Lighting, mains heights and other Q's

[MrElectric]

Hi,
I recently purchased a property in England, west Yorkshire and called in an electrician to certify the electrics. He told me that:
1- The MCB fuses in the consumer unit need to in order of High to Low.
Is this true? Has anyone come across this?

Please can someone kindly help me with the following questions:

Q1 – I have read on the internet that light switches and mains sockets have to be at certain height.
The height for mains sockets has to be 450mm from the floor.
The height for light switches can be upto 120mm- maximum.

The property I have some of the light switches are above 1200mm and some of the main sockets are above 150mm and below 450mm. Do I need to re-install them? Is this a mandatory requirement nowadays?

Q2 - In order to install a wall mounted lamp holder (with 3 terminals earth, live and neutral). Can I take a mains to a switch and then to a wall mounted lamp holder. Is this OK and does it conform to 16th edition? If not what is the recommended approach?

Q3- In lighting loop or ring mains - Can you put a junction box to add in a new socket or a new light? If not what is the alternative?

Q4 - I have experience in domestic electrical installation and would like to become a certified competent electrician. I don’t wish to spend 4 years at a college. I have seen a number of quick part P and other electrical courses that can be completed in 5 days to 15 days in total. Is this true or just a money making game?


Many Thanks

 

[breezer]

Hi,
I recently purchased a property in England, west Yorkshire and called in an electrician to certify the electrics. He told me that:
1- The MCB fuses in the consumer unit need to in order of High to Low.
Is this true? Has anyone come across this?

Please can someone kindly help me with the following questions:

Q1 – I have read on the internet that light switches and mains sockets have to be at certain height.
The height for mains sockets has to be 450mm from the floor.
The height for light switches can be upto 120mm- maximum.

The property I have some of the light switches are above 1200mm and some of the main sockets are above 150mm and below 450mm. Do I need to re-install them? Is this a mandatory requirement nowadays?

Q2 - In order to install a wall mounted lamp holder (with 3 terminals earth, live and neutral). Can I take a mains to a switch and then to a wall mounted lamp holder. Is this OK and does it conform to 16th edition? If not what is the recommended approach?

Q3- In lighting loop or ring mains - Can you put a junction box to add in a new socket or a new light? If not what is the alternative?

Q4 - I have experience in domestic electrical installation and would like to become a certified competent electrician. I don’t wish to spend 4 years at a college. I have seen a number of quick part P and other electrical courses that can be completed in 5 days to 15 days in total. Is this true or just a money making game?


Many Thanks

no apprenticeship for you then.

tell you what, you can get a certificate that says you are an electrician with on line training, g'teed, send a cheque for £2,576 to the breezers college Regular Information on Part p Only Finished Friday

Or RIP OFF for short

 

[plugwash]

Q1 – I have read on the internet that light switches and mains sockets have to be at certain height.
The height for mains sockets has to be 450mm from the floor.
The height for light switches can be upto 120mm- maximum.

This is a reference to part M of the building regs which covers disabled accessibility but the part other sites miss is that in most cases you only have to make accessibility no worse than it was when you started. Also afaict the exact figures are only guidelines from the approved document not part of the actual law.

Q2 - In order to install a wall mounted lamp holder (with 3 terminals earth, live and neutral). Can I take a mains to a switch and then to a wall mounted lamp holder. Is this OK and does it conform to 16th edition? If not what is the recommended approach?

Lighting must have appropriate overcurrent/short circuit protection. If fed from a lighting circuit what you describe is fine. If fed from a socket circuit appropriate overcurrent protection must be provided (i reccomend using a FCU as the lightswitch) and if the socket circuit is a ring the normal rules of ring circuits must be followed for the supply to the FCU.

Q3- In lighting loop or ring mains - Can you put a junction box to add in a new socket or a new light?

you can use junction boxes but
* junction boxes must be accessible for inspection. Exactly what this means is not well defined but under easilly liftable floors or in a crawlspace is borderline and under floors that can't be lifted without major damage is definately out.
* if dealing with a ring you must follow the normal rules of ring spuring, that is there must be only one socket/fcu fed from the spur and there must not be more spurs than sockets on the ring.

If not what is the alternative?

to get arround the accessibility problems you can use crimped or soldered joints inside a suitable enclosure or use terminal block in a backbox covered with a blanking plate and placed in an accessible location such as on a wall near the floor or ceiling. you can also start your spurs from existing points if there is room

the restrictions on ring spurring can be got arround by extending the ring rather than spurring.

Q4 - I have experience in domestic electrical installation and would like to become a certified competent electrician. I don’t wish to spend 4 years at a college. I have seen a number of quick part P and other electrical courses that can be completed in 5 days to 15 days in total. Is this true or just a money making game?

I don't belive that the 4 year courses that go into huge depth and cover lots of stuff that a domestic/commercial electrican will never need to know are nessacery to do electrical work comptantly and they certainly aren't needed to get into the part P self cert schemes.

having said that there are a lot of courses arround now of highly varied quality and you need to be carefull. You need to check what the courses offer against the requirements of the self cert scheme you plan to enter and also need to bear in mind that the short courses are likely to be very tough going for someone without previous electrical experiance.

 

[MrElectric]

Hi plugwash,

Thank you very much for you reply.

Much appreciated.