Is This Bad Parenting?

[OnlQQker]

So my son purchased a house. I look around it with him some months ago and noted the electrics needed sorting.
Old consumer unit (wired fuse type) no RCD protection and cables coming into from rooms in the house that look like lead?

House is 1910's



Anyway he does not want to get an electrician in, he's decided it's to expensive and he would rather save his money to buy these stupid computer games, and all this other crud they seem hell bent wasting their money on.

So, he has asked me to tell him how to do it and he'll do the rest. I mean like draw it all out and give him an instruction manual to follow, similar to what you get with an Ikea cabinet when you're putting it together.
So I told him I am not qualified and can't sign it off. But that does not seem to bother him.

SO

I own a KT63 tester, I've never used it on the 1000v ir setting yet.
I'm thinking of asking him to hold both ends as part of his electrical course and then belt out 1000v
Now I know this sort of thing goes on in college because I have spoke to many electrician who has done this, as well as having it done to them.

I know they all lived to tell the tale, where they might not of if that had been a belt from household electrics.
This would certainly give him the first lesson of 'don't mess around with something you don't understand'

But I guess I'm asking parents in the Electrical world if this is the right approach? Otherwise I'm stumped and he moves in tomorrow?

How do you explain to people just how deadly electrics can be without showing them?

It's a pain you can't describe and one that flows though your body like a million red hot knives!

 

[telectrix]

give him 500V as a taster. first. and, most important. save lengths of the lead sheathed cable and their associated junction boxes as possible.i know Lucien wants some forhis mouseum. maybe work with him to do the rewire.

 

[littlespark]

When I was at college it was an old windy up megger.
Everyone got a chance to hold the leads, and the tutor would slowly build up the speed until the leads fell out the now pins and needles filled fingers….

then there was the guys he didn’t like much in the class….. they got full speed, full voltage straight away!

As far as your son is concerned, would someone on the forum be nearby to give them a realistic quote??

 

[Dave OCD]

I used to tell people you could measure your body resistance with the old megger, I'd hold the ends first with the dial set to ohms, then when it was their turn the dial would be very sneakily turned to the 500v setting. ?

 

[streamer]

When I was at college it was an old windy up megger.
Everyone got a chance to hold the leads, and the tutor would slowly build up the speed until the leads fell out the now pins and needles filled fingers….

then there was the guys he didn’t like much in the class….. they got full speed, full voltage straight away!

As far as your son is concerned, would someone on the forum be nearby to give them a realistic quote??

Was that Yoda AKA Kenny Redpath? I remember the same thing!

 

[Mikegh]

I used to tell people you could measure your body resistance with the old megger, I'd hold the ends first with the dial set to ohms, then when it was their turn the dial would be very sneakily turned to the 500v setting. ?

When I was training had a mate that would grab hold of the line conductor upstairs in a domestic installation

I would put the phase tester on his arm and it would light up

 

[catdog1121]

We had megger insulation resistance testers at college where you could lock it on. You always had to check some bugger didn't lock it on as they passed you the tester.

My lecturer setup a fair game with the buzzer thing where you had to take a loop from one side of the maze to the other, but you had one side connected to your wrist and the loop was in your other hand both were connected to the insulation resistance tester and if you touched the wire with the loop then you got a belt...

Ask him if he would pilot a 747 on his next holiday or perform surgery on a friend or family... When he says no ask him why not... His response will likely be he doesnt know how, then say so why do you think its ok to rewire your house. Electricity is dangerous.

If he wants to save money work with an electrician, I at least hate chasing in boxes and am happy to mark out where I want a box and get the customer to chase it in and chase the cable route. He can also lift floorboards etc to get access. You can save yourself quite a lot of money doing the donkey work, just let the sparky run in the cables, do all the connections and test etc. You can do the capping and plaster.

 

[littlespark]

Was that Yoda AKA Kenny Redpath? I remember the same thing!

Yeh, that’s the fella…. Didn’t know he had that nickname.

 

[pc1966]

Make it interesting for him, get him to spot as many codes as he can in the BPG#4 booklet just be walking around and inspecting stuff that does not require any dismantling.

 

[Marvo]

Put it in language he understands. Tell him that without an electrical check and RCD not being installed it will cause surge damage to his play station and his internet speeds and latency will be bad.

 

[Rockingit]

When I was at college it was an old windy up megger.
Everyone got a chance to hold the leads, and the tutor would slowly build up the speed until the leads fell out the now pins and needles filled fingers….

then there was the guys he didn’t like much in the class….. they got full speed, full voltage straight away!

As far as your son is concerned, would someone on the forum be nearby to give them a realistic quote??

We used to do similar with an HT generator where one person would hold the +ve, another the -ve and then link hands around the room, waiting poised either side of the door to pounce on the unsuspecting victim who got to make the chain when they walked in.

 

[Zerax]

You haven't mentioned the age of your son, nor how big he is... so is he too old for a smacked bottom ?? In Blackadder parlance... "six of the best, trousers down"

 

[Intoelectrics]

I used to tell people you could measure your body resistance with the old megger, I'd hold the ends first with the dial set to ohms, then when it was their turn the dial would be very sneakily turned to the 500v setting. ?

I worked with a fella who would happily hold onto the ends of the leads and receive the 1000v test, It didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. I asked him what he felt, he just said it was a bit tingly and warm feeling.

 

[FatAlan]

Kids never listen to their parents. Point him in the direction of YouTube and tell him to start with safe isolation ? When it all goes wrong he’ll come running.

 

[westward10]

I worked with a fella who would happily hold onto the ends of the leads and receive the 1000v test, It didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. I asked him what he felt, he just said it was a bit tingly and warm feeling.

I do this once the initial jolt has passed you don't really feel anything.

 

[Mike Johnson]

You should give your son all the help he needs IMO he is your flesh and blood, don't even attempt to burn it, these days called bullying.

 

[FatAlan]

I have a brilliant dad, from a generation used to doing and fixing everything for themselves out of necessity. Helped me a lot with diy on my first house purchases and car maintenance. I remember having a manky old up and over garage door with a broken lock. When he saw it he said, I think I have a replacement lock that he’d kept from an old door he’d replaced years previously. Next time he visited he swapped it over. He’s just turned 80.

 

[telectrix]

I have a brilliant dad, from a generation used to doing and fixing everything for themselves out of necessity. Helped me a lot with diy on my first house purchases and car maintenance. I remember having a manky old up and over garage door with a broken lock. When he saw it he said, I think I have a replacement lock that he’d kept from an old door he’d replaced years previously. Next time he visited he swapped it over. He’s just turned 80.

my old man was just the same. he'd even straighten bent nails for re-use whenever. whittled bits of scrap wood for wall plugs, main concern was he'd not pay for an oil change on his car till the big ends started to rattle.

 

[FatAlan]

my old man was just the same. he'd even straighten bent nails for re-use whenever. whittled bits of scrap wood for wall plugs, main concern was he'd not pay for an oil change on his car till the big ends started to rattle.

Yep. Back in the late 70s my dads aluminium greenhouse was destroyed during a storm. He was able to claim for a new one on insurance. His dad, my grandfather, had just retired and moved in to a place just up the road. He came and collected all the twisted bits of frame, straightened them out and rebuilt it in his garden!

 

[OnlQQker]

Thanks for all of the replies. I have took them all on board and been over at his new house most of today.

It needs totally modernizing throughout, even the C/H piping and boiler. I've turned that off because when the boiler was lit their is a smell of Gas. Nothing in and outside of the house has been touched for years.
I had to do the same for my daughter with her first house. Took the staircase out at her newly purchased home and rebuilt it in such a way it put another bedroom upstairs, and made the downstairs kitchen big enough to get 4 people in afterwards. Before all of that work it was a one bedroom cluster with a one person kitchen and the biggest spiral staircase I had ever seen.

God knows what the architects were thinking?

Anyway after I did the house up for not much cost to her whatsoever, and supply half of the building materials, she then sold it for £45k profit, purchased another house and waits for me to do the same again.

I said, 'hold your horses' I owe your brother the same first.

My old man did nothing for me ever, all except for serious unconscious beatings from the age of 3 upwards. I think I've mentioned before he was very high up in a Building company as well as the church, I guess I embarrassed him because I would not follow in his footsteps, and be the big successful man
that he was, and rip off people to provide the lavish lifestyle that I grew up in myself as a kid.
Luckily though my mum was from the roughest area I have ever seen even to this day, and she grew up with absolutely zilch. Heating bricks up on an open fire, wrapping them in a towel and using it as a hot water bottle when she was growing up. I guess I carry her genes more.

It's had its price though, because for the last good few years I am classed as homeless, I don't have an address, this can and does make things difficult.
I could live with the kids, but that wouldn't be fair on them as they are just starting out in life, and having me there wouldn't exactly be easy for them. Neither of them can cook for a start off, let alone me going completely Gaga staring at cartoon like characters on a TV that they are controlling with a controller. I'd much rather just go live in the woods. Or climb Everest in a pair of Speedo's come to think of it. Anything but those computer games.

But their mum has been as good as gold since I did our daughters house up so where it all goes from here is anybody's guess.

Again thanks for all of the replies, their really are some decent people on this website and I know I go off topic every now and then, but the advice from here is solid. All of the Electricians I have met on site when younger were the only type of people that would ever talk to me.

I guess they saw the rock and the hard place I was between, because every trade and sub contractor was working for my Dad. And most of the trades could not stick me, and that's understandable now I'm older and can work it out.
But at the time it was a living hell.

SO, my son will not be touching the electrics, I've told him I had written about all of this on an electrical forum and the electricians on the forum do have the power to turn the whole house off from the main grid, therefore not only will he not be able to play his silly computer games, but he also wont be able to watch TV, have a shower, or use the outside light to see where to put his key in the door when it is dark.

I believe he has listened to me, otherwise I will have to go and locate that magic fairy main fuse puller.

I don't think it will go that far, but just in case, that's my plan....

Thanks again for all of the replies everybody!

If the mods want to close this thread because it doesn't really fit in with the main page topics then I fully understand, thanks for leaving it up this long!