D-I-Y Electric shower death

[Lobster]

I don't (unfortunately).

-- David

[Bob Eager]

And for that very reason, Part P actually encourages such behaviour.

[David Lang]

Fitted a ceiling fan in my MIL's two year old, professionally built granny flat last week. Took down the ceiling rose to find two neutrals poked into terminals and the screws not done up. So much for professionals.

Dave

[BigWallop]

You might find they were done up tight when first installed, but have since come loose by heating and expanding and cooling and shrinking. That's why screw terminals aren't that good in places where they a difficult to maintain, because they can cause breaks in the circuits when they loosen off and drop the wiring.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That's not what's commonly known as an electric shower, though.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You're not a true bodger. You replace the fuse in the plug with a nail. Obviously.

[Andy Dingley]

No, not at all. It was mainly an attempt to stamp out "black economy" electrical repairs by part-timers and moonlighting professionals. This was aided by lobbying from the trade bodies, but that wasn't the main cause.

There's some argument that the slightly skilled shouldn't be working for other people (or else you have Dr Evil working as a fitter), but the reaction against DIY will increase death and injury, not reduce it. Most of the electrical wiring faults in UK housing are caused by _lack_ of maintenance, not poorly performed installation. This measure makes that situation worse.

[<me9]

I fitted loft insulation above the kitchen for my elderly father many years ago. When I went to the bathroom to wash the irritant fibres from my arms, I switched on the bathroom light, and it didn't work. So I went into the loft to investigate what I'd disturbed.

It turned out that very morning whilst I collected the insulation he had been fitting a shelf in the kitchen. The bracket was in line with the switch for the bathroom light (in a rear ofshoot behind the kitchen). He had drilled and pluged the brackets for the shelf, accurately in line with the live cable, and fractured the live conductor.

Unles part P forbids all work in the kitchen, It cannot prevent this sort of occurrance. He was lucky the floor was insulating wood floorboards, and no earthed conductors were within reach.

The recently quoted incident with a shower would also not have been prevented by part P.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've never had a properly tightened terminal like this come loose - ie one I've done. But plenty on other's installations.

[BIG NIGE]

At some point someone will drill into a pipe and drown - Then it will be the plumbers turn for legislation.

[Andy Dingley]

Then try it with cheap connectors (poor thread quality) and high currents (more heating).

30A junction boxes use open-top terminals, partly to make wire entry easier, but also because there's some compression between the sides of the thread, to give a retaining efect on the grubscrew.

[dave]

Such perfection...(clasp hands, look skywards)

Those minions can't tighten a screw for er, nuts!

Actually, I came across a *very* tight terminal screw once. It was getting very hot though. Turned out it was tightened on fresh air! The bus-link was tucked up behind it and making contact through spring-tension only! This was powering a

10kW shower and had been "working fine" for 12 months.

[bigcat]

Its a sorry sad story, and illustrates the reality of consequences to those that ignore them.

I dont think theres any practical way to stop idiots killing themselves though. Whatever safeguards one has, if someone deliberately goes about bypassing them all, as he evidenctly did, he will unfortunately live with the results... or not live.

I have sympathy for the family, its awful. At the same time, it would seem to be the predictable outcome of his remarkably stupid and deliberate actions.

No amount of legislation or difficultisation would have made any difference whatever.

Darwin applies. DIY is like driving, there are one or two that really shouldnt do it.

NT

[Andy Pandy]

You're absolutely right of course.

The cost of employing a professional or of gaining approval will force many people back into using extension leads, adapters and multiple wired plugs and there will be more accidents than ever.

Andy

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd not use cheap connectors.

It's not just 30 amp types that are like this. But personally, I prefer the bus bar type junction boxes.

[<me9]

I had problems with the wiring in this house from new. This was mainly due to the decorating having been done before the socket outlets and switches were fitted, and the paint insulating the wiring. How it passed testing I don't know. I suspect a 'mythical' test. According to the sticker on the CU it was installed/tested by a member of NICIEC.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

One of the worst I came across was where a new kitchen which had been fitted by a contractor, and this included the electrics. Not one of the nationals, though. The house owner had a falling out with the firm and wanted no more to do with them. There were problems early on with the electrics. Not one single terminal in any socket or any switch had been correctly tightened. Resulting in the insulation actually melting on the 'tails' in a couple of sockets.

Other than that, the electrics side looked a pro job. The new ring where it ran through the cellar from the CU was neatly done with plenty of equally spaced clips. And the connections for that to the CU *were* properly tightened, and neatly paged.

I can only conclude it was a deliberate act to get extra work.

You get scruffy work everywhere. But I stand by my view that a correctly tightened terminal won't work loose in domestic circumstances. If it was a common occurrence, they wouldn't be used.

[Rusty]

Thats news to me. My grub screws spread the thread when tightened and make things looser.

[PC Paul]

I've seen a nicely sawn steel bar used. Had the ends chamfered and everything.

[Rob Morley]

Some of us are just more suited to mechanical engineering than electrical engineering :-)