EICR help

[Telivo]

I appreciate all of the input - sorry for the delay in replying.

Agreed - Letting agent will not be in the picture for much longer.  I'm not sure what the 30 days is about, there is no tenant yet, either confused or more likely trying to apply some unnecessary and unwanted pressure to get the work done and a tenant in to keep their cash flow going. 

The electrician finally called me directly and explained the box was made from plastic and needed to be metal (from the pointers here I don't agree with him).  He also explained the lights in the bathroom were not IP rated and therefore in conjunction with lack of an RCD contributed to a C2 rating.  I asked why the spec of the box and the lack of IP lights hadn't been commented on the report - only the lack of RCD for the "smokes, lights and heating" - he said it was all covered by the "No RCD" box check.

I also asked about why another RCD (if needed) couldn't be fitted to the current panel and why he thought the "smokes.... and heater" needed RCD protection specifically bearing in mind the house was built to the 16th edition (thank you for that pointer!). 

Short term I will get another EICR done - even if the outcome is the same I will feel better about paying for a new panel having organised a second opinion myself, without the top end Letting Agents helping me out (2 ladies by the way....#metoo).

Thank you for all your tips and sanity checks - have a good weekend.

 

[Telivo]

Sorry the electrician's answer to this:

I also asked about why another RCD (if needed) couldn't be fitted to the current panel and why he thought the "smokes.... and heater" needed RCD protection specifically bearing in mind the house was built to the 16th edition (thank you for that pointer!). 

No space on the current panel and if the tenant interacted with the smoke alarms or heater and received a shock there would be no RCD in place to protect them.  

 

[Murdoch]

Sorry the electrician's answer to this:

I also asked about why another RCD (if needed) couldn't be fitted to the current panel and why he thought the "smokes.... and heater" needed RCD protection specifically bearing in mind the house was built to the 16th edition (thank you for that pointer!). 

No space on the current panel and if the tenant interacted with the smoke alarms or heater and received a shock there would be no RCD in place to protect them.  

Gosh - sounds like you need a decent spark too:

So to cover off his responses

1. Plastic fuseboard - C3

2. Bathroom lights - if they are above 2.25 m then IP rated are not required (so no code) but a good idea IMHO

3. Smokes don't need RCD protection

4. Heater doesn't need RCD protection

Do updated us when you get the next EICR - and please don't select the spark on the cheapest price

PS if you get to 10 posts please upload a photo of the fuseboard 

AND may be an idea to start a separate thread

 

[NozSpark]

I'd agree with the above, but bathroom circuits now need RCD protection. So that will include the lighting and possibly the heater, but not the other lighting circuit and smokes. The code that this will receive depends on wether there is adequate supplementary bonding....

If we use the ESC best practice guide 4 (NICEIC PRS registered members have to agree to base coding on this) https://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/media/2149/bpg4-1.pdf

then it should be a C3 if the supplementary bonding is satisfactory OR a C2 if it isn't

By it's self a plastic CU is a NOTE,, but may escalate to a C2 if there are loose terminations or signs of thermal damage

If you can get a RCD for the CU (only available second hand) then it can be fitted,,, although it's a right ball ache .... and you do have space, you have 2 spare ways!

 

[Murdoch]

If we use the ESC best practice guide 4 (NICEIC PRS registered members have to agree to base coding on this) https://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/media/2149/bpg4-1.pdf

That's a VERY interesting statement - is that in the public domain?

 

[NozSpark]

That's a VERY interesting statement - is that in the public domain?

I don't know, but it was in the T & C's  of being registered on their PRS scheme when I joined it

 

[Murdoch]

I don't know, but it was in the T & C's  of being registered on their PRS scheme when I joined it

View attachment 11272

That's VERY interesting.

Thanks

 

[NozSpark]

That's VERY interesting.

Thanks

Thats on the online PRS registration form 

 

[boltonsparky]

Luminaires in domestic properties now require RCD protection, as do cables buried less that 50mm in the walls, pretty much every domestic property. As do circuits within or running through a bathroom, these are all non compliances to the current regs though and your installation isn't necessarily dangerous because it was installed to an earlier edition. In my opinion they're a C3, improvement recommended. Depending on where the plastic consumer unit is located varies the note or the code, for example under a wooden stairs or within the only exit route from the property but without thermal damage would warrant a C3 in my opinion. Thermal damage would escalate the code to a C2. 

However you're a landlord (I am too) taking money for your property. In my opinion you should make the property as safe as reasonably practical. In my opinion, that would mean as a minimum having all circuits protected by RCD, a consumer unit installed to protect from the spread of fire, and that's not just a metal CU lashed onto the wall, a metal CU with proper fire seals should be in place so it actually stops fire.   

The above statement doesn't alter my coding though and doesn't mean that I dish out C2s to landlords on older installs. 

 

[UNG]

However you're a landlord (I am too) taking money for your property. In my opinion you should make the property as safe as reasonably practical.

Do you recommend security screws for accessories

 

[Andy™]

Do you recommend security screws for accessories

imagine turning up to a replace a socket that has 1 way screws holding it back

 

[kerching]

imagine turning up to a replace a socket that has 1 way screws holding it back

Or even worse ...replacing a switch that has a metal back box BUt it has plastic inserts for the screws!

oh the angst, you would have to rewire the complete street

 

[NozSpark]

imagine turning up to a replace a socket that has 1 way screws holding it back

I've been somewhere where all the accessories had M3.5 security Torx screws.... that was bad enough!

 

[UNG]

In one of my old kit boxes I have some MK 3.5mm socket and 2.5 grid switch security screws from a job I did nearly 40 years ago. Turned up to a no power job in a school lab one day to find all the metalclad bench sockets (about 30 sockets) missing so they were all replaced with security screws to fix them and all the other labs sockets were refixed with security screws to prevent them going missing only used a few of them since then

 

[kerching]

and 2.5 grid switch

Why did they ever think 2.5 was a good size?.  PITFA

I think the new ones are 3.5