Consumer Fuse Query

[Chris]

When you talk of an isolation switch, I presume you mean a 100A double pole DIN mounting type in a 2 way enclosure?

Chris

[Chris]

I'm looking forward to it actually, we have been moving house for what seems like ages (it's taken longer than expected as there was a baby in the middle). I've been starved of any real DIY for months since we got our house ready to put on the market.

It's sometimes nice to have a 'blank canvass' to go at.

Many thanks for the advice.

Chris

[N. Thornton]

circa WW1. Yes, WW One. There was an iron box on the wall which opened (no lock or anything, it was just hanging open) to reveal 2 bare fuse wires screwed in place at each end, no carrier, no insulation etc. And as far as I could see, fuse-wise, that was yer lot mate.

Regards, NT

[BigWallop]

Believe it or not, I was in an old property on the outskirts of Edinburgh just last week, and it had the same set up you have just described in there. Took a while to find a point to tapp off for the alarm system spur because it still has cloth covered paper insulated cables inside rusty conduit. I didn't think there was still places that had this old style installation anymore. Wonderful what we had to work with in those days eh ?

[N. Thornton]

Yeah. Its strange how these little time warps manage to still exist. I remember a cinema that had been equipped in 1942, and one section of it hadn't changed any since. It was like time travel. It was equipped with arc lights, no less. One of the staff had even spotted some of the equipment they were still using in a museum :)

Attaching anything to installs like these is a danger in itself. Move the wires half an inch and up they could go. I dont think I'd try to tap off any of the existing circuits, and I wouldn't install anything that needed an earth.

It was one thing installing paper wire and so on in 1908 when it was in sound condition, but to have such a setup still operating 95 years later, after all the deterioration that time brings, is another. I've seen the odd dated installation that would have been condemned even in

1930, yet is still in use today.

Cloth/rubber flexes that had fallen apart and become bare to touch have always been a no-no, and periodic inspection of early electrical kit was always strongly advised. Yet there are houses around today that don't take even those most basic precautions. There is the occasional place where its a wonder they get the lights to come on, let alone survive the process.

Regards, NT

[usenet]

Yes, I think I agree. If that was clean and straight I don't think most people would bat an eyelid.