Nightmare of a day. RCD tripiing under any load

[brizospark]

No it is for electricians to help each other. Not for people who are lazy to carry out work and expect the interweb to help them when the brown stuff hits the fan.

Just out of curiosity will you carry out a global IR on the next DB change that you have to do?

So was that not the case with this post you tw@?

 

[Plonker 3]

So you are happy to get a reptation for someone who looks for extra work after the event rather than taking a extra half an hour carrying out a bit of work and pass on your findings to the customer before hand?

You dont have to tell them what you have found, just that there will be remedial work required due to your test results.

 

[Plonker 3]

So was that not the case with this post you tw@?

Swearing makes you look like the kind of person who got the response he deserves on this thread.

 

[sima24]

BRizospark did you get to the bottom of the fault in the end?

 

[Marvo]

Yes. Customer is told before that if any problems / faults found they will be charged at £40 ph. This is verbal when quoting and written on quote in black and white. Im not testing on a quote, as far as im concerned if i pick up my tester then im working, and unless the customer would like to pay for a test before then im not doing it.

So what do you do if the customer is on a budget and doesn't have any extra funds. You install the new CU without testing and there's RCD tripping issues, do you just leave them without power, disconnect the new RCD's or put the old CU back in?

 

[dazza1981]

Is a borrowed neutral generally when its been wired in singles?
Im qualified but mainly done new builds since i qualified so i have never come across it.......yet!!!
Thanks

 

[Guitarist]

So was that not the case with this post you tw@?

No need for name-calling.

 

[sima24]

So you are happy to get a reptation for someone who looks for extra work after the event rather than taking a extra half an hour carrying out a bit of work and pass on your findings to the customer before hand?

You dont have to tell them what you have found, just that there will be remedial work required due to your test results.

Again, customer told before hand. An extra half hour on every cu quote, im running a business. I tell every cu change customer that remedial work might be required as until its tested its not clear. I see no difference with any other trade, mechanic is not going to spend half hour of their time for free diagnosing my van before giving a quote. My dentist wont give me a free half hour checkup before a quote for a filling the list goes on.
No disrespect if you do as i said, each to their own but i dont think im doing anything wrong by not working for free

 

[brizospark]

Yeah fault was damaged cable at JB under floor

 

[wersolaruk]

Did u find it anyhow?

 

[brizospark]

Is a borrowed neutral generally when its been wired in singles?
Im qualified but mainly done new builds since i qualified so i have never come across it.......yet!!!
Thanks

Daz a not necessarily a borrowed neutral is where a neutral has been taken from a different circuit to the live. Common in lighting circuits.

 

[brizospark]

As above damaged cable at JB under floor solarman

 

[davethsparky]

So you guys who don't bother testing are happy to give the customer a surprise when the bill doubles at the end of the job?

I don't generally test at the time of quoting, I do test before taking the old CU to pieces though.
I always advise the client that there may be faults in the system and that I will quote seperately to fix them if necessary. But I will fix little faults and things like borrowed neutrals without charging the client any extra. I usually allow a bit of extra time on the job to cover these things and if I finish much quicker than expected with no faults to fix then I will knock a bit off of the bill to reflect this.

 

[Dubbo]

Even if if you didn't test before changing board, that's the risk you take, but shouldn't you have found the faulty circuit during dead tests? Don't think it's very professional just powering up without testing and what readings do you put on your cert?

 

[trev]

Dubbo, if you're the kind of bloke that powers up without testing you're not the kind of bloke that issues certs mate.

 

[brizospark]

So how the hell do you quote for work, find out if bonding is upto scratch, what size DB to take to the job?

As previously stated I carry out a visual

 

[Guitarist]

I think that we all accept the fact that there may be additional issues arise when we actually start the job. The point here though, is that for the sake of 10 mins of basic testing (which also lets the customer get to know you), you have a much better idea of what could possibly bite you when it comes to doing the job. This gives the customer a much better idea of whether they can afford to have the work done, plus gives you a much better idea of how much time to allocate the job.

 

[Plonker 3]

So you visit the property at least once, a visual inspection of the bonding doesn't normally mean anything, I have come across several times cables connected either end only to find they have merely stuffed a cable into a cavity to make it look like it is there.

 

[brizospark]

So you visit the property at least once, a visual inspection of the bonding doesn't normally mean anything, I have come across several times cables connected either end only to find they have merely stuffed a cable into a cavity to make it look like it is there.

This gets checked as I am carrying out job. By the sounds of it you are doing most of the work before you have even quoted Dillby

 

[brizospark]

Even if if you didn't test before changing board, that's the risk you take, but shouldn't you have found the faulty circuit during dead tests? Don't think it's very professional just powering up without testing and what readings do you put on your cert?

I would agree that under most conditions that powering up before testing isnt right but on a domestic CU change where there are no circuits added/altered and everything was functional before then like Dr Pepper says the worst that can happen is a tripped RCD, as in this instance, the fault was rectified. This is getting boring now!