Plumber didn't wire boiler

thegentleway

Hi,



I was quoted by plumber to "supply and install 300 ltr indirect unvented cylinder and s plan control pack" (wording from quote).



He told me on Monday that he was not wiring it as that was electrician's job. My electrician said he doesn't do boilers and normally the plumber does it. I found a sparky on mybuilder to do it for £130.


Personally, considering how much wiring there is for an S plan I can see why you would want a sparky to do it. Everyone I speak to says plumber should have wired his own work though. Is this right? Should I negotiate £130 off the plumbing bill?


He fitted a 250 ltr indirect tank instead of a 300 ltr so I have to speak to him anyway but would like to know where I stand about the boiler wiring.


Thanks,


Tom

Nilrem

Normally from what I understand and have seen/experienced, plumbers do the wiring for the boiler - it's a standard part of the job that they're trained to do (a good part of the modern heating systems relie on being able to wire up various parts).

Both times we've had our boiler replaced the plumber has done the wiring.
When the remote valve on our old system played up the BG plumber replaced it, and redid some of the wiring.

To me installing a boiler would include doing the necessary wiring for the installation, unless it was some really complex job.

Zandoni

It depends on whether the heating engineer is qualified to do the wiring. Having said that you should have been told before he carried out the work. The quote you have had suggests it's the full job so if you haven't paid him yet deduct the electricians fee from the payment.

shaun_from_Africa

You also have the right to ask him to either remove the 250 litre cylinder and fit a 300 litre one as initially agreed or ask for the price to be lowered to take into account the lower capacity installation.

Is there much of a price difference between the two tanks? and will having one that holds 50 litres less be any inconvenience to you?

Don't forget to ensure that whoever you get to do the electrical work is "part p" certified.
http://electrical.theiet.org/building-regulations/part-p/faqs.cfm

thegentleway

Thanks for reply guys.


It's not a huge inconvenience but 300L would have been better. It's supplying 5 ensuite showers with basins and a kitchen sink so the bigger the better really.


There is hardly any difference in price, maybe £30.


Electrician was part p certified (even though boiler wiring does not fall under part p)

shaun_from_Africa

thegentleway wrote: »

Electrician was part p certified (even though boiler wiring does not fall under part p)

be

Boilers can often come under Part P depending on the circumstances.
If the boiler is simply being replaced and no new wiring is being installed, then you are correct and the work is not notifiable, but if there are new feeds to controllers, pumps etc then I think that the work falls under the scope of Part P.

Lomast

Shaun is right, if the wiring is just a case of swapping the existing feed into the new boiler then i can be done by the plumber, however if anything else needs to be done then it would need to be done by a Part P registered electrician

pendragon_arther

A good plumber should be able to wire it properly.

shaun_from_Africa

pendragon_arther wrote: »

A good plumber should be able to wire it properly.

It's not a case of simply being able to wire it up properly. If the required work falls under the requirements of "Part P" then the plumber/electrician must be Part P certified.
Getting work done by an unqualified person could cause problems should it get noticed if the OP decides to sell their house, and if there was ever a house fire and the OP's insurers found out that uncertified electrical work had been done, this could possibly affect how they handle any claim.

oldagetraveller

When I had a new boiler installed some years ago, plus upgrading the control of the system to Part P, the plumber completed all the wiring but had to call in an electrician to examine and check the electrical installation to certify the work.