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Imposed code 2

lyledunn

A contractor gave a code 3 to an outside socket located on the exterior wooden balcony of a first floor restaurant which was only used for Xmas tree. Reason no additional protection. He was subsequently subject to NICEIC assessment the outcome of which required him to re-visit his client, withdraw the satisfactory report and amend it with a code 2 thereby resulting in the report having unsatisfactory designation. To add insult to injury, he was required to confirm he had carried out that instruction by writing to NICEIC head office. This he obediently did. I am afraid I may have taken a more belligerent stance!

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  • There are some things which are usually clear-cut: exposed conductors gets C1; lack of ADS gets C2. But lack of additional protection is a grey area.

    My personal rule of thumb is: bare live conductors (zero faults to danger): C1; lack of ADS (one fault to danger) C2, lack of additional protection: C3.

    However lack of RCD protection on sockets used for things outdoors can suggest a lack of ADS - long leads (e.g. on gardening equipment) can raise Zs to a point where disconnection no longer occurs within 0.4s when relying on overcurrent devices alone and some faults which we tend to ignore indoors (e.g. cutting through the insulation of a flex) are far more likely outdoors (using mowers or hedge clippers) where conventional approaches to ADS (e.g. earthing + overcurrent disconnection) are unlikely to work. To my mind in such cases the RCD provides the equivalent protection to ADS indoors - so it's absence should be treated similarly.

       - Andy.

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  • There are some things which are usually clear-cut: exposed conductors gets C1; lack of ADS gets C2. But lack of additional protection is a grey area.

    My personal rule of thumb is: bare live conductors (zero faults to danger): C1; lack of ADS (one fault to danger) C2, lack of additional protection: C3.

    However lack of RCD protection on sockets used for things outdoors can suggest a lack of ADS - long leads (e.g. on gardening equipment) can raise Zs to a point where disconnection no longer occurs within 0.4s when relying on overcurrent devices alone and some faults which we tend to ignore indoors (e.g. cutting through the insulation of a flex) are far more likely outdoors (using mowers or hedge clippers) where conventional approaches to ADS (e.g. earthing + overcurrent disconnection) are unlikely to work. To my mind in such cases the RCD provides the equivalent protection to ADS indoors - so it's absence should be treated similarly.

       - Andy.

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