EICR quality control.

Touching on a subject in another thread, a Technician was doing an EICR at a domestic premises. He didnt have 2391, and, as far as I could find out, he didnt have a great deal of experience either (I was there to see the Apprentice he was supervising).

It has always gone on, and will probably still go on when the new guidance about a 2391 is required to do EICRs come sin in September (October?). My query, having not read in depth about it, can a QS / Manager, with 2391, send out his non-2391 workers to perform the EICR, then he signs it as the QS with his 2391?

And on a similar thing, I see various short videos on Youtube/Facebook. One today was shocking. Described as fault finding, the electrician took off the DB cover, and kept turning on the RCBO that would not reset. The CU was live, with the busbar cover removed. He took out the outgoing circuit line, tried to turn it on again, and it still tripped. He put the line back in, then took the CPC out of the earth bar, and turned on. This time the RCBO stayed on, so circuit energised with no CPC. No testing beforehand to see of it was a Line to Earth fault. And he left it on for a while. Of course, the fault finding was also a farce, , in that it was pretty random testing with a Megger continuity meter / voltage detector. And he thought he was great finding the fault sooner than expected.

I would have linked to it, but there were so many comments saying he was a totally unsafe, didn't have a clue about fault finding etc, that he has deleted the content. I was almost ready to report it to HSE, as it was so bad.  How has this Trade got so bad? If people are so totally unaware of what they are doing, and they post public videos of themselves doing such unsafe/poor quality work, what is the standard of the work that they don't film?

I know there must be a lot of quality Workers out there, but they don't seem to have the same presence online as the plain idiotic chancers I've been seeing. Another poster made me raise an eyebrow yesterday, asking if anyone had a list of important page numbers for 7671/GN3, as he was doing his AM2 next week. It was pointed out that he'd be better off going through the books himself, and actually learning, but he shrugged that off "as no need to learn all that, I'll only need it for the one day".

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  • Should any electrician who wants to be the Qualified Supervisor of their own or any other electrical contracting company have to have a City and Guilds Design, Erection and Verification Qualification?

  • That would be a step forward. But it doesn't address the problems of poor installation. No one is going round checking the work, as, basically, there are not enough Inspectors. The Governing Bodies, and Council Building Regs people are relying on the Self-certifying Companies doing the work properly in the first place. We know that is not working properly, as corners can be cut, and no-one ever catches the people who do it.

    Most of the problems I've seen are done by people/Ltd. Co's who are NICEIC Registered, employing 'Gold Card' Electricians. This should be enough to ensure a good quality, safe , reliable, compliant job. But some are just not bothered about a good safe job, if it works, it's enough for them.

  • Should any electrician who wants to be the Qualified Supervisor of their own or any other electrical contracting company have to have a City and Guilds Design, Erection and Verification Qualification?

    No, but as Alan suggests, it would help. The competent person schemes like NICEIC and NAPIT are bound by the Electrotechnical Assessment Specification. Currently to apply to be a QS for your own or another company, where you haven’t been a QS in the last 2 years, you will need to hold qualifications appropriate to designated work categories. Generally speaking, for such a candidate, you will need an appropriate NVQ L3 or other recognised historical qualification along with AM2. If the QS will be involved in periodic inspections, EVSE, PV or battery installs, then further qualification requirements apply.

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  • Should any electrician who wants to be the Qualified Supervisor of their own or any other electrical contracting company have to have a City and Guilds Design, Erection and Verification Qualification?

    No, but as Alan suggests, it would help. The competent person schemes like NICEIC and NAPIT are bound by the Electrotechnical Assessment Specification. Currently to apply to be a QS for your own or another company, where you haven’t been a QS in the last 2 years, you will need to hold qualifications appropriate to designated work categories. Generally speaking, for such a candidate, you will need an appropriate NVQ L3 or other recognised historical qualification along with AM2. If the QS will be involved in periodic inspections, EVSE, PV or battery installs, then further qualification requirements apply.

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