Industrial Electrical - Registered Contractor

tomdempsey200

could you be prosecuted for working on your own DB?

Bruthal

tomdempsey200 wrote: »

could you be prosecuted for working on your own DB?

Not likely. Its probably a bit dangerous though, with all them volts ready to escape.

2011

tomdempsey200 wrote: »

could you be prosecuted for working on your own DB?

Theoretically yes, in reality it is only likely to happen if the work carried out resulted in/contributed to a fatality and/or insurance claim.

2011

Bruthal wrote: »

Does the handyman need insurance to swap a socket?

According to the new legislation the person just needs to be "competent" to do minor works such as this.

But i doubt you will call a rec to tighten a connection in your own DB, or family members.

I agree with your point.
I can’t imagine many qualified electricians paying for an REC to do electrical work on their own home.
However this does not change what the law is.

Are you suggesting that there should be some sort of exception in the law for electricans, thier friends and relations?

Superg had the opinion that this was all targeted at domestic, because its where the untaxed work was happening. I agree with that.

Many would agree and I agree that this may well be the case.
But that does not mean that the new legislation will not have a positive effect on overall compliance with the regulations for the reasons outlined in my earlier post.


Being a qualified electrician does not somehow give a person to any sort of “right” to be able work on any distribution board.
The same applies to driving a car, just because a person is qualified to drive a car (by having a full license) does not give them a right by law to drive any car.
They must also be insured and have permission from the owner of the vehicle to drive it.
The various rules of the road to not diminish or impact on the validity of a driving qualification just as the new legislation do not somehow make a qualified electrician less qualified.
There will always be those that get away with driving without insurance just as there will always be non-RECs that rewire houses.

Bruthal

2011 wrote: »

Being a qualified electrician does not somehow give a person to any sort of “right” to be able work on any distribution board.

No one ever said it did. So, again you miss the points made, or else pretend to at times. I cant, and never could, walk into a random house, and work on a fuseboard.

Also, I or others never said anything that suggests its now legal to work on DBs.

I believe it started out suggesting that domestic works are targeted for revenue reasons. No one is arguing anything about what is or is not law.

I think the whole electrical game is a farce. A mugs game in the absolute extreme. In honesty, I think its a horrible occupation. RECs are welcome to it all.

The same applies to driving a car, just because a person is qualified to drive a car (by having a full license) does not give them a right by law to drive any car.

Honestly, you are having a laugh now. Whats next, DB tax? they may as well bring it in. Then you can tell us cars have it too.

They must also be insured and have permission from the owner of the vehicle to drive it.

So we need permission, insurance, and qualification. Still not enough for the qualified person to change an MCB though. Yet its ok for the milkman to change a few sockets. Our legislators state this. And so we must align like mindless subjects without a thought, and for some of us, advocate it like its perfect common sense.

The various rules of the road to not diminish or impact on the validity of a driving qualification just as the new legislation do not somehow make a qualified electrician less qualified.

It certainly seems to bring the layman closer the the qualified person.

Would you really think it easier and safer for a diy man to swap a socket, than it is for a qualified person to tighten a loose connection in a DB?

Bruthal

Anyway I said earlier I'm out. So again, have a good day there.

2011

Bruthal wrote: »

I believe it started out suggesting that domestic works are targeted for revenue reasons.

Nobody has disagreed with this.

I just made the point that it should have a positive impact on standards even if that was not the primary aim of the legislation.
I also making the point that some of the work done in donestic installations over the last few years has been appalling.

Suggestions that the new legislation somehow makes qualified electricians somehow unqualified has been a common theam in other similar threads. Hence my analogy with driving.

Sir Arthur Daley

Should they do away with restricted works altogether and only an REC can do any type of electrical work in the domestic sector?

tomdempsey200

Sir Arthur Daley wrote: »

Should they do away with restricted works altogether and only an REC can do any type of electrical work in the domestic sector?

no

Stoner

The way I see its mainly a line in the sand where revenue want additional income to kick in.

I'd also fully support the concept that if only RECs perform these works that standards should increase that's not a personal slight against any particular electrician it's just a part of a concept that I think has merit.

If all electrical works carried out were completed by registered electrical contractors it might help to improve standards, certainly I can't see it having a negative effect on standards. I believe there are plenty of very good unregistered electricians out there working away.
However this band of workers that the legislation targets also contains unqualified people, handymen and people chancing their arm with electrical installations, for this reason i think it's a good idea.

Being a registered electrical contractor does not guarantee that your work is to a higher standard.

Not being a registered electrical contractor does not that mean that you are unable or incapable of carrying out high quality electrical works, it just means that you can not get untaxed payment for your efforts.

Being an electrician does not entitle somebody to work outside tax bracket IMHO.
The trade, like many other trades and professions in this country is just part of the job, skilled or unskilled we all have to pay tax. That's the government line on it. I think that if were all told that it was the main driver that we wouldn't have an issue with it. Its possibly just that a secondary reason is being pushed as a main reason, but I still think that the second reason stands on its own too.

However not being allowed to work in your own home on your own electrical installation would be a difficult pill to swallow for a trades-person, and in my opinion it will largely be ignored, but it is still something that holds water from a quality point of view, its just when it is applied to a competent electrician that it seems unfair, but they had to somehow improve the position of gaining more revenue and improving quality.

At the end of the day in my personal opinion I don't ever see a day where somebody, being a qualified electrician would be prosecuted for a replacing something in their fuse board in their own home.
Also I don't see a day where an electrician will not carry out electrical works in his or her own house on his or her own installation because they are not registered. In my opinion it's a pedantic argument to suggest otherwise.

2011

+1

I am not totally convinced that revenue is the primary objective, but I accept that it is possible.
However I agree 100% with the rest of the above post.