Todays EICR - can you spot the mistake?

[Octopus]

OK, I'll come clean. The 2 red cables from the henley block, sealed by the meter change man in 2010 go to:

1. The load side of circuit #4

2. Goes to the ceramic connetor hidden behind the bottom of the MCB's and directly on to the "redundant" connector in the airing cupboard for the "off peak" immersion heater.

Which means with the main switch of the CU off, the redundant immersion FCU in the airing cupboard is live and the load side of circuit #4 is live

Nice. I kept my fingers away from those cables once I've confirmed this.

The resident called the DNO and they were sending out a bod from the "theft" department - but surely if it had been a "scam" to bypass the meter, the main switch RCD would have tripped immediately.

Things like this do make the job interesting!!

lol

 

[SJD]

Reply to #13

If you did that the RCD would trip on neutral imbalance.

But if you move the neutrals for those circuits to the incoming side of the RCD?

 

[thekingiam]

are those red cables skipping the meter ?

 

[Barry Rathbone]

OK, I'll come clean. The 2 red cables from the henley block, sealed by the meter change man in 2010 go to:

1. The load side of circuit #4

2. Goes to the ceramic connetor hidden behind the bottom of the MCB's and directly on to the "redundant" connector in the airing cupboard for the "off peak" immersion heater.

Which means with the main switch of the CU off, the redundant immersion FCU in the airing cupboard is live and the load side of circuit #4 is live

Nice. I kept my fingers away from those cables once I've confirmed this.

The resident called the DNO and they were sending out a bod from the "theft" department - but surely if it had been a "scam" to bypass the meter, the main switch RCD would have tripped immediately.

Things like this do make the job interesting!!

lol

I take it the owners havent had house long then?
Because if they knew nothing about it surely just remove and retail and give certificate?

 

[staylor34]

I bet the two un metered tails each connect into two of the mcb`s which are off and they are serving something naughty in the property!! directly feeding whatever circuit is fed from the mcb?

 

[Doug]

With the new looking meter, henley block, brown tails and tags under the meter, these have obviously been replaced in the recent past. This is confirmed by the sticker dated 2 years ago. The shiny matching seals on everything suggest that the small red cables were put in the new henley block by a meter installer who didn't know what he was doing.

This does not however explain the dodgy wiring at the other end of the small red tails. It sounds like there are 2 immersion elements in the same cylinder which suggests there was originally a separate economy 7 supply. In this case there should have been a second main switch, either in a separate board or in a bottom half of the one in the photo. Perhaps an amateur tried to rejig it in the past to supply the immersion but gave up when it continually tripped the RCD. This could be why the main immersion is now described as redundant.

Without seeing the installation before the meter was replaced it is difficult to know whether they tried to bypass the meter or whether the meter meter guy didn't know what to do with the old night rate tails. Though I would have expected the night time supply to have had one large cable, not doubling up a lightweight cable.

 

[Edd]

most meter changers are in a rush, or on price.. (I know) so if we saw anything like that we didnt care.. Im going back 20 years so dont judge me now. but we were given minimum training then list after list of addresses. and if we did see somthing that was dodgy and report it, then all hell would break loose and end up costing us the rest of the day or longer in reports. and that ment money lost. so It wasnt worth my wages to report somthing that had been like it for years. oh and for testing we were given a martindale to check at a socket when we had finished..

That was 20 years ago Please dont judge me

 

[PEG]

Cracking thread mate,good pictures and explanation. Cheers:clap: