I have a mad idea

[devonwoody]

I'm retired, so plenty of time.

Why dont I get myself those electrical qualifications so I get a certificate and then can do my own electric work.

What would be the route to take to get, and is it feasible for someone in their seventies?

The way things are going it would not be a bad idea to get some of the others as well, you might need to be a qualified painter to paint your home the way things are going.

 

[Titus A Duxass]

Go for it.
Also worth considering is a CORGI course, there used to be night school courses for it when I lived in the UK.

My mate sent his wife on a CORGI so he wouldn't have to pay a plumber to fit is gas boiler (tight git).
She now has her own company and a long list of female customers who don't feel comfortable having a hairy-pineappled plumber in the house.

 

[Esox Lucius]

I admire anyone wanting to train in something but you may want to consider the cost of it all as well.

Fully qualified courses including 17th edition regs and part P are not that cheap. You can go to these micky mouse companies and gain the skill but the qualification is not worth the paper it is printed on.

As you got time on your hands how about becoming a "mature" apprentice?

Have fun


Mark

 

[wobblycogs]

DW, I did this when we bought the house we are currently in as it needed a complete rewire. The course cost about £700 IIRC and lasted two weeks. At the end of it I sat an exam over two days which involved wiring numerous circuits which the examiner tested for faults and then sitting a (stupidly easy) multi-choice paper. For that I got a certificate that I presented to the local building control officer who confirmed that I could then sign off my own work.

Getting the BCO to agree with this sign off route was a bit of a pain in the proverbial, he admitted up front that it was a perfectly legal route he'd just never come across anyone that wanted to actually do it before so he disappeared for a week while came up with a new internal system just for me .

Of course, once you have your certificate you still have to cough up £50 for each job you do as you have to file a small works notice but a job can be literally any amount of wiring. Also, strictly speaking, you need to have a properly calibrated meter in order to perform the tests necessary needed to sign off. I have such a meter, made by Dialog, but it wasn't cheap. If you are wiring your whole house it's probably worth getting a meter as they hold their value pretty well, for a single job you'd really need to borrow one.

You can't really work on anyone else's house since you probably wouldn't get insurance unless you joined once of the registered bodies which cost a fair bit per year. Finally, if after wiring everything up you aren't confident in your circuit you can always get a sparky in to do a test and inspect (you can't do a test and inspect on a Part P certificate) but that will obviously cost you.

Would I do it again? Probably, I've saved literally thousands wiring the house myself. The biggest down side actually is having to listen to all the whining busy bodies who for whatever reason want to tell you that you need to be a fully qualified sparky to do simple domestic wiring.

P.S. you also can't do three phase on a part p competent cert.

 

[devonwoody]

Thanks, does it mean that I can then pass another DIYers installation and issue a certificate?

Mind you reading your advice above, it appears the electrical trade has really got you shut out with all the other costly layouts.

~Ah well perhaps we could ask King Henry the 8th to come back and get us out of that European directive. Baically thats what he did in the 16th century when he told the pope where to go.

 

[wobblycogs]

Electrical work essentially falls into three categories:

Basic Modifications
Modifying existing circuits in non-special areas, adding a spur in the living room for example, is allowed without notifying building control and without a part p certificate. There are limits to what is considered a modification though so you can't, for example, extend a ring if you need a load of new sockets in your workshop. New circuits are completely verbotten.

New Circuits
The part p certificate primarily lets you do two things:

1)Install and test new standard domestic circuits for power and light anywhere in a domestic setting
2)Modify existing domestic circuits in special areas (bathrooms and kitchens essentially).

You will hear a lot of people tell you that you need to be a member of a trade body to self certify but this is not at all the case. Membership of the trade body is only required if you want to avoid having to fill in a small works notification on every job you are going to do. Clearly if you are a sparky filling in a small works for every job would be silly so the trade bodies look after that side of things for them.

The long and the short of it is that a Part P certificate will cover 99.9% of the wiring you will probably ever want to do.

Everything Else
Signing off other people's work is a "test and inspect" situation which only a fully qualified sparky can do - it's a different certificate. Fully qualified sparks can also install non-standard circuits (which require calculations) and three phase power etc etc.

 

[devonwoody]

And how does someone who calls himself self employed become a fully qualified sparky?

 

[wobblycogs]

You're moving away from what I know about now. I only briefly looked into how to become fully qualified but...

I would imagine the current favourite route is to shell out a couple of grand or more and do an intensive course that lasts a few months. There are literally hundreds of places that do such courses now which you can find on the web. The alternative is to enrol at the local college and do either a day or night course but this can take a very long time (three years is not uncommon). Arguably though you are better qualified at the end of a college course since you'll have more practical experience.

Obviously the quality of these private company taught courses is going to vary a lot, I can point you in the direction of the company I did my course with if you want, their buildings were rough (no heating and it was the middle of the winter) but the teaching was thorough and they made absolutely sure no one passed that couldn't work safely.

Unless you are going to do it commercially I don't think fully qualifying is worth it. The qualification is going to be around £3k then to work you realistically need to be a member of a trade body which is going to be around £1.5k/year then there's insurance at god knows how much a year and you need insurance after you stop working too - typically for 10 years I believe.

 

[Losos]

Also worth considering is a CORGI course, there used to be night school courses for it when I lived in the UK.

I think it's called something else now, but is essentially the same thing, and I've thought about doing it too, 'tho maybe a bit late in the day now :lol:

 

[Ateallthepies]

Speaking for myself, I did a three year course during my apprenticeship in the early nineties and got my city and guilds and became a 'fully qualified' building sparks according to my JIB card.

When the regs changed to the 17th edition in 2008 I had to do a 10 week refresher course which basically meant learning the regs and answering some questions in the end exam.

I now am an 'Approved contractor' with the NICEIC which means I self certify all my work and can also undertake non-domestic work.

I have no formal Qualifications in testing and inspection and did not need to do a course as I was taught on the job and need no qualification at this point in my electrical career.

I pay a fee of £465 per year to the NICEIC plus about £100-300 on books/test sheets as needed per year. I also pay £2 per job submitted to the LABC. My tester cost me £900 in 2006.

I have to have 5 jobs to show my NICEIC assessor once a year and he accompanies me and decides if I am fit to be a member for the next year.

I have to have £2,000,000 public liability insurance. If I did PIR reports I would need public Indemnity insurance as well but I don't do PIR's as they are rubbish and there is always someone else who can do them for half the price in halve the time so why even bother???

To DIY you will need a 17th edition tester with leads, regs book, decent power tester and tools for the job. You don't need to be qualified in any way to wire yourself, you just need to be 'competent'!! You can download free test sheets (EIC) from the net and BC have to accept these unless the rules have changed yet again????? Then you just get the LABC to sign off your work.

I admire anyone who wants lo learn new things but please don't think being a sparks will make you any money without a shed load of work and hassle.
If you want to just do your own electrics you will have to weigh up the associated costs between becoming what is known as a 'domestic installer' with whatever organization you choose plus the required qualifications needed, and paying the LABC per job and doing it DIY.

Steve.