Are my electrics safe in my new home?
Your local Leyland Electrician can help you when you are in the process of buying a new home. During the buying process there are lots of checks that are carried out. These checks include Land Registry, Gas, Windows, work guarantees and more. However there is one check that is often missed. This check is missed because it's not seen as compulsory or necessary. It is a daft really because this one check could save you a few thousand pounds. I am of course talking about checking the electrics and testing the safety.
I would highly recommend that the electrics are checked on any future purchase before the purchase is finalised. I have had first hand experience of having to tell new home owners that the electrics require rewiring. This usually comes after new owners have moved in and a fault occurs.
How can we check the electrics?
The process is simple. With permission from the vendor and or the estate agent access needs to be arranged for us to carry out an EICR test and inspection.
What is an EICR?
An EICR certificate is an Electrical Installation Condition Report. The report is issued in the form of a certificate/document. The EICR is an accurate reflection of all the recorded results and inspections carried out in accordance with BS7671-18
What is involved with an Electrical Installation Condition Report?
Firstly an EICR is NOT a 10 minute job. Nor is it an hour of a job. Unlike a typical gas pressure test that may take an hour a good EICR will take 4 hours or more (house size dependant)
What checks are involved during an EICR?
The following list is taken from Guidance Note 3 of BS7671 and this comprises of everything that we are inspecting
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Safety
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Age
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Damage and Defects
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Corrosion and External Influences
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Signs of Overloading
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Wear and Tear, and the environment
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Change of Use and location
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Suitability for Continued Use
Why do we need to check all of these? Simply because all electrical installations deteriorate over their lifetime due to length of service and how it is used. The EICR will tell us if the installation is safe or not.
Where does the EICR test begin?
It is an obvious thing to say but I start at the beginning of the installation.. By the beginning I mean the point at which the power comes into the house (service head) and where the power is distributed from (the consumer unit). Generally if the beginning is tidy the rest of the electrical installation will be tidy too.
Next I check the earthing arrangements. I check the size of the main earth, I check if the main earth is connected.. If required I check to see if there is an earth connection to the incoming gas supply and to the incoming water supply. I also check that the size of the earth at these locations is correct and that they too are connected. Checking the earthing arrangements is important because the earth is there to protect the end user. The earth forms part of the Automatic Disconnection of Supply. We need to kill the power and get rid of the fault.
A part of the inspection is a checklist with multiple points and pages. I check the Intake Equipment, Arrangements For Microgeneration, The Consumer Unit, Circuits, Electrics in bathrooms/ wetrooms, Special Locations and the newly added Prosumers low voltage installations
At the end of the EICR the results and inspections will form a list based on 4 categories
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C1, Danger Present, Risk of Injury, Immediate Remedial Action Required
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C2, Potentially Dangerous, Urgent Remedial Action Required
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C3, Improvement Recommended
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FI, Further Investigation Required Without Delay
If any C1 or C2 are recorded an outcome of Unsatisfactory will be awarded. If C3 are issued this could mean that the electrics are of an older version of BS7671 and do not meet the current standard. The C3 means Improvement Required. Anything inconclusive will be given an FI as more investigation is required. The Electrical Installation Condition Report will either have a Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory outcome. In the event of the latter a list of improvements will be provided and a second due test date issued.
How Much Does an EICR Report Cost?
There is no one cap that fits all price in this instance. A typical 3 bed terrace or semi will costs “start” from £185. For bigger installations I charge £65 per consumer unit and £30 per circuit.
To Book your EICR either hit the contact button and send an email or call Darren on 01772 936399 today
Word of warning… Beware cheap EICR’s. Many that provide cheap EICR reports (and by that there are companies doing these from £70 for a 4 hour minimum job) do not check things over properly and deliberately issue C1, C2 and FI in order to get more work.
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