Surge & Arc protection

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John t

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Hi all so with ammendment 2 looming over us...multiple occupancy dwellings would you fit surge & Arc detection to cover all bases with RCBOs of course 😉 it seems to me that the cost of installing a consumer unit is fast approaching the £1,000-00 mark and beyond (depending on size obviously) now for me you can't put a price on safety but trying to explain to customers is a different matter.
 
Well amendment 2 requires them in HMOs and other specified premises it is what it is. Fitting SPDs shouldn't be such an issue the cost now being negligible and I suspect AFDDs will follow suit in time and drop in price. Anyone who owns an HMO is likely to be able to afford the additional costs.
 
Hi all so with ammendment 2 looming over us...multiple occupancy dwellings would you fit surge & Arc detection to cover all bases with RCBOs of course 😉 it seems to me that the cost of installing a consumer unit is fast approaching the £1,000-00 mark and beyond (depending on size obviously) now for me you can't put a price on safety but trying to explain to customers is a different matter.

only £1000 ?

I suspect it’s much more
 
When you consider the plumber's equivalent is a boiler change, try getting one done for less than £2.5k
Maybe down south but not the North West no way on this planet anyone is paying 2.5 k for a consumer unit change its just not happening 🤣
 
Norh West £6/650
Down in deepest Devon £750+ is quite normal. I've upped my cost to suite but I do fit full RCBO boards, and they are around £200 for the parts alone.

What I was getting at is what plumber's charge for an equivalent piece of work. I'm of the opinion we undersell ourselves. Discuss 😁
 
Down in deepest Devon £750+ is quite normal. I've upped my cost to suite but I do fit full RCBO boards, and they are around £200 for the parts alone.

What I was getting at is what plumber's charge for an equivalent piece of work. I'm of the opinion we undersell ourselves. Discuss 😁

must be more competition around here because not many people would accept £750
 
Well amendment 2 requires them in HMOs and other specified premises it is what it is. Fitting SPDs shouldn't be such an issue the cost now being negligible and I suspect AFDDs will follow suit in time and drop in price. Anyone who owns an HMO is likely to be able to push up the rents to afford the additional costs.
Fixed that for you as that will be the outcome, the alternative being landlords will sell up and put even more pressure on the available remaining rental properties. With all the various rental legislation in recent years landlords are being pushed away from the market as the expenses mount up the AFDD could be the straw that breaks the camels back


With the mandatory requirement for AFDD's in the latest amendment I'm struggling to find any evidence or stats that backs up the need for them to be mandatory or why it was even considered add to that a lack of knowledge throughout the industry on how we test, verify and even locate an arc fault after an AFDD trip.
Hager have a reprogrammable AFDD and can deploy a monitoring tool to identify spurious noise if there are cases of nuisance tripping the AFDD firmware is then altered and uploaded via bluetooth to the AFDD but does that then make the AFDD less sensitive to real arc faults.

In the real world how many of us have found or had faults on final circuits that could be attributed to arcing where an AFDD would have been an asset

In short AFDD's are helping the IET magic money go round by creating an amendment that is selling more books and in the process creating a better balance sheet for the manufacturers due to their cost, will they come down significantly in price remains to be seen but I don't see it happening for some time
 
I agree totally, I also believe that EICRs should be yearly like the gas for tenanted properties, the thing is you can smell gas which gives you a heads up if there is a leak.....you can't smell electricity though can you 🤪 doesn't make sense to me
 
Fixed that for you as that will be the outcome, the alternative being landlords will sell up and put even more pressure on the available remaining rental properties. With all the various rental legislation in recent years landlords are being pushed away from the market as the expenses mount up the AFDD could be the straw that breaks the camels back


With the mandatory requirement for AFDD's in the latest amendment I'm struggling to find any evidence or stats that backs up the need for them to be mandatory or why it was even considered add to that a lack of knowledge throughout the industry on how we test, verify and even locate an arc fault after an AFDD trip.
Hager have a reprogrammable AFDD and can deploy a monitoring tool to identify spurious noise if there are cases of nuisance tripping the AFDD firmware is then altered and uploaded via bluetooth to the AFDD but does that then make the AFDD less sensitive to real arc faults.

In the real world how many of us have found or had faults on final circuits that could be attributed to arcing where an AFDD would have been an asset

In short AFDD's are helping the IET magic money go round by creating an amendment that is selling more books and in the process creating a better balance sheet for the manufacturers due to their cost, will they come down significantly in price remains to be seen but I don't see it happening for some time
I assume you have the stats to back up the statement landlords will compensate by putting up rents as it is such a bold statement.
 
Fixed that for you as that will be the outcome, the alternative being landlords will sell up and put even more pressure on the available remaining rental properties. With all the various rental legislation in recent years landlords are being pushed away from the market as the expenses mount up the AFDD could be the straw that breaks the camels back


With the mandatory requirement for AFDD's in the latest amendment I'm struggling to find any evidence or stats that backs up the need for them to be mandatory or why it was even considered add to that a lack of knowledge throughout the industry on how we test, verify and even locate an arc fault after an AFDD trip.
Hager have a reprogrammable AFDD and can deploy a monitoring tool to identify spurious noise if there are cases of nuisance tripping the AFDD firmware is then altered and uploaded via bluetooth to the AFDD but does that then make the AFDD less sensitive to real arc faults.

In the real world how many of us have found or had faults on final circuits that could be attributed to arcing where an AFDD would have been an asset

In short AFDD's are helping the IET magic money go round by creating an amendment that is selling more books and in the process creating a better balance sheet for the manufacturers due to their cost, will they come down significantly in price remains to be seen but I don't see it happening for some time
I do believe a dearly departed member did a full write up on the AFDD as it is an adopted Americanism IIRC from his explanation, introduced over there due to the lack of real testing being carried out and damn near pointless over here?
 
I assume you have the stats to back up the statement landlords will compensate by putting up rents as it is such a bold statement.
Any business that incurrs extra costs will attempt to recover said costs. Rents have been rising anyway due to demand, demand for holidays at home meant many landlords moved into the Air B&B to take advantage of higher rental incomes that could generate. As people can now go abroad again, that may rebalance.
 
I agree totally, I also believe that EICRs should be yearly like the gas for tenanted properties, the thing is you can smell gas which gives you a heads up if there is a leak.....you can't smell electricity though can you 🤪 doesn't make sense to me

Absolutely disagree about every year, but there is probably some merit with change of tenancy
 
Why if gas is every 12 months what is the difference for Electrical with regards to safety 🤔
 
I assume you have the stats to back up the statement landlords will compensate by putting up rents as it is such a bold statement.
I don't honestly believe it is that bold a statement are you really that naive to believe they wouldn't, a new AFDD consumer unit could easily wipe out a months rent or more
 
I assume you have the stats to back up the statement landlords will compensate by putting up rents as it is such a bold statement.

Just look at any forum for landlords and they are all pretty much saying that increased costs = higher rent for tenants.

The problem is that too many landlords don’t do their sums properly and don’t allow for the costs of running a let property
 
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