Tell us about your faults!

[Dipzy]

I wire one leg of the rfc cpc to the backbox then the flylead from the backbox and the other leg to the socket, all individually sleeved of course. Just makes an easier termination IMHO.

 

[DNS]

Each to their own but I see that as incredibly bad practice.

Ok..... I'm glad this post had gotten some attention. What I always do, which I see as the failsafe option. Is to wire the ring cpcs into the socket together, then a single out to the box. It's good to know that these posts are getting read and are being paid attention to.

 

[DNS]

Here are some DIY faults which I found recently when I fitted a new kitchen.
1)Yes one of the water pipe was leaking, onto the spur from a spur from yet another spur.
2)JB behind the oven with 240v going in with T+E 1.0mm, 240v going out via flex, to each under unit light with built in Transformer.
3)Spur to a FCU using 2.5mm T+E from a 40 amp cooker circuit wired in 6mm T+E
The kitchen has been totally ripped out and renewed.

 

[ayjay]

ive seen worse

 

[Strima]

ive seen worse

Then take some photo's and show us.

 

[Plonker 3]

The girlfriend just told me the laptop had gone off, the probem was the charger wasn't plugged in at the wall :iamwithstupid:

 

[amlu]

it still works, not a fault. just something missing
still no reply from the client, possibly will be left like that for unspecified amount of time

 

[rich.250]

it still works, not a fault. just something missing
still no reply from the client, possibly will be left like that for unspecified amount of timeView attachment 14228

It's not just me finding things like this then!....
Customer will say 'we've never had any problems with tripping or anything!'

I wonder why lol

 

[DNS]

it still works, not a fault. just something missing
still no reply from the client, possibly will be left like that for unspecified amount of timeView attachment 14228

What's frightening about situations like this, is that they probably paid someone in good faith to do this and because it works, they assume it's ok. Saying yes yes it's all safe now it has an rcd like it should have.

 

[Ohmyword]

Beggars belief, doesn't it? :stupid:

 

[sedgy34]

Ffs!! Wtf is going on there got to be a wined up

 

[ChevyKevv]

Each to their own but I see that as incredibly bad practice.

if one of the Cpc's is long enough I tend to use one to the box terminal, doubled over not cut and continue it to the socket and join it with the other Cpc so I have two at the socket. If not both to the socket with a link to the box. If that makes any sense.......

 

[hermetic]

Ok..... I'm glad this post had gotten some attention. What I always do, which I see as the failsafe option. Is to wire the ring cpcs into the socket together, then a single out to the box. It's good to know that these posts are getting read and are being paid attention to.

which is of course the correct method which used to be taught at all colleges!

 

[reefagrim]

For 4 years i worked as a fault finder purely and found the obscure the strange the weird and the idiotic and some of the most amazing faults that you couldnt dream of in fact i could write a book on my jobbing diary as they would take up a lot in one hit ill add one or to every now and again but today the worst

The most dangerous was a test on the lighting in a office to assertain its condition it was newish building metal clad external on a industrial estate in ashford. i visually failed the lights straight away as i could see exposed wires where the heat had burnt away the sheath but then i did a formal test. so i went to the mains room and as the building was unoccupied and i had licence to do so i switched of the power. Then i took off the cover of the 3tpn consumer unit and began my test.
Now as you are all aware that you should prove the supply is off ie borrowed supplies i used my test lamps and found the power still on. but this was the first call of the mains into the building there was no other switches or remote ccu's as i wnet to search my volt stick sounded as i walked through a door way i stopped looked it was a metal frame so i went around the building with my test lamps and where i could find a cpc and any metal near each other i tested and found the grid metal walls live the stair well railings live the ceiling grid live the pipe work live and best of all all the door frames and to the metal clad sheeting all live 240 volts so i opened the cutout and removed the fuses and the building ceased to be live..
At the fuseboard i checked the switch 4 pole but then straight away i saw that a double pole block used to take a seperate feed to the fire alarm panel off L1 but the neutral was on the load side terminal bar and seeing that the supply was tn-c-s the fire alarm had been installed in such away that under disconnection the earth had become the neutral and making for a utter death trap.
was a light in a hall way that was blinking on and off under inspection found that it was a plc lamp and there was no power going to the light unless it was switched on and low and behold the lamp glowed for a sec and was off again . again tested the switching found no surge of power activating the lamp ???

 

[reefagrim]

ps the last paragraph is a question of a afault i found on why a light kept blinking if you think you have the answer let me know and ill will eventually enlighten you lol

 

[stanleyblade]

Am fitting kitchen and came across the following,
For those who think they have had one too many it's Hungarian, obviously !!!

Nice to see someone thinking of our precious copper resources, joining two lives to one has saved a whole inch of 2.5 !!

And why waste earth sheath???

Even after safe isolation its nice to know you can still achieve the frazzled perm look from exposed conductor, where our Hungarian comrade has slipped with the craft knife and exposed about an inch of cable, this is the feed from 100 ampain fuse

Wow, this copper saving lark is catching on, into the socket in 2.5 out to next socket in 1.5

Just as you think it can't get any worse..... 6 mm cooker circuit on 32 amp breaker , with.....yes 1.5 mm spur to double socket feeding boiler,
I could go on all evening with the probs on this job but even need to sleep. No main earth bonding, all earth bonding clamps below boiler on pipework is finger tight cable actually pulls out with no effort, best of all no attempt to remove ain't to get any sort of contact, allegedly checked by gas safe installer and deemed ' safe' . Treble socket in hallway backing onto kitchen has spur to five separate double sockets. Garage twenty five metres from house, has 2.5 t+e single length routed below ground in black flexible conduit feedin two sockets and various lights , will get pics tomoro ....... When I've decided where to start , oh and you will love the outside sockets
Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk 2

 

[Strima]

That should keep you off the streets for a while...

The CU labelling has made me smile... I'm guessing there's no paperwork for this abortion?

 

[stanleyblade]

There is now.....a post it note with translations that I got the customer home from work to do !!! I will cert my work , but have already told him it all needs to be looked at. He enen has 13amp switched sockets in bathroom and wc above sinks , apparently for the wife to use hairdryer ..... They obviously work as she has lovely hair

Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk 2

 

[Strima]

Sounds like this Hungarian bloke needs his balls IR testing at 1000V...

 

[amlu]

is quite a common thing in Eastern Europe to have sockets in bathrooms. Quite common to have a washing machine there too.

 

[sedgy34]

is quite a common thing in Eastern Europe to have sockets in bathrooms. Quite common to have a washing machine there too.

The pic is in the uk mate it's the installer from Europe lol

 

[DNS]

Checking the electrics at a neighbours house, I came across this in the airing cupboard. It is a spur taken from the emersion heater circuit, for the themostatic shower with a 13 amp fuse not a 5 amp. Apparently the guy wiring it was English,just couldn't read or rite..lol Non of this was protected by an RCD.

 

[hermetic]

found this today at a friends joiners shop, three phase bandsaw isolator, I was removing the machines to fit new roof to building. Needless to say this will be rewired when it goes back in!

 

[Bobster]

found this today at a friends joiners shop, three phase bandsaw isolator, I was removing the machines to fit new roof to building. Needless to say this will be rewired when it goes back in!View attachment 14305

Still quite common on old industrial sites, just remember that's asbestos by the looks of it.

 

[hermetic]

Yes, it is asbestos, but I was more concerned with the fact that the incoming three phase supply had been connected directly to the fuses, instead of actually going through the switch first!!

 

[Bobster]

Yes, it is asbestos, but I was more concerned with the fact that the incoming three phase supply had been connected directly to the fuses, instead of actually going through the switch first!!

Must admit I didn't look that closely. Oh dear lol.

 

[HandySparks]

Yes, it is asbestos, but I was more concerned with the fact that the incoming three phase supply had been connected directly to the fuses, instead of actually going through the switch first!!

Not saying you're wrong, but are you sure? It's hard to tell from the photo (without knowing the model of switch in question) which set of switch contacts the cable entering the bottom is connected to.

 

[needasparks]

Yes, it is asbestos, but I was more concerned with the fact that the incoming three phase supply had been connected directly to the fuses, instead of actually going through the switch first!!

He's right, easy to miss that one when just glancing.

 

[ayjay]

its an old "mem"front handled isolator-- its been wired backwards
it just goes to prove that sparkys were idiots in days gone by, as well as now
Idiot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[ayjay]

btw the fuse carriers have aspestos ribbon lining them, dont breath it
replace the fuses, that way you will be ok, then use a nail bar to remove the isolator from the wall

 

[hermetic]

Not saying you're wrong, but are you sure? It's hard to tell from the photo (without knowing the model of switch in question) which set of switch contacts the cable entering the bottom is connected to.

Yes, I am sure, there is only one set of connections at the bottom, and one at the top, the incoming supply goes to the bottom, thus switching off isolates the fuses from the supply, so when the cover is removed, which can only be done with the switch in the off position, the live terminals are behind the paxolin (brown stuff) flash guard, and it is safe to remove the fuses. In this configuration the top fuse terminals are exposed and live all the time. If you click on the picture it will go full screen. I am quite confident this was not wired by a sparky!

 

[HandySparks]

Thanks, I see what you mean now. They've incorrectly wired the supply at the top and load at the bottom.

 

[Engineer54]

btw the fuse carriers have aspestos ribbon lining them, dont breath it
replace the fuses, that way you will be ok, then use a nail bar to remove the isolator from the wall

Here we go again, .... asbestos is present so Death is just around the corner!! lol!!

 

[Knobhead]

It's like a cracked record, it just keeeps going on and on.

 

[ayjay]

hi ,my workmate died last year after a long terrible illness, "aspestosis"
he was 58
ive inhaled aspestos dust in the past ,crawling over old pipe lagging in hotel roof voids

 

[sedgy34]

hi ,my workmate died last year after a long terrible illness, "aspestosis"
he was 58
ive inhaled aspestos dust in the past ,crawling over old pipe lagging in hotel roof voids

Bummer about your friend! If You have inhaled this dust whilst working why haven't you worn the appropriate safety wear the woes COSHH springs to mind

 

[ayjay]

i don,t know what coshh means,
this was how it used to be in the late 60,s early70,s, when there was no safety gear

as an apprenice, i use to take big bundles of used/worn out fluorecent tubes and smash them with a hammer -into a dustbin, clouds of white powder everywhere, no mask--we didn,t have a clue

 

[Ohmyword]

i don,t know what coshh means,
this was how it used to be in the late 60,s early70,s, when there was no safety gear

as an apprenice, i use to take big bundles of used/worn out fluorecent tubes and smash them with a hammer -into a dustbin, clouds of white powder everywhere, no mask--we didn,t have a clue

I'm also from this era:frown:

We were a local village family business. No safety gear! We would be chasing-out concrete blocks (by hand) for days on end and re-wiring pre-fab buildings with asbestos sheets to walls and ceilings.
I can still remember drilling holes through the 'hard' grey sheets, and even 'pilot drilling' to fix things like light fittings, cord-pulls (over-head) & sockets.
'Luckily' I only suffer with a bad back, bad neck, bad knees & arthritic hands :teeth_smile:

 

[ayjay]

we didn,t even have electric drills when i started my apprenticship ohmyword!just a rawlplug jumper for fixings to cast-concrete
and a lenghth of 4x4 wood with a hole drilled in the end to bend conduit
joists were drilled using a hand brace
if i did something wrong i got a smack around the back of the head too
eeee-! happy days

 

[Knobhead]

i don,t know what coshh means,
this was how it used to be in the late 60,s early70,s, when there was no safety gear

The equipment was available in the seveties, along with the legislation covering the handling and disposal of asbestos

 

[ayjay]

i daresay it was tony, but we wern,t given any!
also,the only test equipment was an avo meter/ a wind the handle megger and a home made lamp to test for mains, oh and a battery bell to test continuity ect

 

[Englishsparks]

Had a brilliant call out tonight!!!

Just got home and one of my customers (Irate Ar-h-le) phoned me to say that he had no power in his house and was demanding that I returned immediatly (admitingly we had been and change the consumer unit today) so thinking that the trainee had turned the power off for some reason before we left, I duely turned out.
The customer met me at the gate, looking rather mad!
I went into the house to be met by an obnoxiouse mouthed (not sure it was really a woman as too much fire was being breathed) wife.
She was standing with her back to the consumer unit sort of blocking my way. As I am trying to make sense of what they where both firing at me but not really listening as you do. I was trying to look at what the problem was, without looking at the consumer unit because of scary woman in the way, i did try to ask her to move but couldnt get a word in edgeways, i could see the incoming head with meter. (Fault spotted instantly)

Trying not to laugh but trying to calm them. I finaly managed to get a sentence in.

Would you like me to give you the number for the local Distributor I asked?

Why? it's ur fiddling about that has left us without power ( in a sort of get it put back on voice)

My reply was quite simply:- I may be an electrician but i dont supply it to the property, you have no power coming into the property and if madam would stop and listen (the word madam I usually find dose the trick and makes them stop and listen)
I suggest that you contact the distributor to find out what the problem is or If you would like I will call them for you? (Putting on a friendly voice as though nothing had been said)

I called them only to find that it was going to be off for a further 3 hrs . I really enjoyed telling them this. The best bit is I had had the money upfront for the consumer unit change and then I charged them a further £60 for calling me out. Im not sure they will be coming back to me again but really enjoyed telling them that the power would be out for a further 3 hrs

P.S The tell tale sign was no display on the digital meter dispaly


THE JOB WOULD BE SO MUCH EASIER WITHOUT THE CUSTOMER!

- - - Updated - - -

Had a brilliant call out tonight!!!

Just got home and one of my customers (Irate Ar-h-le) phoned me to say that he had no power in his house and was demanding that I returned immediatly (admitingly we had been and change the consumer unit today) so thinking that the trainee had turned the power off for some reason before we left, I duely turned out.
The customer met me at the gate, looking rather mad!
I went into the house to be met by an obnoxiouse mouthed (not sure it was really a woman as too much fire was being breathed) wife.
She was standing with her back to the consumer unit sort of blocking my way. As I am trying to make sense of what they where both firing at me but not really listening as you do. I was trying to look at what the problem was, without looking at the consumer unit because of scary woman in the way, i did try to ask her to move but couldnt get a word in edgeways, i could see the incoming head with meter. (Fault spotted instantly)

Trying not to laugh but trying to calm them. I finaly managed to get a sentence in.

Would you like me to give you the number for the local Distributor I asked?

Why? it's ur fiddling about that has left us without power ( in a sort of get it put back on voice)

My reply was quite simply:- I may be an electrician but i dont supply it to the property, you have no power coming into the property and if madam would stop and listen (the word madam I usually find dose the trick and makes them stop and listen)
I suggest that you contact the distributor to find out what the problem is or If you would like I will call them for you? (Putting on a friendly voice as though nothing had been said)

I called them only to find that it was going to be off for a further 3 hrs . I really enjoyed telling them this. The best bit is I had had the money upfront for the consumer unit change and then I charged them a further £60 for calling me out. Im not sure they will be coming back to me again but really enjoyed telling them that the power would be out for a further 3 hrs

P.S The tell tale sign was no display on the digital meter dispaly


THE JOB WOULD BE SO MUCH EASIER WITHOUT THE CUSTOMER!

- - - Updated - - -

Had a brilliant call out tonight!!!

Just got home and one of my customers (Irate Ar-h-le) phoned me to say that he had no power in his house and was demanding that I returned immediatly (admitingly we had been and change the consumer unit today) so thinking that the trainee had turned the power off for some reason before we left, I duely turned out.
The customer met me at the gate, looking rather mad!
I went into the house to be met by an obnoxiouse mouthed (not sure it was really a woman as too much fire was being breathed) wife.
She was standing with her back to the consumer unit sort of blocking my way. As I am trying to make sense of what they where both firing at me but not really listening as you do. I was trying to look at what the problem was, without looking at the consumer unit because of scary woman in the way, i did try to ask her to move but couldnt get a word in edgeways, i could see the incoming head with meter. (Fault spotted instantly)

Trying not to laugh but trying to calm them. I finaly managed to get a sentence in.

Would you like me to give you the number for the local Distributor I asked?

Why? it's ur fiddling about that has left us without power ( in a sort of get it put back on voice)

My reply was quite simply:- I may be an electrician but i dont supply it to the property, you have no power coming into the property and if madam would stop and listen (the word madam I usually find dose the trick and makes them stop and listen)
I suggest that you contact the distributor to find out what the problem is or If you would like I will call them for you? (Putting on a friendly voice as though nothing had been said)

I called them only to find that it was going to be off for a further 3 hrs . I really enjoyed telling them this. The best bit is I had had the money upfront for the consumer unit change and then I charged them a further £60 for calling me out. Im not sure they will be coming back to me again but really enjoyed telling them that the power would be out for a further 3 hrs

P.S The tell tale sign was no display on the digital meter dispaly


THE JOB WOULD BE SO MUCH EASIER WITHOUT THE CUSTOMER!

 

[ayjay]

imo, the customer wouldn,t have known that the outside supply had gone off
they would have thought that it was your fault, as the installation was mid-way through
thats why they were irate
people(the genral public) have no concept of electricity, they just plug an accessory in and it works
they flick a switch and the light illuminates
interesting post though

 

[Englishsparks]

Think you have wrong end of the stick. The installation was complete.

 

[Knobhead]

You need to learn about people ES. You touched it last, that makes you prime suspect.
I hope you enjoy spending your £60, because when word gets around that you're a rob-dog don't expect any work in that area again.
Bad news travels faster that good.

 

[ayjay]

i was thinking that tony, but didn,t say!

 

[Englishsparks]

Yes Tony i understand what you are saying, and agree but the attitude of these people make me sick. I dont got to work for abuse of this nature and will not tolerate it.just a quick update on the matter i did receive a call from the husband today appologising to me about how i was spoken to. I dont think all is lost!I can understand them thinking it was my fault (undersatandable) but manners do go a long way.And your point about me being a (Rob-Dog) im not sure as to why you go to work but i run a business and charge accordingly. if you dont charge that is upto you!Yes i have done jobs for people that have not been charged for work done on may occasions especially the little old ladies.

 

[Ryanw]

Here's a nice one if you like pigeon!

Called to a restaurant/bar a few weeks ago at the end of the day which had just had a fire from the fridge cooling units on the flat roof at the rear of the place.
Fire brigade had been and put it out but i was asked to come and check over the wiring.
Every inch of the units were covered in crap, feathers and sticks! The unit on the top right is where all the crap caught fire and you can see whats left of the wiring from that unit in a copper tangle. Plenty of fire damage and the isolators had all melted.
It was all poorely covered by a big stainless steel housing which was sat away from the wall, too easy for the pigeons.
I was asked if i could get them running by that night even after i'd shown the owner the state of it! I disconnected the circuits and told them i'm not touching anything else until a cleaning firms been in!




I was called in again the next day, a manager wanted to know why all the fridge temps were showing 14-16 degrees...

 

[ayjay]

what a mess ryan! looks like the whole set-up needs replacing, they should have removed all of the stock and found somewhere with a freezer to store it,
don,t inhale pidgeon dropping/dust mate, it can cause serious health problems

 

[Engineer54]

Well I know why the stainless steel cover was left off now, the mounting of these units are completely wrong!! The fans are facing, and that close to the wall and isolators it's a wonder how these compressors worked with the cover on for any length of time.
I wouldn't mind betting that those isolators were suffering heat damage long before this pigeon crap fire... These units need tuning round and a mesh grill incorporating in the cover. The set-up needs free flowing air through the system....