What is electrical equipment and what is an electrical installation?

[ericmark]

Are you suggesting that anything 'current using' is NOT part of the installation, even if (by your personal definition) it is 'fixed'?

Basic answer is yes. All needs testing and inspecting, but we have special rules for in-service electrical equipment, so if it comes under the inspection and testing of in-service electrical equipment then it does not also come under electrical installation condition report even if installed.

We clearly use some common sense, and pendents are included with the EICR rather PAT testing, even when the bulb uses energy. But we don't want to be testing the same gear twice.

 

[JohnW2]

Basic answer is yes. All needs testing and inspecting, but we have special rules for in-service electrical equipment ...

Who is this 'we'? Does it include landlords?

... so if it comes under the inspection and testing of in-service electrical equipment then it does not also come under electrical installation condition report even if installed.

Don't forget that the 'landlord legislation' doesn't actually mention EICRs (which are mentioned only in the associated guidance document)- it talks only of "inspection and testing" - so it could be said that it catches the landlords 'both ways'.

We clearly use some common sense, and pendents are included with the EICR rather PAT testing, even when the bulb uses energy.

One has to be careful here, since one cannot (lawfully) over-ride what legislation actually says by application of 'common sense', even if the legislation doesn't make sense! Even a court can't do that - they can clarify/interpret what the legislation says, but, if the legislation is clear, they can't change it (even if it's daft!).

However, I agree that this is very much a grey area. For a start, is a pendant light really materially different from many other 'hard-wired' light fittings? Secondly, what is on the end of the cable of a ('hard-wired') pendant is a 'socket' into which one plugs (or screws, or twists) an item of current-using equipment (lamp/bulb) - and I would think that most people would probably say that a 'hard-wired socket" IS 'part of the instillation', wouldn't they?