Inadequate inspections on the safety of wiring in buildings across England are increasing the risk of fires, E&T has found. A flawed regulatory system has sparked a race to the bottom, with some businesses profiting at the expense of the public’s safety.
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I think you have a problem Andy and Zoomup. You are not discriminating between additional protection, and faulty wiring. If a shower has a perfectly good Ze then it is not dangerous and the RCD has nothing to do. You are applying the "what if" argument to the installation, when the result from many millions is that there is not a problem. You say changing the CU would remove many of the C3s, but so would putting an RCD in the tails, a low cost solution. You might say this would be subject to tripping, but it would not if the installation and appliances are in good condition! I find it very rare to inspect an installation and not find some defect, but the question is much more complex than that, are these installations dangerous? In most cases not, it would take several problems at once to make them dangerous.
The problem with changes to the regulations is that it would be impossible to retrofit them to all (domestic?) installations, it would be ruinously expensive and there would not be sufficient competent labour available. As you well know there is a huge skills gap already, this would make it impossible. There are not enough skilled and honest inspectors already so what would happen? The industry would collapse, and be taken over by cowboys making a quick buck.
Your idea that the "Government" should legislate the problems away Zoomup is idealistic. In fact they know nothing, and come to the IET amongst others to take "advice". Unfortunately this is often tainted by vested interests and fails dismally. We do our best with BS7671 and GNs etc, but in some ways it is a hiding to nothing. The ideas are there but getting them to the right place is very difficult indeed.
I think you have a problem Andy and Zoomup. You are not discriminating between additional protection, and faulty wiring. If a shower has a perfectly good Ze then it is not dangerous and the RCD has nothing to do. You are applying the "what if" argument to the installation, when the result from many millions is that there is not a problem. You say changing the CU would remove many of the C3s, but so would putting an RCD in the tails, a low cost solution. You might say this would be subject to tripping, but it would not if the installation and appliances are in good condition! I find it very rare to inspect an installation and not find some defect, but the question is much more complex than that, are these installations dangerous? In most cases not, it would take several problems at once to make them dangerous.
The problem with changes to the regulations is that it would be impossible to retrofit them to all (domestic?) installations, it would be ruinously expensive and there would not be sufficient competent labour available. As you well know there is a huge skills gap already, this would make it impossible. There are not enough skilled and honest inspectors already so what would happen? The industry would collapse, and be taken over by cowboys making a quick buck.
Your idea that the "Government" should legislate the problems away Zoomup is idealistic. In fact they know nothing, and come to the IET amongst others to take "advice". Unfortunately this is often tainted by vested interests and fails dismally. We do our best with BS7671 and GNs etc, but in some ways it is a hiding to nothing. The ideas are there but getting them to the right place is very difficult indeed.
I think you have a problem Andy and Zoomup. You are not discriminating between additional protection, and faulty wiring. If a shower has a perfectly good Ze then it is not dangerous and the RCD has nothing to do. Y
But the shower is unlikely to be installed in accordance with manufacturer's instructions (many leading manufacturers have been specifying RCDs since at least early 'naughties' if not before.
And if the shower has been installed since 2008, it won't have been installed in accordance with BS 7671 in force at that time?
We can't keep putting off improvements indefinitely?
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