Today, I............

[Norv]

Right, I've changed my CU for my assessment & I thought today I would test it all. Managed to get rid of the missus & kids for the day. I started off by turning all the power off then unplugging everything & then taking all the lightbulbs out. Started with the continuity of protective conductors on the lighting circuit by putting the brown wire into the earth bar & went about checking continuity at the ceiling points. Suprisingly, found that upstairs never had any continuity & there was no earth. Managed to put another earth in around the loft which was a nightmare & took ages cause I didnt want to bodge it & our loft is full. All tested & ok.

Then I tested r1, r2 & rn on the ring circuit & that seemed ok

Next I connected the phase & neutral together (incoming & outgoing) & went round each socket with a plug in thing that you can plug your meter into. Results seemd to be within 0.1 ohms of each other except for the spurs. Then I connected phase & cpc together & went around the sockets again. The results seemd to be approx 0.1 - 0.2 ohms more than the previous test, the OSG says these results should be substantially the same, is this ok ?

Then I went onto insulation test & seemed to be getting very random results. Do I have to disconnect the wires from the cb, neutral & earth bar before doing these tests or can they be left connected ?

Then the phone went & the missus & kids wanted to come home so that was that & I didnt seem to get a lot done in the end.

 

[pdenni]

hi norv

if you wanted you could do a quick insulation test by doing the whole board at the same time by testing from the outging phase and neutral/earth, obviously if you had a poor reading you would need to test individual circuits and also have someone switching all the two way switches when testing, also remember to take the earth bonds off when your doing earth loop.

 

[RF Lighting]

If you have a split load board then make sure you remove the RCD before doing a full board IR test.

You risk damaging the RCD, and it may also give you false readings.

 

[pdenni]

very true rf lighting

pressed the wrong button and posted before i added that part

 

[dingbat]

Well done Norv. The hardest thing about testing is getting into the habit of doing it.

Of coure, you should have tested your installation before you changed the CU!

 

[Norv]

I suppose its not so bad when you got a house full of pendant lights but I think all these fancy b&q lights are designed to be put up once & left alone.

My fault I suppose for doing one of my assessments on an old house, but its good practice, all jobs cant be like this...

Cheers

 

[seasickstevie]

I'm in similar situation. About to put in new CU in my own house and wiring a new kitchen up for someone else.

Going to use the two jobs for my assessment.

Do I really need to get BC to inspect the jobs first and pay best part of £400 in total for the privilege
Or maybe that's a grey area that can be sidelined and signed off by myself once I'm fully certified!

I have been told it's a requisite to inform BC, but it's an issue that doesn't seem to get mentioned much and maybe the majority of sparks get the jobs done, get 'em through the assessment and move on.

It doesn't sound like Norv is keeping on the straight & narrow - perhaps Norv is the norm.

 

[Podooser]

Yes good question. If the job is to be used for an assesment can you avoid telling BC,do the work, pass the assesment and then sign it off yourself?

 

[Adam_151]

Yes good question. If the job is to be used for an assesment can you avoid telling BC,do the work, pass the assesment and then sign it off yourself?

You're not supposed to, but copy out the EIC with a new date and on the pad from your registered body and submit it, and chances are are no one is going to care

 

[Podooser]

I thought so. Do you think the examiner from the registered body will be fussed either way or will he ask/require whether it BC has been notified?

 

[Adam_151]

I thought so. Do you think the examiner from the registered body will be fussed either way or will he ask/require whether it BC has been notified?

I don't think so, he'll be more interested in your work and testing, but don't tell him they haven't notified , in the rare event that he does ask (he wont) you could tell him you did, they had a look at the job and your EIC and left happy

 

[Podooser]

Thanks Adam_151. Much appreciated.

 

[baldersj]

Then I connected phase & cpc together & went around the sockets again. The results seemd to be approx 0.1 - 0.2 ohms more than the previous test, the OSG says these results should be substantially the same, is this ok ?

That's only because the CPC (assuming its all wired in Twin & Earth) has a smaller Cross-Sectional Area and therefore a higher resistance. If they're all relatively similar readings then that's cool & groovy