Concern over illegal wiring

Press, 9 October 1980, Page 21

Concern over illegal wiring

The Electrical Registration Board, which administers the Electrical Registration Act, is worried by the increasing amount of wiring work being carried out by unqualified people.

The board’s chairman and chief engineer (technical services) of the Ministry of Energy’s electricity division (Mr D. G. Young) said that although New Zealand’s electricity supply system was one of the world’s safest, it could remain so only as long as it was correctly installed and maintained.

“If not, it is as. dangerous as the worst in the world,” Mr Young said. Mr Young said the only work an unqualified person was allowed to do was replace a fuse link, or fit a plug, adaptor, cord extension socket or appliance connector to a flexible cord that was not connected to or forming part of fixed wiring — and the work must be done only in accordance with instructions issued or approved by the Secretary of Energy and without payment or reward. Approved instructions are available in a booklet, “How to Repair Electrical Fuses and Flexible Cords Safely” from Government bookshops. “In recent months, how-

ever, the board and Department of Education have been developing short courses which Technical Institutes will run and allow entry to anyone wishing to learn the basics of electrical safety, including how to correctly repair fuses and fit the allowable accessories,” Mr Young said.

The problem of the home handyman “doing his thing” electrically was faced by the Labour Bills Select Committee late last year, when it was asked to study proposals for a new act to replace the Electricians Act which, since 1952, had required virtually all electrical work to be undertaken by trained and authorised persons. Confronted by submissions demanding the right for householders to be able to do their own electrical installations and faced with a genuine desire to eliminate unnecessary restrictions on the freedom of the traditional Kiwi handyman, the committee still had to recognise the reality of dangers from electric shock and fire, Mr Young said. It finally agreed that the new Electrical Registration Act, which became law on January 1 this year, should continue to

make it illegal for the general public to undertake virtually any electrical work other than the replacement of fuses and the fitting of a small range of accessories, to flexible cords

Another matter considered when the new Act was drafted was restricting the sale of wiring equipment to registered electricians qnly. But the Bills Committee decided to retain a longstanding provision preserving the rights for re-

tailers to sell electrical apparatus provided a notice, supplied free by the Electrical Registration Board, is displayed adjacent to such materials. “The notice draws attention to the need to be authorised when wiring up or installing electrical appliances or accessories. This of course means that although anyone can buy the material, they cannot use it unless they are properly qualified to do so,” Mr Young said.