supplier economy 7 certificate

[boing]

Our new electricity supplier want to see an electrical safety certificate before they will swap our old meter for a new economy 7 meter. We haven't really had any work done to the wiring as such - the economy 7 is to feed a thermal store overnight and is using the same feed cable as the previous immersion tank. I guess that might change in future as we begin to get a better grip on what is happening in the house. They haven't been very clear about what they actually mean by 'certificate'.

So the question is this: What exactly might need to be checked for the company? What will they need to know? is it everything, or just what has been touched?

Any ideas, anyone?

 

[Spark123]

They are probably looking for something which says the installation complies with something along the lines of BS7671 (aka IEE regs) such as the Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) or a Periodic Inspection Report (PIR). The only people who can really answer your question are the people at your electricity supplier.

 

[boing]

thanks, spark - I'll just have to talk to them again... but at least I have some options to give them...

 

[boing]

Here's the answer...

The certificate was actually requested of the electricity supplier by the electricity transmission company who own the cable supplying the house, presumably all the way up to the meter. When a consumer asks for an economy 7 meter, they always request a certificate which describes the expected increase in load that the consumer will be requesting to run their new economy 7 heaters. I suppose to make sure the cables can cope with the increase - I don't know the name of the certificate involved.

In our specific case (apparently the only time the certificate is not required) there has been no change in load because we are only using the economy 7 to run a single 3KW immersion overnight to heat a thermal store, replacing a previous 3KW immersion tank - there are no additional storage heaters installed, so no certificate is needed.

We have not, after all, been asked to supply any certificates relating to works carried out on the house wiring.

Hopefully, if anyone else runs into a similar issue, this information will help. Happy new year!