Requirements for an electrical design & the EIC form signature

only a consultants plan showing locations of lights, heaters etc. with a statement that it must comply with the IEE Wiring Regulations (yes it said IEE and not IET) so it was being left to the contractor to design the electrical installation itself.   

A pretty common state of affairs I would have thought. Probably comparable to a domestic customer simply asking for ‘an extra socket there please’ - after all they're not bothered if it's supplied from a spur, or the ring extended, or from a new circuit (except where it significantly affects the price) - they're happy to let their electrician use their professional judgement. Likewise designs are often not written down - after all if the design is straight forward and the designer and the installer are one and the same, communication can be implicit.

   - Andy.

only a consultants plan showing locations of lights, heaters etc. with a statement that it must comply with the IEE Wiring Regulations (yes it said IEE and not IET) so it was being left to the contractor to design the electrical installation itself.   

But, I bet they still charged the client 12% of the electrical works for the design when really it was just an “architect's impression”………………………………………………….

Regards

BOD (a little hyped up this evening having been a passenger in a 718 Spyder driven “enthusiastically”!) 

Paul4A: 
Surely a design has got to include at least the cable sizes, the circuit protection details by way of RCBO sizes and types, the containment details as sizes should also have been worked out etc.

I would say so; but people who advise on curtains, carpets, and cushions call themselves designers.

Who is the designer in the customer's opinion? Daughter hasn't a clue. Her extension/annexe will include the swimming pool heater, the new bit, and in all probability an EVCP. So do you re-route the supply to the new bit, which will use the majority of the leccy, and distribute to the existing CU (or in fact it's replacement, which is overdue) or do you supply everything from the existing CU?

I'd have 3-phase put into the new bit - as far as I can see, there is 3-phase aerial cable to the last pole before the house. To me it's a no-brainer. But it's all Greek to madam, and I doubt that her new sparks could cope. So there we have it, design by rule of thumb.

Sorry, I'm tired and grumpy this evening. No Porsche for me, just driving a R-R enthusiastically on country roads aiming to avoid the traffic.

Paul4A: 
 

I meant for this to discuss the practical requirements or outcomes that made an electrical design which would fulfil the design requirements for recording on an EIC.   There is a requirement for competence and legal responsibilities over design, having a design liability. 

As an example that got me thinking about this, I could give chapter and verse on a recent experience whereby an electrical contractor confusingly completed an NICEIC EIC to say that both they and an architect designed it and a second contractor I asked to confirm the also poor installation indicated that the M&E consultant designed it.   In my opinion, there was no electrical design at tender stage, only a consultants plan showing locations of lights, heaters etc. with a statement that it must comply with the IEE Wiring Regulations (yes it said IEE and not IET) so it was being left to the contractor to design the electrical installation itself.   

Surely a design has got to include at least the cable sizes, the circuit protection details by way of RCBO sizes and types, the containment details as sizes should also have been worked out etc.   

Paul

See Section 132 of 7671

Thanks Lyle, reminding me that I should have looked in the Regulations first.  For reference that section indicates:

132 DESIGN

132.1 General

The electrical installation shall be designed by one or more skilled persons to provide for:

(i) the protection of persons, livestock and property in accordance with Section 131

(ii) the proper functioning of the electrical installation for the intended use.

The information required as a basis for design is stated in Regulations 132.2 to 5.

The requirements with which the design shall comply are stated in Regulations 132.6 to 16.

The titles of those requirement regulation paragraphs are:

132.6 Cross-sectional area of conductors

132.7 Type of wiring and method of installation

132.8 Protective equipment

132.9 Emergency control

132.10 Disconnecting devices

132.11 Prevention of mutual detrimental influence

132.12 Accessibility of electrical equipment

132.13 Documentation for the electrical installation

132.14 Protective devices and switches

132.15 Isolation and switching

132.16 Additions and alterations to an installation

There's obviously detail to each of those paragraph sections in the Regulations themselves.

Paul