can I do it??

[michaela]

I want to replace the ceiling lights in the kitchen. At present I have two light fittings each with a light bulb and glass casing over them. I want to replace these with a set of three spotlights at the site of each light fitting. Can I do this myself or do I have to use a qualified electrician?

Thanks in advance

 

[bathjobby]

If your asking reference Part P regs, I believe you can do it yourself as you are replacing one fixture with another, even though the replacement fixture have more lamps, it is still a like for like replacement on the fixture.
In my opinion......

 

[mapj1]

Hmm, part P marginal - you may be seen as changing the circuit loading. If it were mine, I might well just do it and not worry too much, or do it last year, if you see what I am driving at, but to be correct strictly you should probably contact your local council building control office for advice.. I suspect they won't really want to know, and will put you off with a threat of a large bill.

Incidentally you can do any electrical work yourself, but getting the local authority to inspect may be more painful than using a self certified scheme member sparky, depending on their degree of clued-up ness.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Hmm, part P marginal - you may be seen as changing the circuit loading.

Changing the load is not a factor wo whether work is notifiable.

 

[Mr Winston]

if the spots are lv then part p may be invlved

 

[securespark]

Only if they are NOT part of a CE-marked kit...

 

[michaela]

thanks everyone for your quick and helpful replies, sorry it's taken me so long to respond. They are only ordinary CE marked spots, an electrician will be doing this for me although he is retired therefore does not have Part P.

 

[mapj1]

I should be inclined to worry more about the quality of the jobs he has done in the past , than the paper qualifications - if he knows what he is doing, and has an established base of customers happy to recommend, he may well be better than a freshly qualified newbie ...

 

[dazzlerpalmer]

how will part P be enforced
It seems to me that it is a confused bag of crap.

 

[dazzlerpalmer]

I did not type rubbish I said
C R A P

 

[plugwash]

it probablly won't be at least not against diyers

tradesmen who break the rules may be at higher risk especially if they get a disgruntled customer against them but even in this case unless they do something really bad they are unlikely to get into too much trouble.

 

[mapj1]

No breach of the building regs procedures can be prosecuted after 6 months have elapsed, as the offence is non-inditable (i.e. Magistrates Court only). The same limitation restricts the absolute maximum fine to 5K, which is very unlikley to be imposed in any case, despite what some bodies who should know better have been saying..
So unless family and friends shop you in the first 6 months, you have got away with it.

A more serious prosecution can follow at any time if the installation causes accident, injury, or even death, but then that was true before Part P was introduced too, and will still apply even if the part P process has been followed to the letter.

More realistically, it may mean that when you sell your house, if it looks like un-notified work has been done that someone would like you to pay for a 'regularisation' or inspection of the wiring to show its condition, but this is probably as bad as it gets.

I can't imagine, given the cost of a house move, that an extra hundred quid will be that much of a concern if it gets between someone and their dream house, and it is probably cheaper done once than repeatedly calling out building control for every odd job. The secret of course is to do it well enough that if it is inspected, no remedial work is required.