Domestic Installer course

[neds]

I know this is looked down on by some, but I'm only doing this for personal gain. Basically I am currently doing a plumbing course and will finish this hopefully in a year or so. After doing this I am looking into going down the domestic installer route.

Now my knowledge of electrics is pretty basic, I'll happily add extra sockets and lights but anything more than that I wont touch. So what would the best route to take be, how does one go about getting the domestic installer/part P cert? Can I do this while I'm still doing my Plumbing?

Cheers!

 

[flameport]

There are various courses, but if you mean the EAL 5 day effort, it is probably a waste of your time and money.
There is no way anyone could learn enough in such a short time.

Even with that, you will still need to register with one of the competent persons schemes, and part of that is demonstrating your competence by showing examples of work you have done etc.
You will also have to buy the required test equipment, tools, insurance and everything else.

 

[oharaf]

Flameport is right the 5 day stuff is useless.

You need to do 2330 and 17th as a minimum, can be done in 2 years with some hard work.

 

[neds]

I wasnt thinking of doing the 5 day rubbish, wanted to go down the proper route. I was just unsure what the domestic installer route would require really. So the 2330 is the first step then? I just thought the domestic installer/Part P is something totally different.

 

[flameport]

The courses marketed as domestic installer or (wrongly) Part P were designed for people already working as electricians, and for whatever reasons did not have any relevant paper qualifications (such as out of date, lost, never had any).

The idea being that without these, there would be many electricians who although were probably competent, would have been unable to join one of the schemes simply due to not having a piece of paper.
That is why it is only 5 days - more of an update or to confirm what was already known.

Unfortunately, that course has since been promoted as some kind of miracle where people with no electrical experience or knowledge can attend and then somehow be an electrician at the end of the week. Clearly this is not going to happen.

The 2330 is part of the 'proper' route BUT be aware that this still isn't enough on its own - you need experience in actually doing the work. Wiring on a test board in a classroom is miles away from actually working in peoples houses.

Even will all the qualifications is the world, you will still have to either notify your LABC or join one of the schemes if you intend to do any notifiable work.

Finally, be aware that a large proportion of domestic electrical work isn't electrical at all - chasing out walls, cutting chipboard floors and moving 50 years worth of junk in someones loft for example.