Trials and Tribulations of Eco installs.

[AGT]

Good to hear some positive news, well done on getting NICEIC to get remedial works done!!

[NoraBatty]

After finding out the installing electrician had left us with dangerous electrics, we werent keen on having him back either to carry out the remedial work.
For whatever reason, the electrician was free to pick who came to do the remedial work on behalf of the company.
I presume this is because he was paying for it. He chose his mate.

The electrician who turned up on day one of the remedial works, did not fill you with confidence.

He set about putting the cabling under the floor in copex to then secure it in place.
For some reason this took an entire day.
He was then asked by the remedials manager what parts he needed for the new consumer unit, and made a shopping list which was filled and supplied.
3 days of, i dont know what exactly, and the electrician had managed to clip cables to the underfloor in copex, and change the isolation switch for the bathroom extractor from the loft to the landing.

Except the extractor fan did not run.

He then set about changing our consumer unit onto full RCBO's. A nice gesture of the original electrician, who could have put back the original board as he found it and just added RCBO's
For the solar and heatpump.

No electrical checks were done on the existing circuits to make sure everything was safe.
When i queried this i was told there was no need to check the electrics before or after fitting the new board. if there was a fault present, the RCBOs would trip and highlight it.
I knew this would come back and bite, and i knew NICEIC would take this up on my behalf..so i said nothing.

The board was changed, and he said he would return to fix the extractor fan in 3 days. He suspected he had mixed tbe wiring up. Hearing an electrician say he wired a switch up wrong when he has just changed your consumer board, doesnt fill you with confidence.
This is what i was left with, and i already had the complaint email in to the company and NICEIC.

















The plumbers came back the next day to finalise the system and recommission.
It didnt turn on.
So they gave me a choice. The original installing electrician could come within 1 hour and get it working, or i could wait 2 more days for the remedial electrician to come back and diagnose.

When the original electrician turned up, he found that the heatpump had been wired up wrong.

They both came back on the monday, fixed the wrong wiring for the extractor fan, and decided that how the electrics had been left on friday was not great.
I was then, left with this. Which was much neater. Two electricians worked on this.

[NoraBatty]

Whilst i waited 4 more days for NICEIC to review the consumer board install, there was a burning smell.in the house, chased back to the consumer unit.

A call to an emergency electrician was put in, and he noted quite a few other sticking points.
The big one being that the main line and neutral terminals for the RCBOs had not been tightened.
These didnt just require nipping tight, they were loose enough for the electrican to sag they probably had never been tightened down at all.
As a result, the wires were arcing, with not enough current flowing to cause the breaker to trip.







The main switch was still the wrong make for the board, because the remedial electrician had not put one on the shopping list.


The busbar has not been trimmed, so a live basbar (knobby bit) was unsheathed and unprotected within the main board.


Fingers could still access the meter terminals, which were also not aadequately insulated outside of the meter enclosure.



The heatpump wire had been put in the same hole as the meter tails, with nothing to protect the cable.
This had actually cut into the neutral sheathing


Inside the unit the top cut out had also not been grommeted, but a spear like projection was cutting into the cable yet again. And too much insulation had been removed on various earths and neutrals , showing bare wire.



On top of all of this, the main meter tails were still only 16mm, there was no SPD on a new installation, no signage to indiacate there was solar on the roof, no label on the rotary switch to say what it was, no shut down procedures or DNO line diagram, and so on.

The emergency electrician made the system safe for the night, and added new RCBOs to those damaged and a new mains switch.
Then tested his work and made sure it was safe.

[NoraBatty]

At that point I told the company that the only electricians welcome in the house to rectify the situation, had better be external to the company and attached and registered to a certification scheme. Either NICEIC, or Select.
a select approved electrician from SE Scotland was sent.

This electrician announced he would be ripping everything out and starting new, because he was not prepared to fix such a dubious install and put his name to it.
Perfectly fine by me.

And with that, everything was changed over without fuss, new SPD board with full RCBOs new meter tails and so on.
The house electrics were checked over for an ECIR and given a clean bill of health. And this is how it was left.


All that is left is to wait for NICEIC sign off, which will occur when everything is done across the board.
Hopefully within the next week.

We are now free to finally organise the hybrid inverter install.
Space is tight, but by shifting the meters over to DIN rail, there should be just enough space to do what is planned.

And fingers crossed, that is the end of it all.

[AGT]

Changing a consumer unit, is effectively changing the design of the original circuit and as such appropriate certification should have been issued.

You should get an Electrical Installation Certificate.

[NoraBatty]

Thanks AGT
I have been given one. It has gone to the bill paying company, and NICEIC. I will get it when the complaint is closed down.

[AGT]

Glad to hear!
I’m sure you will get it all ship shape soon!

[NoraBatty]

Thanks. fingers crossed.
Its now up to the standard we initially expected, but has taken 6 months to get it resolved.

Next step battery install, then upgrades can begin.

[chris_n]

The first pic you posted of the new consumer unit in post #62 set the alarm bells ringing for me. If an Electrician can't even be bothered to make sure the bit the customer sees is good with all MCB / RCBO's sitting straight and square within the consumer unit then I know I am going to find corners cut elsewhere.I have had lots of Elecrical work carried out for me as a Maintenance supervisor and Facility Engineer so have ordered that jobs be done again correctly on more than one occasion. In most instances just opening the panel door was enough so see how good the installation was likely to be.

[NoraBatty]

I agree. I wasnt happy at all.
The electrician was, lets just say, highly tempremental with me when i questioned him over the wrongly wired switch and not checking the system.
As a person who was alone in the house at the time and suffers from ptsd from an assault 2 years ago, i felt much more comfortable letting him finish his work and leaving, complaining to NICEIC and the company about it instead, knowing NICEIC would at least have my back even if the company didnt, than having a confrontation in my own house over shoddy work.

It helps alot having NICEIC overseeing everything. They hadnt reviewed the install before the arcing issue was found, but i have no doubt they would have been all over it, especially with the issues pointed out to them.
They dont take sides, they mediate and make sure that installations are to a suitable standard, and i felt safer letting them get it done right for me.
The company were not best pleased with this particular electricians attitude on the job either. And they were of course happy to pay the emergency work needed.

It all worked out okay in the end, but shouldnt be this difficult.