Is it meant to do this?

[cripster]

I'm in the kitchen making an ovenhousing. The wife is upstairs with the boy. Wife says to boy "Shower time". Boy goes in to bathroom, wife turns shower on. I'm still in the kitchen and am aware of a flash, I put it down to car headlights going past my kitchen window. Few seconds later the wife shouts "For cooking chips! the showers stopped!". I go up to investigate and indeed the shower has stopped. I check pull cord and notice no neon light. I go back downstairs. I go through the kitchen/garage door and am aware of a burning smell. I locate shower fuse box and find this.... ... I have been told that existing cable is too small for a shower. I have replaced wire with 10mm. I have also been told as new cable constitutes a new install I now need to have an 'RCBO' fitted to conform with 'part p'. How do I know or could someone suggest a decent 'RCBO'. AND does this mean I need a new fuse box or does new 'RCBO' negate the need? Shower is a Showerforce 10.4 (10.4kw)... If it still works. I must add that whie disconnecting 'old' cable from pullcord end, I noticed that the insulation had disintergrated and I guess thats what shorted out causing minor explosion.

Cheers

Cripster

P.S. I'm just doing the 'donkey work' a sparky mate will connect and test and certify the dangerous stuff.

 

[Robson689]

You would be better off getting an electrician in. Fitting an RCBO means you would have to have that little fuse box replaced because the RCBO's are mounted on a DIN rail. In answer to your title, no, it isn't meant to do that

 

[Silly Sausage]

Crisper (appropriate name )

For cooking chips!


Love it!

 

[Engineer54]

That's been burning for some time by the looks of it that hasn't just happened with a single flash!! The flash you saw, was the final straw and took the fuse apart!!

The cable feeding the Switch fuse is visibly undersized and the cable leaving the switch fuse is even smaller...lol!! Do you really need an answer to your thread title?? lol!!

 

[cripster]

Nope. It happend in a flash. I'd been in and out the garage all day and everything was hunky dory. The cable feeding the switch actually comes from the 'in feed' of another fuse box next to the switch. You recommend that be changed too then?

 

[cripster]

To give you the 'whole picture' as it were. Here is the 'whole picture'. Please excuse the mess but we did have a minor explosion! ...



(The fuse thats missing is for the cooker... thats a whole new thread for a later date )

Oh, and the 'explosion' actually knocked the box off the wall, I put it back to take the photo :/

 

[Engineer54]

Nope. It happend in a flash. I'd been in and out the garage all day and everything was hunky dory. The cable feeding the switch actually comes from the 'in feed' of another fuse box next to the switch. You recommend that be changed too then?

I can assure you, it didn't happen in a single flash!!, And it wasn't all hunky dory before that flash either!!


Get yourself a Double Pole RCBO and enclosure to replace the burnt out switch fuse!!

 

[Silly Sausage]

Re your questions, can't tell without being there.
Must have been one hell of a bang!
Had a cable spontaneously blow up under my hall floor once, could see the flash in the next room through the floorboard gaps and the noise...!!!

 

[cripster]

Ummm... I was here. It did.

 

[High Tower]

E54 is trying to say that this was probably sizzling away quite nicely within the CU for some time, and no you wouldn't notice it, because most people never do, the amount that i see where i pop the cover off boards and something is burnt, no one is ever the wiser. and it would have been fine earlier, because you wernt using the shower.

I would replace both of the boards with a new CU for peace of mind for you and your family, you probably don't need to worry about the one on the left as id guess that's for storage heaters.

 

[Silly Sausage]

Tidy that garage up as well.
Electricians hate working in mess!

 

[High Tower]

No not at all, i love climbing over other peoples junk like a bloody baboon

 

[cripster]

Ah, Roger! There was never a cover over the fuse and it's right next to entrance into kitchen. Hence why I said what I said.

 

[cripster]

Blimey!! Has my Dad just walked in?!

 

[High Tower]

Ah, Roger! There was never a cover over the fuse and it's right next to entrance into kitchen. Hence why I said what I said.

No i mean the main cover that covers all of the guts, this burning almost certainly started at one of the terminals.

 

[cripster]

Oh and thanks... Thats all what I basically wanted to know. Thanks High Tower!

 

[cripster]

No i mean the main cover that covers all of the guts, this burning almost certainly started at one of the terminals.

Ah. Sense is in the making. Do you think sizzling due to underated cable or lack of insulation discoverd inside pullcord... or just old, tired cable. House was built in T'70's.

 

[High Tower]

undersized cable
Oversized Fuse
Loose terminations
Over expanded terminal jaws

Could be any of the above, hence i said change both of the boards

 

[shagbite]

conversation i had with a builder today went something like this...............



you can't put that shower in the bathroom.

why not?

because it's 10.8kw and your cable's only 6 mill' squared.

so what?

so you need a bigger cable or a smaller shower.

why?

because the shower you've got has a FLC of over 45A, and your cable is only rated at 38A.

it'll be alright.

no it won't.

'course it will.

well, why did you ask me then?

because i wanted your advice.

so why are you arguing with me then?

i'm not, you're just wrong. everyone knows a shower's wired in 6mm cable.

see you later.

 

[Silly Sausage]

Was the builder your wife?