Tell us about your faults!

[DNS]

in 2004 I was asked to install lighting and power in and on a large steel framed open sided farm building....usually I would have used plastic tube and singles but on this occasion opted to use multi core armoured as it would be quicker to install than tube...the job dragged on ,then was delayed for lambing and during this period the harmonisation of colour codes came into effect..this was a nightmare when it came to connection time as I now had brown, blue, black, white etc plus red, black, blue and yellow...all of which had to be allocated to various roles.....so allocating blue to a live role is not unusual.
As long as the conductor is properly marked, in this case with red tape...[/QUOTE


Yes I sleeved all wires with the appropriate colours, and wired it into an isolator instead of a JB with the appropriate label, I also sleeved all the wires at the shed end. I would have replaced it. but the concrete garage floor had been screeded over it. What makes it worrying is that none of the installation was protected with an RCD and the customer said he was thinking of adding some more sockets in his shed. Himself,,,, about 12 months ago.

 

[marcusone]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Called to a property where customer complained of a intermittent fish like smell in hallway. Had been like it for about 15 years but had recently got worse. Had tried all sorts to eliminate it including redecorating and new carpets to no avail. A friend said it could be "electrical wiring melting" and to get a man in. Carried out all the usual tests but no strange results all IR results fine. Sat in van and got on my laptop. Googled " fishy smell electrical" and someone had posted that certain manufactured pendant light fittings would smell fishy especially with 100w lamps in. Seemed a long shot but checked pendants at each end of hallway and sure enough "stinky". Seems hubby had also changed the low energy lamps back to filament lamps and increased them to 100w as his eyesight not to good. One very pleased customer and one enlightened electrician.

Something new every day !

 

[kingeri]

Went to a job this week, customer wanted new two additional sockets in kitchen. Had a look at CU, seemed like a fairly recent install with existing wiring kept in place (all red and black with some Imperial). Living room and kitchen circuits on separate MCBs. Living on a ring final in 7/029 with 32a breaker and kitchen on a 4mm radial on 25a breaker. Easy to trace all cables as run under in cellar. Turns out that the these 'two' circuits are in fact one....joined together with a length of 1.0mm between two back-to-back socket outlets. How? Why??? Showed customer he said the previous spark had told him about it but not done anything about it. I removed the length to split the circuits, tested all OK. Finally, I was then able to add the sockets.

 

[Knobhead]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Called to a property where customer complained of a intermittent fish like smell in hallway. Had been like it for about 15 years but had recently got worse. Had tried all sorts to eliminate it including redecorating and new carpets to no avail. A friend said it could be "electrical wiring melting" and to get a man in. Carried out all the usual tests but no strange results all IR results fine. Sat in van and got on my laptop. Googled " fishy smell electrical" and someone had posted that certain manufactured pendant light fittings would smell fishy especially with 100w lamps in. Seemed a long shot but checked pendants at each end of hallway and sure enough "stinky". Seems hubby had also changed the low energy lamps back to filament lamps and increased them to 100w as his eyesight not to good. One very pleased customer and one enlightened electrician.

Something new every day !

That is a clssic :laugh3:

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

That is a clssic :laugh3:

could have been an electric eel.....

 

[CIVILElectrics]

While carring out a rewire. I went through an Alarm cable going to the sounder. The sounder came on I tried swaping the fobb but did not work I had to disconnect the battery and turn off the mains to stop the sounding.
I will be looking at reconnecting it back this week after joining back the cable to smoke detector. it is an ADT brand. How do I go about reacivating it.
Thanks

 

[jpm646]

Called to a property where customer complained of a intermittent fish like smell in hallway. Had been like it for about 15 years but had recently got worse. Had tried all sorts to eliminate it including redecorating and new carpets to no avail. A friend said it could be "electrical wiring melting" and to get a man in. Carried out all the usual tests but no strange results all IR results fine. Sat in van and got on my laptop. Googled " fishy smell electrical" and someone had posted that certain manufactured pendant light fittings would smell fishy especially with 100w lamps in. Seemed a long shot but checked pendants at each end of hallway and sure enough "stinky". Seems hubby had also changed the low energy lamps back to filament lamps and increased them to 100w as his eyesight not to good. One very pleased customer and one enlightened electrician.

Something new every day !

What make pendants were they m8

 

[nickblake]

So hows this one for a fault the norm main switch RCD 100ma tripping and couldnt reset do the normal basic tests and located the fault to a circuit supplying the garage isolated the supply and carried out an insulation test 0.00 mm me thinks split the circuit where the SWA entered and tested the SWA all clear , cool supplies ok the garae had a twin metal clad socket for the power and then a fused spur for the lights so water in outside lights as its been a tad wet recently and yes lighting part of the circuit 0.00 meg cool tested sockets all ok , so split the lights 4 pir controlled lantern lights ,and internal flourescent lights so disconnected the outside lights and the inside lights tested ok , outside was 0.00 so its off with the fittings extecting water and no found mud yes the base of a fitting was full of mud !!! the fitting was fixed to a patio wall so i recon over the years has had water running into it and depositing soil into the fitting it was complete with wood lice and worms nice ,fitting off new fitting and hunky dory all tested out ok and working fine

 

[marcusone]

What make pendants were they m8

Sorry guys but no brand on them. Cheap and cheerful by the look of them. Customer thinks they were put up by previous owner prior to sale of home. I must say it was a really bad smell and terminals were sound. Just the black plastic surrounding contacts that stank.

 

[JeanGenie]

Not really a fault as such......
Went to a call out to investigate as to why a wall mounted kitchen fan wasn't working, on arrival see the fan and from it a piece of yt2 trunking comes out of the bottom leading to a switch. First thing I do is try the switch and the fan starts up straight the way. Customer says "I wondered what that switch did?" They'd lived there for years as well and hadn't thought about trying the switch which was located directly below it.
Some people deserve a £60 call out for 5 seconds work.

 

[Knobhead]

And no doubt you gave them a lift to the cash machine to ensure you got your cash!

 

[Engineer54]

Some people deserve a £60 call out for 5 seconds work.

It'll probably be a good many more years before they call an electrician again, at those sort of call-out charges!! No wonder then, why there are so many willing to take on their own DIY electrical repairs!!!

 

[Silly Sausage]

My mate rang me other day saying his tenant says the boiler has stopped working.
Wandered round, turned out to be one of the tenants had switched it off at the wall switch.
Easiest pint of Erdinger I've ever earned.

 

[JeanGenie]

It'll probably be a good many more years before they call an electrician again, at those sort of call-out charges!! No wonder then, why there are so many willing to take on their own DIY electrical repairs!!!

Unfortunately that's what some bigger companies charge as a call out fee, I would have only got an my hourly wage.

 

[Tonkatoy27]

The local secondary school we work at had a fire last night which gutted to technology workshops and damaged two art classrooms. Fire investigation seem to think it was caused by the flex feeding a CadCam machine. (computer controlled lathe thingy) presuming 2.5mm flex with 16amp plug. They reckon it ignited where the cable was bent at 90 degrees around a window frame. I don't think there is any way anyone could pick this up when testing as you are unlikley to insulation test a multi thousand pound bit of electronic kit. It would also be practically impossible to get a 90 degree bend out of a bit of 2.5mm flex. Thoughts anyone? I'll try and get some pictures later today.

 

[Tonkatoy27]

Cor, what a mess. Fire brigade reckon it was the 1.5mm flex about 6 inches from the 16amp plug. OK so it bent a bit tight on exit from the plug but considering the machine was off and hardly pulling any current I think it very unlikley the cable just combusted. 16amp plug was fitted under an original 20amp switch on a 20amp MCB. 2.5mm radial. Steel conduit to above ceiling level. Must be at least £100,000 of damage. Countless lathes, pillor drills, bandsaws etc let alone the £60,000 extraction system for mdf dust we wired up about 5 years ago. I'm just thankfull the place had a PIR last year by another company!

 

[LukeBuckaz]

Called out to heating not working. An ancient programmer was diagnosed by the plumber so he supplied a new one which I duly fitted. When re-energising the heating circuit I found the new timer display flashing. I tested between L-E, L-N, N-E. Found there was 100v between L-N. Removed the switched fused spur to find the same problem. Asked the tenant how long this had been going on and he explained he had only just moved in and the heating had never worked since. All of the accessories in the kitchen were brushed steel except what looked like a 20A DP switch. The old geezers son told me they had and electrician in to change the socket fronts but he had left this particular switch as it was a 6 way switch ??? I loosened off the front to find it was an old immersion heater switch which they had tapped off the outgoing to feed the heating. So when switched on this switch was feeding the heating AND immersion. Upon dismantling the switch I found they had not terminated the outgoing neutral properly. I ceased using this switch for the immersion and changed the switch for a switched fused spur and used it solely for the heating circuit.

any way as it turns out the heating was bodged and now needs turning into a proper S-plan which i will be doing over the next week.

 

[Tonkatoy27]

Am looking at upgrading the electrics to a new split board but just wondering what the best way to go about it would be? I am currently taking a testing and inspection course so that i can sign off my own work but would like any advice if possible.



By 'sign off your own work' I presume you mean conform with the requirements of Part P. Just so you don't drop a clanger, having a T & I qualification doesn't let you do this, paying for, registering and passing an assessment with the like of NICEIC, ELECSA or NAPPIT does.

RCBO's are ideal, but are trickier to fit in older boards and are much more expensive.

 

[Kamikaze]

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a proper blond moment but today I was trying to track down a trace heating fault. Cut the wire on a flange, then tested both ways. Went to the next flange in the direction of the fault. Cut the wire and tested both ways only to find the fault had completely disappeared. How can this be? Crawled back over the pipes to the last test point. Tested both ways again only to find the fault is still there. After some head scratching told to the pipe lagger it just doesn’t make any sense. To which he replied, “Does it matter that the other cut you have made is on a differed pipe?" Just have to explain to the gaffer on Tuesday that I will need not just a new length of trace heating cable but an extra jointing kit. He won't be too bothered unlike the individual that's going to get a roasting for damaging the cable. There will be our cost, the cost of the laggers for taking the stuff off and then putting it back on again later. Aooch, that’s gonna hurt in the wallet!

 

[DNS]

Any suggestions.. I was recently asked why the lights every now and again in their living room dim slightly then go back to normal several times and lights elsewhere in the property. Without seeing it for myself. I suggested a couple of maybes. Firstly check with the adjoining neighbour, see if they are getting the same problem. They are one the same supply phase. It may be that your getting slight fluctuations in voltage supply. Secondly there may be a loose connection somewhere in the lighting circuit. OR after all this rain they might have some water ingress somewhere, into a light fitting. I'm open to any other suggestions before I start checking next week.