DIY electrical work and safety

[Glan gluaisne]

In this post, I mentioned that there was no law to prevent someone doing DIY electrical installation work, and that it was perfectly legal, as long as the regulations were adhered to, that the work was undertaken by a competent person (which doesn't mean formally qualified or approved) and that if building control approval was required then the appropriate application and sign off be obtained: Charge Point / Charger Suggestions [megathread]

First off, I want to state clearly that DIY electrical installation work is potentially hazardous, may pose a risk to the person doing the work, their family and perhaps their neighbours, so it should only be considered if the person doing the work fully understands the requirements, has access to the required test equipment and is fully competent to do the work.

Rather than clog up that other thread, which is specifically about charge points, I thought I'd clarify what I said there, with some detail about the law, electrical regulations and building regulations. Firstly, when referring to electrical regulations I'm referring specifically to BS7671, the current edition of which is 2018, amendment 1. This is law, in as much as it is a Statutory Instrument, so the regulations within it should be complied with. However, failure to comply with BS7671 is not an offence itself. Like most SIs, BS7671 provides a guidance framework for the standards to which work should be undertaken.

I'm very well aware that there is a powerful "electrician's mafia" out there that will roundly condemn the very suggestion that DIY electrical installation work is safe. Some of the more extreme members of this group may well try and wrongly make out that it's even illegal. Clearly there are important safety considerations, and there are enough examples of truly dodgy DIY work to give the "electrician's mafia" all the fuel they need to maintain their frenzy against DIY'ers, but I've seen several DIY installations that have been exemplary, and to a higher standard than many professionals.


There's also an assumption by some within the "electrician's mafia" that anyone undertaking electrical installation work must be qualified and hold the relevant certificates. This just isn't true, anyone can do work that's fully compliant with BS7671, so legal, without needing any bits of paper. Clearly, being formally trained and qualified may well be a requirement for someone in the business of undertaking electrical installation work, if only so they can obtain things like public liability insurance, but for a DIY'er there is no qualification requirement at all.

The only law that can be broken by a competent DIY'er doing electrical installation work, in England and Wales, is that relating to Building Regulations. Failure to comply with these can result in a very hefty fine or imprisonment. Some electrical installation work, like any new outdoor power outlet, including a charge point, has to be approved under Part P of the Building Regulations. Normally, this is a formality for any suitably registered electrician, as they can self-certify compliance with Part P and submit the required notice to Building Control. However, any homeowner can do much the same by just making a building regulations approval request to their local building control body. This isn't free, there is a fixed fee to pay, but there is a mandatory requirement that building control bodies offer this service.

 

[Vinny2102]

Just for info that part P does not apply to Scotland.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Just for info that part P does not apply to Scotland.

As I made very clear both in the linked post at the start of the post above, the post that this thread originates from, and why I very specifically wrote "England and Wales" , making it transparently clear which countries I was referring to, in the post above. . .

 

[Wol747]

Here in Australia the various mafia have made politicians into quivering wrecks. It's helped of course by the fact that politicians wouldn't know the difference between an earth and a neutral. In Queensland it's illegal to do for example:

• installing a new power point
• replacing a light switch
• replacing a batten holder with a new light fitting
• repairing an electrical appliance like a heater
• altering the location of an existing power point
• replacing a light fitting with a ceiling fan
• constructing an extension lead
• replacing a plug on the end of an extension lead.

Years ago my missus was roundly scolded by her grandson when he spotted her replacing a UK plug on a table lamp with an Australian one - "That's so dangerous, Gran...."
Yet electricians, brickies etc who emigrate here with all UK qualifications and decades of experience have to do months of training at TAFEs to be allowed to practice - and most of them say the course is so elementary that it's embarrassing!
God knows how any of us survived childhood - but we did, after falling from trees, almost drowning in rivers, investigating power points with scissors and the like.

 

[Artiste]

I did 90% of the work installing my 32A commando socket myself. I left an electrician to do the final bit of wiring it into the consumer unit and checking it all for safety. It wasn’t exactly difficult.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

I did 90% of the work installing my 32A commando socket myself. I left an electrician to do the final bit of wiring it into the consumer unit and checking it all for safety. It wasn’t exactly difficult.

I think that's the key point, 90% of work like this isn't at all difficult, it's just a bit time consuming running cables, fixing them neatly, etc. It's not hard to find out what's required in terms of the relatively straightforward stuff, like the type of cable needed, safe zones for cable fixing, cable physical protection requirements in different locations, factors that may require cable de-rating (like insulation surrounding a cable) and the required level of environmental protection for any location.

The stuff that can catch some out, including some electricians, are things like the need for a commando outlet to be interlocked if there is a possibility that it may be disconnected under high load and the mandatory requirement for protection from an earth leakage fault that has a DC component (for a commando outlet this makes a Type B RCD mandatory, as it won't have built-in DC tolerant earth leakage protection) and the normal need for any outlet like this to have some form of open PEN protection if the supply is PME (obviously no need for this if it's not, as there would be no PEN).