Electrical Safety, Standards and Other Important Stuff

Part P concerns electrical safety within your home or flat, and says that electrical work must be completed by a competent person and they must be completed to the latest standards stated in the Electrical Regulations and other appropriate documents. They apply to most electrical work completed within your home, garden and outbuilding including sheds and garages.

One of the underlying principles of Part P, is that the local Building Control Officer must be informed after completion of the works. This is a legal requirement and failure to comply will result is the Building Control Officer insisting that faulty works are put right, without the proper certification you may have problems selling your home and could even result in a fine.

There are two routes to complying with Part P.

• Notification to the Local Building Control Officer 30 days prior to starting the works, then after the works are completed he will need to be copied with appropriate certificates.
• Employ an electrical company who is registered with a "self certification scheme" such as ELECSA, NICEIC or NAPIT. An electrician who is registered with such a scheme, has there work inspected annually to ensure it complies with all the appropriate standards. They will also notify building control on your behalf that job has been completed.

If you want to discuss Part P and how it affects you, please feel free to give me a call, or you can view the Approved Documents at http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/buildingregulations/approveddocuments/partp/approved

ELECSA provides inspection, assessment and certification services to companies working with electrical installations in domestic properties. They are authorise to operate a competent "competent persons scheme" to enable electricians to self certify domestic electrical work under Part P of the building regulations.

Owned by the Electrical Contractors' Association which is the premier trade association. ELECSA is the 2nd largest Part P scheme provider and represents over 6,500 approved contractors who notify on average 14,000 jobs per month.

As an Approved Contractor, I have my work, technical knowledge, test equipment, testing methods and record keeping assessed annually.

Should you want to know any more about ELECSA please give me a call.

These Building Regulations are made up of numerous Approved Documents, 8 of which impact on electricians to one degree or another. I have briefly described how they impact on electricians.

• Part A - Concerns the structural safety. It impacts on electricians because we need to cut out walls and joists.
• Part B - Concerns fire safety - This impacts on electricians because we cut holes in ceiling and walls which may allow fire and smoke to spread through out your home. We are also required to install smoke alarms and detection systems.
• Part C - Site preparation and resistance to moisture. This impacts on us because we need to drill and cut holes in external walls
• Part E - Resistance to the passage of sound - Once again we cut holes in ceilings and walls, so we need to know how and what to cut to stop the passage of sound.
• Part F - Ventilation - a typical 3 bedroom home can absorb up to 250 litres of moisture a year which can cause mould or damp, electricians will install appropriate ventilation fans which reduce this.
• Part L - Conservation of fuel and power. We are required to install energy efficient lighting, we need to the ratio of energy efficient lighting that must be installed and where to install automatic controls.
• Part M - Access to and use of buildings - regarding electricians, this refers to the heights of switches, socket outlets, etc.
• Part P (electrical safety) - fixed electrical installations in dwellings and has been described earlier.

If you require any information of on the Building Regulations, please feel free to give me a call or you can view all the Approved Documents at http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/buildingregulations/approveddocuments/.