Orchard Electrical Services
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My Blog
Blog
Are Loose Connections Really That Serious?
Posted on April 23, 2015 at 10:43 AM |
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Very Dangerous Wiring
Posted on April 14, 2015 at 8:14 AM |
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How not to install a new consumer unit
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 5:53 AM |
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I was asked a couple of weeks ago to go and look at a house which the owners rent out. The fuse board was replaced late last year by someone employed by the management company handling the tenancy. The owners told me that they weren't happy with where the board had been sited, and would I take a look and give them my opinion? I met the client at the house and was shown the new consumer unit; I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry! As you can see, the board had been fixed extending beyond the edge of the ceiling, making it impossible to bring any cables into that side of the board. The installer had worked around this "small" problem by bringing extender cables out of the side and connecting them to the fixed wiring inside the steel box on the left. Quite apart from the whole thing being really unsightly, there were 12 connections - that's 24 individual wires - inside a box only four inches square. To say it was crowded in there is an understatement! That's far too many wires for safety, crammed into a small space, leaving aside the facts that more than one connection was loose and the metal box hadn't been connected to earth. I advised the client that the best option would be to reposition the consumer unit on the adjacent wall and this would almost certainly involve replacing it, given the holes which had been cut in it. I was given the go-ahead, and the finished result is shown here. Much tidier, and a great deal safer! To be honest, I can't really understand why the last guy did it that way in the first place. Not only would it have been obvious from the outset that it would be a mess, not to mention the safety concerns, but positioning the new board where he did must have made it a far more difficult job. |
I am furious
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 3:52 PM |
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I've just completed a job which, while extensive, should have been pretty straightforward. I say "should"; it would have been if the last electrician who worked on the house had been anywhere near competent. When I began work in the house, I found more safety issues than I like to think about. The two worst were; Seven (yes, SEVEN!) cables, including a cooker cable, all crammed inside a length of trunking that was only big enough for two or three at best. When I separated out the cables, the ones at the back were warm to the touch! Inside the consumer unit, I found three circuits connected into one breaker. That's bad enough but before I even put a screwdriver to the breaker, two of the live wires lifted straight out! To be honest, I'm actually amazed that the homeowners hadn't had a fire years ago. Things like this make me so angry, not to mention ashamed on behalf of every competent electrician out there. Things like this are the reason that Part P was introduced, and why you should always use an Approved Contractor. I wonder how many other bodge jobs the last guy perpetrated and how he sleeps at night? |
What are some people thinking?
Posted on October 3, 2012 at 7:00 AM |
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I was called
in recently to replace a couple of large fluorescent ceiling lights. When I
took the old fittings down, I found they'd been put up with ordinary
screws, just screwed into the plaster of the ceiling. These lights were
installed by a "professional". Five-foot fluorescent lights are heavy; how on
earth did they think the lights would stay up? My advice? If you're having ceiling lights put up, ask the installer how they're being secured. A good tradesman will be happy to answer your questions. |
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