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little bit of voltage present on earth
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when we first moved to Ireland in the 90's there was an old bottle type consumer unit in our rural derelict cottage - looked totally unsafe and I had bought over a brand new Wylex consumer box fitted with MCB's and an ELCB from where I worked ... looking back its was a stupid thing to do , but money was tight and it was going to cost hundreds for an electrician to fit the consumer box so (because the ESB large bakelite fuse had a tamper proof wire thing on it) I got a large screwdriver with thick insulation - wore some thick soled wellies , got up on a wooden ladder and very carefully took out the live conducter holding its insulation with a pair of insulated pliers and put it into the Wylex box double pole mains switch, it would have been like watching someone disconnect the right wires for a bomb and as I said it was a pretty stupid dangerous thing to do - I realise I could have got the 230v or it could have taken out the ESB fuse with a big bang but anyway thats the craic thats what I did . when it was wired up theres a couple of times the breakers tripped (one when there was a fault on a washing machine we had an another on a faulty light switch) and a time when damp got into an outdoor light fitting - and I was quite pleased because I rather that happened on a consumer box with ELCB and MCB's - I dont think there were any regulations in them days , if they were they were no way as strict as todays regulations and you certainly didnt have to get a qualified electrician to wire up the place or put in extra sockets or anything any old handyman to wire up stuff like lights and switches without certificates .. well especially in rural Ireland. I dont know what it was like other areas. it was like a different era back then - I dont even think back in the 90's Ireland were even using MCB's I think they were still bottle fuses , albeit not in china/porcelain but in white plastic .. but still.
We had to get ESB man out once where I had to call them because I was getting shocks off the guttering - the ESB had hooked up the electrics to the cottage and instead of putting the wires from the pole onto a stand off bracket on a gable wall they just joined up the cable and put insulation tape around them then laid them in the gutter - of course when it was raining or moist air the whole guttering became live
anyway an ESB bloke came out to fit whole new tails straight to the consumer box from the consumer box to the wooden pole without joins in it - and when he come around he looked at the wylex box and just said "where's that fusebox from?, not seen one like that before" - oh our electrician who fitted it got it from the UK I said - ah right he said and just continued to wire up the tails to the mains switch on the consumer board and that was that ! - we were in that house for over 10 years anyway and everything was grand .. most probably a lot safer with MCB's and ELCB than other old cottages which still had the bottle fuse type units.0 -
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