Tell us about your faults!

K

kung

Hi ALL
Just thought id put this one up for all those faults we find.
heres one to kick it off !
Domestic RCD tripped and wouldnt reset cause was a blown low energy light bulb.:D
There you go now for yours !
 
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Oh definitely! What I pay usually rounded up to nearest £5. Doing a fuseboard change on weekend, going to round that up to £100. Got to re-route and extend every cable to new position..gunna take hours!!!!
 
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I personally do any work at my mums or grans absolutely gratis.
rewired both houses a few years back.the way I see it is they looked after me my whole life and I'm eventually gonna inherit both houses anyway!

that said, I do charge mates etc for materials.usually around 10% mark, and get the labour in the form of something from them that they can do for me.i have a decorator mate that I have an odd deal with.he will fix any f!ck up I make at a customers if that ever happens, in return I will do electrical work for him to the value of. so far never needed him!
 
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The fuse board change on weekend is bfs parents house..they haven't looked after me for years etc!! I wave the labour in exchange for all the Sunday roasts haha.
i don't technically charge my parents, I get my dad to subtract the small material figure from the billions I owe him..he has a spreadsheet with a breakdown!! The odd fivers I've borrowed over the last 20 years are on there! I have no houses that I will inherit..u r lucky!
 
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Kate said:
The fuse board change on weekend is bfs parents house..they haven't looked after me for years etc!! I wave the labour in exchange for all the Sunday roasts haha.
i don't technically charge my parents, I get my dad to subtract the small material figure from the billions I owe him..he has a spreadsheet with a breakdown!! The odd fivers I've borrowed over the last 20 years are on there! I have no houses that I will inherit..u r lucky!
Click to expand...


Ah the ever open ''Bank of Mum & Dad'' i know it WELL!! lol!!

I stand absolutely no chance of ever seeing any return of the many loans and hand outs made over the years!! At least they do appreciate it though...

Hell, if i had kept a spreadsheet on all those transactions, i'd be scaring myself silly. Better to give and forget, ...and be blissfully ignorant!!
 
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dan86 said:
that's actually insane. did you even charge em? not sure I'd have bothered tbh.
imagine a light that works, one day stops and instantly assuming they need an electrician.
surely EVeryones initial reaction would just be to replace the lamp?!
Click to expand...
eh?
and dont you think they would bill you for summat...if they had half the chance....
get em charged....
its your time innit...
 
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and then Kate said she did another job there and was an 80 minute round trip, to which I then agreed.

but there are some if its very close by, and something stupid, I don't charge. not always mind. depends on their attitude a lot of the time
 
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Nice one today. Customer getting a tingle in wet room shower for a couple of weeks. Only tripped RCBO today so he called me. 167 v measured from rubberised cap and cove floor to earth. Rcbo only trips when he touches wet floor and shower water feed. Plumber had screwed pipe clip into 10 mm shower feed and it was tracking down to floor. Shame rcbo didn't see it when shower was running.
 
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I was asked to look at the kitchen wiring of a neighbour partly because the neon light on his new cooker switch stayed on constantly even when the switch was off (supply and load connections reversed) and partly because he didn't trust the guy who did the wiring (something about scratching his head a lot). Found 12 different faults not including multiple instances of some of the faults. A few of the others are:
Reverse polarity at one of the sockets;
Wrong conductor size (1.5mm) used to extend the ring to several sockets on a spur;
No FCU on that spur;
No RCD;
Brown sleeving used to cover cpc - where they bothered;
No CPC continuity;

This was all in one room. No certificate of course. And these guys offered to rewire his house for him too!
 
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This was found in the ceiling void of a shop.

MidSuffolk-20130615-00308_zpsa691eb8f.jpg
 
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Re: Tell us about your faults !

Funny that, had exact problem last week with a slug! some moron had connector blocked inside a piece of trunking outside to extend the circuit, slug was fried over the line and neutral ... it bloody stunk!:)
 
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busbar.jpg

are the busbars on this right? first two mcbs on the left are on non RCD side.
busbars are touching, continuity tested them to be sure.
My brain is screaming that this is not right, but i wanted to double check.
the 'cut-out' for the MCB fronts in the DB cover has been modified to fit them all. To me it seems the busbars have been modified to fit everything.
is it right? is it wrong?
 
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Re: Tell us about your faults !

under sink.jpg

DIY job, in cupboard under sink. Has an earth fault

sleeving.jpg

DIY. Spot the issue?

TN.jpg

whats the earthing arrangement??

cooker outlet.jpg
No cooker isolation switch, pulled cooker out..NO OUTLET either. Looked in tiny cupboard above cooker space and found this. Roughly a metre of slack cable lay snaked on top of the cupboard so assume tenant moved it here when refurbed kitchen.

all photos from same property...massive remedials list. DIY central
 
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Nice mess, kerrr-ching!

The RCD is fed top and bottom with the line conductor, if the RCD switches off then the circuits will still be supplied with the line.
However the "contact" for those two busbars may not have enough CCC for the load, though with the neutral off the installation should be at 230V everywhere including the earth, so must have missed something
 
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thats what gets me, get 0 or 1v from 'RCD busbar' and either 'RCD circuits neutral bar' or earth bar when the RCD is switched off, and main switch is on. so no feed through the busbars.
But continuity test between the two seperate bars was dead short, and i mean dead short 0.00
ill add a photo of the other half of board...give me a sec
 
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yes, my tester has a panic attack if i do continuity on a live source :)
they look in contact, continuity proves they are.
Yet no voltage?!? thats why im confused :(
 
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Went to a friends house to replace a switch. Couldn't isolate the circuit via MCBs on the CU. There were about 10 MCBs on a split board, both RCD protected. Switched off all MCBs but still couldn't isolate power. Had to use main switch.
 
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Bij Lee said:
Went to a friends house to replace a switch. Couldn't isolate the circuit via MCBs on the CU. There were about 10 MCBs on a split board, both RCD protected. Switched off all MCBs but still couldn't isolate power. Had to use main switch.
Click to expand...

Did you not bother to investigate why?

Could either be fed direct off the main switch (unlikely) or, if you only tried one breaker at a time, the lighting could be fed off two breakers in parallel. Either way this needs sorting.
 
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After replacement db fitted the rcd was tripping when powered up. After investigation found a shared neutral on the stairs lighting. Was easy enough to rectify by altering wiring. What is your opinion on putting both lighting circuits on the same rcd?
 
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sparkybob1 said:
After replacement db fitted the rcd was tripping when powered up. After investigation found a shared neutral on the stairs lighting. Was easy enough to rectify by altering wiring. What is your opinion on putting both lighting circuits on the same rcd?
Click to expand...

Simple tests would have shown this up before the board change.

I take it by easy fix you've just shoved both circuits on the same Rcd? So the lighting circuits still have a borrowed neutral?
 
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I have gathered lots of useful information from this thread. I want to share one of my faulting experience. There is a fault in my boss cabin and he called me in the midnight for checking this issue, as I have little knowledge about handling electrical equipments. Actually the problem is that sockets were going on and off and the extension was also very old. When I will try to repair it,suddenly fire occurs and which destroys the whole office.That was horrible experience.But after reading this post, all my doubts are clear.
 
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Good question. I was called round in the evening and only had time to do what I had been called to do - replace the switch (and a socket). I pointed out the issue to my friend and I am planning to go back to investigate. Thanks for the tip.
 
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RoB2 said:
Simple tests would have shown this up before the board change.

I take it by easy fix you've just shoved both circuits on the same Rcd? So the lighting circuits still have a borrowed neutral?
Click to expand...

The lighting circuits were split into two, was a council house so had to be on separate rcd. Was told keeping the shared neutral but putting all the lights one one circuit was acceptable? Your thoughts? What simple tests would have shown this up? An electrical condition report had been completed already.
 
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as the problem is usually with the landing 2 way light, a simple test would be to switch off the upstairs lighting breaker and see whether the landing light still worked. if it does, then it's 90% certain that it gets it's L supply from the downstairs circuit.
 
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Found these on an ISI&TEE

IMG00283_zps793ce6cb.jpg


Company didn't want these items checked, they have lasted for 4 years without problem, why check them.

They shrugged shoulders when shown these items.
 
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Tell us about your faults!
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