The Electrical Certificate of Compliance explained

[GCE]

What's the required amps for a stove breaker switch? I'm buying an apartment and an electrician said by law he has to replace the switch from 25 amps to 40 or 50 (don't recall which). Sellers decided to send another electrician coz the first quote was too high. And this one says 25 amps is fine. So which is which?

There is no regulation stipulating the size of circuit required for a stove - Now a days with everyone going gas hob 25 amps is more than enough
If you are going to use all 4 plates , oven and warmer draw all at the same time then 25Amps may be to light

An oven is around 2 Kw which is 8 amps and once at temp comes on and off to maintain temp - a stove plate is +/- 1,5kw , around 6 amps

You can buy a stove that plugs into a normal socket

From SANS 10142-1 ed 3.1

6.16.3.2 Cooking appliance circuits
6.16.3.2.1 A dedicated circuit(s) shall be provided for cooking appliance(s)
that are rated at more than 16 A.

[Derlyn]

Well today I pulled in a new geyser circuit for a granny flat. On completion I asked the client for the existing COC so that I could get the number and date issued to enter on the supplementary which I was about to issue for the geyser circuit.

The client then requested that I add the Citiq single phase meter that had been installed by someone else a week back.
I declined, telling him that whoever installed the meter must, by law, issue a coc for that work.

The story then came out that he was charged R2500 for installing the meter and to issue a COC would be R1500 extra.
Thats R3800 for 30 minutes work. The meter costs R200. R7600 per hr labour. I'm obviously underquoting.

[Smiley]

... On completion I asked the client for the existing COC so that I could get the number and date issued to enter on the supplementary which I was about to issue for the geyser circuit.

Same happened to me.
Dec last year, new addition, new young sparkie asks for the Initial CoC on the house to add the new Supplementary.

I then learned, the house, after it was bought, the 2 year period of that CoC for the sale, has expired 11 years ago.
The house had no Initial CoC after the sale.

He could not give me a CoC until I have the Initial was in place.

Checking the CoC for work done over the years with CoC's given, the Initial CoC column was blank.

And then the "fights started"!

Companies give CoC, pay for 3, that last 2 years each so you get "6 years" paid for upfront, every 2 years re-issued.
House is not being sold!!! Initial CoC stays in effect until the house is sold again.
When a house is sold, seller must get a CoC, it being valid for 2, unless a change is done in the 2 years.

Other Co's quote between R10k and R40k for a CoC.
How do you get that to number, I asked.
O, it is what we generally find the repairs to be.
So CoC's are a "guarantee" for repairs popped to mind.

Another Co, "O, you need to upgrade your solar inverter, it is too small for the house. I cannot sign that off. I recommend this inverter ... "
What, it is a grid tied system, properly certified and installed, with solar engineer signoff!? What are you smoking!?

And then we have sparkies telling me with absolutely conviction that we need "XYZ repairs".
You then ask other electrical experts, who point you to the latest regulations book they have in hand that the work is on code, the latest code.
Sparkies taking one moerse chance to generate income for themselves to fix that what was right in the first instance.

One trick I learned. Sparkie comes onsite. I ask them, do you have the latest copy of the latest released regulations book in hand?
Can I see it?
That gets very interesting ...

This having to pay for a CoC when sparkie does the work, no idea where that came from.
When a new sparkie must come in to re-certify a house, their labour to check everything, the only charge one should pay for.
... if they have the latest book in hand.

Then one can get a CoC, legit CoC, the sparkie having done a adhoc spot check of 10% of the total circuit.

[Sparks]

Total lack of ethics and complete disregard of SANS. Contractors who do not issue COCs' after altering an installation should lose their accreditation. They are just giving the rest of us a bad name. Besides ripping off their clients. Since the solar rush began it has been even worse than previously because the bakkie brigade were not in a position to certify so the demand was huge for COCs and everyone needed them to get their tax rebates. Sadly most of those COCs' were also issued illegally because the original installations were not covered and still are not covered by a valid COC. Should an incident occur which leads to an insurance claim, the insurer has grounds to refuse settlement because of the invalid COC issued for the solar section. That would open the issueing contractor to legal proceedings whereby he might actually be liable to bring the original installation up to standard at his expense.