Part P review?

[mbga9pgf]

It doesnt get round the fact that as a competent DIYer, following the regs and testing as appropraite, it would cost me a fortune to notify. So I shant be bothering.

 

[ericmark]

Part P has two main problems.
1) The cost of small jobs to register with the LABC is OTT. There needs to be a lower start point there can be no excuse for charging more to register than the work costs to get done.
2) The person doing the work is not registered it is only the firm. So multi-national firms can employ any one to do the work and can't see how that can ever ensure people doing the work comply with regulations.

It does control the self employed who have to buy books and have items tested to show they are in calibration. However that does not extend to the larger firms and in some ways I can understand where one has 5 meters and they all are used to test same socket and they all give the same reading then why should they need to go away for calibration?

Having send a PAT tester for calibration then needed to ask questions only to find I needed to re-submit the unit to get answers then find it could not be calibrated to the new standards and all items tested with it would need re-testing I have very little faith in the test houses.

Up to now meters I have used have drifted very little. When they have gone wrong it has been a complete failure. (Or at least so far out one knows straight away it's wrong) And they are 100% more accurate than those used by LABC on the few jobs I have been involved with. What I am saying is LABC did not check even one of the readings I had taken and as an electrician with 40+ years I could fudge up a set of results that look the part without ever using a meter so they should have at least checked one reading.

For the guy from LABC to admit he did not know much about electrics said it all. If they don't know why do we need to pay so much for them to inspect it? First year apprentice could have done a better job.