by ericmark »
Tue Oct 28, 2008 10:29 pm
I well remember in 1989 returning to the UK and having a young electrician with me it seemed with every other sentence saying the 16th Edition says. Although he had a big mouth not quite big enough to shove the 16th Edition down. But as time went on I found I was getting into trouble on a regular basis for not following the regulations which had now become a British standard. So I finally went back to school and took course and exam.
The main thing I realised was people seemed to use Chinese whispers as to it’s content and often it did not say what people said it did.
Some of this was due to it being in some old regulation book an example was cooker isolators. And also some of the regulations had been moved from the main book to the guides. Number of cables in a conduit etc.
Now we have even more books from Part M (Height of sockets etc.) and Part L (Energy saving) and Part P (Registering work with council) plus ESQCR supply regulations and it has reached the stage where one feels one needs a degree in law.
I is easy to find a regulation to say you can’t do something it’s finding what you can do which is the problem.
The 522.6.6 A cable concealed in a wall or partition at a depth of less than 50 mm from a surface of the wall or partition shall: is becoming a real problem as it says nothing about what type of supply or voltage it refers to and protecting a cable with earthed metallic covering or 522.6.7 Where Regulation 522.6.6 applies and the installation is not intended to be under the supervision of a skilled or instructed person, a cable installed in accordance with Regulation 522.6.6 (v). and not complying with Regulation 522.6.6 (i), (ii), (iii) or (iv), shall be provided with additional protection by means of an RCD having the characteristics specified in Regulation 415.1.1. This is not possible where SELV supplies are involved yet there is nothing to exempt SELV circuits from the regulation.
It is plain therefore there are errors in the regulations and some common sense is required.
There are also other blatant errors else where in that Part P refers to BS7671:2001 which has been withdrawn and is not available in Welsh which means the issuing authority has broken the law which brings the whole set of regulations into question.
The fact that my local authority Flintshire do not issue completion certificates when they fit a consumer unit makes one realise the local authorities are not really interested.
There have been court cases and people have been found guilty of not complying with Part P but every one also has substandard work as well I have not seen any for purely breaking the Part P laws without also being substandard work involved as well.
The fact that very few councils know what they are doing and the building inspectors in the main do not have a clue as to electrical work yet are responsible for site safety.
I have seen so many badly filled in installation reports. My son was telling me the other day how they had changed to format and he had not noticed and had put readings in wrong boxes. This should have been picked up by his boss, and the overseeing group plus the LABC but was completely missed.
I have seen TT supplies with earth rod measurement of less than 1 ohm who are they kidding it is quite plain they have not measured just the rod but have left all bonding connected. Done it myself but with a note to the effect unable to turn off supply etc. but seen these readings entered as Ze.
House bashing was always a young mans job where speed was main requirement but now it’s more skilled than some of the maintenance work with more test equipment than we could have ever aspired to when I was a young lad. Palm tops seem the norm.
Time I retired too Eric
