Large Industrial EICR charges ??

[BRELC21]

I have done much testing in my time but never large quantities at the same time or large developments. I have been asked to quote for a industrial EICR with 13 boards and around 200 circuits

I'm just curious as to what people charge in terms of a rate? is it price per circuit/ board? what sort of timing am I looking at to test the whole installation?

Any advice would be great, cheers !

 

[Fleeting]

200 circuits is not a large EICR. You can either charge by circuit or put in an hourly rate however people tend to charge per circuit. Work out what you need to earn a day and include time for the Report. Have you been to site to discuss power outages and how you are going to go about it, are you doing this alone or are there two of you.

 

[Murdoch]

Has the company offered you much information about the installation? layouts? previous reports?

Will you have to work evenings / weekends?

 

[mort2376]

Plus, unless agreed with the customer your not going to be testing 200 circuits.

Get your agreed limitations documented in advance. No testing of items above X metres from ground, no turning off specific plant etc.

Rule of thumb I use is 1 hour per circuit to inspect and test. If it goes over that then it's an FI and I move on, plus 2 hours per board.

You need agreements about what to do if you find any C1s do you repair, isolate or just report.

Your not there to fix or fault find when doing an EICR just provide a report into the condition of the installation. The fixing comes after.

 

[Fleeting]

Plus, unless agreed with the customer your not going to be testing 200 circuits.

Get your agreed limitations documented in advance. No testing of items above X metres from ground, no turning off specific plant etc.

Rule of thumb I use is 1 hour per circuit to inspect and test. If it goes over that then it's an FI and I move on, plus 2 hours per board.

You need agreements about what to do if you find any C1s do you repair, isolate or just report.

Your not there to fix or fault find when doing an EICR just provide a report into the condition of the installation. The fixing comes after.

An hour per circuit are you being serious and over an hour you FI it, why.
I have spent the last 30 odd years testing large scale commercial and industrial sites and on your suggestion it will take nearly a month.

 

[Murdoch]

An hour per circuit are you being serious and over an hour you FI it, why.
I have spent the last 30 odd years testing large scale commercial and industrial sites and on your suggestion it will take nearly a month.

how long would you recommend per circuit?

 

[Fleeting]

how long would you recommend per circuit?

It's all give and take some circuits are rudimentary and straight forward others may need some planning. This would never be a one person job but I would say 30 to 35 circuits a day, an hour per circuit well good luck to anyone who can grab that sort of work.

 

[Murdoch]

It's all give and take some circuits are rudimentary and straight forward others may need some planning. This would never be a one person job but I would say 30 to 35 circuits a day, an hour per circuit well good luck to anyone who can grab that sort of work.

30 circuits per day = about 15 minutes per circuit

the report won’t be worth the paper it’s written or printed on

imho

 

[Andy™]

30 circuits per day = about 15 minutes per circuit

the report won’t be worth the paper it’s written or printed on

imho

depends on installation. everything in decent condition, well labelled then 15 mins per circuit is more than reasonable

regular testing of the same sites takes even less time too

 

[Fleeting]

30 circuits per day = about 15 minutes per circuit

the report won’t be worth the paper it’s written or printed on

imho

You have no idea of my qualifications or experience so be careful what you throw about as I find that offensive. I can work very quickly with an experienced second person I totally rely upon, I have probably forgotten more than you know and I know that is a fact.

 

[Murdoch]

You have no idea of my qualifications or experience so be careful what you throw about as I find that offensive. I can work very quickly with an experienced second person I totally rely upon, I have probably forgotten more than you know and I know that is a fact.

Am I questioning YOUR qualifications or competence?

15 minutes per circuit is what I was questioning

 

[Fleeting]

Am I questioning YOUR qualifications or competence?

15 minutes per circuit is what I was questioning

You stated the Report would not be worth the paper it was written on, this questions my competency at the least. 15 minutes is plenty of time for some circuits and as I say it is give and take. For someone who is restricted to domestic works and there is nothing wrong with this nor a criticism I would suggest you are not best qualified to advise.

 

[mort2376]

An hour per circuit are you being serious and over an hour you FI it, why.
I have spent the last 30 odd years testing large scale commercial and industrial sites and on your suggestion it will take nearly a month.

Everyone has different methods of pricing work. And I find if you can't inspect and test a circuit after an hour then it will need FI. I don't put many down as that as mostly you will do it in that time.

If there's 200 circuits then your starting point is checking 70 of them, same with the boards you'd start at 6 unless your instructed to test all.

I've never had any problems in charging for EICR work, unless your dealing with a landlord who wants a £35 piece of paper full of limitations but says the magic word "Satisfactory" on it.

 

[Fleeting]

I'll ignore your last paragraph as it isn't relevant to the question but can you clarify if you can't inspect and test a circuit after one hour you FI it. What exactly does that mean. Also if there is 200 circuits your starting point is checking 70 of them, what about the other 130 circuits. Same as with the boards you'd start at 6 unless instructed to test all?
I have no idea what you are actually talking about.

 

[mort2376]

Sample rates. Unless the customer requests you inspect 100% of the circuits then your starting sample rate is usually 1/3. If after sampling that amount if your finding no issues and good test results you can issue a satisfactory report.

If you find issues your sample rate goes up.

FI. If you arrive at a board, it's either not labelled or incorrectly labelled. How long do you spend trying to identify the circuits your testing ? Some easy, you trip the switch and the lights / sockets / piece of kit goes off. Others such as the hidden water heater that's under the sink in that old locked storeroom you may never find. Therefore the circuit is an FI and the board is a C3.

 

[binky]

Sample rates. Unless the customer requests you inspect 100% of the circuits then your starting sample rate is usually 1/3. If after sampling that amount if your finding no issues and good test results you can issue a satisfactory report.

If you find issues your sample rate goes up.

FI. If you arrive at a board, it's either not labelled or incorrectly labelled. How long do you spend trying to identify the circuits your testing ? Some easy, you trip the switch and the lights / sockets / piece of kit goes off. Others such as the hidden water heater that's under the sink in that old locked storeroom you may never find. Therefore the circuit is an FI and the board is a C3.

Sample rates apply to accessories not circuits, you can't sign off an electrical system as safe if you haven't tested all the ccts. You may have an odd exception with a cct that can't be shut down for some reason, which you would note on the certificate as a limitation.

 

[Fleeting]

Sample testing of circuits is feasible however the client must agree to this and you should have previous records to compare to. Some clients may undertake a third for example per year with a 100% achieved over three years. Clients are often duped into this sample testing as they just don't understand what they are being given or a 100% test is done but the Report is flawed before they even start due to the multitude of Limitations, again something the client doesn't understand. If I saw a Report littered with Code FIs then I would immediately be suspicious.

 

[Andy™]

Sample rates apply to accessories not circuits, you can't sign off an electrical system as safe if you haven't tested all the ccts. You may have an odd exception with a cct that can't be shut down for some reason, which you would note on the certificate as a limitation.

you can do what you want providing its noted on the report

 

[Philip01]

There no such thing as sample testing circuits, sample test accessories on a circuit yes, so a tester goes in plugs his loop impedance tester in the socket circuits a third of the circuits get tested a year later another band of cowboys turn up they test all the socket circuits this goes on and on so at the end of 5 years 70% of the circuits have never been tested. I’ve followed behind these outfits the report doesn’t represent the installation, most of the test results are bogus, because the lads doing the tests are paid by circuits tested or in their case what they write on the report

 

[Andy™]

There no such thing as sample testing circuits, sample test accessories on a circuit yes, so a tester goes in plugs his loop impedance tester in the socket circuits a third of the circuits get tested a year later another band of cowboys turn up they test all the socket circuits this goes on and on so at the end of 5 years 70% of the circuits have never been tested. I’ve followed behind these outfits the report doesn’t represent the installation, most of the test results are bogus, because the lads doing the tests are paid by circuits tested or in their case what they write on the report

i do it all the time...

few places i look after get either 1/3 or 1/5 circuits (usually more DB based than random circuits in each DB) done each year rather than everything every 3/5 years. after 3/5 years all circuis have been done... guessing that's all wrong then