Category Archives: electricals

PV installs and Building Regs

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There appears to be much disquiet at the moment over exactly how PV installation works are covered by Building Regulations.

Many Local Authority Building Control (LABC) departments are advising concerned callers that a Building Notice application is required at a cost, in some instances, of over £350 – even where the installer will be both MCS accredited and a member of a Part P electrical competent person scheme – in order to cover the non-Part P elements of the work, which would normally be Part A, covering any structural work on strengthening the roof. And it seems that this situation has not been helped by some rather unguarded comments issuing from the NICEIC.

As far as I can see any Building Notice required under Part A would be for notifying that strengthening works are to be or have been carried out on a roof – as a result of a structural survey.

There is no need to notify LABC that a roof is simply being assessed as to its suitability to carry a higher load or that a higher load is being imposed – with no need to strengthen it.

And any building work that is associated with Part P work (which is what a PV install is as far as the Building Regs are concerned) is automatically covered by the Part P CPS self-certification. This is written into the Building Regs legislation and has been since day 1 of Part P. In fact the wording to cover associated building work under CPS self-certification was first introduced way back in 2002.

So, as far as the legislation is concerned, if an installer is competent to self-certify for the Part P electrical work then they are also considered competent for all the other work carried out at the same time and, as far as the LABC should be concerned, is covered by the same self-certification.

This all comes hot on the heels of the recent news that some Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) were advising homeowners that their planned PV installation required planning approval even though it would usually be covered by the revised Permitted Development legislation that has been introduced by central government over the past few years – specifically to remove this particular barrier to the wider roll-out of microgeneration.

I suppose that this sort of reaction by LABCs and LPAs is a result, in these days of financial restraint, of scrambling to get as much revenue in from their customers as possible. But this is not the right (or legal) way of doing it.

Reference.
The relevant parts are included in paras 17 and 20 of Schedule 3 of the Building Regulations 2010.

DIY SOS goes green

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BBC TV’s DIY SOS series finally turns a shade of green – and not before time.

Tonight’s episode featured Charlie Luxton helping the team to install insulation, rainwater harvesting, low energy lamps and photovoltaic panels to help reduce a Welsh family’s energy usage – although only a small part of the programme covered these and not to a great depth. But let’s hope that this is the start of a trend.

Available on iPlayer (if you’re in the UK) for the next week.

Flash in the pan?

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Apple’s new iPad is hot and beautiful and, yes, sexy and runs, so Apple claims, for 10 hours on battery power alone.  But it doesn’t run Flash, which is a problem for kids wanting to play the hundreds, if not thousands, of free games on the web. But is that enough to stop huge numbers of people buying the iPad? Probably not.

So what is the secret of the long, 1000 recharge-cycle battery life? Lithium-polymer batteries – but the downside is reported long recharge times. Which seems a little strange to me as Lithium batteries are not supposed to be trickle-charged but should be fully charged in less than 2 hours. I wonder why this is and if it is an indicator of longer term battery problems for the iPad?

And, yes, this post was written on an iPad, in Apple’s Southampton store, while back home I have a Dell laptop that keeps nagging me to buy a new battery for it at a cost of ‘only’ £150. The entry level iPad is just £429.