A nice day off work and a chance to do some DIY

Apart from someone in Worksop has just phoned to say their fusebox has caught fire.

It's going to cost him.

Reply to
ARW
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Was it a mission Impossible special I wonder? Fuseboxes to not catch fire unless something very bad has been going on...

Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

It's the Lord's way of telling him he sholdn't be using electricity on the Sabbath.

Insurance job?

Owain

Reply to
Owain

I din't think the cross lot had a ban of "doing work" on Sundays. I thought that was the lot with a little flat hat on their bald spots and was Friday into Saturday?

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Six days shalt thou labour and on the seventh thou shalt claim double time?

Reply to
David WE Roberts

In certain parts of the Highlands, even hanging out the wash on Sunday was viewed with great disapproval.

Reply to
S Viemeister

My sister was reported to the local council for doming that in N Germany a few years back..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Like a loose neutral on the ring circuit.

Reply to
ARW

Doubt it. After all, his mate fitted the metal clad CU 4 years ago. Anyway I did get the details of the needed MCBs and RCBOs and picked

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up on the way with a RCBO and a couple of 20A MCBs.

I swapped a metal clad unit with no RCD protection that had caught fire (thanks to the plastic lugs that held the neutral bus bar in place and a loose neutral on the ring circuit. As look would have it the circuit cables ran surface mount down to the CU so I was able mount the new CU highter and cut off the burnt bits of cable (with the downside that I had to replace the tails as the cutout was below the CU) but as they were 16mm tails and a 6mm earth I would have swapped them anyway

I decided not to test beforehand and just see what happened.

As expected all 3 RCDs tripped so I started fault finding. I have now fixed all the faults bar three.

The first fault is a borrowed neutral on the landing light. For now the lights are sharing one MCB.

The second is something to do with the boiler (pump at a guess). Now the RCBO was feeding a fusebox next to the new CU and this fusebox is for the garage circuits and outside electrics. So for a temporary measure I installed a fused spur under the CU on a non RCD MCB and clipped a flex across to re-feed the boiler (that is also in the garage).

The third fault is that there is no gas or water bonding. Actually that is quite easy to do as both are in the gargage. I did not have any 10mm earth on me and why charge double time to fit it when I knew I would have to be going back later.

I left home at 10am and I arrived home at 15:30pm. So call that 5 hours including the travelling and picking up the new CU on the way. I knocked half an hour off as they made me sandwiches for dinner.

Call it £100 for parts and fuel and 5 hours @ £60 an hour and they have just paid £400 for a brand new (and soon to be) 17th edition compliant CU.

Laying an proper nonRCD supply to the boiler, fixing the borrowed neutral, bonding the gas and water and the testing can be done another day at £30 an hour. Probably about another £250 or so. The insurance co would not have paid for the fault fixing.

So all in all it's a £650 CU swap with most of the work carried out on a Sunday at short notice. And they were delighted with the £400 price tag and the £200 estimate to finish the work.

And when finished they will have a 10 year certificate that says the electrics are safe.

BTW, they had a gas hob and she liked making tea which I liked drinking.

Reply to
ARW

Are you going back to do the bonding on a day when Mr. isn't at home ;-)

Owain

Reply to
Owain

That's what the article on fires in plastic consumer units identified as the main cause - bad neutral connections, although sometimes in the pre-assembed parts of the CU.

Was it a Wylex like the one in their picture of a burning CU (which looked to me like a Wylex)?

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

The one from here?

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a Wylex (or a rebaged Wylex). Dunno what it was that had caught fire.

Well it was a metal clad CU that I replaced but it was the plastic mountings on the neutral bar that caught fire. I did take some photos with my phone but I have no USB lead for! I'll see if I can get them downloaded later.

Had it been a plastic CU then it would have been much worse. All the cables entered the CU from above and they entered the house at joist height where someone had removed a brick and filled the gap up around the cables with scunched up newspaper. I left the owner to fill up both inner and outer cavity holes with fire rated expanding foam.

There was surprisingly very little cable damage but I put this down to the fact that they were lucky and quick to notice the fire. One thing I did notice was that it looked like one of the neutral cables had snapped at the bus bar. That makes me think that it is possible that the neutral supply was actually a radial.

However there was a lot of soot inside the CU and things were difficult to see and I was not there to do a full diagnosis of the cause of the fire. The cooker neutral was also very loose but that only supplied the spark for the gas hob and oven. Several other terminal were also loose including a couple of lives but not on the ring or cooker circuits.

Reply to
ARW

I would not say no to her.

Reply to
ARW

It is not illegal in germany to hang out your wash on a sunday. Never was. Not even in the Reich (1939-1945). The local council sure threw the report into the paper bin. Greetings Matthias

Reply to
Matthias Czech

The correct bin:-)

And you have been recycling waste much longer than us Brits and you do it better than us Brits.

Reply to
ARW

Next time I see her I'll tell her.

She said the local council had a byelaw or something

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Apparently they no longer chain up the swings in the playpark...

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Reply to
Owain

Is that true everywhere? The MoD certainly used to give guidance to staff posted to Germany that it was not legal to hang opur washing in some communities on Sundays; and I've found an example from as recent as

2008 in
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"You are also prevented by law from mowing the lawn on a Sunday, and in some communities you may not hang out washing on a Sunday, either."
Reply to
Robin

Traditionally, and therefore backed up by laws, Germany has silence from Saturday lunchtime until Monday morning. Shops close, people don't make noise, it's 'Quiet Time'. Of course, it's perfectly legal to go to the local Gasthaus, have a few litres of beer, make as much noise as possible singing, and help keep the local economy going. Hic!

Reply to
Davey

My drying green is visible from the road, but I also have a whirly dryer hidden behind the house - it was put there by a member of the previous generation, in order to avoid offense.

Reply to
S Viemeister

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