Dodgy trade pictures for your amusement! - 1 Million Views!

[Dave OCD]

Black as the N and Earth as a Phase, Nice work there Mr Plumber and you wonder why you should be banned from touching anything with Wires

He may have used the grey and green/yellow as a 'volt free' switching pair from the relevant boiler terminals - still not right though.

 

[pc1966]

At a friend's party last night, but seeing an extension lead plugged in to an extension lead, plugged in to a multi-way adaptor in the hall for the garden use and not and RCD in sight made me wince. Had a quick look as she was telling me of other electrical woes and its not pretty, though far from the worst to appear here. Sadly whoever did the last wiring could not be bothered to remove the old heating fuse box, not event to remove or cut the tails off!



The top butchers of the box is impressive, more care and effort than a hammer hole, but still such a mess. Of course why put in a blank when there is a live busbar within finger reach?



The supply is in pyro and I hope the red sleeve is just for identification as it looks af if the copper is exposed off the pot, but maybe there is black sleeving below? I decided not to poke it just to find out.



Its not a great installation and at some point I should try and help out. Blanking the spare and maybe RCBOs replacing the Proteus MCBs is an option to avoid the hassle of trying to redo the tails the correct (non seal faerie way) but I don't know if current Proteus RCBOs are compatible, and for all the cost a new metal CU of a brand I prefer might be less trouble in the long run.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Price to Rip that entire monstrosity out and start from scratch all new , or don't touch it at all

 

[pc1966]

Price to Rip that entire monstrosity out and start from scratch all new , or don't touch it at all

If this was commercial then 100% what you say.

As a friend I would be happy to donate my support but it probably comes to the same thing - the cost of a new CU is less than the time wasted trying to make something less crap out of what is there. The other thing slightly troubling me is this is a 40-60s build I guess, and it has asbestos panels in places, so I am not going to make changes that mean new holes being drilled. Thankfully there is plenty of 19mm (I think) plywood there to fix stuff to.

I also dread to think what else will need attended to. There is an unmarked 16A MCB which needs to be identified, also there appears to be two RFC for a two bedroom flat, so possibly one is for the kitchen. But it has damn-all sockets and so she has an extension lead to plug in dishwasher and washing machine in to a single socket under the sink. Yes, more WFT? and another burned out aspect to properly fix.

The other oddity is two 16A socket circuits for the attic conversion. It is a single big room with only around 6 sets of sockets! Wonder if it was done by EU folks?

Single light circuit is another thing, though I would not be too surprised if that unmarked 16A turned out to be attic lights. And there is an outside PIR flood-lamp that is playing up and she is unaware of any means to switch it off, or indeed what circuit it was taken off.

 

[mainline]

The man from next door helped this recent widow out by doing a little electrical work.

 

[nicebutdim]

Everybody needs good neighbours.

 

[mainline]

Everybody needs good neighbours.

He probably charged her travel time as well.

 

[timhoward]

While trying to find out why a bathroom light doesn't work (for 3 months and multiple people have looked at it and ran away), it was obvious there was no power to switch...and the cable toner/tracer led me to this point as where it left the room. There was a suspicious severed cable the other side of the wall so I thought I'd have a look.

I decided to make the old feed safe and run a new one in the end. As there was no loft at all in this house it was time to break out the super-rods and today was my lucky day:.

And then some D-Line, sticks like, and filler (and some future sanding and painting....)

The exciting candlelit bathroom visits are no more.

 

[Julie.]

Eeek

 

[Raptor0014]

Eeek

View attachment 108464

Nicely done! I particularly like how they have left some of the bedding material on the conductors to give that little bit of extra protection. It’s little touches like that which sets them apart from other installers…

 

[mainline]

Nicely done! I particularly like how they have left some of the bedding material on the conductors to give that little bit of extra protection. It’s little touches like that which sets them apart from other installers…

I agree it’s probably one of the best worse.
It looks like they couldn’t be bothered with the cabinet door either.

 

[happysteve]

Looks like phase sequence is out, too

 

[mainline]

The man from next door helped this recent widow out by doing a little electrical work.


View attachment 108392

Went there yesterday to disconnect and this pic almost made me knock his door to tell him he shouldn’t be messing with electrics.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Don't really see any issue

It worked didn't it ?

 

[littlespark]

Its an air gap.... perfectly suitable form of insulation

is that 1 out of 7 cores on the line being used?

 

[mainline]

Don't really see any issue

It worked didn't it ?

Yes your right

Grenfell towers worked fine for many years as well.

 

[mainline]

Its an air gap.... perfectly suitable form of insulation

is that 1 out of 7 cores on the line being used?

Yeah I think he did some adiabatic calcs and decided he only needed 1 core

 

[Dustydazzler]

Yeah I think he did some adiabatic calcs and decided he only needed 1 core

the others are future upgrade cores

 

[Raptor0014]

No idea how this hasn’t ever tripped. Found it purely due to IR test and luckily it was in the bathroom at the end of the circuit. RCD protected and supplying a working fan.

Couple of others I found.

Lives in chocbloc and shoved in ceiling. Completely ignored the loop terminal on the rose.

Making sure the CPC is fully sleeved….

 

[littlespark]

This is at the funeral directors I’m at today.
Behind a locked door, so no immediate danger, but I’ve told them to talk to DNO.

3ph cut out. L1 unused, L2 does the funeral parlour and L3 (which I suspect is a link) runs upstairs to another fuse for a flat.

Should have been noticed when the meter was changed last September.

L1 has two exposed terminals, L2 has its spare terminal capped off with a plastic pin and L3 has 1 exposed terminal.

 

[BenCos18]

This is at the funeral directors

Job security right there

Sorry had to make the joke haha

 

[LewisM]

Can't have flat plate accessories in my (new build) new house I guess....

 

[Dustydazzler]

You can , but you will need to remove the 25mm box , hack out another 11-12 mm of wall and put a 35mm box in

 

[LewisM]

Yeah I know but thought it would be a nice easy swap but most boxes mounted onto a dot and dab wall protrude by like 4mm

 

[Dustydazzler]

Yeah I know but thought it would be a nice easy swap but most boxes mounted onto a dot and dab wall protrude by like 4mm

you will probably find the 25mm boxes are screwed straight on the block work hence they are sticking out 4-5mm

 

[LewisM]

Classic stuff though meter tails must run 10 meters through the house, 100A isolator at the mains, and a BG dual RCD board in a house finished 4months ago....

 

[LewisM]

you will probably find the 25mm boxes are screwed straight on the block work hence they are sticking out 4-5mm

Yeah man all done quick and easy like my ex wife

 

[James]

Yeah man all done quick and easy like my ex wife

Yeah, she was a bit!!

 

[Dave OCD]

What an utterly stupid position to fit the main switch with the top so close to the top of the meter box, the outgoing tails then look a mess, that was probably the meter bodger fitter though. I don't suppose the Electrical Contractors have the initials CE by any chance ?

---

 

[LewisM]

What an utterly stupid position to fit the main switch with the top so close to the top of the meter box, the outgoing tails then look a mess, that was probably the meter bodger fitter though. I don't suppose the Electrical Contractors have the initials CE by any chance ?

---

Bingo

 

[Dave OCD]

I knew it ! If you have a detached garage it's probably fed in 1.5 SWA.

 

[littlespark]

I see someone is buying up Screwfix discount boards.

I keep meaning to ask them at the counter about SPDs.

 

[Raptor0014]

Went to one of the local residents place today as she was having issues with her Zappi and Renault Zoe.

Looking at the setup it was straightforward and, whilst not necessarily the way I’d have done it, it was still compliant.

So tried to run a Zs test L-PE but got a ‘con’ error on my Megger which means the earth is either unstable or disconnected. R1-R2 was within tolerance. So I knew the continuity through was fine.

The Zoe is quite fussy and if it detects an earth problem it won’t let the car charge.

House is out in the stick and on a TT system. So I ran a Ze at the origin of the supply and this was the lowest result I got.

It was fluctuating between 688 and 746.

Someone has had the wisdom to bury the earth rod connection under some decking and flower bed. Meaning it’s inaccessible to check if it’s just loose, or poorly installed.

Ground is rocky as hell so going to be fun getting in some new rods to get the Ze below 200. May end up daisy chaining 3-4 rods just to get it down. But will see how it goes.

 

[pc1966]

Someone has had the wisdom to bury the earth rod connection under some decking and flower bed. Meaning it’s inaccessible to check if it’s just loose, or poorly installed.

Ground is rocky as hell so going to be fun getting in some new rods to get the Ze below 200. May end up daisy chaining 3-4 rods just to get it down. But will see how it goes.

It has also been very dry so if the rod is not deep it probably has got that issue as well.

Might be an excuse to try one of these (and the matching SDS adaptor) to get a new rod down through rocky ground:

Earth Rod Pro Drill Bit (Pack of 1)

Allows rapid earth rod installation when used with Earth Rod Pro drivers - sold separately [1LERPD] and [1LERPM]

www.cef.co.uk

 

[Raptor0014]

It has also been very dry so if the rod is not deep it probably has got that issue as well.

Might be an excuse to try one of these (and the matching SDS adaptor) to get a new rod down through rocky ground:

Earth Rod Pro Drill Bit (Pack of 1)

Allows rapid earth rod installation when used with Earth Rod Pro drivers - sold separately [1LERPD] and [1LERPM]

www.cef.co.uk

Already have the adapter and have quoted for the sacrificial bits.

Used them before and they are very good. I’m guessing they have only used 1 rod as I can usually get the reading somewhere around 50ohms if I use two 16mm rods.

 

[pc1966]

Already have the adapter and have quoted for the sacrificial bits.

Used them before and they are very good.

Good to hear! I modified M16 stainless threaded rod with angle grinder to achieve much the same before.

I’m guessing they have only used 1 rod as I can usually get the reading somewhere around 50ohms if I use two 16mm rods.

If you can get two coupled and driven in to 2.4m depth hopefully enough damp down there for a decent reading. Beware if heavy rain soon as it could mask how dry it is capable of getting in that area.

 

[LewisM]

Classic stuff though meter tails must run 10 meters through the house, 100A isolator at the mains, and a BG dual RCD board in a house finished 4months ago....
View attachment 108579View attachment 108580

Credit where it is due at least the board has been done neatly

 

[Dustydazzler]

So....

How would we code 10+Mtrs of tails snaking through the fabric of the building ?

 

[LewisM]

So....

How would we code 10+Mtrs of tails snaking through the fabric of the building ?

Well speaking to the site manager he said the tails go up the wall behind a steel plate then over 5cm from the top and bottom of the joists which they are as I saw them when doing the downlights

 

[mainline]

Well speaking to the site manager he said the tails go up the wall behind a steel plate then over 5cm from the top and bottom of the joists which they are as I saw them when doing the downlights

Is the plate earthed ?
Is there a Switch fused isolator ?