Minimum qualifications to be an electrician?

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Minimum qualifications to be an electrician?
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stumbling goat

Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1990

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 13 4:20 pm Post subject:
Congratulations OL. sg

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35057
Location: Devon

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 13 4:21 pm Post subject:
Well done

markjadams

Joined: 06 May 2006
Posts: 109
Location: South West Wales

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 13 9:17 pm Post subject:
Big well done from me, it is a hard slog glad you got there in the end. Mark.

OtleyLad

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire

Posted: Tue Jun 04, 13 3:32 pm Post subject:

I am joining the NICEIC 'competant person' scheme to be a qualified domestic installer. To do this they want to see 2 pieces of work that you have done (they come and inspect 2 new ones every year to see you are obeying the regs).
I went for a consumer unit replacement in our house and ordered a brand new split thing - it has 2 sets of 5 circuit breakers, each controlled by a RCD switch. Also it has 3 ordinary mcbs with no RCD.
So I took out the old CU and put in the new.
When it came to switch on every circuit except one tripped the RCDs!
Luckily I can temporaily link the circuits to the no-RCD protected mcbs so at least we can have some power. It has after all been operating fault free for years.
When I tested for continuity (to check all the wires are joined up) all were fine. But the IR test (test that the insulation is sound) failed all the circuits bar one.
Never mind it's a good thing for me to try and figure out and better I do it in my own home rather than at a customer's.
I tracked down the faulty line on the socket circuit, so thought I'd lift the floor boards and locate the exact location of the fault. What a nightmare!

Whoever re-wired the house was not a tidy person and worse they laid wires under the first floor in a single notch barely an inch deep - no trouble at all to bash a screw or nail through them if you felt like it. And there are 12 wires (plus 2 for the telephone) all squeezed together as they cross each joist. They were also run laying on the central heating water pipes.
The pic shows them after I separated them a little!

So I'm going to have to pull up a lot of wires and re-route through several holes in the joists - to spread them out.
Having found the fault I replaced the damaged wire and then connected the ring via a RCD - at least it does not trip now.
Only 6 more circuits to go. I can see this is going to end up taking a very long time...

RichardW

Joined: 24 Aug 2006
Posts: 8443
Location: Llyn Peninsular North Wales

Posted: Tue Jun 04, 13 5:05 pm Post subject:
I am sure you know but just in case. A really common reason for the rcd to trip in cases like this is due to the neutral being wired back to the wrong rcd on the split board or for some one to have tapped into a neutral mainly to add an extra light & when a split board is fitted the live & neutral end up on different rcd's.

OtleyLad

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire

Posted: Tue Jun 04, 13 10:21 pm Post subject:

RichardW wrote:

I am sure you know but just in case.

A really common reason for the rcd to trip in cases like this is due to the neutral being wired back to the wrong rcd on the split board or for some one to have tapped into a neutral mainly to add an extra light & when a split board is fitted the live & neutral end up on different rcd's.

I'll keep a look out for that - it seems everything else is back to front so no reason that they didn't throw that into the mix too.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46235
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Jun 06, 13 6:54 pm Post subject:

the thing under the floor looks like our house did.
when i did the kitchen properly the fitter chap (a kind description)had left 5 dangeroos faults and another 10 or so serious ones.it had power at all the sockets etc even though one corner was burnt return to earth cos the earth was carp .
genius in bad wiring is a complete nightmare unless one starts again at the head or cu.
my favorite is a random live wire from a totally different premises that enters and leaves again for no obvious reason apart from scaring me when i remove it's middle after isolating "my" premises.that one seems quite common especially in old properties that have been messed about over the last 120 yrs or so.

well done with the testing exams

OtleyLad

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 13 10:40 am Post subject:
Call me Sparky! Today I was visited by the NICEIC Inspector - he looked at 2 pieces of work I've done and gave the thumbs up. At last I am a PROPER ELECTRICIAN! I can finally start advertising for work. I may be celebrating tonight!

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 13 11:39 am Post subject:
Very good news indeed OL. <-- Sorry I've just seen this smilie and rather liked it.

cassy

Joined: 04 Feb 2008
Posts: 1047
Location: South West Scotland

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 13 12:58 pm Post subject:
Congratulations! Glad your hard work has paid off.

12Bore

Joined: 15 Jun 2008
Posts: 9089
Location: Paddling in the Mersey

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 13 1:13 pm Post subject:
Congratulations, well done!

NorthernMonkeyGirl

Joined: 10 Apr 2011
Posts: 4630
Location: Peeping over your shoulder

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 13 1:29 pm Post subject:
Congratulations!

nora

Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Posts: 1539
Location: West Yorkshire

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 13 3:01 pm Post subject:
Congratulations OtleyLad.

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 13 3:52 pm Post subject:
Well done.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15983

Posted: Sat Aug 17, 13 5:32 am Post subject:
Congratulations.

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