Scottish Govt consultation to regulate "electrician"

[JohnW2]

.... "(iii) take account of danger that may arise from the failure of a single circuit such as a lighting circuit" ... means 2 RCD's do not cut the mustard. ... So has to in some way have at least three RCD's.

As I've said before, very few people seem to read what that reg actually says.

Whatever danger may be perceived to exist because of "failure of a lighting circuit", that danger cannot be eliminated by any number of RCDs, since the danger (whatever) will still exist even if the lighting circuit has its own dedicated RCD/RCBO and also if 'failure of the circuit' is due to a power cut or some wiring problem.

As I've often said, the only thing which can address that perceived danger is battery-operated emergency lighting. After all, if a lighting circuit 'fails' (lights go out), the circuit doesn't know whether that has happened because of operation of a shared RCD, operation of a dedicated RCD, a power cut or a problem with the circuit's wiring - in all cases "the lights go out"!

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

As said before, there is a huge difference in a general power cut, to loosing lights when some other event has resulted in a RCD tripping, bad enough that some thing has tripped a RCD, without it also plunging one into darkness. If you have just had a shock, to also switch off all lights is not helpful.

 

[JohnW2]

As said before, there is a huge difference in a general power cut, to loosing lights when some other event has resulted in a RCD tripping, bad enough that some thing has tripped a RCD, without it also plunging one into darkness. If you have just had a shock, to also switch off all lights is not helpful.

I agree with all that, and it might even be what the authors of the reg had in mind - but, as I said, it is not what the reg, as actually written, says. It talks about "taking into account the danger that may result from the failure ... of a lighting circuit" without saying anything about the cause of the failure.

Kind Regards, John