We carried out an EICR on a three-bedroom house in Bedminster recently, and every socket in the house worked. Two of the socket circuits still didn’t add up when we tested them. The readings were off in a way a working socket will never show you, and finding that is exactly what an EICR is for.
Here’s what we measured, what it means, and why “the power comes on” isn’t the same thing as “the wiring’s fine”.
| The job | EICR (electrical installation condition report) |
|---|---|
| Where | Bedminster, Bristol BS3 |
| Property | Three-bedroom house |
| Time on site | Two hours |
| What stood out | Two socket ring circuits whose readings didn’t match how the cable should test |
| Next step | Further investigation of the wiring and connections on both rings |
What an EICR checks, beyond whether things work
An EICR is a full inspection and test of a home’s fixed wiring: the consumer unit, the circuits, and the sockets, switches and lights on them. Part of it is looking and part of it is measuring. The measuring finds the faults you can’t see, because a loose connection or a damaged conductor inside a wall can sit there for years while everything on the circuit carries on working.
Most UK homes have their sockets wired as rings, and one of the key tests on a ring is end-to-end continuity. We measure the resistance of each conductor all the way round the ring: the line (r1), the neutral (rn) and the earth (r2). Those three numbers should have a fixed relationship to each other, set by the size of the cable. When they don’t, something on the ring isn’t right.
What we found on the ground-floor ring
Both rings in this house are recorded as 2.5mm² cable with a 1.5mm² earth, the standard size for socket circuits today. NAPIT’s guidance on testing ring final circuits sets out what that cable should give you: the line and neutral should read the same, within 0.05 Ω of each other, and the earth should read about 1.67 times the line.
The ground-floor ring measured 0.55 Ω on the line and 0.68 Ω on the neutral. That’s a difference of 0.13 Ω, more than twice what you’d accept between two conductors of the same size. The earth read 1.03 Ω. With the line at 0.55 Ω, 1.67 times works out at about 0.92 Ω, so the earth was higher than expected as well.
What we found on the attic ring
The attic ring was the odd one. Its line and neutral agreed nicely at 0.34 Ω and 0.36 Ω, well within 0.05 Ω of each other. The earth read 2.55 Ω, which you can see in the photo at the top of this page.
With a line reading of 0.34 Ω, the earth on that cable should be about 0.57 Ω, so 2.55 Ω is roughly four and a half times what it should be. Even if it had been the older cable with a thinner 1mm² earth, which pushes the earth reading up on its own, you’d only expect around 0.85 Ω. This was about three times higher again.
| Ring | Line (r1) | Neutral (rn) | Earth (r2) | Earth we’d expect | What didn’t add up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ground floor | 0.55 Ω | 0.68 Ω | 1.03 Ω | about 0.92 Ω | Neutral 0.13 Ω above the line, and the earth higher than expected |
| Attic | 0.34 Ω | 0.36 Ω | 2.55 Ω | about 0.57 Ω | Earth roughly four and a half times what it should be |
The expected earth readings are 1.67 times the line reading, for 2.5mm² cable with a 1.5mm² earth.
What readings like these can mean
On a ring, a reading that’s higher than it should be means there’s extra resistance somewhere in that conductor. The usual suspects are a terminal that’s worked loose, a connection that’s corroded or was never made properly, a damaged conductor, or a joint tucked away in a junction box. In an attic, that junction box can be under the insulation where nobody has looked for years. Alterations come into it too, where a ring has been extended or rerouted at some point.
The readings tell you there’s a problem and which conductor it’s on. They don’t tell you where on the ring it is, and on this job they didn’t establish the exact cause. That isn’t something to guess at on a safety report, so the honest answer is that both rings need further investigation: opening up the sockets and any joints on each ring, checking every connection, and testing again until the numbers make sense.
Why it matters when every socket still works
This is the part people find surprising. A socket with a poor neutral connection or a weak earth will usually still run a kettle, a phone charger or a TV. Nothing flickers and nothing trips, so there’s no sign anything’s wrong.
The risks show up later. A connection with extra resistance gets warm when the circuit is working hard, and heat makes a poor connection worse over time. The earth matters for a different reason: it’s the path fault current takes so the circuit breaker can switch off quickly if something goes wrong, and an earth path with too much resistance isn’t one you want to rely on.
None of that shows up on a visual check. You only find it by measuring, which is why an EICR involves testing as well as looking, and why the readings on the report matter as much as the tick boxes.
What happens next
When an EICR turns up something that needs further investigation, it goes on the report with an explanation of what was found, so the owner knows what needs doing and why. On a ring circuit that work is methodical rather than dramatic: working round each socket and joint until the high-resistance connection turns up, putting it right, and retesting so the readings line up the way they should.
We always give a written price before any remedial work starts, so nobody gets a surprise.
EICRs in Bedminster: cost, time and how often
Our fixed price for an EICR on a three-bedroom house is £250 plus VAT, the same anywhere in Bristol, and this one took two hours on site. Prices for every size of home are on our EICR page.
How often you need one depends on who lives there:
- Landlords must have the electrics in a rented home checked at least every five years. Our landlord electrical safety page covers the rest of the rules.
- Electrical Safety First recommends at least every ten years for a home you own and live in.
- It’s well worth having one when you buy, especially an older house that’s been altered over the years.
Plenty of Bedminster’s houses are older terraces that have been extended and updated in stages, which is exactly where circuits get added to and changed. If you’re in BS3 and want to know where your wiring stands, our electrician in Bedminster page has the details, and there’s more of what we do on our recent work page.
Questions we get asked
Can sockets work fine and still have a fault?
Yes. A loose connection or a poor earth often makes no difference to whether a socket works. It shows up in the test readings, which is why an EICR measures each circuit instead of just checking the power.
How long does an EICR take on a three-bedroom house?
This one took two hours on site. The time depends on how many circuits there are and what turns up along the way.
What does further investigation mean on an EICR?
It means something needs looking into more closely, without delay, before anyone can say exactly what’s causing it. With readings like these, that means tracing the connections on the ring until the problem is found and fixed.
Need an EICR in Bedminster or South Bristol?
We’re Bristol Phoenix Group: NAPIT registered, TrustMark Trading Standards Approved (licence 4257835) and based in Bishopsworth in South Bristol, with over 100 five-star reviews on Google. If you’d like an EICR on your home or a rental in Bedminster, Southville or anywhere in Bristol, get in touch or call us on 0117 244 7382.