DIYers/Builders...when will it end

[Knobhead]

Walk into a food wholesalers as an unknown - not much chance of getting anything. Walk into an electrical wholesaler as an unknown, get what you want and probably some free advice to boot. Joke!

Good job I’ve got my public food hygiene and gas safe certificates.

 

[i=p/u]

soon as rcd hit the scenes , it started to go down hill, but do not rely on rcd as sole means of protection

 

[micknew]

All DIYers need to do is buy material from B&Q or an electrical wholesaler then ask questions on here.
Sparks on an ego trip will fall over themselves to answer their questions.

 

[piratebillybob]

B&Q need to give more advice and information not less.

the sale of electrical equipment to the public is never going to be "restricted" and there are always going to be "have a go" diy'ers who think they can do it.

So the best thing to do is to inform and educate without necessarily promoting.

All purchases of electrical equipment should be provided with information about the dangers of doing electrical diy, what they can and cant do as DIY. The legal implications and dangers if they go beyond their diy parameters

They should include simple "best practise guides" on electrical installation and some do's and donts.

Lights and sockets isnt rocket science. DIY electrics doesnt kill people, bad DIY electrics does.

And sure giving more information may deter some, encourage others but at least theyll (hopefully) be doing the job right when they do it.

 

[plugsandsparks]

What i say to my customers is " you have to be unlucky to die from an electric shock at 240V" its the fires that kill you.
What i have seen cause fires is equipment failing, getting very hot but the breakers still pumping juice into the load until it gets so hot it catches fire. Then eventually the wiring gets burned and the breaker pops but the fire is already going.
Thats why i am a big fan of RCDs, even though they are a pain, not because it reduces the chance of an electric shock but simply it should trip long before a fire is even brewing.
And guess what the number of times i come across breakers larger than the current carrying capacity of the cable and what the load needs is way too common and quite mis-understood in terms of what happens when the load is faulty.
Let B&Q sell RCDs and CUs, the more out there the better and i've just ordered a new swanky clamp meter for testing these beasts so more work for me.

 

[D80]

Thing is mate
DIY electrics, as in, buying a few sockets and doing electrical work in your home would be comparible to buying a few sausages from the supermarket and cooking them in your home. If you are at a food wholsaler, it is almost certainly not gonna be for personal use, whereas an elec wholesaler it could well be.
And if elec wholsalers started being gay about who they sell to, people would just buy stuff off the net, and the wholesalers will suffer.
It would be near impossible to blanket control the sale of elec goods

It will never ever ever happen.
Why?
Not enough people are dying.

Sockets are one thing, Part Pee is supposed to be law. You can buy a socket to replace an existing, or bluff as such and add another. Consumer Units need notification, unless you want to tell me they are at all likely to be used in a non domestic environment.

If you want to DIY it badly enough you will get the gear. But it shouldn't be as freely available, from sheds to wholesalers, complete with guides and (bad) advice. It may be only a matter of time before we see an Asda smart price consumer unit, there is a gap in the market for it!
You don't need to be a chef to cook a dinner at home, nor do you need anything other than a pan and an oven. To fit a CU you need the equipment to test after install! And if England and Wales need to notify the job, something you don't need to do if you cook a turkey dinner with all the trimmings at home. More folk probably die of food poisoning than electrocution, but no law or regulations govern cooking at home.

 

[D80]

B&Q need to give more advice and information not less.

the sale of electrical equipment to the public is never going to be "restricted" and there are always going to be "have a go" diy'ers who think they can do it.

So the best thing to do is to inform and educate without necessarily promoting.

All purchases of electrical equipment should be provided with information about the dangers of doing electrical diy, what they can and cant do as DIY. The legal implications and dangers if they go beyond their diy parameters

They should include simple "best practise guides" on electrical installation and some do's and donts.

Lights and sockets isnt rocket science. DIY electrics doesnt kill people, bad DIY electrics does.

And sure giving more information may deter some, encourage others but at least theyll (hopefully) be doing the job right when they do it.

Regarding likes of a CU - they should simply advise if you ain't a spark, you ain't getting it.

If you can't replace a socket or do likes of 2 way lighting without a guide - then you shouldn't be getting the accessories you need to do the task. Nowt to do with keeping sparks in work, they will obviously get the repair work that is obvious (if CPC etc has fallen out of back of socket, it may be too late then!).

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Regarding likes of a CU - they should simply advise if you ain't a spark, you ain't getting it.

If you can't replace a socket or do likes of 2 way lighting without a guide - then you shouldn't be getting the accessories you need to do the task. Nowt to do with keeping sparks in work, they will obviously get the repair work that is obvious (if CPC etc has fallen out of back of socket, it may be too late then!).

wont happen though....free trade n all that...and the right to trade n all......the foundations of this country were built on it......our whole society is based on it.....

 

[D80]

What's it got to do with free trade? Unless letting a builder masquerade as a spark is part of free trade.

I can't get a job as a solicitor cause, well I ain't a solicitor. That's nowt to do with free trade, its about being bloody qualified in your industry.

If anything Part Pee is an infraction on free trade! Only in Part Pee is a 5 week wonder deemed competent whereas a time served long serving commercial / industrial spark deemed not so!

 

[Andy78]

This thread has prompted me to look at the electrical section in my B&Q "you can do it" book that someone bought me once. Interesting reading that's for sure. There seems to be just enough arse covering to get away with what they are encouraging people to do. Some of it's bloody awful though. Their guide to replacing a broken socket for eg. Isolate circuit and double check with a plug in socket tester. Use a socket tester on a broken socket to check for dead ? really ?