Govt gets tough on poor electrical installation products

Aug 30, 2019 News

– signs orders for 31 new standards
-‘Fairy Lights’, power outlets, surge protectors among items on list

For years now, consecutive governments have been talking and warning about it. Homeowners have to be careful about their wiring in the homes.

Government has signed an order which sets out the standards of wiring installation products.

While on paper the inspectors were tough on the codes of wiring for buildings, in reality, there was generally a slap-on-the-wrist handling of the matters when infringements were found.
Government inspectors, the Fire Department and even technicians from the Guyana Power and Light Inc. have all blamed poor wiring, sub-standard products and decades-old systems for fires, a few of them deadly.
As of August 2, the Government has signed new standards that will force contractors and inspectors to insist that only products that have passed the grade to be used.
Minister of State, Dawn Hastings-Williams signed the “Declaration of Compulsory National Electrical Installation Products Standards”.
In the list were 31 items that must comply with the standards. These include seasonal and holiday decorative products (Christmas or fairy lights), armoured cables, panel boards, conduit and tubing, surge protectors, circuit breakers and grounding. Electrical wires, cables and flexible also have to meet the new standards.

Government has signed an order which sets out the standards of wiring installation products.

Power transformers, metallic outlet boxes and safety for low voltage landscape lighting systems will also have to be of a certain quality.
Unless these items meet the standards, contractors will not be able to install them and as such, inspectors cannot issue certificates.
Currently, hardware stores and other suppliers will have hundreds of millions of dollars of electrical installation products in stock and some of which are not meeting the standards.
It is unclear what happens now to these stocks.
“These new standards will have implications for home-owners and contractors. For homeowners, it will mean a little more costs to buy the right thing. Right now, if you want something, you walk into a side shop and you don’t know the quality. There is a risk here for something cheap and it is fire,” an electrical contractor explained yesterday.
The coming of the Chinese supermarkets here has also launched an array of new products on the market. There are a significant number of LED products from Brazil and other places flooding the market.