Pre-handover electrical checks: a summer site list

Before practical completion, the electrical checks that matter most are the ones that prove the installation works as specified, not just that it powers on: certification, smart-system commissioning, fault testing and the handover pack. Summer adds a few of its own.

Most electrical snags at handover are not failures. They are gaps — a circuit that was never labelled, a scene that was never named, a certificate that references the wrong revision. The list below is the one we run before we are comfortable signing a project off, and the one we suggest architects ask for in writing.

Certification, in the right order

The paperwork is the part that ages a project badly if it is rushed. Confirm the Electrical Installation Certificate is issued against the as-built drawings, not the tender set, and that any departures from BS 7671 are recorded rather than quietly absorbed. Schedules of inspection and test results should be complete, legible and tied to the actual circuit numbering on the board — not a generic template. If the project has been handed between trades, check the certification covers the whole installation and does not stop at a sub-contractor's boundary.

Commission the smart systems, don't just energise them

A lighting-control or smart system that powers up is not a commissioned system. Before handover, every scene should be named, every keypad labelled, and the fail-safe behaviour for a power cut demonstrated rather than assumed. Firmware should be baselined and recorded so that a future change is a known quantity. This is the single area where "it works on the day" and "it works in eighteen months" diverge most — and it is worth witnessing, not taking on trust.

Test under the conditions that find faults

Warm weather is a useful diagnostic. Loaded circuits run hotter, and a marginal termination or an undersized cable is more likely to show itself in June than in January. Two checks earn their place this time of year:

• Thermal load. Where cooling, AV racks or plant rooms draw heavily, confirm the design margins hold under real summer load rather than nameplate assumptions. A rack cupboard that was specified for winter ambient can behave differently in a heatwave.
• External and garden circuits. Outdoor sockets, lighting and EV provision get used in summer and tested by it. Confirm RCD protection, IP ratings and that buried or external runs match what was specified — these are classic fault-finding and remedial callbacks when they are skipped at handover.

Walk the labelling and the handover pack

The least glamorous check saves the most time later. Confirm the distribution boards are labelled to match the certification, that any installation changes made during the build are reflected in the as-built drawings, and that the handover pack a client actually receives includes certificates, test schedules, equipment manuals, commissioning records and a clear line on who holds warranty responsibility for each system.

For projects in London and the surrounding cities we work in, we treat this pack as the deliverable — not an afterthought once the building is occupied.

The short version

If you ask for one thing before practical completion, ask to witness the commissioning and review the handover pack together, against the as-built drawings. Everything above flows from those two moments. They are also the cheapest possible time to fix a snag — before the scaffold is down and the client has moved in.

Discuss a project: Contact — we reply the same working day with next steps and an indicative budget band.