Unnecessary electrical work? EICR codes

Risteard

grumbler said:

In fact the cheapest are £10-20 at SF.

You can't mix and match brands. Most reputable brands' RCBOs are in the £30 bracket. Some decent budget ones are just below £25. But you can't just find the cheapest ones and dung them in any DB. They need to be the correct ones for it. You can also bet that the cheapest ones will be Type AC rather than Type A, which are actually banned in most of the world.

Risteard

grumbler said:

AFAIK, they are the same size and are very easy to replace with. Possibly, an hour work for an electrician that should cost nowhere near £500.

BTW, this dual RCD CU is just £60 at Toolstation -

Call me cynical, but I'd look for another electrician

That's because it's absolute dung. It's probably not even worth £60. However a decent one is going to set you back at least £250-350 in materials, or more for larger installations.

fenwick458

without seeing the report, at a guess I'd say that replacing the 7 x MCB's with RCBO's should sort it out. so at a guess £30 x 7 is £210 + £150 labour =£360 total
thats half the price you got quoted. 
I'd advise you get some more quotes

Chickereeeee

Risteard said:

grumbler said:

AFAIK, they are the same size and are very easy to replace with. Possibly, an hour work for an electrician that should cost nowhere near £500.

BTW, this dual RCD CU is just £60 at Toolstation -

Call me cynical, but I'd look for another electrician

That's because it's absolute dung. It's probably not even worth £60. However a decent one is going to set you back at least £250-350 in materials, or more for larger installations.

What's the difference between a dung one and a good one?

fenwick458

Chickereeeee said:

Risteard said:

grumbler said:

AFAIK, they are the same size and are very easy to replace with. Possibly, an hour work for an electrician that should cost nowhere near £500.

BTW, this dual RCD CU is just £60 at Toolstation -

Call me cynical, but I'd look for another electrician

That's because it's absolute dung. It's probably not even worth £60. However a decent one is going to set you back at least £250-350 in materials, or more for larger installations.

What's the difference between a dung one and a good one?

Ok for a "dung" one:

The electrician will probably swear a lot more when fitting it; this is because 
A it's a pile of !!!!!!
B theres probably no room inside it and it's not easy to work with
C screw heads and threads will be getting stripped left right and centre as the manufacturers of these "dung" boards just use silver plated cheese for these parts
in a few years the RCD will just stop working, and by that time the company will not be in existence so good luck getting a replacement

and if you get a reputable brand, well none of the above apply
they are easy to work with, 
the parts are well made
the RCD will work properly and save your life if necessary
spares/upgrades will be available in the future

and I don't even think they are that much more expensive.
bottom of the range is £60
but for £95-100 you can get wylex/crabtree dual RCD

bris

The consumer unit is C3 not C2. There are about 30 million homes in the UK, both old and new. Do you really think every consumer unit is up to date?

Of course not, as long as the consumer unit was the current standard of the time the house was built (and not faulty obviously) then it is classed as C3, which is satisfactory.

Section 4.19 Napit Codebreakers and BS7671 section 411.3.3

I am going to assume here none of the socket outlets protect outdoor equipment as that would be a C2 or any of the circuits have faults

The C3 codes on the report you can ignore because well they are satisfactory.

So yes the electrician is inventing work.

fenwick458

bris said:

I am going to assume here none of the socket outlets protect outdoor equipment as that would be a C2 or any of the circuits have faults

what if the homeowner runs an extension lead from the non RCD protected cooker socket and then gets a shock and dies whilst cutting the hedge?

bris

P.s The new norm now for replacement consumer units is no longer RCD protection, the new thing  is every circuit on RCBO's, this means if one goes only that one goes and doesn't trip everything on the RCB protection.

This also make fault finding much easier because the faulty circuit is known so not needing to test 5 other possible circuits to find the fault saving a small fortune on the sparks £60 an hour.

bris

fenwick458 said:

bris said:

I am going to assume here none of the socket outlets protect outdoor equipment as that would be a C2 or any of the circuits have faults

what if the homeowner runs an extension lead from the non RCD protected cooker socket and then gets a shock and dies whilst cutting the hedge?

Thats not relevant to the ops problem, the circuit is internal then it's C3. The regs state only circuits protecting outside outlets are C2

Risteard

bris said:

fenwick458 said:

bris said:

I am going to assume here none of the socket outlets protect outdoor equipment as that would be a C2 or any of the circuits have faults

what if the homeowner runs an extension lead from the non RCD protected cooker socket and then gets a shock and dies whilst cutting the hedge?

Thats not relevant to the ops problem, the circuit is internal then it's C3. The regs state only circuits protecting outside outlets are C2

The Regulations don't state that anything is C2 or otherwise. That is because these are only relevant to periodic inspection and testing, where it is at the discretion of the Inspector taking regard of the particular circumstances. The only mention in the Regulations is in the model forms for periodic inspection and testing, where in the notes section it states that any lack of RCD additional protection where now required must attract a minimum of a C3 observation - i.e. it is never appropriate to not issue an observation code against an RCD requirement no matter how recent the requirement.