3.1 BS 7671, IET Codes of Practice and Guidance Notes

Quick Answer: For 2922-34, BS 7671 Requirements for Electrical Installations is the UK requirements document, and Part 7-712 Solar photovoltaic (PV) power supply systems is the PV special location. The IET Code of Practice for Grid-connected Solar Photovoltaic Systems, 2nd Edition is the primary PV installation code of practice named in the qualification handbook and in MCS MIS 3002 clause 5.2.1. If that Code of Practice and BS 7671 conflict on a particular installation, MIS 3002 says the latest BS 7671 takes precedence. The unit 301 open-book test still lists BS 7671:(2018) 2022 including amendment 3 (2024) as a permitted text.

Why this document map matters on 2922

Learning Outcome 1 asks you to know both statutory requirements (the previous chapter) and non-statutory guidance. The second list is not optional colour. It is how a competent electrician turns legal duties into a safe PV design. Unit 301 only sets two questions on LO1 (7% of the knowledge test), but those items are open-book traps if you open the wrong title. This section is the desk map: which book states a requirement, which book is installation method, and which book is only commentary or how-to under the Building Regulations.

Non-statutory does not mean optional on site. The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 still require you to prevent danger. Certification bodies, insurers and, if it ever comes to it, a court treat BS 7671, the IET Codes of Practice and MCS installation standards as the recognised way of showing that duty has been met. Quote a Guidance Note as if it were a regulation, or quote an Approved Document as if it were the Building Regulations, and you have already failed the LO1 distinction this chapter exists to teach.

BS 7671 and Part 7-712

BS 7671 is the UK national standard used to design, erect, inspect and test low-voltage installations. It is not an Act of Parliament. It is the document the electrotechnical industry uses to demonstrate compliance with the Electricity at Work Regulations and, in dwellings in England and Wales, with Part P of the Building Regulations.

Part 7 collects special installations or locations. Section 712 is the PV special location. When a 2922 question mentions PV array DC isolation, labelling of a switch-disconnector enclosure, or cable marking that the array is live during daylight, start in 712. Do not start in a general Part 5 selection chapter, and do not start in an MCS shade guide.

Typical 712 topics you will meet again in the design chapters include identification and labelling of PV equipment, selection of switch-disconnectors suitable for DC, protective measures on the DC side, and external influences on array cables. Treat 712 as requirements, not as a complete PV installation manual. How you assemble a grid-connected array, apply MCS product listing, or write a customer performance estimate lives in the IET PV Code of Practice and in MCS documents.

Amendment 3 on the desk, Amendment 4 on the horizon

Handbook v1.3 (August 2025) permitted materials for the 301 knowledge test are:

1. IET Code of Practice for Grid-connected Solar Photovoltaic Systems, 2nd Edition
2. Requirements for Electrical Installations: BS 7671:(2018) 2022 including amendment 3 (2024)
3. A calculator

The unit supporting information also says content must be taught with the IET Code of Practice for Electrical Energy Storage Systems, 3rd edition, even though that title is not copied onto the short permitted-materials line for the e-volve paper. Know both Codes of Practice for the syllabus; take the two listed books plus a calculator into the 301 test unless your centre later issues a different permitted list.

Amendment 4 to BS 7671 was published in April 2026. The City & Guilds 2922 qualification page (last updated 25 May 2026) states that assessment tasks that test knowledge of BS 7671 will be amended to Amendment 4 in due course. Until handbook v1.3's permitted list is updated, treat Amendment 3 (2024) as the exam-permitted text. Do not sit 301 assuming A4 tables are what the item writers used. If your centre later issues an A4 notice, follow that notice — it will be a change to the assessment, not a change you invent on the day.

IET Codes of Practice

The IET Code of Practice for Grid-connected Solar Photovoltaic Systems, 2nd Edition is the installation-level PV code named in the 2922 handbook under LO1.1.1(b) and named again in MIS 3002 clause 5.2.1. MCS contractors shall design and install in accordance with that Code of Practice, with the additional MCS clauses in sections 5.4 to 5.9 and with the listed exceptions in 5.3. For 2922, this is the book you use when the question is about how a grid-connected array is put together, not merely whether a 712 labelling sentence exists.

The IET Code of Practice for Electrical Energy Storage Systems, 3rd edition is named for delivery alongside the PV Code of Practice. Small PV jobs increasingly include batteries. The 2922 award is a PV installation-and-maintenance qualification, not the separate electrical energy storage award, but LO1 still expects you to know that the EESS Code of Practice exists and is the industry document for storage installed with PV.

IET Guidance Notes GN1, GN3, GN7 and GN8

The handbook lists four IET Guidance Notes. They comment on BS 7671. They are not a substitute for the Regulations:

• GN1 Selection & Erection — how equipment is chosen and installed to meet Part 5-type requirements.
• GN3 Inspection & Testing — how you verify an installation. You will use this thinking on unit 302 even though GN3 is not on the short 301 permitted list.
• GN7 Special Locations — commentary on Part 7, which is where 712 sits.
• GN8 Earthing & Bonding — protective earthing, bonding and related decisions that PV frames and inverters force you to make.

If a question asks what the requirement is, the answer is in BS 7671. If it asks for method or commentary, a Guidance Note or Code of Practice is the better reach. Opening GN7 first for a 712 labelling requirement wastes open-book minutes.

Approved Documents are how-to, not the regulations

LO1.1.1(b) also lists the how-to documents that sit under the Building Regulations you met in the statutory chapter:

• Building Regulations Approved Documents (England and Wales)
• Building Standards Division (BSD) Technical Handbooks (Scotland)
• Department of Finance Technical Booklets (Northern Ireland) — the handbook still uses the older "Department of Finance and Personnel" wording

These documents explain one way of meeting the regulations. They are guidance. They are not the Building Regulations 2010, the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004, or the Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012. A roof that follows Approved Document B is following fire-safety guidance. The legal duty remains the regulation. Do not tell a customer, or an exam marker, that "Approved Document B is the fire regulation."

Open-book scenario: 712 isolation labelling

You are on the 301 paper. The stem asks what warning must appear on the enclosure of a PV array switch-disconnector.

Open BS 7671 first, Part 7-712, identification and labelling (including Regulation 712.514.102). That is the requirement. The IET PV Code of Practice will tell you how a typical isolator is selected and installed. GN7 may discuss special locations in more words. MCS MIS 3002 will tell a certified contractor to follow the Code of Practice and BS 7671. None of those later books is the first place to confirm the wording duty on the enclosure. The handbook's later labelling list ("PV array DC isolator", "PV array cable – live during daylight", "PV system main isolator") is teaching the same 712 family of notices — still a Regulations first reach, not an MCS first reach.

Use the table below as a desk map for the rest of the award.