Page 656 - The City and Guilds Textbook: Plumbing Book 1 for the Level 3 Apprenticeship (9189), Level 2 Technical Certificate (8202) and Level 2 Diploma (6035)

The City & Guilds Textbook: Plumbing Book 1

Within the Regulations’ subsections there are letters used for different areas
that may be familiar to you: Part L, Part G and Part H. For you to work in these
areas, and for electrical provisions, you would have to obtain proof that you are
competent. This comes under Part P. Carrying out work that does not comply
with the Building Regulations is a criminal offence, and the local authorities
have the right to remove or alter those works that do not comply with the
requirements and proceed with prosecution.

Part P
This document provides guidance on some of the more common building
situations involving electrical work. For you to be able to work with any
electrical material you must first become a government-approved competent
person, able to self-certify.

The most recent document to refer to is the 2013 edition of ‘Part P: Electrical
Safety – Dwellings’. It is currently available here: www.planningportal.co.uk/
info/200135/approved_documents

At the time of writing, electrical installation work that is notifiable is when you
are:

● installing a new circuit
● replacing a consumer unit
● adding or altering existing circuits in a ‘special location’. A ‘special location’ is
defined as a room containing a swimming pool or sauna; or as a room with a
bath or shower where the work takes place within a certain distance of the
bath/shower.
All of these notifiable works require you to be a fully qualified 18 edition
th
electrician. All other works are non-notifiable.
Disclaimer: you must make sure you are familiar with the most up-to-date
version of Part P, which may have changed since the time of writing.

Different types of supplies used in

domestic plumbing systems
There are two types of electrical current:

● direct current (DC)
● alternating current (AC).

Direct current
In a DC circuit, the electrons flow from the negative (–) pole towards the
positive (+) pole. However, before the discovery of electrons, scientists assumed
that an electric current flowed from positive (+) to negative (–) and this is called
_ +
Battery conventional current. In the UK electrical science follows the conventional
current approach, which means they assume current flows from positive to
p Figure 11.1 Direct current circuit negative.

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