Safety Testing of Electrical Systems
Safety Testing of Electrical Systems
The name used by our governing body is ‘electrical installation condition reporting’. Historically it was called a ‘periodic inspection report’. You may have heard of them as fixed wiring checks or wiring tests or landlords certificates. Their purpose is to record the electrical condition and safety of a property. But why bother?
It’s just another electrical scam for electricians to print money by doing nothing, right? Wrong. It’s a service which proves the safety of your property by judging it against the wiring regulations. If carried out by a professional, it should list anything that’s wrong (preferably in English so you can understand) and if necessary, we also give an estimate of what it will cost to make safe.
Insurance company’s like EICR’s. They tell us the property is safe. They confirm the reduced risk of fire and injury of an electrical installation. The insurers use these to confirm the maintenance of the wiring and for some commercial policy’s it is stipulated that a current certificate is in place.
Buying a property and moving into your home is a dream many aspire to. The process can be slow and expensive. The cost of paying for another professional to give his opinion on the property you are buying may be something you decide against. The nightmare of an unreliable or dangerous electrical system is the risk you run if cut this corner.
There is never a good time for things to go wrong. The fuse popping in the middle of cooking dinner, lights failing during homework time, the alarm system telling you it has lost power at three o’clock in the morning. The freezer loosing power when you are away on holiday.
The inspection and testing of the property should be undertaken by a skilled person with a thorough knowledge of the current edition of wiring regulations BS7671. They should have accurate and calibrated meter so the readings they record is valid. They should have professional indemnity insurance so if the report is wrong, you can be compensated.
Beware the budget option, reports carried out sat in the van, with little detail, lots of regulation numbers and an estimate for a lot of unnecessary work. Cost savings come at a cost.
For a free quotation or outline discussion about your electrical safety check project call 0800 211 8990
