Electrical quote... does this sound legit?

aptsys · 22 Mar 2017

d000hg said:
Others already replied but what I was told was:

It has to be bonded within 600mm (I think it is though whether that is straight-line distance or distance the bond is along the pipe?)

It is recommended to be bonded before any joint

They didn't like that it was attached on top of a painted pipe

A mate also suggested the pipe should be highlighted in some special tape rather than painted black but I never heard of that one before.

So is the general conclusion that the electrician has simply reported all the non-code points and then spun this up into a nice day's work as something that needs to be done? i.e. the price isn't outrageous for the job quoted but the job quoted isn't really necessary.

These RCD units that go inside the consumer unit... do they just pull out and can be replaced or is it more complicated than that? Plug & play I could cope with, anything else I'm not going near it!

I didn't realise the clamp over painted pipe. If that is the case, it probably should be sorted although as I said, if the gas supply is plastic to the meter it's not needed anyway. It would be easy to sand back the paint and re-clamp.
The reg is "Where practicable the connection should be made within 600mm of the meter outlet union or at the point of entry if the meter is external". Given the earth seems to run in the same conduit as the gas pipe, you could just bring the bond at the point of entry to the house.

oldbutnotdead · 22 Mar 2017

The 600mm bit- you are correct, it doesn't specify whether that's a radius or pipe length. Actually that is a valid point- get your tape measure out and measure (in pipe length) how far that bond is from the output side of the meter. Painted pipe- I suspect when you take the thing off you'll find it was painted after the bond was applied. Gas pipe ought to be sleeved in scary yellow plastic (makes it easy to differentiate it from water pipe or any other random bits of copper) or painted in said scary yellow.

RCD- not quite plug and play but not far off- 2 screws for the load side, 2 screws for supply side, slidey clip underneath, wiggle and out. Depending on CU design the wiggle can be a prolonged effort, sometimes needs removal of one of the internal bus bars.

For the price quoted they'll not be doing a lot of inspection of the installation- no it isn't a bad price for installing £100-worth of brand new 17th ed CU but if anything comes up iffy (if they actually start measuring insulation resistance etc.) then the price could double really quickly. I'm sure on that quote there'll be some wiggle words along the lines of 'assuming cabling etc. meets current standards'.

FiremanT · 24 Mar 2017

As far as I, as a gas Service Engineer, am concerned, there is nothing wrong with the bond. I appreciate that there are some deviations between elec and gas regs, but if a GSE/RGI had visited, he would be considering the bond should be 600mm (of pipe length) from the meter, or from the entry into the premises, before any JUNCTIONS (Tees), as opposed to bends or fittings. It looks like it is within 600m of the meter. Obviously it should be fitted to clean pipe, and I understand that clamps are weather resistant, unless it has a red stripe?

The pipe does NOT need to wrapped in yellow. In a commercial building, the pipe has to be identified with a label, but no such requirement exists for domestic. I THINK Industrial has to be painted yellow, but I am not Industrial registered.

endecotp · 25 Mar 2017

d000hg said:
These RCD units that go inside the consumer unit... do they just pull out and can be replaced or is it more complicated than that?

It's more complicated; the mechanical connection is a sort of snap-in arrangement but the electrical connections are chunky wires into screw terminals and bus bars.

Your issue here is that it what you and "some people on the Internet" think doesn't count for much compared to the "qualified electrician" who wrote this report. So either you need to accept the report, and negotiate a discount (I'd start by offering £100 off), or you need to commission your own report by a better-qualified electrician that says what you want it to say. Which might cost more.

d000hg · 27 Mar 2017

Yeah you hit the nail on the head there.

Communication is going well but I'll wait until we exchange to give a definitive answer.

Thanks for all the replies, it's been really helpful having a more informed viewpoint.

bkh011 · 8 Jul 2017

is this a joke, what do you expect of an electrical contractor, we have to do it right to the regulations, we cannot issue a certificate of conformaty if it isn't upto standard, we are a highly skilled trade and that comes with a price tag, 2 mins to fix this 2 mins to fix that? how are we supposed to earn a living doing that, lawyers charge the earth and no one complains, the quote you were given is competitive (uk), we don't Wright the rules peaple like yourselves do that by trying to do something you have no idea about, so carry on do it yourself and possibly burn the place done or worse electrocute someone, to asume it only cost 100 to 200 pounds dosnt even cover the materials and expenses, so we work for free!!! do we.

endecotp · 8 Jul 2017

Congratulations on your first post bkh011.

Now calm down and maybe have a cup of tea or something, and then see if there are any recent questions, i.e. not things from March, where you can use your professional skills to the benefit of someone.

Bosswhite · 8 Jul 2017

Its a second hand house, complies with the requirements of the date it was built .
if the prospective buyers want something up to date and still want the property its up to them to modernise it

John D v2.0 · 15 Jul 2017

I never heard an eicr described as a certificate of conformity before! It's a report on what's there, you can issue one for a set of live exposed tails floating in mid air if you want. Although generally you'd try to isolate them before leaving.

Also for the benefit of anyone else reading this, the problem with the gas bond is actually that it's outside the property, it should correctly be inside, close to where it enters the property. If there's a tee outside then it enters in two places, it would be two extraneous conductive parts and both should be bonded inside the house where they enter.

FiremanT · 24 Jul 2017

Having re read my earlier post,I realise I forgot to say that I have never seen an exterior bond "protected from the elements". And I have seen a lot.

BKH : Grow up, mate. No one as far as I can see has made mention of what you should or should not charge. I will, however, say that whatever you do charge, you need to be honest, and not fabricate works required. I can only speak authoritatively on the bond, and they are wrong. (but then, so are a few of the contributors.

But stick with the forum, if the elec side is like the CC,then there will be a wealth of knowledge (and a bit of pis$ taking). Assuming that you don't know absolutely everything already

John D v2.0 · 24 Jul 2017

FiremanT said:
a bit of pis$ taking

I must have got them on a bad day then, the blast of flames in the plumbing area was so hot I daren't go back!

Electrical quote... does this sound legit?

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