Agreeing the extent of a periodic report in an occupied care home
You are engaged to produce an EICR for a 42-bed residential care home built in 1998: one origin (TN-C-S, 100 A), a 12-way three-phase main board, four single-phase sub-boards and 96 final circuits. The previous report, issued in 2016, records 'satisfactory' with no schedules or test results attached. The registered manager will not accept any interruption to the nurse-call system, the fire alarm panel or the medication fridge, and the building must remain in use throughout. The client's agent wants 'a full test of every circuit and every accessory so the certificate is watertight', completed in one four-hour night shift by you and one other electrician.
1. Explain why the agent's instruction is the wrong basis for an EICR, and set out the extent and sampling you would actually propose.
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Why the instruction is wrong
- An EICR is an opinion on the condition of an existing installation and its compliance with the current edition of BS 7671. It is not initial verification, so design, selection and erection cannot be verified against records that do not exist.
- There are no schedules from 2016, so you have no baseline to compare deterioration against. That argues for a larger sample, not for testing everything.
- 'Every accessory' is not achievable in four hours on 96 circuits with two people, and promising it means either the work is not done or the results are not real.
Extent and sampling
- 100% of the origin, main board, sub-boards, distribution circuits and main protective conductors.
- Sample the final circuits: start at around 10% of accessories (all points on each selected circuit), rising to 20–50% or more where defects appear, where the premises are high-risk (vulnerable occupants here), or where circuits are old, heavily loaded or exposed. Sample the oldest and most heavily used circuits first.
- Every circuit must appear in the schedule with either a result or a stated limitation - no blanks.
Recording
- Agree extent and limitations in writing before the work starts, and repeat them on the report. The report is only valid as an opinion of condition within those agreed parameters.
2. The fire alarm, nurse-call and medication fridge circuits cannot be isolated. How do you plan the work around that, and what exactly would you record?
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Planning
- Agree in writing with the responsible person which circuits may be isolated, and when. Isolation must be arranged so that life-safety systems are never left out of service while the building is occupied: test those circuits out of hours, with the fire panel on battery back-up within its rated duration and the alarm monitoring station informed.
- The fridge: agree a short monitored isolation with staff on hand, or accept a limitation.
- Sequence the night shift around the sub-boards - one sub-board at a time - rather than attempting 96 circuits.
Recording
- On the report, in the limitations section: 'Circuits 12 (fire alarm), 19 (nurse call) and 27 (medication fridge) were not dead-tested; isolation was not permitted by the duty holder. These circuits were visually inspected only.'
- Against each of those circuits in the schedule, record 'not tested - limitation', not a blank and not a pass.
Point of judgement A limitation is not a soft 'satisfactory'. It reduces the confidence in the report, and if the circuits you could not test are the ones most likely to be defective, you should say so and recommend further investigation rather than letting the certificate imply a clean bill of health.
3. Before leaving site the agent says: 'Just put satisfactory - we'll sort anything out afterwards.' How do you respond?
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- The overall assessment is your professional opinion, formed after the inspection and testing. It cannot be agreed in advance, and it is not a negotiating position.
- If any C1 or C2 is recorded, the report is unsatisfactory as a matter of fact, not of preference. 'We'll sort it afterwards' does not change the condition found on the day of the inspection.
- Where danger exists, you have a duty to inform the duty holder in writing without delay, separately from the report, stating what is dangerous and what should be done.
- What can be discussed is the recommendation wording and the timescales for remedy - prioritise the C2s, and give realistic dates.
- If the client insists on a predetermined outcome, decline the instruction. Issuing a report you do not believe is a competence and integrity issue, and it removes your professional protection if something goes wrong later.