Updating post from Reddit.
I had an electrician come out and do a check on my flat just over a year ago and he granted an EICR cert.
However, a couple of lights in my flat are now not working, due to a lose connection around the ceiling rose. I'm guessing this is the problem because one of the lights started working when I moved the light shade around.
Shouldn't the electrician have found any issues like this and fixed them? Should I call the same guy back again or would someone cheaper from Taskrabbit be able to fix it?
Cheers
No, things break and come loose. Get someone in to fix
An EICR only tests a random sample of the wiring.
Low risk and hard to access stuff like lighting is rarely checked. And the EICR's main purpose is safety.
Electrical fires from lighting are super unlikely because lamp wiring is still designed for 5 amps typical of a set of incandescent bulbs, yet normally people are running 60 watt 'equivalent' LED bulbs instead, so the current is just 0.08 amps.
Even a really loose wire won't start a fire at those currents.
The random sampling are a bit thing with EICRs. It's amazing what you find, but also amazing how much you will miss.
Nothing you can do about it
Hi electrician here this is probably the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard, did you just make that up ?, you can have fires on any electrical circuit what are you on about ? a loose wire will arc and is the biggest cause of electrical fire, the exact opposite of what you have just said
I would challenge you to wire any circuit with a 5 amp breaker, 0.75mm lighting wire, 18 watt LED bulb as the load, and start a fire.
You can cheat however you like - loose joints, pour petrol on the connections, add a bit of sulfuric acid to cause corrosion, even take the voltage up to 500 volts if you like. etc.
But I bet you cannot make a fire start. (Obviously, do it outdoors just incase you succeed).
Obviously it isn't impossible - it's just very hard.
However, with a 5 amp load, it's pretty easy. Just corrode the contacts, screw it in loose, wrap the whole lot in loads of flammable insulation, and run it at 5 amps for a few hours. The joint will heat up, the pvc insulation will melt, and eventually the insulation will ignite.
> a loose wire will arc and is the biggest cause of electrical fire
Loose wires only arc with inductive loads - which lighting is not.
I’m gonna ignore your maths on here because it would take too long to answer but even though a 5-amp lighting circuit is relatively low current, arcing is still a serious issue and should be addressed immediately.
“Arcing occurs when electricity jumps across a gap between conductors, creating a high-temperature discharge. This can happen due to loose connections, damaged wires, or faulty components. Here are the risks associated with arcing:
Regarding non inductive circuits
“electrical arcing can occur on non-inductive circuits as well. Arcing is primarily caused by a breakdown of insulation or a gap between conductors, and it is not dependent on whether the circuit is inductive (containing coils or magnetic fields) or non-inductive (resistive or capacitive loads)”
Go try it and see... You'll find that whilst you can get an arc on a 5 amp lighting circuit if you remove the insulation between live and neutral conductors and then touch them together, it will be just 1 arc and will trip the breaker. And if you try it, you won't manage to make that arc ignite anything.
The arcs that ignite things are arcs between two conductors that ought to be connected, with some attached inductive load, and those can arc on every AC cycle for minutes or hours.
I’ve literally “quoted” the guidance notes
20 years as a spark. You’re not quite correct there mate. Neutrals arc between themselves, lives arc between themselves. Both can easily cause fires and they do. An MCB will also only trip with an arc between live and earth. The newer boards with RCD/RCBO protection will trip neutral to live.
Yes definitely don’t bother getting an approved electrician to carry out fault finding and remedy the situation, save money use taskrabbit and get a specialist ikea flat pack assembler to save you a few quid 👍
An EICR is like your MOT - it is the state of the wiring on the day the test is carried out
Things can go wrong over time for a multitude of reasons
Get someone in to fix it. Shit breaks!!!
You want the spark to take every socket of the wall and pull at every wire in the house? Stuff happens. Things work loose. Things break. Nothing has a lifetime guarantee.
Guarantee if they do that on an old house they'll put on as many faults as they fix, especially on a cold day.
As others have said, tends to happen over time with use, ageing circuits etc.
If you look at your EICR it may list how much of the installation was inspected or accessible(e.g. 30% accessible)
Of course the electrician can’t verify every inch of wiring in the property which is rather unfortunate, but not much to be done on that end unfortunately
A whole year later? Wow call the police.