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I'm about to rewire an empty house, with no electronic equipment or anything else plugged in or installed. Does this mean I can omit installing an SPD because the value of the equipment that could be damaged is less than the price of installing the device?

"For all other cases, a risk assessment according to Regulation 443.5 shall be performed in order to determine if protection against transient overvoltages is required. If the risk assessment is not performed, the electrical installation shall be provided with protection against transient overvoltages, except for single dwelling units where the total value of the installation and equipment therein does not justify such protection."


If not then when would this regulation ever come into play?

If the ultimate decider of whether to install an SPD is the value of items that could be destroyed and weighing that up against the installation cost, then the clearly the driving motivation behind the regulation is a financial one, which in my opinion should not warrant mandatory requirements - If the customer is happy to take the very low risk of his ipad and tv being fried by an overvoltage then surely that should be his decision to make, not the electrical regulators.

And why they would include this as a mandatory reg when only the customers electronic devices are at risk makes me think this is somekind of collaboration between insurance companies and regulators.

The difference between installing a new consumer unit with cert. goes from 300 to 400 to account for the SPD which is a lot of money where my customers are concerned and a 25% increase on the overall price of the job which is only being incurred because a beurocratic institution has deemed it a requirement because it's expensive to replace damaged electronic devices in the home? Why is that any of their business? Because of course they are actually running a business themselves and perhaps it's in their interests to include a superflous regulation.
 
The difference between installing a new consumer unit with cert. goes from 300 to 400 to account for the SPD which is a lot of money where my customers are concerned and a 25% increase on the overall price of the job which is only being incurred because a beurocratic institution has deemed it a requirement because it's expensive to replace damaged electronic devices in the home? Why is that any of their business? Because of course they are actually running a business themselves and perhaps it's in their interests to include a superflous regulation.

Or maybe the regulations cover all types of installations and not just the little domestic jobs.
For a lot of installations the addition of an SPD is small change compared to the cost of the DB.
 
SPDs can now be picked up for less than £50 online
 
You've based your 25% on the cost of the consumer unit only. What is the percentage of the complete rewire costing.
 
Talk to the customer if they don’t want it you can’t make em and then note it on the certificate
 
Does this mean I can omit installing an SPD because the value of the equipment that could be damaged is less than the price of installing the device?

except for single dwelling units where the total value of the installation and equipment therein does not justify such protection."

That does not say that they can only be omitted when the value of the equipment is less than the cost of installing the device, it says they are needed where the total value does not justify such protection.
These mean different things.
Also remember that there is more to value than just money.
 
except for single dwelling units where the total value of the installation and equipment therein does not justify such protection.
I read that as also the cost of replacing/repairing the installation incase of overvoltage, there's been many cases of accessories blown off walls and wiring completely vapourised, this would also be included in the cost assessment. £50 for an SPD isn't a lot in comparison.
 
I've not yet had a customer say no to a SPD being included, on a rewire or even just a consumer unit change.
Only around 10% price increase for me though.
I'm pretty much installing them as standard as a consequence.
 
I read that as also the cost of replacing/repairing the installation incase of overvoltage, there's been many cases of accessories blown off walls and wiring completely vapourised, this would also be included in the cost assessment. £50 for an SPD isn't a lot in comparison.

Has there?
I've seen a house which had a direct lightning strike and nothing as drastic as accessories being blown off the walls had happened there. Yes it had to be completely rewired as all cpcs had melted, but I doubt a little SPD would have saved that one.
 
Has there?
I've seen a house which had a direct lightning strike and nothing as drastic as accessories being blown off the walls had happened there. Yes it had to be completely rewired as all cpcs had melted, but I doubt a little SPD would have saved that one.

was this house fed by an overhead line, in a rural area? What part of the installation did the strike hit? If the spd would not have save this one, what the hell is the point fitting them?
 
Has there?
I've seen a house which had a direct lightning strike and nothing as drastic as accessories being blown off the walls had happened there. Yes it had to be completely rewired as all cpcs had melted, but I doubt a little SPD would have saved that one.
Last one I saw was about three years ago. Rural telecoms fibre site near Carlisle, overhead supply. Strike hit the supply about half a mile away, overvoltage welded the generator AMF closed to the DNO supply, cables in metallic containment pretty much gone, floro lamp ballasts burst open. The rectifier took the brunt of the damage which protected the DC fed kit in the cabin.

No SPD on site even though the customer had been advised previously to have them fitted when other strikes had blown a couple of rectifier modules and there was LP on site.

Another one was a T Mobile mast that had a direct strike, antenna feeders caught fire and the alarm panel burst into flames. TBH no amount of SPDs would have saved that site. The feeders had recently been installed but the riggers never connected the earth bonds correctly so the base station took the brunt of the current.
 

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