mega - alteration to electrical installation

[ACEsterhuizen]

Regarding the "fuses" issue:

"In order to issue the said certificate the db board must be brought into compliance with the latest regulations in force at the time of the alteration."

I have difficulty understanding this statement as it is confusing. The old part of the installation is certainly the "existing part" of the installation. Which is clearly defined in Clause 9 (b) and (c) :

(b)an electrical installation which existed prior to the publication of the current edition of the health and safety standard incorporated into these Regulations in terms of regulation 5(1), complies with the general safety principles of such standard; or an electrical installation referred to in paragraph (b), to which extensions or alterations have been effected, that

(i) the existing part of the electrical installation complies with the general safety principles of such standard and is reasonably safe, and

(ii) the extensions or alterations effected comply with the provisions of regulation 5(1) and were carried out under his or her general control

Which brings me to my question, where, under the "General Safety Principles in the SANS 10142 book, does it specify that fuses cannot be used. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Pse, Not Clause 6.10 on page 177, that is NOT part of the " General Safety Principles" as per Clause 5 on page 67,: "5. Fundamental requirements NOTE This clause contains the general safety principles applicable to electrical
installations."

[ACEsterhuizen]

Now i'm going to get my a*se kicked!

I've led you all down the wrong path by mistake, but no-one picked it up, so in my defence perhaps were all bozo's.

The above quote (3) says that if the house existed prior to 23/10/1992 then it does not need a coc, UNTILL an addition or alteration takes place then the whole house needs to be certified. That makes sense, you cant make a coc just for the addition if you have no original coc to add it onto.
By inference, if the house existed after 23/10/1992, then it must already be covered by an existing, VALID certificate provided of course that regular maintenance was performed.

Thereafter, subsection (4) should take precedence (and in my wisdom I neglected to add it on before)

(4)
Where any addition or alteration has been effected to an electrical installation for which a certificate of compliance was previously issued, the user or lessor of such electrical installation shall obtain a certificate of compliance for at least the addition or alteration.


So,in my opinion, little has changed from before and I think i'm right this time.

Not entirely correct, it says: "23 October 1992, and where there was no change of ownership after 1 March 1994:"

[ELECT 1]

Very seldom one would find an old dwelling with fuses and split tubing which is in good nick. For a start the old brass toggle switch, is metal.
Most cases the old VIR wiring is down to earth on virtually the whole installation. As soon as you touch the wire all the insulation falls off.
Now many of these homes belong to old people whose next of kin dont even live in the country.
When its time to sell, now it becomes a problem for the electrician to issue a valid COC. In 100% of these cases a total rewire is involved.
But now there is no money in most instances. Well something is usually worked out with the buyer to solve this issue. He deducts the cost of the work from the selling price and gets it done. Also in most cases there are other points added.

[RegElec]

Not entirely correct, it says: "23 October 1992, and where there was no change of ownership after 1 March 1994:"

I too cannot see anywhere that it states fuses are not allowed. The only place it could be is that the DB must comply with SANS 1765 and SANS 1973-3. I don't have copies of these standards so I cannot check there.

[Dave A]

Which brings me to my question, where, under the "General Safety Principles in the SANS 10142 book, does it specify that fuses cannot be used. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

The problem we generally find is there is no earth leakage protection present for socket-outlet circuits (per 5.1.3.2.e) ) in installations with re-wirable fuse D.Bs. Pretty tricky to correct without an alteration to the D.B...