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The nature of electrical components is such that they are bound by the rules of physics and will eventually deteriorate. No matter how well they are built and no matter how well they are designed, once electrons pass through them, they will begin to depreciate and eventually, falter and fail.
How much time they take to reach a state of failure depends on numerous factors, but it’s safe to say that if an electrical system has components that are compliant and built using the British Standards in mind, then you can relax for about half a decade before you start to see signs of problems.
For new builds, this might not be that big of an issue; however, for older commercial buildings, electrical failure is a hard and eventual reality.
How do you know how much life a component has and whether it is working fine, though? This is where the Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) comes in.
An EICR is a summary report of your electrical installation, which highlights the overall health of your system and whether it has any issues in it that need attention. This is why EICRs are your strongest weapon in defending your property from electrical hazards.
Read below to learn more about EICRs, common ECIR failures, and why older buildings need to rely heavily on EICRs:
EICR seems like a mouthful to say, but it is simply a report that highlights how well your electrical installation is doing. It is a report that is conducted, ideally every few years, by commercial and residential property owners.
The report is part of an inspection of the fixed electrical wiring and equipment in a commercial or residential property. It includes checking the electrical wires, sockets, switches, lights, and consumer units, at the end of which a detailed report is drafted that highlights the overall health of the electrical system.
EICRs are a requirement under the law in the UK, and a satisfactory EICR report is mandatory to ensure the safety of all occupants in the property.
A commercial electrical condition report is similar to a home electrical condition report, except that it is carried out on commercial properties, including offices, schools, care and nursing homes, restaurants, hotels, shopping centres, and other similar properties.
Commercial properties, such as the ones listed above, are known for being old. Some of these properties can be as old as 50 years or longer. Imagine what 15 to 20 years can do to an electrical installation, let alone 50!
EICRs in commercial buildings are done as periodic electrical inspections. They include adherence to:
A satisfactory or “Pass” EICR indicates that the property’s electrical infrastructure is sound, safe, and robust enough to endure its energy demand and usage. In other words, it means that the property is safe from electrical hazards and may even be operating at higher efficiency levels, especially if the property owner has taken remedial action based on the recommendations of the report.
In a nutshell, the EICR exists for the following reasons:
The EICR can be seen as a guarantee. For commercial properties, this report highlights that you, as a commercial property owner, have done your duty of being compliant, and your property is operating safely and efficiently.
If you plan to fake or skip the EICR, then that might be a huge mistake. Since an EICR is legally required, failing to meet these standards puts you at risk of negligence, specifically if someone on your property suffers injuries or damage to goods due to an electrical fault.
Not only can you be prosecuted, but you could also be charged for non-compliance and required to pay up to £30,000 worth of penalties. So, it’s safe to say that you shouldn’t mess around with the EICR or take its seriousness lightly.
We mentioned above how older buildings can have weaker electrical systems or, at the very least, electrical installations that require close attention due to continuous wear and tear.
When conducting an EICR for these older commercial buildings, there are a few common EICR failures that almost always show up in the report.
Here are some of the most common ones:
Time is the enemy of endurance. New systems might seem like a well-oiled machine when first installed, but with time, they will eventually start to show signs of problems and ultimately fail.
Wiring is inherently built to be robust because it is the very thing that transfers energy from one component to another, so it must be resilient. Everything has its limits, and with time, wiring can deteriorate as well.
Older commercial buildings often have wiring that may become brittle and damaged. They may also simply not meet modern standards anymore!
Some common problems with wiring include the following:
These faults alone or combined present significant fire and electrical shock risks and are among the top causes of EICR failures in older commercial buildings.
Distribution boards may also deteriorate with time. In older commercial buildings, problems with consumer units (fuse boxes) are very frequent.
The problem isn’t just the components in the distribution box but also its layout. Outdated units with rewirable fuses rather than modern breakers can lead to problems, especially when it comes time for upgrades.
Similarly, a lack of RCD protection or RCDs that fail trip tests can also cause problems in older distribution boxes. These systems may also have poor labelling of circuits, which can make diagnosis even harder.
Additionally, loose or damaged terminals on the board are also a common fail-point for older buildings and may even lead to fire risk.
Proper earthing and bonding ensure that the electrical system in older commercial buildings is safe from earthing issues. Earthing keeps conductive parts from becoming live during a fault, which can lead to serious injuries and even death.
Common issues in earthing can involve missing bonding to water pipes, gas pipes, or steelwork. It may also include undersized or corroded earth conductors or poor main earthing arrangements.
All these problems are an automatic failure in EICR, which is why commercial property owners need to ensure that their electrical installation’s earthing system is working properly.
In commercial spaces, overloaded circuits are a common problem due to several factors. Whether it is due to a lack of labelling, training, or awareness, these problems can cause strains to the property’s electrical system.
When overloading happens, circuits can regularly trip, deteriorate, and eventually stop working entirely. Distribution boards themselves may even show signs of overheating, which can be quite serious because it can damage other components.
Furthermore, overloading causes equipment to draw more current than the total allowance of a circuit design, which can lead to shocks, sparks, damage, and even fire.
RCD protection, or lack of, requires close attention. Residual Current Devices (RCD) are safety components that trip the system in the event of a fault. They have predesigned and highly calibrated timing systems that can trip within the blink of an eye; however, if these systems are damaged, then there is nothing to contain electrical issues.
In older commercial buildings, the absence of RCDs on circuits that require them the most is more common than you might think.
There are also cases where RCDs don’t operate within the required disconnection time or are fitted incorrectly with poor labelling. These issues are an immediate failure in the EICR because they can cause significant problems.
Unsafe Installations have become incredibly rare in modern times due to strict compliance demands. However, in older installations, workmanship issues may still plague commercial property owners.
These issues are often highlighted during EICR inspections and can range from incorrect cable terminations, loose fittings, or non-compliant installation of components.
These issues can get you a C1 or C2 code in the EICR, which is an immediate fail. Don’t worry, we will cover EICR codes in the guide below!
Sockets are also prone to wear and tear since they are the things that we interface with the most inside the property.
This is especially true for heavy-use commercial environments where heavy machinery is involved. This continuous use can cause burnt, cracked, or broken accessory plates, loose fittings or live parts, and burnt sockets that pose a fire or shock threat.
There are just some facts that are universally known, such as that water and electricity don’t go well.
Water penetration in older buildings due to leaks, flooding, deterioration of insulation, or even high humidity can corrode connections, degrade insulation, create earth leakage paths, and even cause short circuits or damage appliances.
These issues need thorough investigation and a well-trained and professional electrician to diagnose. Water damage may not be immediately apparent, so professional electricians like the ones from Calder Electrical use experience and industry-standard guidelines to diagnose water-related problems in electrical systems.
An EICR is a summary that is presented to the property owner with various codes that mean different things.
Here are all the most important codes:
If your commercial building has C1 and C2 faults, then the EICR report will be marked unsatisfactory or reported as “fail”. A report with C3 is common but isn’t grounds for failure; in fact, a report with C3 will be deemed satisfactory.
FI requires further investigation until it is classified. So, if your report has FI, the technician will diagnose the issue and come up with a suitable classification that will affect the final EICR result.
When testing old commercial buildings, or any property, professional electricians will look for the following issues and include them in the EICR:
These categories will be coded based on the results of various electrical tests. All these categories are important, so a C1 or C2 in any one of them is grounds for failure.
This depends on the size, complexity, and even the accessibility of the electrical system in your property. Typically, you can expect the inspection to take around 1 to 4 hours to complete.
The key here is to not rush the report and allow the inspector to take their time to identify issues clearly and investigate issues such as FIs so that they can be properly categorised and coded.
Newer properties may not require frequent inspections if they aren’t in the high-risk category. High-risk properties are categorised as places where the public might frequent, such as swimming pools, hospitals, and leisure centres.
In this case, the EICR should be done every 1 to 3 years. For low-risk properties, as per the Electricity at Work Act 1989, an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) must be done at regular intervals, which can range from 3 to 5 years.
If you are looking for a registered electrician for the installation, maintenance, inspection, and rewiring of your property’s electrical system, look no further.
We offer a wide range of services to meet the demands of our clients. All our work is fully insured, and we work to meet the standards set by the NICEIC to make sure all your electrical installations meet the current regulations and all the notifiable work is signed off by the local authorities.
We have been undertaking electrical work since 1976 and are specialists in the field. If you have unplanned issues within your home or business, we can provide a call-out service to rectify and solve any problems.
Anything from circuits tripping to loss of power, broken items that need repairing, or checking if you feel something is unsafe or a potential hazard.
Our team can generate a Visual Inspection Report (VIR) to identify anything visual that does not comply with the standards or looks unsafe, as well as a full Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) where we will identify and test all the circuits to make sure they are not deteriorating and are safe for use within the current standards and regulations set by the BS 7671.
We can also provide PAT testing of appliances to make sure that any items such as kettles, computers, and microwaves are safe for use in the home and workplace.
Contact us here or call us on 0800 612 3001 for more information on electrical installation condition reports (EICRs) for your home and commercial properties.
Photo by Aleksandr Lyaptsev on Unsplash
