Personally competent?

[chapeau]

It's all getting a bit convoluted and away from what I intended, so let me summarise:

unfortunately this is common on this forum and I have seen more than one 'newbie' turned off by the frankly offensive behaviour of the few never to return to benefit from the considered opinions of the many.

3. My main objection is to having to pay the LABC for premission to do what I want. If I conform to the regs and the tests are ok I don't see why I should have to inform them.

Perhaps you should consider it that you aren't paying them for permission, you are paying them to check your work is up to a standard. 'Competent' persons (members of schemes) also have to pay somebody to check their work is up to a standard but this comes on a more occasional basis when their scheme provider pays a visit.

In general I would say these sorts of checks are a 'good thing'.

The problem is that just because a tradesman is a member of a competent persons scheme doesn't mean he is competent. In fact it is trivial to get on a scheme, assuming you have a basic idea of simple physics and can look up values from a table in a book.

So I have a lot of sympathy for your position as it is quite likely you will indeed do a better job than quite a few people who can sign their work off themselves.

I know a sparky round here who will test and sign off other peoples work, as long as he sees it uncovered beforehand. He will even give advice on what to do next. They do exist.

As for testing it yourself, it ain't rocket science, it is very procedural and the procedure is is laid out in several books. You can get a tester for a few hundred quid and flog it on ebay for not much less. Or rent for a week for less than £100.

Plenty of ways to skin this cat.

 

[mickeymouse]

Paul_C

Thanks for your comments, you may have missed the earlier one where I said I wanted the meter moved once I've got everything ready. This means that the LABC will almost certainly get to hear about the work.[

I defer to the intelligent poster above me, and I can only try and guess what you mean by this is that you will have done work which it would be unreasonable to have had done unless it was by the person intending to move the meter.

I think you are unfortunately one of the people who is caught out by a blunt instrument, for all I hate this government and about 90% of their policies, to be fair to them it's not practical to go and work out every single person who may or may not be competent and I don't think the law is being an ass here, simply blind.

So if that's the case, well, the only thing you "strictly" can't do is disconnect or re-make the connections yourself or otherwise directly modify the electrical system, you can get everything ready for an electrician to do. If you have set it all up right, chased all the channels, put conduit where everything should go, then it's not going to take him very long to come in, cut some lengths of cable and do a few screws up and he probably won't charge a lot for it. If you have a chat with a few of them first and pick well, he will probably enjoy chatting shop with you and you could end up with a useful friend for next time.

 

[Gees]

Move of the meter has absolutely nothing to do with LABC and the DNOs have no interest in telling them.

As mentioned before the DNO may require confirmation of your competence before connecting up.
I suggest you engage an electrician who is prepared to work the way that you want and have the meter moved at the same time as the new consumer unit goes in.

Your issue may be finding an electrician who is prepared to sign off your wiring. I will never do this. Mybe I am stupid but I have invested many hours of time getting my qualifications, and many hundreds of pounds in joining a "Part P scheme", having the required insurances, calibrated equipment etc etc.

I will always try to block folk who try and do it 'by the back door'.

An enquiry to my supplier regarding upgrading of meter tails resulted in the following

"
Good morning

Thank you for your email. We need to see a copy of the certificate of compliance, your electrician will provide this we will then book a job to carry out the work to connect the tails. Please send the certificate to

Npower correspondence "

 

[Paul_C]

And on the other hand, the last time I was involved with a full rewire and meter move about two years ago, the local DNO asked to see..... Nothing. Except for the fee, of course!

It seems they vary considerably from area to area. But either way, I don't think the DNO's have become stool-pigeons for LABC yet, have they?

If they want an installation & test certificate and you're competent enough to make one out (which the original poster most certainly would be with his qualifications and experience), then just give them the piece of paper they want to keep them happy and get the job done at minimum cost.

 

[Taylortwocities]

The last re-connect I did the DNO (S&S) sent a form to the customer.
On the form he had to detail the membership details of the "NICEIC resgistered electrician" who would be certifying the install.

I challenged this as restriction of trade (via NAPIT) and S&S deferred and allowed any member of one of the recognised "Part P" schemes.

There did not seem to be a Competent DIYer option...