Commercial · holiday parks
Caravan park electrical testing for small and independent parks.
I inspect and test the electrics on small and independent holiday parks, caravan sites and lodge parks. On most sites that starts with the hook-up point on every pitch, and the buildings the park is run from have tests of their own.
- £2m public liability insurance
- Work carried out to BS 7671:2018+A4:2026
- Fire alarm design, installation and commissioning to BS 5839-1
What the site licence says about electrics
Every caravan site needs a licence from the council, and the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 lets the council attach conditions to it. When it sets them, the council has to have regard to the government's model standards.
The model standards for holiday caravan sites expect the electrics to be put in and kept up to the wiring regulations in force, with a periodic inspection. After each inspection the inspector issues a certificate, paid for by the operator, who keeps it and displays it with the site licence.
How often that inspection comes round is written into your own licence conditions, and a council can be stricter than the model.
Where an inspection finds the installation no longer meets the regulations it was put in under, the model standards say the faults should be put right. Any major alteration should meet the current edition.
Pitch supplies and hook-up bollards
Section 708 of BS 7671 deals with caravan and camping parks. Each pitch socket is an industrial-pattern, weatherproof connector with its own protective device and its own RCD, so a fault on one van doesn't trip its neighbours.
The supply regulations don't allow the network's combined neutral and earth to be connected to metalwork in a caravan, because a fault out on the network could lift that metalwork to a dangerous voltage. Pitch supplies are given an earth of their own on the park instead.
Bollards take knocks from mowers and cars, and near the sea the weather is hard on them. A bollard that has been clipped can look fine from outside and still let water in through a cracked case.
When I test a pitch supply I open the enclosure and check the seals and terminations, then prove that the RCD trips.
Does a static caravan need an electrical certificate?
For a holiday caravan you own and use yourself, no statute sets one. The rented-home electrical rules leave out moveable structures, and a holiday caravan isn't anyone's main home in any case.
A park can set its own rules for owners' caravans in its agreement with them. Holiday homes are built to a standard of their own, BS EN 1647, which covers the electrics as built.
Letting the caravan out changes things. The government fire safety guide for sleeping accommodation covers caravan holiday parks as well as guesthouses, and it takes in privately owned caravans once they're sub-let.
Cables across the site
Most parks are fed by buried cables running from the main board out to feeder pillars, and from there to the bollards. Over the years pitches move about, and the drawing, if there ever was one, stops matching the ground.
Before anyone digs for a new pitch or a fence post, find out where the cables run. Part of a park inspection is working out which pillar feeds which row, and writing it down for next time.
Adding pitches and supplies
New pitches mean new bollards and, as often as not, a heavier cable back to the pillar. New work has to meet the current edition of the wiring regulations, and it comes with its own certificate when it is finished.
I wire everything after the meter, and the supply up to it is the network operator's. We quote our side after a survey, once I've seen how much spare the existing supply has.
Amenity blocks and clubhouses
The buildings on a park are workplaces, so the duty to keep their electrics safe applies there as it would to a shop in town.
Each building can have its own commercial EICR, priced the same way as a shop's.
Shower blocks and clubhouses with escape routes need emergency lighting and its annual test.
A fire alarm in one of those buildings needs regular servicing as well. My part is a yearly inspection and test, and anything more the system needs is priced separately.
Cameras on the entrance and the pitch roads are priced as a separate job, with CCTV supplied and fitted or your own kit installed.
Planning the work round the season
Pitch supplies are easiest to test with nobody plugged in, so a closed season or a quiet week suits the job best.
If anyone has a drawing of the cable routes, have it ready for the survey. The written price follows once I've walked the site.
Prices for park buildings and systems
A park's pitch supplies have no standard job on the list, so we price them after a survey. These rows are for the buildings and the systems in them.
| Job | Price | Includes | Priced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial condition reportSmall commercial premises, one board, up to 12 circuits; larger premises quoted per job after a site visit | from £200 | Inspection and test · Coded report | per premises |
| Emergency lighting annual testFull-duration (3-hour) annual test of up to 10 fittings on one site, logbook entry and certificate | from £195 | Full-duration test · Certificate · Logbook entry | per premises, up to 10 fittings |
| Fire alarm annual inspection and testOne yearly inspection and test of a small fire alarm system (up to 20 devices), with a logbook entry and certificate. It is one visit a year, not the full routine servicing a commercial system needs; that is quoted separately | from £495 | Inspection and test · Logbook entry · Certificate | per visit, up to 20 devices |
| CCTV system, four camerasFour PoE IP cameras and a recorder, cable runs under 30 m each, phone-app viewing set up; camera brand and storage agreed at survey | from £695 | Cameras · Recorder · Cabling · App setup | per system |
Every price is a "from" price for a standard job, priced per job, never by the hour. Anything not on the list is quoted in writing after a free survey. Prices include travel to your address, and a merchant run if the job needs anything out of the ordinary: no travel charge on top. No VAT to add.
How a park inspection is arranged
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Get in touch
Give us the number of pitches and a rough idea of how the site is laid out.
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Free survey
On the survey I open up a sample of the bollards.
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Fixed written quote
A written, fixed quote within two working days of the survey.
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Test and certify the site
Certificate issued before the final invoice.
Levi Pickering
Electrician
I test every pitch and every building on the park myself.
Related pages
What we promise
- Certificate issued before the final invoice.
- A written, fixed quote within two working days of the survey.
- The same electrician from survey to sign-off.
- Work tested to BS 7671:2018+A4:2026.
- 24-month workmanship guarantee on top of your statutory rights.
- 12-month guarantee on the parts we supply, on top of your statutory rights; fittings you supply carry their maker's warranty.