The regs are a good thing Paul as until now, you could have set up as an electricial contractor with no qualifications or test equipment.
Now ALL work in the garden, kitchen or bathroom, which are the most dangerous areas electrically, requires building regs certification, as do substantial work in all other areas, which can only be given by a part P registered person. In essence this will be a qualified electrician with City & Guilds certificates in instalation, inspection and testing and current regulations. All other minor works, such as changing fittings or adding a socket to an existing circuit (but not in the bathroom, kitchen or garden) can be done without building regs certification but still needs to comply with the 16th edition regs.
Most house fires are caused by old or dodgy electrics and most of the dodgy electrics are installed by the B&Q on a Sunday brigade who rewire their house with the aid of a "how to" sheet. Most electrocutions are caused by damaged cables supplying appliances or poor / no earthing being present due, mainly do to the "it'l do" brigade or ignorance of people who know no better.
Personally I would never use an extension lead for longer than needed to do a job. Indeed at home we have 3 fixed outdoor sockets so an extension lead is never required. Using hosepipe for protection is dangerous as it looks like, well a hosepipe and its protection is negligeable. Its far better to spend a tenner and use some proper conduit so at least it looks like what it uis and has a bit of protection.
SWA cable is the way to go for outside work and will need to be undertaken by a qualified person. If you "diy" it and a fire occurs, your insurance company will not pay out. If somebody gets electrocuted, you go to prison. Simple really.
Last edited by pigletwillie; 29-03-2008 at 10:00 AM.
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