[OT: BigW - any chance of formatting your posts to 70-ish characters
instead of 90-odd?]

In message ,
"BigWallop" wrote:


Competency is measured in the confidence you have in yourself that the
work you do is fully compliant with safe practice.

That is (IME) a dangerous statement. Far too many people are perfectly
confident in their own work and yet would be judged by others to fall
short of competence. At the moment electrical work is the place where
this seems to be scariest, but it can happen anywhere. Of course,
personal safety needn't be the only problem - the small matter of the
DIY-ed conservatory at our last house (DIY-ed by a previous owner I
hasten to add) for example, where to be brutal the thing really needed
demolishing and starting again even though it was less than 10 years
old. It wasn't about to fall down, but other problems could cost
thousands to rectify.

Ideally competence should be a quantitative measurement, rather than a
qualitative judgement but in practice this is difficult. At the moment
really the only measure of electrical competence is to pass a couple of
C&G exams. Getting the NICEIC to "ok" your work is a good second best,
but think for a moment about just how many 17 year-old newly qualified
drivers are *actually* competent in all aspects of driving alone?

And the security of knowing that the work is done properly shouldn't be an
issue.
Not quite sure what you mean here.

So to ask if an insurance company would take into consideration that
the person doing the work is not competent, to me, is a stupid question.

Of course they would - if a major fire was investigated and a cause
found, the company would do anything it could to avoid paying :-)

Especially if that person is not confident in the work that they
themselves carried out.

Hmmm yes, but who would own up to that? Without proof, that is.


If you have any doubt in the work that you carried out, then you should
leave it well alone. More especially where the health and safety of
others is a big issue.


Absolutely. If you have no doubt though and yet the work is not to
standard...

Having said that, we must remember the statistics about deaths and
injuries caused by faulty fixed-wiring. Was it Andy who supplied these
or Peter? The electrical system in this country is very, very safe. For
most problems it takes more than one fault for something to be
dangerous.

The most common fault I've come across in my time has to be
inappropriate cable. Usually it is size: 1mm2 as a spur supplying a
potential load of 3.5kW+, or the client who wanted to install an
all-electric cooker using 2.5mm2. Occasionally it is 2-core cable where
a CPC is required or T&E with the CPC not connected.

These faults are not necessarily immediately dangerous (the 1mm2 spur
worked fine over two or three winters before I ripped it out) but will
lie in wait to "bite" at some future date. At another job recently, I
restored the earth to half the upstairs lights (it was disconnected in
one junction) only to have the fuse blow. It didn't take long to find
the culprit - a switched live which was twisted together in a junction
box rather than under a terminal and which had, over time, moved into
contact with the earth in the box.

To make matters worse, this was for the earthed, metal cased lighting in
a non-bonded bathroom, one light (normal R80 eyeball spot) about a foot
away from the shower head.

Not sure where this is going so I'll stop. Basically I agree with your
argument, but dislike the "confidence in your competence" statement.

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... This tagline was reclaimed and is not yet stolen.