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Sorry - I can't resist adding my 10 cents worth....
Getting electrical circuits to work is a fairly easy thing to do and installing a consumer unit is not that difficult for anyone with a degree of common sense. Once connected up and switched on there is every chance that the system will work without electricity leaking out of wires and joints etc. So.. Fill yer boots.
The part that needs the experience and knowledge is the ability to design and install the system so that it is unlikely to develop a fault throughout its life, and in the event of a fault developing, it is able to automatically safely disconnect the power before the fault poses a significant risk of electric shock and or fire.
There are three ways to do this.
1- Consider every possible eventuality of something going wrong, include all detremental environmental influences as well as everything the users of the installation, be they adults, elderly, infirm or children, can do to accidentally or deliberatley abuse the installation. Risk assess each consideration and include facilities in the design and construction to safely deal with these eventualities without causing unreasonable restrictions on the use of the installation. Get a regulatory body to accept your risk assesment and method statements so that if the system should fail you have some recourse. Then, after the installation is complete, verify that all the precautions meet the design specification by subjecting the installation to physical testing and visual inspection.
2- Study a design criteria that has been written by someone else that is already accepted and approved by all the relevent authorities, spend around 4 years learning and practicing the techniques and theoretical concepts in applying this design criteria to any given installation. Pass all the required exams and demonstrate that you have the skills necessary to complete and test the installation to verify that the criteria has been met.
3- Get someone who has already spent the 4 years training and has passed the exams to install it for you.
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