short wires

[RF Lighting]

I knew a bloke who used to do £250 rewires in the mid eighties. Real tightwad.

Presumably no EIC.

When I first started as an apprentice we had one test kit in the office shared between 4 vans. It was used for fault finding and periodics. The only testing we did on a rewire would be the bang test.

 

[Echo the husky]

There are companies that still operate like that now! I have 3 test kits in my van, all have slightly different functions. And yes they have all been calibrated recently.

 

[Dave54]

I knew a bloke who used to do £250 rewires in the mid eighties. Real tightwad.

Presumably no EIC.

When I first started as an apprentice we had one test kit in the office shared between 4 vans. It was used for fault finding and periodics. The only testing we did on a rewire would be the bang test.

Certainly when I was working on industrial stuff, very little testing was done on new installations. Megger it perhaps to hopefully save the bang test occurring. . .

Looking at another site which is just about electrics a while back, I wondered about some of the questions being asked. Can't remember specifics, but it seemed to me (and it was just one or two threads I looked at) that there were people there who had done the "part p course" and had a ticket to test installations, but were then getting involved in doing installation work, without having the experience to do the actual work.

 

[JohnW2]

Looking at another site which is just about electrics a while back, I wondered about some of the questions being asked. Can't remember specifics, but it seemed to me (and it was just one or two threads I looked at) that there were people there who had done the "part p course" and had a ticket to test installations, but were then getting involved in doing installation work, without having the experience to do the actual work.

I can believe that, and IMO it's really a two-way problem. I personally don't think that anyone should be (inspecting and) testing electrical installations which they do not have the training, competence and experience which would enable them to install the installations themselves.

In most walks of life, it's unusual for someone to become an 'inspector' without working their way up to that status through stages of actually undertaking work of the type that they are subsequently going to 'inspect'.

Kind Regards, John

 

[RF Lighting]

I agree. There's so much you need to know to make sure you don't miss something during an inspection. I have know idea how you'd possibly learn all the ins and outs of electrical installations without spending a while on the tools.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Looking at another site which is just about electrics a while back, I wondered about some of the questions being asked. Can't remember specifics, but it seemed to me (and it was just one or two threads I looked at) that there were people there who had done the "part p course" and had a ticket to test installations, but were then getting involved in doing installation work, without having the experience to do the actual work.

I feel sorry for people who have been misled by training organisations and (shamefully) the Competent Person scheme organisers into thinking that a 5-day training course, a couple of trivial examples of their work and some basic understanding of how to use test equipment will make them an electrician, but not sorry enough to agree with them trying to sell their services to Joe Public.

 

[Dave54]

I can remember talking to one of the wholesaler's reps. We were (IIRC) saying about some of the nasties you would see occasionally, (although perhaps not as often as might have been thought) and how there really ought to be some sort of "competent person" scheme applied to people charging other people for electrical work. At about that time I was looking into joining the NICEIC, but my little business was still just starting, and as it happened I was sidetracked into some property renovations and so never did register.
Seems to me that what we have actually ended up with is a typical government fix of doing some the right things but going about it the wrong way.
After all's said and done "The regs" were there for a long time before any real government intervention, and we all had them drilled into us and had to pass an exam. They set out the proper requirements surely?

 

[JohnW2]

Seems to me that what we have actually ended up with is a typical government fix of doing some the right things but going about it the wrong way. ... After all's said and done "The regs" were there for a long time before any real government intervention, and we all had them drilled into us and had to pass an exam. They set out the proper requirements surely?

Indeed. However the nostalgic grass on the other side often looks greener that it actually is/was. If one goes back a number of decades to my youth, I'm sure that many of the tradesmen (in all fields) had undergone protracted apprenticeships (even if not any 'academic' training) and, as a result, were very competent, but I also strongly suspect that there were also many self-styled tradesmen who had had little, if any, 'training' of any sort.

I remember in particular a chap who had done plumbing work (seeming very well) for my parents and grandparents for very many years who, overnight, metamorphosed into 'an electrician' - his explanation being that he was "getting a bit old" for some of the more physically demanding aspects of plumbing work.

Kind Regards, John