All real and practical concerns, and you are probably boldly going.gbrown100 said:
3rd party certification is a vexed issue - many electricians are reluctant to do it, even though EICs have always come in a version which separates out the responsibilities of designer, installer, and inspector and tester. But one of the competent person schemes is run by NAPIT - the National Association of Professional Inspectors & Testers - you'd think they would be philosophically disposed to I&T work.
If you can find someone, or if the council can find you someone, and the cost is not too great, you may decide to opt for a quiet life.
OTOH, I don't believe that if push comes to shove the council can do anything if you stick to your guns and say "You've had the notice, I've paid the fee and you are responsible for checking that the work complies."
The law requires you to notify them - you have done that.
The law requires this, and only this concerning the work itself:
P1 Reasonable provision shall be made in the design, installation, inspection and testing of electrical installations in order to protect persons from fire or injury.
P2 Sufficient information shall be provided so that persons wishing to operate, maintain or alter an electrical installation can do so with reasonable safety.
As long as you do those things, they can't come after you for the work, or make you change anything.
They may refuse to issue a completion certificate, in which case you'll have to decide whether to write off the £60, or take action against them for its return or to force them to issue a certificate. There may be a dispute resolution process for situations where an LABC is refusing a certificate.
Nothing. The proper term for the circuit commonly called a "ring", or a "ring main" is "ring final", that's all.
It's a rumour that bubbles along all the time. They are a UK quirk, which came about as a pragmatic solution to a combination of problems. Historically we had radials too - 15A ones using those old round-pin plugs. Houses had few circuits and few sockets, and what there were were used for radios, standard lamps etc. There arose a need to be able to support a few number of fairly fixed, distributed large loads - basically electric fires, one per room, at a time when there was a copper shortage and when materials were more expensive than labour. By adding a cable from the last socket back to the fusebox the circuit could then be made a 30A one, and the British Ring Main was born.
And typical of the British, they then started to believe that it was superior to Johnny Foreigner's radials. People would point to the safety benefit of two earths to each socket, saying that if there was a break in the earth wire you'd still have an earth. They would conveniently ignore the fact that a similar break in live or neutral would mean that you now had, undetected, two under-protected radials and not a ring.
They introduce testing complications, with all sorts of rigmarole to be done to verify their integrity (and this is where your Dutch friend would struggle the most).
The original justification for them has gone - people don't have many electric fires these days, nearly all loads are small, except for the kitchen where they are all in close proximity. There are millions of houses where the kitchen is the closest room to the CU under the stairs, and the engineering justification for a 32A circuit wired with 20A cable starts to look a bit flaky when there are a lot of heavy loads at one end. (Ignoring the topological inconsistency of a ring having ends...)
Finally they are problematic to maintain. All of the issues of spurring, such as limiting the number of spurs, and only allowing one accessory on an unfused spur, simply go away when you have a radial circuit, as you can branch off to your heart's content.
If I were rewiring from scratch, I'm not sure I'd bother with rings, but whether the IEE are concerned enough to bother to publish another amendment to the regs to ban them, I don't know.
I have bad news for you - don't be at all surprised if you can't pull new cables through the capping anyway. Be prepared to chase new channels - and in which case install oval conduit, not capping. Make sure you and your man are aware of the rules for buried cables:
http://www.niceic.org.uk/downloads/C5-43.pdf
http://www.niceic.org.uk/downloads/concealedcables.pdf
And note - radials don't have to be in 4mm² - 2.5mm² on a 20A breaker is OK, subject to cable installation method.
If you are going to do something more extensive than just pull new cables through existing routes, you might like to think about what circuits/sockets/switches etc you'll need, rather than just rewiring what's already there.
The items on the list below may not all apply to you, but they are worth looking at to get you thinking:
- Upstairs sockets
- Downstairs sockets
- Kitchen sockets
- Radial for appliances
- Cooker circuit
- Non-RCD circuit for F/F
- Non-RCD circuit for CH boiler
- Dedicated circuit for hifi
- Dedicated circuit for IT equipment
- Upstairs lights
- Downstairs lights
- Immersion heater
- Shower
- Alarm
- Supply for outside lights
- Supply for garden electrics
- Supply for shed/garage
Plus a few spares on RCD & non-RCD sides for expansion beyond that for future unforeseen needs.
