18th Edition label U-turn welcomed by Bureau Veritas

Bureau Veritas, electrical safety expert, has welcomed a U-turn on plans to change the labelling of new electrical installations as part of the 18th edition wiring regulations.

Published on 2 July 2018, clause 514.12.1 of the BS 7671 – IET Wiring Regulations 18^th edition initially sought to increase the font and size of electrical installation labels from the existing 17th A3 format. The change was due to apply to all new electrical installations from 1 January 2019.

However, following widespread industry concern that complying with the new rule would prove unnecessarily costly and disruptive, the British Standards Institute (BSI) and Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has now abandoned plans to change the label format.

In a corrigendum published December 2018, which is an official notice to highlight and correct errors in the regulations, the BSI issued a U-turn, stating that the labels will remain in their original layout.

Michael Kenyon, Technical Manager at Bureau Veritas, said: “Electrical contractors will certainly be glad to hear this change in labelling format for electrical installations will not be going ahead after all.

“As wholesalers currently stock standard size labels, in the run up to the implementation of the 18th Edition, there were widespread industry concerns that complying with the change in format would require a complete redesign – a potentially disruptive and expensive process. Therefore it’s great news the BSI and IET have listened and decided against a change in labelling, a move which will be much simpler for contractors and all those concerned.

“Overall, we welcome these new regulations and the onus on improving fire safety across the board. However, we understand that compliance can be complicated so our advice to contractors is to invest the time in familiarising themselves with all aspects of the 18th Edition to ensure all work meets the new standard.”

Bureau Veritas offers a range of testing and certification services to support customers in managing compliance around electrical safety in general for new and existing installations or for specific areas, such as electric vehicle charging points.