David Savery Electrical Services's video: Deciphering a duff EICR with THIS GUY

In this (admittedly somewhat disjointed) vlog, Me Nige and this other guy go poking around a recent CU upgrade by a rival local firm which they backed up with a “satisfactory” condition report. But are things really tickety-boo here, or are there a few obscure oddities, queer quirks and downright dangers lurking behind the wallpaper? Background brah… The Verso consumer unit was installed by another local firm in February 2022 and the only paperwork left on site was an EICR with mislabelled circuitways, erroneous data and no mention at all of DB2 in the kitchen. Of note is that the inspection and testing label on the new CU matches the date on the EICR which makes us think it all took place on the same day. Consider that it took three of us the best part of a day just to figure out what went where and to get some test data out of it all, I doubt that one or two people could have performed a diligent effort in inspecting, testing *and* upgrading the installation in a single day which perhaps explains why the paperwork is so poor. These guys, it seems, turned up figuring it would be a straight CU change and perhaps bit off more than they could chew before they took the money and scarpered. The EICR, which they are not accredited with NICEIC to even author, also shows no limitations and claims 100% of the installation was inspected and tested. Bold claims for a report which omits DB2 entirely as well as a lighting circuit and the SPD OCPD on the very consumer unit they themselves have just installed! When we first visited the installation in July, we asked to see the certificate paperwork, however the EICR was all the homeowner had. We told them to chase their contractor for the EIC & Part-P and these were sent through a few days later (about two days before we arrived and filmed this). The Part-P is supposed to be issued within 30 days of completion of work. Had we not intervened, this paperwork would have stayed absent no doubt, but the EIC is nonsense anyway as it’s just been lifted from the EICR which is itself error laden. DB2 serves lights and sockets on the short rear extension of the property (lounge and kitchen). Lights and sockets elsewhere are all off what appears to be a short ring circuit that’s original to the house, with the lights for each floor fused down locally. I say in this video that I concur with the EICR numbers, what I really mean is I agree that the ring end-to-end readings are unexpectedly low. The numbers our predecessors have recorded play out by the book with r2 being 1.67 times higher than r1, and R1+R2 being the sum of (r1+r2)/4. In reality, our readings were a little higher with r2 being slightly out of whack and R1+R2 being much higher than the maths suggests; entirely expected on an installation that clearly has spurs off spurs and which also serves lighting on a downgraded cable. On their EICR, it’s clear the ring end-to-end testing was performed, then the rest of the data was made up from calculation instead of being obtained by testing. The RCBO in circuitway 6 of the new CU served the lounge wall lights only and was a perfectly serviceable circuit outside of the fact it had been cross connected to the lounge lights on the adjacent switch which we found comes off the ring circuit. That wouldn’t have bothered the old BS3036 board, but obviously caused tripping in the new RCBO arrangement. Rather than investigate why the wall lights were causing tripping, which would have involved disconnecting two light switches to immediately spot the problem as we did, they simply left the wall lights disconnected, left the homeowner with the impression that there would be a bang if they pressed the switch, and charged for the installation of an RCBO that did nothing. Having taken the sockets off, we determined few outlets were on the ring and original to the house, the rest had been spidered off as spurs off spurs off spurs over the following decades. Ordinarily, we’d drop the circuit down from 32A to 20A, but this is serving the oven, fireplace, lighting and most sockets including the main body of the kitchen, so the only real fix is to pull in new cabling partially or wholly to remove the loading. Wander lead testing allowed for a quick check of earthing at the Class 1 lights which determined a break in the CPC at the bathroom, bedroom light switch, small bedroom luminaire and dining room light. We used the wander lead to avoid disassembling some of the more awkward fittings to check for CPC continuity. Sorry about my Monday morning hair. I washed it on Sunday and simply can’t do a thing with it. Oh, and I know there’s a typo in the on-screen title, but I’m not rendering this again. It takes ages in 4K! Links: Verso’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpA2PWsmPhwJb_eEnF3ywpQ/featured For a shout out on a future video, you can buy us a beverage here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dseselectric