I am constantly amazed at the amount of time I seem to spend arguing with Building contractors over our prices for temporary site set up
There is a complete section 7.4 Construction and demolition site installations that Electrical Contractors do not seem to be aware of
The extra expense is generally around
7.4.6.2 - Earth leakage units not exceeding 500mA shall be fitted to supply cables from the origin of supply to sub DB's ( summarized )
These are expensive little units especially on 3 phase systems
7.4.4.1 - equipment installed shall have a degree of protection of at least IP32
7.4.6.1 - All distribution boards shall comply with SANS 60439-4
7.4.6.5 - The metalwork shall be protected against corrosion and the damage expected under site conditions. The final finish shall be orange
7.4.6.7 - The distribution board shall contain a) robust LED indicator lamps per phase
I have always read the section's on DB's as meaning steel work and that fibreglass kiosk could not be used as they would not be suitable for site conditions - I am yet to see a fibre kiosk last on site -
7.4.6.7 d - switched socket outlets (16A) , connected in pairs to individual single pole 20A combined circuit breakers and 30mA earth leakage protection
7.4.6.8 - again stresses that the earth leakage units shall be combined units
This means that every double socket needs it's own 20amp overload protected earth leakage
Install 6 double sockets then you need to install 6 combined 20Amp Overload Earth leakage units -
These overload type units are expensive little units
We are the nominated contractor on site and the builder gets some other sucker out to do the temporary site power at a tenth of the price - sucker contractor does the job installs no main 500ma earth leakage and installs one isolator type earth leakage for the 6 double sockets and issues the coc for the health and safety file.
We are then requested to sign off the monthly register for the electrical on site and along comes month 1 - we fail the complete installation - Builder hops up and down - sucker contractor now has a problem as he needs to make the installation comply which we refuse to accept.
Builder tells sucker contractor to rectify so that it complies or he will not be paid - Sucker contractor runs away as it is going to cost more to repair than what he has already spent.
We then strip out and redo the installation at the price we originally quoted for, and wonder why we seem to be one of the few electrical contractors that have section 7.4 in our copy of SANS 10142-1
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