NON COMPLIANT NEW EV INSTALLATIONS

UKPN


I am in no doubt the ECA presentation was referring to BS 7671, and I think most  readers of this post thought the same, did you not know that?


I would have thought you would have known that as it is referred to in your in UKPNs policy document. If you do not have a copy it can be found here https://library.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/library/asset/e288b919-8888-4562-83d0-486e6a7517dC/EDS+08-5050+Electric+Vehicle+Connections.pdf


You may also wish to know that if you have a copy of BS 7671 in the list of the great and good the supply industry industry is represented by D Spillett do know him/her?


You promised to recommend me for JPEL 64, how is it going as I will need to buy a new suite for the meetings?

The reason you might think that Ebee, is that you wanted a pass, not a lesson in all the other bits of the regulations. I found that time was quite tight to go over all the changes, teach people how to do an open book exam, have a practice test, and take the exam in a single day. This was for Stroma, but others probably did it somewhat differently. To thoroughly revise all of BS7671 would take about a fairly concentrated week of tuition, practice, discussion, etc. and would therefore not be very cheap either. If you are interested in this, it can be arranged subject to a proper number of students, you would need about 12-15 to make it economically possible. It might be possible to do it at a holiday type destination to make it rather more fun, and you could bring the family! Four of us taught the courses around the country, and the result was very similar, it being prepared by JP. The student response sheets we had, suggested that the course was good to excellent, and very few found fault with it. The few who failed always had difficulty with the BBB, insufficient basic knowledge, and a shock of an actual exam. However, one dyslexic student passed just fine when he had mentioned his difficulty with a good chat over lunchtime and some advice. Replies welcome. A few people who post here did the Stroma 18th update course, one almost got 100%, very unusual.

Yes I agree with David as I was one of the 4 Stroma trainers delivering a one day update course all over the country. A big shout out for our fellow trainers Helen and Paul who were a pleasure to work with!


The sessions were quite intensive as we were imparting knowledge rather than teaching people top pass the exam so the students were pushed quite hard in a nice way. A very high level pass rate given that for once the C&G appeared to have made the exam harder rather than the usual dilution of of standards.


A great shame that Stroma Electrical Certification was sold to NAPIT and we all got our P45s wrapped in a road map. Most of the team at Stroma HQ had to find new jobs which is a pity as they were a great team of people to work with.


I did meet a lot of forum members during the training sessions and it would be good to hear some feedback from them.

 I will need to buy a new suite for the meetings


That's a bit mean of JPEL John, you would have thought they would have provided the comfy chairs!


Regards


BAD

davezawadi (David Stone):

No Andy, about 90% passed the exam, at least the ones I have taught. The pass mark is 60%. A 61% pass is not having sufficient knowledge is it? If the pass mark were 90%, I'm afraid very few would pass. 

60% pass rate and 57% of the installations are okay, there’s the correlation.

One of my recent customers had an existing 1.5mm SWA to their garage on PME  and 16A breaker, all in Memera2000, all without access to any CU tails or cable terminations. He was advised by his EV installer "just get your electrician to swap the breaker.." and he'd be back and ready next week for the grant-subsidy install on the garage wall (outside). 


3 days hard work and a bill six times what the customer wanted to pay for his subsidised EV charger got it sorted and ready for the easy bit to be bolted on. So it doesn't surprise me at all. Maybe I should buy a ticket to OLEV install land £££.

It’s a long involved story, I took the Water Regulations exam alongside five plumbers and was the only person to pass it, all the plumbers failed and I got 99%, which really was not difficult as after every question it told you the page number and reference number to find the answer.


I challenged the trainer as to why I he had not given me a 100% and he said no one got full marks as a matter of principle, but not to worry as I could go home unlike the plumbers. The trainers guaranteed that entrants would pass, so he said the plumbers would sit there doing the exam over and over again until they passed it, even if they were still there after midnight.


Andy B

So it appears that about 60% of electricians have the required skill and knowledge to do the job properly.

I am not surprised, you have only got to look in on here now and again. They have an award for post of the week, (which has gone to me this week for my piece on EV PME) They should have one for naff topic/s. They would be giving out awards like confetti. This week I would put forward, "Will I get brain damage if a charger is plugged in to a sw/skt next to my pillow?" EV/PME charging installers have no chance, even with the advice from the might of one of the greatest DNOs in the world they still cant grasp the basics even though the strategy is freely available. There is the usual earthing and bonding of course, instead of talking to the local DNO, they prefer to purchase endless "guide books" in glossy magazine format. or worse, talk to the IET "technical helpline" where the caller ends up so confused by the response of, "which era was the bonding installed?" As if physics change. Moving swiftly on, after years of having a perfectly good system of PIR, the "Regs" publishers decide  on a new term, "EICR". Already a disaster in the landlord and tenant arena. 

we have electricians fighting each other for work and getting to the level of PAT testing. Just this  week I was trapped by an "inspector" working in a car park. He claimed to test 80 circuits in the four storeys in the day. I noted he didn't leave the switch room.

Mind how you go.

Regards, UKPN

Backed into a corner and unable to extricate yourself?   

Dave Z ,

My mate is a Plumbing & Heating Engineer.

He knows his limitations as far as Electrics is concerned but wanted to add some electrics within his remit if possible.

He`d had an "Electrician" charge him a shedload for boilrer wiring Y or S plan with zones for UFH.

When they fired up the system it didn`t work properly. The electrician changed a connection here, a connection there, ad infinitum and hours later it worked.

This happend on a few systems of his.


He changed Electricians and got similar but not quite as bad results.


Anyway this course, cost him £1000 a week, 4 weeks fulltime, so he lost 4 weeks work too.

That I think shows his commitment to wanting to do it right if he even touched electrics.


He commented that it was a course about passing the exam, not about understanding the regs at all.


He mentioned later that one of the first thing the Tutor told the class was "Forget Rings, they are old hat and not done anymore".


Is that anyway to run any course?


When I did his first boiler wiring thingy, I took him through it, let him run some cables, explained the whys andwherefores too him, I let him fir it up UFH and all. It worked first time and cost him £££s less.


Later on I heard him tell customers "When Ebee does the wiring it works first time!" as if unusual. Well it should work first time if done reet.