ring main circuits

Emptur.

I used to fit them when I worked domestic

Gone off them now for that application

Radials safer with all the unfused spurring and cowboys splitting them at the distribution board

NickNickleby

kramer1 wrote: »

Should be, but come across some real cowboy stuff out there

hehehe...
years ago I had my board replaced by an electrician I got off the Golden pages. Great. No more searching the drawers for replacement fuses. He also added an ELCB, a safety measure I hadn't heard of before. So, I'm in work and Mrs N. rings me to say the jobs done and should she pay him. Is everything working - yes - ok pay him.

20 mins later, MrsN rings to say she walked into the ensuite and as soon as she switched on the light it went off, and then the alarm went off. So I'm miles away, so I tell her to turn off the ensuite light, reset the alarm and then open the fuseboard door and reset the ELCB, whereupon everything is working again. Oh, and stay out of the ensuite.

So, I got home and did a bit of looking around. Turns out that the ensuite installation needed power for the light/low voltage shower transformer and fan. This was all controlled from a single light switch on the wall of the ensuite. The live was taken from the ring socket and the neutral was cut into the upstairs lighting. I haven't described the full horror of what I found in the attic, but you get my drift. All this was done by a well known Bathroom Showroom (should have included the word "expensive" there:eek:).

And to think, I was worried about the use of rings in my house :pac::pac::pac:.

Edit: great stuff being discussed here folks. I'm always interested in how things should be done properly, and this is a very good place to find out. BTW, should any of you be lucky enough to do the rewiring in my house, don't worry, I'm not the type that hovers and questions every move. Although its easy to see how one might get that impression from some of my posts :-) .

Emptur.

Re-reading the above there's a REC and a Shower Installer at fault probably

"Erroneous Connection between circuits" I think it falls under, a REC should spot it

NeuralNetwork

It’s also very easy to do if you don’t know what you’re doing.

If you take the installation in my house it’s a maze of wires arriving back at the distribution board, not all of which would make much sense unless you were extremely forensic in how you approached it.

Lighting circuits in particular often used singles and common neutrals. It’s very easy to accidentally cross connect two circuits and still have power flowing.

Pre tightening of the control of works, you could find lots of cowboy stuff out there.

The worst I’ve encountered in my own house:

1) Time clock in central heating wired in such a way that the metal chassis was live!

2) Bathroom mirror light installed by twisting wires together, wrapping in tape and burying in the plaster. That has been done by a bathroom installer in the mid 80s and didn’t electrocute anyone or cause a fire and was only discovered in 2014.

3) utterly weird installation of low voltage lighting that melted the 12V cables supplying 8 spots in the kitchen. Looked like clueless DIY work - there was a fused switched spur supplying a 12V transformer. This was connected to the lighting circuit, in a 10A MCB - no idea why the spur was used. The lights were wired with .75mm2 flex and the first time I noticed it was when lights failed. Went to the attic to find this kludge and melted wires. The wires had melted in “choc box” connectors, which at least contained the issue, but that’s what you get when you ignore ohms law! Luckily the transformer tripped out without causing a fire but, just shows the kind of stuff people think is ok.

4) When replacing the kitchen found the cabinets were screwed though T&E in conduit in the plaster behind them feeding sockets... lovely live screw!

Bruthal.

kramer1 wrote: »

I know none of this should happen as nobody but a rec should be near a fuse board and a rec should have enough sense to test while changing one bit I've seen it a few times

Thankfully, the non RECs are confined to the much simpler industrial DBs where they cant do any damage with their lack of DB
skills:)

kramer1

Bruthal. wrote: »

Thankfully, the non RECs are confined to the much simpler industrial DBs where they cant do any damage with their lack of DB
skills:)

Yep. Utter nonsense.

Emptur.

kramer1 wrote: »

Yep. Utter nonsense.

Most of em don't even understand the readings they're getting

If it wasn't for the newer digital displays they'd be totally lost