consumer unit smoking

[jouleflow]

Here is a picture of the garage type cu that connects my 15kW solar to the main fuse. The brown wire was too short so two pieces were joined with a choc block. My electrician suggested that the chock block screws were too loose & caused the smouldering. He has replaced all the wires & in doing so noticed the screws in the mcb were not tight either. The image shows that the metal case was a couple of millimetres from the live insides of the melted chock block. That was lucky as I was messing about with the tripping fuse the evening before & it had 30 Amps running through it! Also we were told we were days away from a serious fire.
I suppose chock blocks should not have been used & if so made sure they were tight. I am so grateful that my wife smelled the burning & turned it all off until my good friend turned up to fix it. Solar electricians may need their work checking, what do you think.

 

[Pete999]

Here is a picture of the garage type cu that connects my 15kW solar to the main fuse. The brown wire was too short so two pieces were joined with a choc block. My electrician suggested that the chock block screws were too loose & caused the smouldering. He has replaced all the wires & in doing so noticed the screws in the mcb were not tight either. The image shows that the metal case was a couple of millimetres from the live insides of the melted chock block. That was lucky as I was messing about with the tripping fuse the evening before & it had 30 Amps running through it! Also we were told we were days away from a serious fire.
I suppose chock blocks should not have been used & if so made sure they were tight. I am so grateful that my wife smelled the burning & turned it all off until my good friend turned up to fix it. Solar electricians may need their work checking, what do you think.

View attachment 49386

Need to get that looked at PDQ Mate, who ever did that butchery want reporting to the Electric Police

 

[Charlie_]

That is a disgrace!
Didn’t even need to extend that cable..
Could have brought tails into bottom of the incomer
Or even used a DP MCB instead

 

[Strima]

That is disgusting. Do you have the installers details?

 

[Charlie_]

For jobs like this, the offending cretins should be put on a register..
Similar to those that exist for other undesirable members of society

 

[MJPD29]

That is criminally poor work and doesn't look that old i would be sending that to the original installer

 

[PEG]

To be honest,that looks pretty standard,for that type of installation...seen dozens as good or worse.

The bit i would be interested in,would be if the panels were correctly and professionally attached to the roof...and if they were pointing at the sun...

 

[Dustydazzler]

Don’t get me started on solar PV installers

 

[PEG]

Don’t get me started on solar PV installers

I was pointing out,that the emperor had no clothes on,many years back,with some of the larger compliance outfits,accusing me of trying to spoil the party...

I have had a few calls,since,from the same folk,asking for suggestions on methods of rectifying and retro-fitting...

I suppose,it's like,say...somebody had incorrectly and without thought,injected cavity wall insulation,in thousands of houses,with various schemes,bonuses and incentives,to keep the job happy for all....and then the problems start,and returning to square-one,is exceedingly troublesome

But that's just hypothetical....could never happen

 

[snowhead]

Didn’t even need to extend that cable..
Could have brought tails into bottom of the incomer

Sometimes people go to great lengths to do a cr*p job and miss the blindingly obvious easier solution.

 

[static zap]

Sometimes ......(they)... miss the blindingly obvious easier solution.

"I want cheap Lectrics ,but the Mrs don't want to see no wires "
- The truth-may be out there , but saying it diplomatically !-

 

[Intoelectrics]

One thing, at least this is a good example of why metal CCU's are better than plastic. If it had been plastic the situation might have been a lot worse. The close proximity of the burnt cable to that wooden cupboard was a recipe for potentially disaster.

 

[James]

hmmm, I'm sure there are many solar installers who know what they are doing but there are also a lot that jumped on the get rich quick band waggon as soon as it took off.
The gas safe people wouldn't allow a 3 day intensive course for people who wanted to install only micro-generating boilers, so why is it acceptable for people to do a short fast track to install electrics in peoples homes?

In that 1 small box, there are so many things wrong, I wonder what the rest of the install is like.

 

[Marvo]

It's a classic poor connection that's overheated due to poor workmanship. Obviously isolate the power and get a decent sparky in for half an hour to fix it.

If the same installer worked elsewhere on the electrical installation I'd suggest you get the sparky to make a fully inspection of the CU and test the final circuits whilst he's there, it would be money well spent to ensure your safety and peace of mind.

 

[magnoliafan89]

If your consumer unit is smoking try and get it to start vaping instead and slowly wein it off...smoking kills lots of consumer units per year

 

[Taylortwocities]

At least he/she marked the line tail with the appropriate colour tape.......

I think i know what is under that tape...

 

[Charlie_]

At least he/she marked the line tail with the appropriate colour tape.......

I think i know what is under that tape...

Yes, true..
Shame he had no blue or g/y though

 

[richy3333]

It was always a time bomb waiting to go off when they decided to mix Proteus rubbish with the Curve rubbish IMHO!

 

[Jjc]

Here is a picture of the garage type cu that connects my 15kW solar to the main fuse. The brown wire was too short so two pieces were joined with a choc block. My electrician suggested that the chock block screws were too loose & caused the smouldering. He has replaced all the wires & in doing so noticed the screws in the mcb were not tight either. The image shows that the metal case was a couple of millimetres from the live insides of the melted chock block. That was lucky as I was messing about with the tripping fuse the evening before & it had 30 Amps running through it! Also we were told we were days away from a serious fire.
I suppose chock blocks should not have been used & if so made sure they were tight. I am so grateful that my wife smelled the burning & turned it all off until my good friend turned up to fix it. Solar electricians may need their work checking, what do you think.

View attachment 49386

How many days away were you?

 

[jouleflow]

How many days away were you?

Who knows, it was continually getting hotter. We caught it at the smoking stage.