Gaining Part P Registration for DIY

[japes1980]

I have seen courses such as this advertised:

http://www.stc.ac.uk/part-time/courses/view.php?id=744

My question is this:
I'm not an electrician by trade, but am interested in doing such a course to help me to do work around my house. Would this course allow me to apply for Part P competent person registration?

If not, how could I go about gaining this status?

Thanks in anticipation guys and keep up the good work on the forum!

 

[Spark123]

It seems a bit packed to me, 17 x 3 hours to cover 17 units, unless of course they are short units!
What background in electrical work do you have?
Are you wanting to apply to become a domestic installer with the NICEIC or similar, so you can carry out work on other peoples houses?

 

[japes1980]

Don't have any formal training as an electrician, but have read up a lot over the years. I am interested in doing a course such as this for 2 reasons:
1) For pure interest.
2) To enable me to carry out work in my own house mainly, but the ability to do so in others would be advantageous. I just want to be able to do domestic electrical work without having to call in someone qualified or Building Regs unless the task is too difficult, complex or dangerous to tackle myself.

 

[Spark123]

The problem here is that to enrol with someone such as the NICEIC Domestic Installer Scheme you really need to be doing electrical work for a living, it isn't really so you can just carry out work in your own home.
It will cost you a fair bit to get up to speed and enrol with someone like them (enrolment fee, insurances etc) so if you are only doing it for yourself then it will probably be more financially viable to go the Local Authority route for notifiable works.
Maybe still worth your while doing the NVQ2 course out of interest.

 

[flameport]

That course may well be accepted as a suitable qualification for membership of a competent persons scheme, but there is no way it could possibly cover even a fraction of the required knowledge.

Unless you are looking to do work for other people on a regular basis, it will not be worth it.
All of the competent persons schemes have other requirements, such as:
- At least 2 examples of work to be shown at the annual assessment
- Public liability insurance
- Full set of calibrated test instruments
- The annual fee of approx £400
Full list of requirements here: http://www.elecsa.co.uk/reqs_costs.aspx

Even for the insurance, test equipment and annual fee you are looking at over £1000 - pointless just for a few jobs in your own house.

 

[japes1980]

Had a feeling that would be the case.

Might do the course for interest's sake anyway and just ask building control to test/sign off any work. At least that way I could be more certain of work complying with 17th Ed. than by just DIYing!

Thanks for your help and advice guys, keep up the good work!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I just want to be able to do domestic electrical work without having to call in someone qualified or Building Regs unless the task is too difficult, complex or dangerous to tackle myself.

There should never be anything dangerous involved...

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Might do the course for interest's sake anyway

Go for it.

I'd recommend you still get the test equipment though - start looking on feePay.....

 

[viewer]

Go for it. May be expensive, but gives freedom to do jobs when you want. I'm not an electrician and did the Domestic Installers course a few years ago because I'm slowly rebuilding the house. Good fun and I bought the gear (Metrel + testers etc) to suit the teaching. There has been considerable comment about the limitations of these courses, but that can be said of most courses and anybody willing to spend that amount of money on a course for DIY use is likely to take continuing interest and develop knowledge and skills without endangering self or others. I can get L.A. for certification and can do the work when ready. There is a lot of temporary (done for a year or two then removed) work and I can never be sure when I will have the money or time to do the next part. It would be impossible for a wage-earning electrician to take on this kind of work, so I don't feel that I am taking anyone's job.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Might do the course for interest's sake anyway

Go for it.

I'd recommend you still get the test equipment though - start looking on feePay.....

This is a lesser known make - might go for a good price:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/UniTest-Telar...ryZ50964QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[scarypants]

It would be best to take a level 2 course with progression to 17th eds,
but at level 2 with my experience of it, the inspection and testing is only slightly touched on.
Local Building Controls fees are about £125 for work that is valued at £0-£2000.
When using building controls i'd suggest if you intend to do a few jobs around the house that controls would be applicable to, notify them all at same time, rather than odds and sods as it may save a few pennies
or it could become an expensive hobby