Niceic Electrical Installation Condition Report Trialed

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Electrical Installation Condition Report Trialed

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New Electrical Installation Condition Report Trialed

New electrical installation report trialed - As reported in previous issues of Switched On, the ESC has taken a number of initiatives in conjunction with others to help improve the general standard of domestic periodic inspection reporting.

One of these initiatives was to propose changing the title, format and content of the model periodic inspection report form given in Appendix 6 of BS 7671 to make it more informative and easier for householders to understand, and to provide a framework to enable inspectors to report more clearly and comprehensively on the condition of an electrical installation.

Consequently, the committee responsible for the technical content of BS 7671 (Joint IET/BSl Committee JPEL64) has developed a new set of forms based on ESC proposals, which have recently been made available for trial purposes* in parallel with the Draft for Public Comment for Amendment 1.

The name of the report has been changed from ‘Periodic Inspection Report’ to ‘Electrical Installation Condition Reports to make it more meaningful to recipients.

The classification codes to be used for each recorded observation have been made clearer and more direct, as follows:

• Code Cl - Danger present. Risk of injury. Immediate remedial action required
• Code C2 - Potentially dangerous - urgent remedial action required
• Code C3 - Improvement recommended

The condition of an electrical installation must be reported to be unsatisfactory if any observation is classified as Cl or C2.

There is no separate code for requires further investigation’ as it will be possible to indicate separately against each observation whether or not further investigation is required.

Also, there is no equivalent to the existing Recommendation Code 4, “Does not comply with BS 7671:2008. This does not imply that the electrical installation inspected is unsafe.” Such observations are no longer considered relevant for a report on the condition of an electrical installation, the purpose of which is to record any damage, deterioration, defects, dangerous conditions and noncompliance with the requirements on the current edition of BS 7671 which may give rise to danger.(Regulation 634.2).

As in the existing Periodic Inspection Report, the new Condition Report consists of three parts, but these are all now custom- designed for condition reporting purposes:

• A generic, two-page summary recording, amongst other things, who the report has been produced for details of the installation inspected and the extent and limitations of the inspection; a summary of the condition of the installation, and the recommended remedial actions, together with the observations made that require action, together with their classification codes and whether or not each item requires further investigation

• One or more inspection schedules. There are three types:

- An inspection schedule for a single distribution board installation for domestic and similar premises
- An inspection schedule for the main intake and associated circuits for a multiple distribution board installation
- An inspection schedule for each distribution board of a multiple distribution board installation

Each schedule lists the elements of a typical installation, against which the outcome of their inspection (their condition) can be recorded. Outcomes can be ‘acceptable’ (tick), ‘unacceptable’ (code Cl or C2), ‘improvement recommended’ (code C3), ‘limitation’ or ‘not applicable’ (to the particular installation). A further column is provided to indicate whether or not further investigation of each item is required.

• A generic test results schedule.

As in the existing Periodic Inspection Report, there are brief guidance notes for both the recipient and the person producing the condition report.

There has already been criticism in some quarters that the new approach will result in more paperwork and checklists for inspectors to complete, but the new forms have been designed not only with the interests of the recipients in mind, but also to help inspectors produce clearer and more comprehensive condition reports. The completion of condition reports should not be viewed by inspectors as a ‘bureaucratic paper-chasing exercise but as a valuable and greatly improved professional service to their customers, for whose benefit the new forms have been designed.

SwitchedOn Issue 17 - Summer 2010

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