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Got a call out today from a woman who said she is getting shocks of some of her kitchen sockets, She lives in a block of flats and when i checked her cu's (she has 2) Nothing protected by rcd (told her she needs upgrading) one cu was wired with micc which just happened to have the sockets on it.
I then went to check her sockets (metal faced) as i plugged in the socket tester I got a shock, (the tester showed no earth). I asked her how long she had been getting shocks, ever since she bought the flat a few months ago. I switched off the power checked for dead and began trying to trace the fault, most of the cable was routed behind kitchen units and joined by choc blocks, I found five sockets in the kitchen were all spurs of each other, and that the ring main micc were inside the soilpipe boxing in (looking up the boxing in from inside a kitchen unit) i chopped out the boxing and located the join and there it was no earthing from the micc to the single twin and earth cable. There were no earth tail pots on the micc so whoever wired up the kitchen just connected the live and neutrals and left the earth, i showed her this and she then told me her brother is an electrician and he is coming to do some work after his holiday, and could i just connect it back up so she could use the sockets, yes I said as long as your not scared of dying. I told her there is no way i could do that, and that i would fit new earth tail pots and put the dodgy sockets on the ring. With that she said she would wait for her brother to come back from holiday, so i told her i would have to isolate those sockets from the mains which i did,( all other sockets in kitchen and rest of the flat were fine) I guess what i am trying to say is some people must have no regard for human life, how could you have five double sockets on the same spur and with no earths, who ever wired it must have known this.
markaj
I then went to check her sockets (metal faced) as i plugged in the socket tester I got a shock, (the tester showed no earth). I asked her how long she had been getting shocks, ever since she bought the flat a few months ago. I switched off the power checked for dead and began trying to trace the fault, most of the cable was routed behind kitchen units and joined by choc blocks, I found five sockets in the kitchen were all spurs of each other, and that the ring main micc were inside the soilpipe boxing in (looking up the boxing in from inside a kitchen unit) i chopped out the boxing and located the join and there it was no earthing from the micc to the single twin and earth cable. There were no earth tail pots on the micc so whoever wired up the kitchen just connected the live and neutrals and left the earth, i showed her this and she then told me her brother is an electrician and he is coming to do some work after his holiday, and could i just connect it back up so she could use the sockets, yes I said as long as your not scared of dying. I told her there is no way i could do that, and that i would fit new earth tail pots and put the dodgy sockets on the ring. With that she said she would wait for her brother to come back from holiday, so i told her i would have to isolate those sockets from the mains which i did,( all other sockets in kitchen and rest of the flat were fine) I guess what i am trying to say is some people must have no regard for human life, how could you have five double sockets on the same spur and with no earths, who ever wired it must have known this.
markaj
