Section 710

durhamspark · Nov 19, 2012

Just carrying out an EICR for a medical centre and want to get this right regarding section 710.

Most of the rooms are purely consultation rooms for the GPs but there is one treatment room where they carry out minor procedures. I think this makes it a group 1 location.

There are 2 things I want to get peoples thoughts on before I complete the paperwork.

710.411.3.3 additional protection. I think this means all circuits below 63A within the room need to be on 30mA rcd

710.559 lumnaires and lighting installations says at least 2 different sources of supply shall be provided one of which connected to the supply for safety services.

Now this building doesn't have a supply for safety services like an essential supplies db or backup arrangement. Would I be correct in thinking that to comply I would have to split the lights onto 2 circuits even though there are only 4 lights in the room.

Also would you give these a code c3.

Opinions most welcome

malcolmsanford · Nov 19, 2012

There was a thread about this a little while ago, and now with the regs incorporating medical locations I think personally it is going to cause confusion

So really I can only give my take on it, and I'm sure there will be others that disagree.

First off it is highly unlikely that any existing installation designed and installed before the 17th will have the level that it is now, and most medical locations will have been taken from the HTM 06-01 Part A and will still have to be.

Your EICR can only reflect really on how safe the installation is now, and is it still safe to use.

710.411.3.3 is for use with IT systems which are either current or resistance monitoring systems and I would doubt very much if your local dental practice would be using this type of protection. Have a read of reg 411.6 about the system and 531.5.1 when RCDs are used for these, though I doubt I would use an RCd for one

710.559 and the lights. Putting them on different breakers would not comply. Have a look at regs 560.6 concerning safety sources. It basically mean you would have your normal DNO supply by say EON and then you would need to have

Storage Batteries (UPS)
Primary cells
Generator Set
Supply by a different DNO ......say SSE

Again it is highly unlikely that your practice will utilize this as of now. They may have to in the future think about installing a small 300-500Va UPS but that is unlikely.

durhamspark · Nov 19, 2012

Thanks for the reply, I got the reg no. mixed up it should be 710. 411.4

telectrix · Nov 19, 2012

agree with malcolm. if there is no safety /alternative supply, then N/A in that box , for me.

Kamikaze · Nov 19, 2012

malcolmsanford said:
There was a thread about this a little while ago, and now with the regs incorporating medical locations I think personally it is going to cause confusion

So really I can only give my take on it, and I'm sure there will be others that disagree.

First off it is highly unlikely that any existing installation designed and installed before the 17th will have the level that it is now, and most medical locations will have been taken from the HTM 06-01 Part A and will still have to be.

Your EICR can only reflect really on how safe the installation is now, and is it still safe to use.

710.411.3.3 is for use with IT systems which are either current or resistance monitoring systems and I would doubt very much if your local dental practice would be using this type of protection. Have a read of reg 411.6 about the system and 531.5.1 when RCDs are used for these, though I doubt I would use an RCd for one

710.559 and the lights. Putting them on different breakers would not comply. Have a look at regs 560.6 concerning safety sources. It basically mean you would have your normal DNO supply by say EON and then you would need to have

Storage Batteries (UPS)
Primary cells
Generator Set
Supply by a different DNO ......say SSE

Again it is highly unlikely that your practice will utilize this as of now. They may have to in the future think about installing a small 300-500Va UPS but that is unlikely.

After I did the test and inspection of the dental practice and having read the comments on that thread, I wrote to the NICEIC asking them to confirm their position on this and as far as the dental practice was concerned they were of the opinion that it was not even worthy of a “group” location but the definition of a “patient” still needed to be considered. Can’t see the medical centre being any different. Anything more exciting than a cough or cold and you get send to the hospital anyway. It would be good to know precisely what was required in a medical centre installation rather than a vague mention of a treatment room in table A710 as a group 1.