Electrical Condition/safety report

What will an EICR tell me?

Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) will provide a full summary of the condition/safety  of the electrics in your home.

It will record a number of observations/tests and make various recommendations where improvement may be necessary or beneficial to improving safety in your home.

Once the EICR is completed it will provide you with a report outlining the overall condition and safety  of the electrical installation.

An EICR will provide codings against the condition of the installation. The classification codes are as follows:

• Code C1 - This code should indicates that danger exists, requiring immediate remedial action. The persons using the installation are at immediate risk.
• Code C2 - This code indicates that, whilst an observed deficiency is not considered to be dangerous at the time of the inspection, it could become a real and immediate danger if a fault or other foreseeable event was to occur in the installation or connected equipment.
• Code C3 - This code indicates that, whilst an observed deficiency is not considered to be a source of immediate or potential danger, improvement would contribute to a significant enhancement of the safety of the electrical installation.

You are under no obligation to have any of the issues fixed, though it is recommended that corrective action to rectify any C1 and C2s is completed as soon as possible.

What does an electrical condition report involve?

Once you have decided to have an electrical safety check you should expect the process to include the following steps:

• A discussion with the electrician about the age of your home, any past issues.
• Visual Inspection – A visual inspection is a series of basic checks to identify any noticeable signs of deterioration or damage such as damaged cables or scorch marks.
• The electrician should test your, power sockets, lighting, and other fixings to check they are safe to use on the day.
• Dead Testing – Dead testing checks the continuity, insulation, resistance and polarity of the installation.
• Live Testing – Live testing checks disconnection efficiency to ensure that the electrics can quickly shut down if required to prevent risks and minimise damage.
• RCD Testing – RCD tests check the RCDs (Residual-Current Devices) which are safety devices designed to prevent fatal electric shocks and electrical fires.
• The electrician should identify any circuit hazards; any faulty electrical connections; and any overloaded outlets.
• next and the most important is testing your fuse board.

How often should a check be conducted?

An EICR is also recommended in all domestic homes every 10 years to check the condition of the electrical installation and ensure there is no deterioration, however there may be reasons why an EICR would need to be done more often. Typical reasons include:

• Age of the installation (the older the installation the more often an EICR should be carried out)
• Type of property. For example, if the property has a swimming pool, the recommended interval between an EICR is 1 year, however only the parts of the installation relating to the swimming pool would need to be assessed.
• Environmental Conditions
• Misuse of the installation such as vandalism
• Change in usage of the domestic premises. This could be change of occupancy in rental properties, or a property is being prepared to be sold, or the property is being purchased. It is highly recommended that an EICR is carried out with each change of occupancy in rental properties to ensure the property remains electrically safe. Equally, requesting an EICR on a property that is being purchased is the best way to find out if work needs to be carried out on the electrical system.

Yearly cost of an EICR is extremely low when compared to the cost of an annual car service or annual boiler service but yet could save a sizeable sum of money as an EICR would pick up on a potential problem before it became a serious, costly issue.