DIY Legality

[grimly4]

Now who lives through the keyhole? There's the answer.

[grimly4]

Really? Usually 'Georgian' upvc DG, ime.

[funkyoldcortina]

We had a storage heater in a conservatory (no we didn't put it there) at our old house that was connected to the night-rate circuits via a regular 13A plug & socket, itself on a radial back to a 20A fuse in the night-rate fuse box.

It blew its 13A fuse once, so I replaced it. A few weeks later, its plug melted and took part of the socket with it. Lovely fishy smell. So I replaced the whole connection with one of these in the end, but had to fit a deeper surface-mount box to cope with the wiring.

fine for years until we moved.

[John Rumm]

And indeed it normally does (at least if using the "standard" circuits and designs).

A cable's current carrying capacity is dictated by the maximum continuous conductor temperature that the insulation will withstand without damage. It takes time to reach that limit due to the thermal mass of the cable, so even currents in excess of the notional maximum drawn for short term periods are unlikely to reduce its life expectancy.

[ARWadsworth]

So he did not fancy getting pissed then?

[Judith]

Here is the "explanation" of the person who owns the house:

============================================================= Some bonehead wired our kitchen up wrongly when the house was built. When we moved in 11 years ago, we had a gas cooker, so I wired up the garage sauna to the 30 amp cooker circuit as it had a 7.5 kW heater. When I switched it on, the entire kitchen wiring burnt out as the cable was not 30 amp cable. This meant that we had no power in the kitchen at all apart from one socket near the door and I was not going to take the tiles off to put new wiring in.

I bought a socket pair and glued it to the wall to run the microwave, tin opener, radio, kettle and coffee maker off it. I ended up wiring the sauna directly from the fuse box after crawling under the floor and ran a spur to power our new electric cooker. =============================================================

But that doesn't quite hang together - does it?

The 7.5kW heater was hardwired in to the 30amp cooker circuit - and this burnt out the "entire kitchen wiring" - most odd.

[Man at B&Q]

ote:

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=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

Which bit of "wired our kitchen up wrongly" are you struggling with? Clearly there was no separate 30A circuit.

Keep digging!

MBQ

[F]

What doesn't quite hang together is why you've left it until now to provide an 'explanation' after leaving any number of us trying to puzzle out what was what with the wiring that is visible.

You ask a question and withhold relevant information.

[Judith]

No need to - he is doing all the digging needed - with your help of course.

Thanks for the contribution though.

[Judith]

Yes of course you did - it certainly looks like you did from your photograph.

I thought you said that you didn't want to take the tiles off. The complete kitchen rewire must have been quite difficult for you.

I am surprised that you didn't tidy up the mess of cables under the work surface.

[Judith]

ffs - it is not my house.

The clue was in the first line of the original post :

"Someone posted the following picture on another newsgroup."

The explanation of the person who owns the house has just been posted in light of the discussion.

[F]

And then you went on to ask questions but didn't/haven't bother(ed) to offer up extra information that you had/have which would have helped with the answers you were asking for.

[ARWadsworth]

If those are actually the words of Simon then I have to agree with Mr Benn who has suggestested to Simon that "I think you would be better off (and safer) sticking to washing laboratory glassware."

[Judith]

No - I suspect if I had that I would not be asking such questions.

Because it looked like a bodged job - and I also wondered about the legality of such wiring

I did not take the photograph

No - I did not have the owner's permission - and I did not reproduce the photograph.

[Judith]

Which particular information are you guessing I was aware of?

Are you perhaps clairvoyant?

[Steve Walker]

I don't know what the current products are like, but as my first proper (although temporary) job many years ago, I CADded the packaging and data sheets for Volex's 9000 range (their own packaging and Woolworth's) and I have a very vague memory of the 9000 range 2-gang sockets being rated at 29A continuous. In fact at one stage I think it was moulded into the back of the faceplate, but I could be mistaken and it might have been a sticker.

SteveW

[Jules Richardson]

Bloody long way, was it? ;)

[dennis]

They were arguing about how much current a double outlet can take years ago.. the test appears to require them to handle one 14A load + one 6A load which is where the 20A comes from.

It means that yet another rule must be applied, i.e no more than 20A to be used, another rule that the user won't have a clue about. This just to avoid doing a proper job in the first place.

Even if you stick to the test loads don't expect it to be safe as it also specifies a limited time of a few hours.

[Alex Heney]

Apart from the fact that those have white knobs and handle rather than black, the shape of the windows into the ovens is different (rectangular rather than rhomboid-ish) and the shape of the handles is different (tapers at the ends rather than parallel), yes :)

[Alex Heney]

Which is no reason why I might "need eyes".