Consumer Unit Installation - Qualifications Required?

Hi All

I need some confirmation please on a point of qualifications.

I'm going to be having a new consumer unit installed (currently have the old fuse wire type) and I've been told (not by an electrician I hasten to add) that only an electrician who has the 17th Edition qualification can do it rather than someone with only Part P. Is that correct please?

A competant electrician can change your consumer unit and Part P is a part of the Building Regulations, not a qualification.

Thank you Gary

You must ensure the work is going to be notified under Part P of the Building regulations, either by your electrician who may be a member of a Competent Persons Scheme or prior to the commencement of work to Building Control.

Whoever told you that is talking rubbish I'm afraid..

While the 17th edition came in in Jan 2008, we had until July 2008 before we had to work to these new (at that time) regs.

I'm registered with the NICEIC as a Part P competent electrician and have not yet taken the 17th edition exam yet (there's no real reason for me not doing it, I've just not got around to it yet). NICEIC registered contractors (wether Approved contractors or Domestic installers) have until the end of ths year to gain this qualification or something might happen (probably removal from the roll)

As others have said, both in ths thread and others, the Part P EAL is not a qualification as such.. doing this course and passing will aid non qualified people to gain membership of a Part P scheme provider..

Whilst a recommended spark would be best, you could look at

www.competentpersons.co.uk

to find a local registered spark or even check up on someone who has been recommended

Karinska - you might be interested, and possibly dismayed, to learn that it is possible to become a registered electrician without ever having changed a CU. If you pick one at random then who knows - you could be the first person he practices on!

As ever, personal recommendations are always the best way to find a reputable tradesman, but if you're having to go ahead without much in the way of those, or references, don't put any store by registration itself - sadly it is possible to become registered with woefully inadequate qualifications and zero practical experience. You don't have to spend long here to see people cropping up who are registered and "qualified", but who are clearly seriously incompetent in reality and who should not be charging for their services.

It's your money, £'00s of it, and you have every right to ask prospective tradesmen what their qualifications are. Just being listed here is not a good enough guide. No genuinely experienced electrician, with the "full set" of C&G qualifications will mind you asking - in fact he will wish that everyone was like you.

I feel sorry for people who have been misled by training organisations and (shamefully) the Competent Person scheme organisers into thinking that a 5-day training course, a couple of trivial examples of their work and some basic understanding of how to use test equipment will make them an electrician, but not sorry enough to agree with them trying to sell their services to Joe Public.

Thank you all for your replies

I have actually already lined up an electrician, although he hasn't started work yet. TBH I get the feeling he's being a little bit elusive! I'm not able to get personal recommendations really as I don't live in the areas I buy the houses in. I normally find them from the NICEIC website in the same way that I get heating engineers from the GSR website.

It wasn't until today when someone (my heating engineer in fact) told me about a couple of his mates who had done the Part P training course but weren't allowed to install CUs until they had 17th edition that I started to worry

The bloke I chose is an NICEIC Registered Domestic Installer, Approved Contractor and PAT Approved so I'm sure he'll be fine (if he turns up that is )

Thanks again, I appreciate it

Karinska said:

It wasn't until today when someone (my heating engineer in fact) told me about a couple of his mates who had done the Part P training course but weren't allowed to install CUs until they had 17th edition that I started to worry

Click to expand...

Chances are what he actually means is that his mates are registed with a competant person scheme under limited scope...and can only notify electrical work related to their trade, eg, heating installers can install heating control systems, and kitchen fitters can install extra sockets in a kitchen, but neither can rewire a house or change a DB, etc. perhaps they had been told that they could apply to join full scope if they got their 2382, I don't know, but thats deffo how it works with defined scope, hope that clears things up a little