D-I-Y Electric shower death

Electrical Installation last year?

=============== The coroner said: "It is clear that this has arisen from faulty electrical installation.

"It is essential that electrical installations are professionally fitted so these incidents can be avoided."

===============

I think he meant to say "It is essential that electrical installations are PROPERLY fitted so these incidents can be avoided."

To be fair, it's just possible that the coroner has been misquoted. In a book of Jeremy Clarkson's I read while on holiday recently, he mentions having misquoted `could' for `should' in a court report early in his career, with pretty drastic results. The above might just be a shorthand transcription error or something similar. The coroner ought to be aware that professionals can also make mistakes.

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 16:12:29 +0100,it is alleged that Rob Morley spake thusly in uk.d-i-y:

Indeed. While I extend my sympathy to his family, "Bridgend coroner Philip Walters warned people doing DIY that they were risking their lives" is unhelpful and irrelevant. Allowing electricity into your house in the first place is 'risking your life' to a degree. The aim of electrical installation practice is to minimize the risks and ensure they're massively outweighed by the benefits. Good DIY people do this, in many cases as well as or better than the 'professionals'.

I was told it was because a politician's daughter was electrocuted when she went to remove a pot from a metal rack her husband had put up, and her knee was touching a stainless steel dishwasher. The problem came about because the previous house owners had added some extra sockets in the kitchen but had used a diagonal chase. The husband's screws had penetrated the live conductor but it was never earthed till she touched the dishwasher with her knee. The politician, by the way, was Jenny Tonge of Richmond, Surrey (since retired).

Regards

Mark

He apparently ran the shower without attaching it to the wall through a extension lead from the next door house over the garden fence.

That isn't an accident it is suicide, or at the least worthy of a Darwin award.

Christian.

The reports of the standards of his work indicate that Part P would have made no difference. Anyone who can run an electric shower off a 50m extension lead without so much as screwing it to the wall is not going to be pen pushing bureaucratic forms and getting the building inspector in.

Christian.

That incident happened long after the government lied about the accident statistics to push the legislation through. And the victim had known that the screw gave a 'tingle' for some time.

darwinism in action.

RT

No. It was pushed by the trade bodies who were failing to get electricians to join them, and looked on enviously at CORGI.

No, it started several years before that.

Well, there was one last year from a professionally fitted shower. We will never know how it came to electrocute someone, as the firm who fitted it were called in to investigate the incident.

Are there any electric showers that will work off a 13 amp extension lead without blowing the fuse?

If the fuse blows you just replace it with somethng a bit beefier ...

And was there any guarantee that the accident would not have occurred but for the diagonal chase? How many non-technicl people, screwing into a wall, give any thought whatsoever as to whether they may be a cable beneath the plaster?

Kev

Power showers, that use hot water from the DHW cylinder, simply use a 5amp supply to run the booster pump.

Whilst I have every sympathy for the family, the words "complete pillock" spring to mind!

Exactly - I think they should legislate to ban people making holes in walls unless they are certified competent.

Whilst extremely stupid, presumably running an electric shower off an extension lead which is not screwed to the wall does not contravene Part P - which only refers to fixed electrical installations in homes.

James

In article , Christian McArdle writes

Yes just "how" did he manage to run a shower of an extension lead?....

Not very well it would seem!

Perhaps he wired his mothers house as well!

Now that is a scary thought.