Board change!!

[Skyba]

Hi, I don't do a lot of domestic stuff but I'm going to do a board change for a friend. They want a new board but in and they currently have an old re-wireable 4 way board which has been massively overloaded and resulted in one of the fuses exploding into pieces.

This is all well and good but I'm going to need to get an isolator fitted as by the looks of it he has a smart meter but thu didn't fit an isolator, also there's not enough room for the board to go where it is so its beig moved to the other side of the wall it's on which may require extending some legs etc.
also I have a feeling there will be no bonding so this is going to need to be sorted out.

problem is he has lots of tropical fish tanks and some of them can't be turned off for more than a couple of hours.

Would you just get the board on and ready then just isolate the board and try and get that ring in and the board powered up ASAP and then prepare everything else before isolating and finishing off or would you just price up for the cost of a small genie?


So with the bonding I'm right in thinking I can put the bonding for gas and water all on the same conductor ?

 

[telectrix]

rig up a temp. socket , RCD and MCB direct off the meter while you are working. plug in fish tanks on extension lead. you also will have facility to charge drills etc. you can use 1 bonding conductor for both gas and water as long as it's continuous.

 

[Engineer54]

As Tel suggested, use a temporary board set up, it's normal practice for rewires, and just as good in this situation!! Tropical fish by the way, can survive without the tank heater being on for much, much longer than 2 hours!!

 

[Skyba]

As Tel suggested, use a temporary board set up, it's normal practice for rewires, and just as good in this situation!! Tropical fish by the way, can survive without the tank heater being on for much, much longer than 2 hours!!

Apparently not some of his, they're not jus tropical fish he has about 8 tanks with certain types of fish in each. He has peranas and all sorts or wired fish worth lots of money.

Cheers for the advice, it's a handy tip which is so obvious and simple but then again as I don't do domestic as much I never really thought about it properly.
As I'm looking to do some more domestic work I'll probably buy a garage board to keep with me for this purpose

 

[Engineer54]

Apparently not some of his, they're not jus tropical fish he has about 8 tanks with certain types of fish in each. He has peranas and all sorts or wired fish worth lots of money.

Cheers for the advice, it's a handy tip which is so obvious and simple but then again as I don't do domestic as much I never really thought about it properly.
As I'm looking to do some more domestic work I'll probably buy a garage board to keep with me for this purpose

Let's hope he's never subject to a power cut, that lasts over 2 hours then ...lol!!

I've kept tropical fish in both UK and overseas, never had a problem with long power cuts etc, killing off the fish!! Not that i'm anything of an expert of tropical fish mind!! lol!!

 

[DPG]

If they're wired fish, make sure you test them properley. Daz

 

[Skyba]

Very funny, I posted from my iPhone lol.


*weird

 

[Guest55]

As Tel suggested, use a temporary board set up, it's normal practice for rewires, and just as good in this situation!! Tropical fish by the way, can survive without the tank heater being on for much, much longer than 2 hours!!

but they wont last that without air flow from the mini pump ;-)
although youre right about the heater , tank temp will stay stable for a good 3 hrs.

 

[Engineer54]

but they wont last that without air flow from the mini pump ;-)
although youre right about the heater , tank temp will stay stable for a good 3 hrs.

As i said, never had a problem from losing fish due to longish power cuts. I suppose it depends on the types of fish your keeping, ...but i've had most of the common types and never been a problem!! A tiny tank may be a problem without oxygenation, but the bigger tanks will/should have more than enough reserve of diluted oxygen for a good few hours...

 

[wildgoose]

If the lights go out do those nasty Piranas eat all the other unsuspecting fish?

 

[Skyba]

As i said, never had a problem from losing fish due to longish power cuts. I suppose it depends on the types of fish your keeping, ...but i've had most of the common types and never been a problem!! A tiny tank may be a problem without oxygenation, but the bigger tanks will/should have more than enough reserve of diluted oxygen for a good few hours...

yeah his aren't your every day tropical fish, some of them are Fish that are found in the amazon they usually cost about £500-1000 each lol. The best he used to have was a vegetarian piraña, I went to school with his son and when we were kids we used to find it highly amusing feeding them whole grapes lol.

and no they don't eat anything as they are in their own tanks hence why he has about 8 large tanks.

 

[Des 56]

I know absolutely nothing about fish other than how to chew them

Vegetarian piranha fish ?
That has got to be akin to a Teetotal alcoholic

 

[72-van]

Just a thought coming from an IT background UPS are now quite reasonable especially if you pick up one with pooped batteries and change them over .I wouldnt imagine the load for a tank water heater and pump would be very high and the ups would keep the fishes swimming well during power cutz .

 

[telectrix]

a bit of wood about 8" x 6", RCD and a 20A MCB in enclosure feeding a double socket. feed with a yard or so of 6mm T/E.

 

[MDJ]

Not to try to get even more brownie points here LMAO, I have to add I am an aquarist haha, basically tropical fish will last a day or so without heat or power in a tank 20 gallons or more, if your worried wrap a towel around the tank and purchase a battery airstone to add oxygen to the water column, Cold water fish will last longer, the problem arrives with marine aquaria, a reef will stand 5-6 hours without heat and will not fair well without oxygen, again I would advise the customer to purchase battery airstones before cutting power, in saying that my reef has been cut off overnight before and all was well, a board change shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours to get to the stage where you can energise the sockets at least, make sure you get that circuit tested and live first. The main problem for all aquaria is ammonia poisioning, the biological filtration system may start to collapse after 12 hours if no power, I have a solution for that should the board take longer to change, however if it is the case then the op can consider himself dismissed :smilielol5:

My tank at 6 years old

it changes depending on what money I have haha

 

[onions1066]

If you don't do this work very often I wouldn't bother making a temp board up, if he gets on with his neighbour I'm sure they wouldn't mind you running an extension lead for a couple hours whilst you do the changeover.

 

[Geordie Spark]

yeah his aren't your every day tropical fish, some of them are Fish that are found in the amazon they usually cost about £500-1000 each lol. The best he used to have was a vegetarian piraña, I went to school with his son and when we were kids we used to find it highly amusing feeding them whole grapes lol.

and no they don't eat anything as they are in their own tanks hence why he has about 8 large tanks.

I thought Amazon was supposed to be cheap.

 

[FAA Greenie]

Hi, I don't do a lot of domestic stuff but I'm going to do a board change for a friend. They want a new board but in and they currently have an old re-wireable 4 way board which has been massively overloaded and resulted in one of the fuses exploding into pieces.QUOTE]

If the board is so overloaded that it's causing this to happen, changing it for another isn't going to solve this problem unfortunstely........

 

[Skyba]

Hi, I don't do a lot of domestic stuff but I'm going to do a board change for a friend. They want a new board but in and they currently have an old re-wireable 4 way board which has been massively overloaded and resulted in one of the fuses exploding into pieces.QUOTE]

If the board is so overloaded that it's causing this to happen, changing it for another isn't going to solve this problem unfortunstely........

It will, the reason for the overload was because some DIYer before he bought the house built an extension, they didn't have enough ways in the board so they took a bit of cable into a junction box and used it to feed the extra room, a shed in the garden, the garage and a shower in the bedroom. Hence the state of the fuse when someone decided to use it all at once.

 

[Skyba]

If you don't do this work very often I wouldn't bother making a temp board up, if he gets on with his neighbour I'm sure they wouldn't mind you running an extension lead for a couple hours whilst you do the changeover.

I'm hoping to do more work like this though, at the moment I'm working through blood sucking agencies and they're failing me at the moment, 5 weeks out and counting.