light fittings

[Ian Bond]

Here's a response to a government e-petition on the subject of Part P.
:roll: :lol: :roll:

(I know, I know, I know )

http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page17453

The installation and safety standards for electrical installations in buildings are set in the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s wiring regulations (BS 7671); the competence standards for electricians to carry out installations to meet the standards in BS 7671 are contained in Summit Skills’s National Occupational Standards; and the method of assessment of competence to the National Occupational Standards is in the Institution’s Electrotechnical Assessment Scheme.

The trade bodies operating Part P competent person schemes are required to assess the competence of electricians to meet the installation and safety standards in BS 7671 against the competences in National Occupational Standards. They are not permitted to ‘define’ competence to meet their own purposes. Anyone can apply to register with a competent person scheme and if they are assessed as competent they will be registered. Competent person scheme operators also monitor the work of members to make sure that it continues to meet the standards in BS 7671.

Although there is no formal register of electricians assessed as competent there is a website, http://www.competentperson.co.uk, which allows anyone to select an electrician assessed as competent to carry out electrical installation work in domestic premises.

There is no requirement to belong to a Part P competent person scheme. Anyone who does not belong to such a scheme who wishes to carry out electrical installation work in domestic premises needs to notify a building control body in advance. The building control body then becomes responsible for checking that the work is safe.

This is exactly what I've done in the past, and the council sent someone round who didn't have the slightest clue what they were looking at to assess my work.

Paid my £100 and something, got my certificate. No problem.

If you want to follow the rules, you have to pay for the privilege.

 

[Lime]

does not exclude the householder.

It does for most things and it is does discourage householders for what they can do which is a good thing in my book. What the previous owner had done to my house being a good example.

That is a widespread misconception.

A householder is not excluded from doing any work, I repeat any work, as long as it complies with the law, rules and regulations.

To suggest a householder is not allowed to do certain work is wrong.

 

[MdB]

I don't think we are actually disagreeing here, maybe just the pair of us not being very clear.

I think we would both agree on the following:

A householder is not excluded from doing any work, as long as it complies with the law, rules, regulations and is then certified.

 

[Wren]

Faced this dilemma relatively recently. Was very taken by the very expensive Forbes and Lomax switches, but the box is too deep to work in our house - you would need a really thick layer of lime plaster to accommodate them (and chopping out the masonry sounds pretty horrendous). In terms of F&L decided that the metal ones were a bit too 'showy' so prefer the 'invisible' ones.

Needed to make a decision so went for ultra-cheap white plastic. You want a light switch to look like a light switch, but at the same time to be not noticeable, to 'disappear'. They were so cheap that in future could possibly replace them with something and not feel guilty about waste in terms of materials costs. I went for low profile white plastic with slightly rounded edges as the fittings with sharp edges looked out of place.

It probably does depend on your house. In our 'simple country cottage' I am finding that anything too fancy 'jars' and simplicity/understatement works best. I like Nigel's suggestion of a compromise - slightly more fancy light switches in the more formal rooms only.
(Would always err on the side of understatement though - we had some fancy neo-georgian brass light switches that were installed by the previous owners in our last house and you do get sick of them.)

 

[Lime]

All electrical gear in an old house is a latter addition to the original fabric of course.
The type of switch used was dictated by the electrical supply.
In the very early days in some areas Knife switches were use and single wires on insulators run down the wall, in other areas the wires were boxed in substantial ornate wooden trunking recessed into the plaster.
However nearly all switches were mounted on the surface, often very obtrusive on large hardwood patrices.

Perhaps even more obtrusive were the 15 Amp power points made of brown ceramic mounted upon the ubiquitous wooden patrices.
These were quite late in the electrical scheme of things but when used with adaptors were very obvious.

That's not to say some electrical fittings weren't discrete, some were. Several small sockets were made that were flush and delicate to look at.
However as the early electric lights were usually installed in a property long before power points it is the light switches that announced that the house had electricity.
Most householders were proud to have them and only too pleased to have them noticed.

 

[Cloudscape]

Funnily enough, I did ask my electrician if we could get away with some knife switches. He wasn't amused. I rather fancied the 'mad scientist' thing - clanging switches and arcing electricity... huge bulbs gradually starting to glow (and probably the cheery sound of the fire brigade, on its way from the nearest town).

 

[Lime]

huge bulbs gradually starting to glow

I remember back in the 60s working on an old Ealing film star's house (star long departed) finding some old unused lamps still wrapped.
There were about 20 of them piled up in the attic studio and had been made about 1920.
The wrappers demonstrated what their uses were.
They were 350 watt large edison screw clear glass and designed either to light up a room or fit into a radiant electric fire for heating.
(pictures of several variations were shown)
The room still used the lamps for lighting.
They gave a very pleasant reddish light.
The bulbs themselves were tubular, vacuum with a single wire filament running back and forth the length of the tube (about 9 by 3 inches).
The light switches were wooden and the circuit supplied by circular white ceramic wired pot fuses (like a ceiling rose but without the hole) and isolated by an exposed 2 ganged knife switch.

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

Like many others I've beeb trying to tread the fine line between the 'honesty' of modern fittings and the grand-but-over-ornate effect of repro dolly switches and the like. When it comes to sockets it's a case of 'out of sight, out of mind', and I've fitted the same MK faceplates as everybody else. Switches are a different matter as they are so visible and, like door furniture, they are a part of the house that you make frequent contact with.

Inspired by the bakelite originals in my grandparents-in-law's old house I went looking for a modern equivalent, and found these:

These are new, made by Clipsal, in brown phenolic plastic which looks not too far removed from the old bakelite. To my eye they're interesting without being grand, and they have a nice clunky action. The pattress is just a scrap of oak from the workshop - a painted version would be even more unassuming. Best of all I got the switches from an ebay trader for a very resonable cost compared with some of the eye-watering prices that some suppliers of repro fittings are charging.

It must be said that the moulding quality of the switch casings was not all that good, but I spent a bit of time fettling them up with wet-and-dry and finally buffing on a polishng mop. The end result is pleasing to the eye, hand and ear.

 

[DaveBrigg]

One word of warning - brass and lime do not get on well together. We have brass switches and sockets, some of which have corroded quite badly where the lime plaster took several months to dry out.

 

[Edwardia]

Husband bought Crabtree polished brass toggle switch for his study for 13.95 at Screwfix.