One of the biggest issues as an electrician in Medway and North Kent I experience is people rejecting electrical inspections because someone else quoted much cheaper. With those quotes being on the region of £100 or even less.
Being in the industry for over 20 years I’m very confident that these company cut some serious corners and don’t perform a full test in your Kent property. Although there is no strict rule telling electricians to do a full test on your electrical installation, those companies give the impression that they will when they actually don’t. This is something an experienced electrician can pick up within a couple of minute looking at the electrical inspection report.
The other issue this creates primarily to landlords is that leaves them exposed to legal actions against them and invalidating their insurance in case of an accident as it’s their responsibility to ensure the electrician they hired is competent and will do the job properly.
When I do an electrical inspection with both my landlords and private customers I always quote them for a full inspection and in the following lines I will elaborate what this mean and why each test is important.
Visual and Functional Tests
This is the very first thing we do when entering the property. I will walk around and check that everything is working as it should and nothing is damaged or installed in the wrong area. At this stage I will also check the size and type of breakers in the consumer unit (fusebox) and that is the correct type and size for the circuit it suppose to protect.
Common findings with this test: broken electrical accessories such as sockets and switches; sockets connected the wrong way; Non bathroom rated lights installed in bathrooms; no RCD protection to curtain circuits; wrong breaker size installed.
Earth & ring continuity
With this test I confirm that the ring circuit for your sockets is indeed wired as such and that your electrics have an earth present in every light, switch, sockets, water and heating pipes, and any other point where an electrical appliance may be used.
This way we make sure that all the necessary wiring is in place to protect you, your family and your pets.
Common findings with this test: no earth on any of the lighting circuits; broken ring main; no earthing on gas pipes.
Insulation Resistance
Like everything in life, the copper in your wiring slowly deteriorates. This test will tell me in what condition the copper is and help to make an educated guess for how much longer your installation can remain in service without needing a rewire. It will also show me possible faults in your electrics as a result of bad DIY jobs.
Common findings with this test: hints for botched electrics; severely deteriorated wiring; poor quality of wiring installed in the past like VIR cables.
Earth Impedance Test (Zs/Ze)
This is where we are now moving to the live tests. This test will show me how good is the path from your home to the ground and then back to the main transformer in the case of an electrical fault or accident. Depending on your earthing system the readings will be different but an experienced electrician will have no issue interpreting them.
Common findings with this test: bad or no earthing connection from your home’s part
Perspective Fault Current/Perspective Overload Current
This test will show me how much electricity will go through your breakers if a case of a fault. This reading needs to be lower than the rating of your breakers (in most modern consumer units is 6000A), otherwise the breaker will get damaged.
Common findings with this test: Only in older fuseboxes, the reading will be higher than what your breakers and handle
RCD testing
This the last thing we test and ensure that your RCDs will ‘trip’ fast enough in case a person gets an electric shock.
Common findings with this test: deteriorated or faulty RCD due to age or lack of 6 monthly testing
