20 Oct 2014

Electrical campaign sparks up

8:16 pm on 20 October 2014

The Electrical Workers Registration Board has launched an online campaign to make sure New Zealanders do not get their wires crossed when conducting electrical work in the home.

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Electrical Worker Licensing registrar John Sickels said the campaign was about making home owners aware of the rules around carrying out electrical work.

Under the law, anyone carrying out electrical work has to be qualified. However, home owners are allowed to do minor work such as changing fuses and switches.

"If defective work is done in the home and it has repercussions like fire, or something like that, insurance policies can be affected by that," Mr Sickels said.

Of the about 120 complaints per year, half were against people who were not registered to conduct electrical work.

There had been 19 prosecutions in the past year against non-licenced people, he said.

New Zealand has around 26,000 people with practising electrical certificates.