Changing a light fitting in a bathroom (no new wiring). Can it be DIY'd?

[DIYNotIan]

Hi all

Sorry if this has come up before. I imagine it has, but all I could find were: a) contradictory answers, and b) old answers, which may now be out of date.

We are getting a bathroom overhaul done soon and as part of it will replace the light. I know it has to be rated correctly for the zone. What I'm not sure about is whether I am allowed to put the new light up? It will be using the existing wiring. No new wires needed. The current pendant simply has three wires going in, so is a very simple change. I'm confident doing it, but wanted to check if I'm allowed.

Many thanks

 

[ericmark]

You can do all electrical work in the home as DIY, however the cost the register some work is more than it would cost to get an electrician.

The law in called Part P, and it varies country to country, Wales and England are different, and as with many laws it is down to the courts to decide, but first you need to get caught, and unless a rental property or your work kills some one, who would know?

It is more down to comprehension of English than the electrical bit, with an installation the work is split into three parts, design, installation, and inspection and testing, if the work your doing alters the design, then likely it would need registering, if however you could say it was like for like, then likely would not need registering.

But you look yourself, and you decide, don't ask some one to decide for you.

 

[plugwash]

Disclaimer: IANAL, this is my interpretation of the rules.

In England the electrical notification rules were rewritten in 2013, whereas wales is still on the old rules. I understand Scotland has there own totally separate rules but I've no idea of the details and I've no idea what the situation is in Northern Ireland. The rest of this post assumes the OP is in England or Wales.

In Wales replacement of existing equipment is specifically called out as not notifiable and (unlike other parts of the rules) that rule has no specifications on location.

In England things get a little murkier, "any addition or alteration to existing circuits in a special location." is notifiable, this leaves two questions though.

1. Is the fitting actually in a special location in the first place? The bathroom zones only extend 2.25m from the floor, so it's quite possible perhaps even likely that the ceiling is outside of them.
2. What exactly counts as an "alteration", replacing the fitting with an identical one clearly wouldn't be but I've no idea where the line would be drawn.

In reality building control have better things to do than go after people for minor breaches of the notification rules, so this all ends up being pretty theoretical.

 

[JP_]

If I've done it myself, you can too!
Take a photo of the cables before you start, then if it all goes wrong you can put it back together again.

 

[DIYNotIan]

Hi all

Great responses - thank you.

I'm in Wales (just updated my "location"). So that's handy then!

In reality building control have better things to do than go after people for minor breaches of the notification rules, so this all ends up being pretty theoretical.

We haven't decided yet, but there's a chance in the future we might sometimes do the Air BnB type thing and rent our house out when we go away. So that was at the forefront of my mind when considering what is "allowed".

If I've done it myself, you can too!
Take a photo of the cables before you start, then if it all goes wrong you can put it back together again.

Haha - but I don't know you from Adam! That being said, on the one hand you might play the banjo, which would imply your good with your fingers. But on the other, you might liken yourself to Django Reinhardt - which means you might have fingers missing? Which in turn might have been from a DIY disatster?!? Anyways, enough conjecture for now.

Yes, good idea RE the photos and something I have got in the habit of doing over the last few years. That being said, with only three wires to worry about, I'm hoping I can't go too far wrong!

Cheers

 

[bernardgreen]

Take a photo of the cables before you start

and also if there is more than one wire of each colour then mark each wire.