On 15/08/2019 10:03, Allan wrote:

Following on from the university PAT check thread, something that has
crossed my mind recently is whether it's worth getting (domestic) house
electrical wiring and appliances check.

Some, probably.

Moved into house 20 years ago, and never really checked for anything
unless/until there's a problem.Â* Wonder if it's worth checking as
pre-emptive move, like a mouse beginning to chew into a hidden cable or
water ingress that hasn't manifested itself (yet).Â* Or how that sort of
thing would show up. Or what such a test would show anyway.Â* Or what I
can do myself e.g. with one of the "socket testers" that is available on
the market (and would I understand the implications anyway as a lay
person).

The stuff you could expect to show up would be things like degraded
circuit continuity due to poor or loose connections. Wear on sockets and
accessories. Possibly insulation damage to cables etc.

What would be worth checking: wiring? sockets? appliances? consumer unit?

Possibly, yes, some and yes :-)

Wiring tests like round trip resistance on ring circuits, and earth loop
impedance tests, plus insulation resistance checks will tell you lots
about the state of those. A visual inspection will let you spot sockets
where the contacts are worn etc, and possible also any signs of local
overheating.

Appliances, are probably only worth doing the "visual inspection" part
of a full blown PAT.

CU itself is probably fine, but checking the tightness of all the
screwed connections would be good, as would be testing any RCDs (ideally
with a proper RCD tester, but as a minimum with the test button).

You might also want to look at if all the sockets have RCD protection
with a 30mA trip.

House is 40 years old, I moved in 20 years ago and had some wiring done,
and got a new consumer unit in the garage.

We do electrical checking at our place of work etc (on a comulsory
basis), but should we do it at home (onÂ* a voluntary basis).

I had a new electric shower put in last year and the electrician checked
the consumer unit and picked up that one of the breakers needed
replacing, but nothing much else was checked.Â* And I've had another
individual breaker on the consumer unit need replacing a couple of years
ago.

Any thoughts welcome.

All the stuff that you want to do is eminently DIYable with the right
kit and a bit of planning / learning to make sure you keep safe while
doing the work and can make sense of the results.

Articles like:

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/...Circuit_Faults

Cover how to find visible and non visible circuit faults using basic
equipment.

More extensive equipment can be hired or bought cheaply second hand on
ebay (and re-sold when done if you want).

Some more info he

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/...tion#Test_gear




--
Cheers,

John.

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