V
Videodoctor
Hi Guys, Have i been to a hum dinger of an installation today! Are we sitting comfortably then i'll begin.
An electrician i was talking to in the wholesalers mentioned that he was having trouble tracing a fault where there was 60 volts on the pipework and he was having trouble tracing it.I offered to go and take a look and went this morning.The property was built around 20 years ago and had the meters outside in a cupboard with the tails feeding through to a 60amp metal clad switch fuse on the other side of the wall.From there it fed out to a consumer unit in the middle area of the house.
When we got to the property ,i took the consumer unit lid off and tried to test for an earth.The tester showed that there was no earth present.Tucked away in the back of the cu was a thick grey cable that wasn't connected to anything.
At this point i turned my attention to the switch fuse near the mains.I took off the lid and this is what i was confronted with.
There was a 6mm grey yellow from the meter cupboard.It was NOT connected to the switch fuse,instead it connected to a 1.5mm earth cable of a trailing socket that was lying on the floor.If this wasn't bad enough they had the 2.5mm red and black on the incoming side of the switch fuse so there was no way of turning it off and the only thing protecting it was the 100amp main fuse!.
Due to the earth wire not being connected at this end or the cu end would explain why he had 60 volts to neutral. He told me that he had been called because the customer was getting a shock off everything in the house.He told me he had found the fault that was causing this but was now unsure as to why there was still 60 volts instead of 240 volts!.
At this point i seriously doubted this so called electricians technical knowledge.I asked him why he hadn't loop tested anything and he said he didn't have a loop tester.He was using a volt meter to probe between neutral and earth hence why he told me he had 60 volts showing.Words fail me as to the incompetence of this man.
Anyway i set about correcting the faults.I pulled a 16mm green yellow through from the meter cupboard to replace the 6mm.The socket tails and earth were removed from the installation and the 16mm connected to the earth terminal on the metal switch fuse.At the other end in the consumer unit,green/yellow tape was wrapped around the grey cable and fastened securly into the earth bar.
I then did a Ze on the consumer unit earth bar and got a reading of 0.15 ohms.
I then carried out a IR on the circuits to make sure there were no faults present and carried out numerous other checks.Then went around checking the Zs on all metal fittings,sockets and switches and they all showed as being earthed.The other electrician asked if i could now probe across neutral and earth with his meter and to humour him i did.The voltage was now 0 volts as expected.
There doesn't seem to be any main water bonding or gas bonding and the lighting circuits are not rcd protected.I have recommended these to be done but as per usual the owner doesn't want to pay me anymore than he has to.
I have recommended that the bonding is done,the lighting circuits are put on RCBO's and a full EICR be carried out.I wait for his call with baited breath!
An electrician i was talking to in the wholesalers mentioned that he was having trouble tracing a fault where there was 60 volts on the pipework and he was having trouble tracing it.I offered to go and take a look and went this morning.The property was built around 20 years ago and had the meters outside in a cupboard with the tails feeding through to a 60amp metal clad switch fuse on the other side of the wall.From there it fed out to a consumer unit in the middle area of the house.
When we got to the property ,i took the consumer unit lid off and tried to test for an earth.The tester showed that there was no earth present.Tucked away in the back of the cu was a thick grey cable that wasn't connected to anything.
At this point i turned my attention to the switch fuse near the mains.I took off the lid and this is what i was confronted with.There was a 6mm grey yellow from the meter cupboard.It was NOT connected to the switch fuse,instead it connected to a 1.5mm earth cable of a trailing socket that was lying on the floor.If this wasn't bad enough they had the 2.5mm red and black on the incoming side of the switch fuse so there was no way of turning it off and the only thing protecting it was the 100amp main fuse!.
Due to the earth wire not being connected at this end or the cu end would explain why he had 60 volts to neutral. He told me that he had been called because the customer was getting a shock off everything in the house.He told me he had found the fault that was causing this but was now unsure as to why there was still 60 volts instead of 240 volts!.
At this point i seriously doubted this so called electricians technical knowledge.I asked him why he hadn't loop tested anything and he said he didn't have a loop tester.He was using a volt meter to probe between neutral and earth hence why he told me he had 60 volts showing.Words fail me as to the incompetence of this man.
Anyway i set about correcting the faults.I pulled a 16mm green yellow through from the meter cupboard to replace the 6mm.The socket tails and earth were removed from the installation and the 16mm connected to the earth terminal on the metal switch fuse.At the other end in the consumer unit,green/yellow tape was wrapped around the grey cable and fastened securly into the earth bar.
I then did a Ze on the consumer unit earth bar and got a reading of 0.15 ohms.
I then carried out a IR on the circuits to make sure there were no faults present and carried out numerous other checks.Then went around checking the Zs on all metal fittings,sockets and switches and they all showed as being earthed.The other electrician asked if i could now probe across neutral and earth with his meter and to humour him i did.The voltage was now 0 volts as expected.
There doesn't seem to be any main water bonding or gas bonding and the lighting circuits are not rcd protected.I have recommended these to be done but as per usual the owner doesn't want to pay me anymore than he has to.
I have recommended that the bonding is done,the lighting circuits are put on RCBO's and a full EICR be carried out.I wait for his call with baited breath!
