Lace Market property made safe for strip-out, with a new SPD consumer unit and two RCBO-protected sockets.
A quick summary of this project
The new owner of a commercial property in the Lace Market, Nottingham, NG1, called us in before building work began. The building needed making electrically safe so it could be stripped out.
We isolated the existing electrics, tested to confirm the building was safe for strip-out, and installed a new consumer unit with surge protection. Two sockets, each protected by a Type A RCBO, now provide power for the building work.
What the customer's situation was before we got involved
The client had just bought the commercial property and planned to strip it out as part of the building works. Stripping out a building while the old electrics are still live is dangerous: walls, ceilings and fittings come out, and any live cable hidden in them puts workers at risk.
Before any strip-out could start, the electrical installation had to be made safe and confirmed dead where the work would happen. The contractors would still need power for tools and equipment, so the client also needed a safe, protected supply for the building work.
The work carried out on this job
We attended the commercial property in the Lace Market to make the electrics safe ahead of the building works.
The first priority was to isolate the existing installation so the parts of the building being stripped out were no longer live. We then tested to confirm the building was safe to strip out, so the contractors could remove walls, ceilings and fittings without the risk of hitting live cables.
To give the site a safe working supply, we installed a new consumer unit. It includes a surge protection device (SPD), which helps protect the installation and connected equipment from voltage spikes, such as those caused by lightning or switching on the supply network.
Power was then provided to two sockets for the building work. Each socket circuit is protected by its own Type A RCBO. An RCBO combines overload and short-circuit protection with residual current protection, so it switches off quickly if it detects earth leakage. Type A RCBOs also respond to certain types of DC fault current that can come from modern electronic equipment, such as power tools and chargers. Because each circuit has its own RCBO, a fault on one socket won’t take out the other.
The building is now safe to strip out, and the contractors have a protected supply to work from.
More photos from this job
Common questions about this project
During a strip-out, walls, ceilings and fittings are removed, often exposing or cutting through cables. If the old installation is still live, workers are at risk of electric shock. An electrician isolates the electrics, tests to confirm the areas are dead and provides a safe supply for the work. That’s what we did at this Lace Market property.
An SPD (surge protection device) helps protect an electrical installation and connected equipment from voltage spikes. These can be caused by lightning or by switching on the electricity network. The new consumer unit installed at this NG1 commercial property includes an SPD alongside the RCBOs protecting the socket circuits.
An RCBO protects a circuit against overloads and short circuits and switches off quickly if it detects earth leakage. A Type A RCBO also responds to certain DC fault currents that some electronic equipment, such as power tools and chargers, can produce. At this Lace Market site, each socket used for the building works has its own Type A RCBO.
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