FCU question?

[reneel]

oh, I really thought landlords had to have electrical checks every 2 years, unless that is something different

 

[RF Lighting]

Some letting agents may require their landlords to have regular inspections carried out on their properties, but it isn't a legal requirement.

 

[Taylortwocities]

ELECSA, NICEIC, and NAPIT are the registration bodies who inspect their members.

You would think so. I'm a NAPIT member and have not had an assessment visit for 4 years. I just pay the subs and do the notifications. Suits me!

 

[SimonH2]

oh, I really thought landlords had to have electrical checks every 2 years, unless that is something different

No, there is no regulation that requires any specific electrical checks whatsoever.

But, and I'm a landlord myself, you want to be in a position that you can honestly say that you've taken all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of your tenants and their visitors. On the electrical side there are two different areas to consider.

1) The fixed installation.
My policy is to have an EICR (used to be called PIR) done as soon as I buy a property (I have two). If that is all OK, and you are not aware of anything that may have been missed, then that puts you in a position where you can say that a qualified person has told you the installation was safe on that date. Whoever does the EICR will also suggest a time until the next check - typically 10 years, but he may suggest shorter if the expected usage or installation type/materials suggest it.

I upgraded the CU in the flat (owned it for a few years) and in the house (bought last year). There wasn't any actual requirement to do so, but it means both are now fully up to date and so I have the defence that I've upgraded the electrics to current standards should anything happen.

2) Portable appliances.
These should be checked on a regular basis. But, the law does NOT specify any frequency - that is down to an assessment and is appliance specific. For something like a power tool used on a building site then it may be only a few weeks, for something that doesn't move (such as a fridge) it could be a couple of years. Note that I said checked, not tested. A big part of Portable Appliance Testing (PATs) is visual inspection, and according to the "2 hour wonder" course I did for work, 90+% of faults are found by visual inspection.

I check the portable appliances every year while I'm in having the gas checks done. It only takes a few minutes. I'll also look at them between tenants. Also between tenants, as part of the regular stuff, I'll look to see if there's any hint of problems with the electrics - so far I've been lucky and had no bad tenants, so no "fiddling" with the electrics.


Gas is different. By law you must have any gas appliances safety checked every 12 months, and I think you must have a maintenance contract on any boiler (I do anyway, so not sure if it's a legal requirement). As RF Lighting says, some agents may have their own requirements over and above those above.

 

[SimonH2]

If a fused connection unit was wired correctly, but the live and earth to the appliance, ie immersion heater, were the wrong way round, and no rcd was installed on the circuit, would the mcb/fuse at the c.u. trip due to the earth and live touching inside the fcu?

If the wires were just swapped round, then they wouldn't be touching. What should happen is that excess current will flow from the live feed, through the earth conductor to the immersion heater, through the cylinder and pipework, and back to the main earth terminal - this current should be more than adequate to blow/trip the overcurrent protection on the circuit.

Of course, if some of the plumbing has been upgraded/repaired/replaced with plastic and the bonding has not been maintained, then you could instead just end up with live pipework.


Swapping earth and neutral could possibly be said to be worse. In that case, you could be putting all the operating current through the earth wire (more correctly CPC) which is normally smaller than the live and neutrals. You'd also have a connection between neutral and your pipework (and back to earth) - so if the immersion is fed off a "ring main" then part of the load in the ring main will flow through your pipework and could potentially cause electrolytic corrosion.

 

[EFLImpudence]

If a fused connection unit was wired correctly, but the live and earth to the appliance, ie immersion heater, were the wrong way round, and no rcd was installed on the circuit, would the mcb/fuse at the c.u. trip due to the earth and live touching inside the fcu?

Reneel has already confirmed that the FCU was wired correctly but the immersion was wired with Live and Earth the wrong way round.

This would take a good deal of stupidity by connecting the Live to a large bolt and connecting the Earth into a very small terminal in the thermostat.

It is difficult to imagine how anyone could do this by accident.