law it seems refers to a PIT (periodic inspection and testing) but not actually found the bit in the actual law. It seems more about notice which must be given, right of access etc. Here in rural Wales we are seeing a mass exodus of landlords before the deadline, social media is full of people looking for new rental accommodation, seems the labour government is full of good intentions, but they have not thought it through, and the work from home revival has resulted in a good market to sell homes in the country.
The PIR (periodic inspection report) had 4 main codes, but the IET felt code 4 was unhelpful, it was does not comply with current regulations, and now we have three, with C in front so showing new code system. C1 is dangerous and there is very little debate as to what falls into that category. But the C2 potential dangerous and C3 improvement recommended are rather fluid.
We have code busters and best practice guides which help, but in real terms it is down to the inspector to decide C2 or C3 or of course not worth raising, and the limit or further investigation options.
It does not really matter if a non compliant ÂŁ50 consumer unit is fitted or a fully compliant ÂŁ300 model, the main cost is the electrician who fits it, seems false economy to fit a non compliant unit, and the electrician is laying himself open for future claims.
One in not forced to follow BS 7671, the rules allow one to follow an equivalent, however not if self certifying, but the real question is does the lack of RCD protection or SPD mean the installation fails? If not potentially dangerous in 1970, why is it potentially dangerous now, what has changed?
Well some things have changed, practise of using semi-conductor devices before the isolation transformer, and the adoption of TN-C-S earthing, the use of non conducting pipe work, which also means removal of the main earth, technically we bonded the pipe work to the earth, but in real terms often the pipe work was the earth.
I know as a young lad I made a mistake and accidentally connected line to earth, and it ruptured the 13 amp fuse in my dad's house, but some 30 years latter found there was no earth, at least not good enough to blow a 13 amp fuse, also since wired before 1966 no earth on lights, and rubber insulated cables, so needed a full re-wire, but the question remains what happened to the earth?
Because we can now stop bonding all in the bathroom if protected with an RCD, we have a potential danger that a plumber will remove and not replace bonding even when no RCD, so we have that phrase, potential danger, so hard to justify not having RCD protection.
We also have "Every installation shall be divided into circuits, as necessary, to:
(iii) take account of danger that may arise from the failure of a single circuit such as a lighting circuit
(iv) reduce the possibility of unwanted tripping of RCDs due to excessive protective conductor currents produced by equipment in normal operation." since 2008, so not new, we can of course measure the back ground leakage and if under 9 mA consider it as being OK. But if a freezer full of food is lost, or worse, it is damaged without the house holder realising the food has defrosted, we have both expense and a potential danger, there's that phrase again.
But there are no hard and fast rules, code 4 has gone, so not complying with current regulations has gone, so up to the inspector what codes he awards.
