A farm electrician who tests every building to Section 705.

What Section 705 asks of a farm

BS 7671, the national wiring standard, has a section for agricultural and horticultural premises. Section 705 covers the fixed wiring inside and outside farm buildings, from the cattle shed to the yard lights and the glasshouse.

Farm buildings are hard on electrics. Washdown water gets into fittings, dust settles on everything, ammonia corrodes metal and rats chew cable. NFU Mutual's latest farm fires report names electrical faults among the main known causes of fires on farms, with arson and lightning.

So the section asks more of a farm installation than of a house. Equipment has to keep out dust and water, circuits need RCD protection, cables are guarded against vehicles and vermin, and where animals are kept the metalwork they can touch is bonded together.

The farmhouse is different. Section 705 leaves rooms used as a home to the general rules, so the farmhouse gets a domestic condition report and the sheds are inspected to Section 705, on the same visit if you like.

Inspections and the report your insurer asks for

The IET's guidance on periodic inspection recommends a shorter gap between inspections on agricultural premises than on homes or offices, and an insurer may set its own interval. The Electricity at Work Regulations apply to a farmer working alone as much as to one with staff.

I carry out a Section 705 inspection of each building, testing the circuits on its board one by one. Every report has an insurer-ready summary at the front, and remedial work is priced in writing.

I'll never push a job on to you. If I think something wants doing I'll tell you and price it, because the last thing I want is you paying for a job now and needing me again six months down the line to rectify it.

Three-phase power for grain stores and dryers

Dryers and heavy machines often need a three-phase supply to a grain store or workshop. The network operator brings it to your meter position, and from there the wiring is mine, with the main switch, the distribution board, armoured cable across the yard and a lockable isolator at each machine.

Settled grain dust can burn, and dust thrown into the air can explode. A grain store needs assessing under DSEAR, the dangerous substances regulations, and the HSE recommends dust-protected lights and fans up at roof level.

Livestock and poultry sheds

Wiring in livestock and poultry sheds has to put up with washdown and ammonia, and stay safe for animals standing on wet concrete beside steel pens. I check the bonding of that steelwork on every inspection.

Where pigs or poultry rely on fans, welfare law expects a back-up for the ventilation and an alarm with its own power, so a failure is noticed even in a power cut.

HSE advice on electricity around the farm

The HSE asks for fixed machinery to have a switch that's easy to reach and clearly marked, and for fuses never to be bypassed or wrapped in foil. Tools used outdoors should run through an RCD, with somebody on the farm pressing its test button now and then.

Electricity can jump from an overhead line to a raised loader or a tipping trailer without touching it. If a machine does make contact, stay in the cab and call the network operator, and if fire forces you out, jump well clear so you never touch the machine and the ground together.

When to book farm electrical work

NFU Mutual's risk team suggests booking electrical testing in the quieter winter months, away from silage making. A farm that lambs indoors may prefer the autumn, and we'll book round whichever weeks you choose.

Other work on the farm

I also fit CCTV for a farmyard, with cameras watching the gate and the diesel tank, viewable from your phone.

Where broadband doesn't reach, a Starlink dish for the farm office goes on the roof or a pole with a clear view of the sky.

If you're thinking about solar panels on farm buildings, that work goes through our solar partner.

Converting a barn or old stables into a home or a holiday let is different again. Once people live there it stops being a farm building, and it's wired as a new dwelling.

Farms across the Wolds and Holderness

I'm based in Bridlington. Driffield and the Wolds are about 25 minutes away off-peak and Hornsea about 30. I work on farms further down into Holderness too, as far as Hedon and Withernsea, which take me about 65 minutes.