On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 22:14:36 GMT, "BigWallop" strung together this:
The leccy companies do both. If you ask them for a proper wiring test they'll send out an electrician to test the place and charge for it.
What Andrew is on about is the cards they drop through the door inviting you to have your wiring checked for free, with a footnote to say that someone will just glance at it.
Yes, they also do tests for you if you ask them nicely. In fact, because the new Part P amendments of the building regulations are now in force, they will soon be asked to do a lot more testing of domestic installations, especially before, during or after the sale of the houses. It may also, sooner rather than later, become a necessity to have a complete survey done on the house before you sell it on. This will include safety tests on all Gas, Water and Electricity installations, as well as structural and heating efficiency tests.
All the mains services suppliers have testing request schemes in operation for the common man to command. :-)
Ah ha ! The penny drops. I see what Andrew means now, Lurch. Thanks for clearing that up.
Yes Andrew, all the Leccy Suppliers will send someone "qualified" out to do a system test for you, and usually at a small fee now'a'days as Lurch says. A call to their Customer Services usually is enough to get the ball rolling.
Same company round here. United Utilities - how to get it all wrong !
They were also very common in the rest of Europe and the UK. In fact, diazed fuses (bottle fuses) were very common all over the world at one time or another, but they all soon got replaced as technology advanced.
In message snipped-for-privacy@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com, bruce snipped-for-privacy@my-deja.com (bruce snipped-for-privacy@my-deja.com) wrote: Newsgwoups:uk.d-i-y
70s wiring is usually fine in most respects. A few tweaks here and there and it can be brought fully upto modern spec.separate
Nowt wrong with round pins, if the fittings are of decent quality. Early round pin fittings OTOH were sometimes quite dangerous: somewhere I've got a wooden 2 way adaptor with live socket metalwork so close to the surface that if you touched the thing to unplug it you'd get electrocuted. I believe this was one of the motivations for the change to the new square pin system, to get the really dangerous stuff out of use, of which there was much still in use.
Ideally the plug should be marked BS548 (IIRC) (not 'BS548 gauge'), have half insulated pins, and the socket should have shutters blocking the L and N holes - but its a very minor misdemeanour if they dont. If, as is less likely, the mains plug is carved from wood, I would expect to need to replace some things.
Those conform to the latest safety regs, and can still be fitted. Improved protection can be obtained by fitting MCBs in place of the wire fuses if you wish. If you do decide to upgrade, type C MCBs on lighting are much less likely to cause nuisance trips than the more common type Bs.
If you are competent to diy it, a new CU would give further minor advantages for no more money, but more work.
NT
IF you have just moved in, frankly I'd get the place rewired NOW to modern standards.
It will be less hassle.
That would include replacing wirimng where appropiate and also chaning consumer unit to modern RCD/MCB protection.
IIRC 15A round pins were a sign of radially wired circuits, not ring mains.
Today 5A rounds are a de facto standard for lighting circuits with removeable lamps .
A '70s build house *should* be nearly to modern standards - and shouldn't need a total re-wire to bring it up to scratch. Of course, if it's sadly lacking in sockets etc or has had extras badly installed it might be the easiest option
Not in a '70s build.
I use 2 amp.
That's not warranted based on the information supplied.
Actually, the 2A one was more common for this purpose. Commercially it has been mostly replaced by the Klik plugs and sockets nowadays. I use Klik for supplying fixed lighting like under/over cupboards, and the 2A round pin for remotely switched table lights on the lighting circuit.
It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Owain" saying something like:
Still are. There are plenty of older installations (up to the 80s) with them in place.
Fwom:BigWallop (spam.guard@_spam_guard.com)
Did the same person who put the "OO" at the end of Shampoo, put the "ITE" at the end Sh...........?
Did sham-poo replace real poo?
If it didnt, what nut thought calling something sham poo would be a good sales name?
NT
The word "shampoo" is derived from the Indian word for head massage - "champi". No need to take my word for it, though:
Yes, they are better...they exhibit far less resistance than square pinned sockets and (Gold plated ones) are much loved by audiophiles.
If you mean those fuses that look a bit like ceramic "bottles" that are held in the fuse box by a threaded cap then, yes, they are very common in Eire.
sPoNiX
They are often much worse. The square pinnded ones allow the use of contacts that are flat and springy. Anyone who used the old round ones knows that after a while they worked loose, started arcing and were a definite hazard.
The fact that they are oved by audiophiles is enough to show you that they are fundamentally inferior in every way.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.