RCD protection requirements for Electric Hob, oven and lighting circuits

[Kati]

A recent electrical safety test has been failed due to above and remedial action has been recommended to install rcbo starbreakers in above circuits.
The wiring is older than current specs and there is a consumer unit with circuit breakers. Both oven and hob have isolator switches fitted into the tiled wall above the worktop beside them.
This installation passed UK electrical safety test in 2019.
Has something changed in requirements?
The test was carried out with a tenant in place who has since given notice and left.
I am not planning to re-let as am moving back in myself.

It would be great if someone can enlighten me as to what may have changed in 5 years.
TIA

 

[Murdochcat]

You need to read the best practice guide No 4 issue 7

Those codes are C3

If you are not letting again you don’t need a satisfactory report either

 

[Kati]

Thanks, They have put these down as C2 plus a broken socket as C2- I have not even noticed the socket and will check when I go there tomorrow. The agents have charged me £150 deducted from rent payment for the inspection and the inspection document they sent after I had to request it is marked as a draft.
Update - no broken socket anywhere

 

[Kati]

The circuits on the left are the ones they say need rcd breakers. Am I allowed to purchase and replace these myself - assuming they just plug in?
Or am I missing something here?

?

 

[Murdochcat]

The circuits on the left are the ones they say need rcd breakers. Am I allowed to purchase and replace these myself - assuming they just plug in?
Or am I missing something here?

?View attachment 335612

As stated in my earlier post those do not need to have RCD protection

Have you read the best practice guide No 4 issue 7?

 

[flameport]

Am I allowed to purchase and replace these myself - assuming they just plug in?

Anyone competent is allowed to replace them, and while that type does plug into a busbar inside, there is still the circuit wiring to connect, and if replacing with RCBOs there is rather more involved as wiring inside the consumer unit will have to be altered.

That style was also the subject of a safety recall some years ago.

It would be great if someone can enlighten me as to what may have changed in 5 years.

Lighting circuits in domestic properties require RCD protection.
So do most cables concealed in walls, which ultimately means almost all circuits require RCD protection.
Those on the left side so not have RCD protection.
Those on the right do, but it's a type of RCD which is no longer permitted for socket outlets.
Consumer units need to be metal, rather than plastic.

Any upgrade there is realistically a new consumer unit.

You can keep what you have got for as long as you want, but adding or altering any of the circuits connected to it won't be happening.

 

[ericmark]

The EICR does not have to follow the wiring regulations, the person doing the report does not have the register the work, so often not done vie the scheme provider even if the person doing it is in a scheme. The inspector has to decide if dangerous, potentially dangerous, recommend improvement, or if not worth saying anything about it.

He has things like the best practice guide to base his coding on, but he has to decide which to use. Unlike an MOT little is cut and dried, he has to consider in the home or any other building, if lack of a RCD is potentially dangerous.

In the main it is down to the bathroom, in 2008 the rules changed, and if you have a RCD much of the bathroom bonding is no longer required, all it takes is for a plumber to use PTFE tape on a compression gland and what was OK, is now not OK unless he fits earth bonding wires to ensure the earth is not lost.

So the word is "potentially" and the question is could a plumber "potentially" cause a danger by using some insulating plastic, the answer I suppose must be yes, it is hard to say in a domestic installation that a plumber will always use soldered pipes or fit bonding wires. But one can't really fail an installation on what may happen in the future, or can you, is that not what "potentially" means?

So I fitted RCD's in the form of RCBO's to the whole of my house, but when solar panels were fitted my central heating was reverted to a non RCD protected circuit, supplied from a FCU, and it has a compliance certificate issued in 2023 saying it complied with the regulations in 2023 not to have a RCD on the central heating supply. So I simply don't know, I would have thought it was against the regulations to remove RCD protection for cables buried in a wall, but seems I am wrong.

 

[Murdochcat]

An existing installation like this would get a few C3’s

Tricky to justify C2’s