in this video we're going to look at how you can tell if the electrical installation
or electrics in your home are safe and also why your electrician may
have recommended that they carry out what they call an electrical
installation condition report or eicr before they upgrade your consumer unit
you may find yourself in a position where you're wondering if the electrical installation in your
home is in a safe condition now this may have been triggered by maybe the sale or purchase of a house
and maybe the solicitor has requested it as part of the sale process or something may have
already gone wrong such as fuses blowing brokers tripping or appliances failing or it may be that
you're having some work done by an electrician and they've either recommended some remedial works or
an inspection before they start work but just what is this electrical installation condition
report and what will it tell you an electrical installation condition report or eicr as we'll
call them from now on is kind of like an mot for your car just as the mechanic will work through
a checklist of things on your car to make sure that it's in safe condition or within certain
parameters so the electrician will work through a list of things on your property checking that each
relevant element on the list is safe and operating correctly so what sort of things will be checked
on the electrical installation of a house well we're not going to go through the entire list for
that you'll need to train to be an electrician but we'll just have a look at a few examples so
they'll check the incoming supply and metering equipment making sure that nothing's damaged
and that the cables feeding the property are the right size and are in good condition they'll also
make sure that all of the cables that connect the necessary metal work of the building are connected
to earth with the right size cables as well then moving on to your fuse box or consumer unit
they'll check this over making sure that no one's been putting incompatible devices in there they'll
also check the terminals for tightness make sure that the correct protective devices are present
and operational and that there's no big gaping holes that you could accidentally
stick a finger in they'll also check over the wiring as far as possible making sure that it's
been installed correctly safely and that it's the correct size and in good condition as well
they'll also look at individual sockets and switches to make sure that they're not damaged
the connections have been well made and that there's no sign of overheating on those
now with an mot on your car things may pass fail or there may be a recommendation as something is
just within the limits of acceptable but is likely to fail before the next mot there's a similar
thing put in place for an eicr each item that gets checked is assigned a symbol or a code to indicate
the condition of that item if all is well with that part of the system it gets a tick if there
is something that presents immediate danger to the user then it gets a c1 code technically if it's
all possible the electrician carrying out the work should correct a problem given this code straight
away this might include something like damage to a socket front or a cable causing the wires
or live parts to become accessible and posing a risk of giving someone an electric shock if one
of the items on the checklist is given a c2 code that means it is dangerous but not immediately so
but we'll need correcting soon something like no earth connection to a metal light switch
an item given a c3 code is one where improvement is recommended so there's no
danger to life involved but there's something that's not quite right about the installation
and may include such things as important labels being missed from consumer units or fuse boxes
in addition an inspected item may be given a code of f i this means that further investigation is
required and it indicates that there may be a c1 or a c2 problem lurking somewhere but maybe due to
the limitations of the inspection it's not been possible to verify exactly what the problem is
a good example is if any tests have proved that the electrical supply coming into the property
is not up to the standard that it should be once completed the electrician will
send you a copy of the report which will deem the installation either satisfactory or unsatisfactory
now while there's no middle ground between those two conditions there's no reason to panic if the
report comes back unsatisfactory going back to our mot analogy your car could fail on
many serious points and need a lot of repairs to make it roadworthy or it could just need
a blown indicator lamp replacing it's similar with an eicr your installation might be deemed
unsatisfactory for a lot of serious problems or it may be one relatively small and easily fixed issue
the good thing is once you have an electrical report just like a failed mot you can take that
report to more than one electrician to get quotes for putting the issues right
one thing to bear in mind with this mot analogy is the time scales involved
now you may be panicking thinking that you now need to get your electrics inspected every year
just like your car however the time scales for electrical inspections are less frequent
it's recommended that houses are inspected and tested every 10 years or every time there's
a change of occupancy however the rules are a little different for rented properties and hmos
where it's recommended that an eicr is carried out every five years or change of occupancy
if you're not sure when the last time your property was electrically inspected there
should be a label on your fuse box with the date of the last inspection and a suggested date for
the next one if this is absent then it may just be time to get one done but what about that odd
situation where maybe you've asked an electrician to quote for upgrading your consumer unit or fuse
box and they've told you that they will need to carry out an eicr before they can do the work
now it may be that your natural instincts suggest to you that they're trying to make a
little bit more money off you well let's just make it really clear that is not the reason in fact the
opposite is true having an eicr done before the board change will help you know about any costs
that you may not have been aware of or taken into account previously and prevent unpleasant
financial surprises as the job goes on how so well if you're having your consumer unit upgraded it's
likely that the new one will include some special protective devices that will offer more protection
to your electrical installation than existed before that's a good thing but it's possible
that there's some faults hidden in your property that these newly installed protective devices will
see and cause the circuits to trip off by carrying out an eicr before upgrading the consumer unit
these faults can be found and cleared meaning that there's no nasty surprises waiting for you after
the job's done another reason they'll suggest doing an eicr before changing the consumer unit is
that after the upgrade your electrician will have to test all the circuits they've reconnected to
make sure that they're safe if at this point they find old cables or vital safety conductors missing
they won't be able to sign the work off as safe and compliant going back to our mot analogy it's a
bit like going to get new tires put on the car and the garage finding the brake pads are completely
worn the positive impact of the new tyres is lost because there's an underlying safety issue with
the brakes again carrying out any icr on your property before the consumer unit is upgraded
will help to locate this kind of problem and allow for any necessary improvements to be made for the
existing installation basically it's all about getting the full picture of what's needed to
make your property safe and compliant before the work is started and this allows the full
scope of the work to be agreed beforehand this reduces stress confusion and surprise
costs down the line when the work is being done so hopefully from this video you have a clearer idea
of what's involved in producing an electrical installation condition report what it's for
and the benefits to you the customer of having london for further information please head to
uk electrium.co.uk that remains in this video is to say thank you very much for
watching