Electrical Inspections

[Andy Burns]

fuses are allowed now, and you can get DIN rail mounted fuse carriers that look like MCBs

[tabbypurr]

Electrocutions from lighting circuits are zero per year, including unearthed ones. Nowadays they go on RCDs as well. It is not a big deal.

NT

[charles]

but the shock might make someone fall off the ladder.

[spuorgelgoog]

It certainly startled me when I cut through a live cable with pliers! Even though I was standing on an insulated chair.

Owain

[Robin]

I won't ask your source for that fact as I can I just about remember lessons on rhetorical devices ;)

Nowadays they go on RCDs as well. It is not a big deal.

New circuits, yes, but I thought this was about the OP's old installation.

[Robin]

Even pros can do that - albeit they get paid for their bother. Eg

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd rather not have lights tripping off at random because a 'leak' triggers an RCD. And I'd rather have an earth were one is needed.

[tabbypurr]

I'm not finding the ref, but it was an all-time total of 1 death from ES, 0 from BC

I thought the OP was replacing the CU. Even if not the figures don't show it to be hazardous.

NT

[tabbypurr]

RCDs on lighting are now mandatory

we know it isn't. It's just required.

NT

[John Rumm]

You have to appreciate that in NT's world if it don't actually kill you then its nothing to worry about; end of story.

(the fact that you may end up in hospital, suffer burns, bruising, cuts, abrasions etc or even broken bones, cardiac arrhythmia or other serious injury - like the 10s to 100s of thousands of people do each year as a result of an electrical shock, does not seem to matter to him)

[John Rumm]

That's not really true. RCDs for unprotected cables are mandatory in most cases, but if you particularly wanted a lighting circuit with no RCD protection, then its perfectly possible to install one and still be compliant. (cabling it in MICC being a common solution)

[tabbypurr]

With respect the OP doesn't have MICC, they have 1960s wiring.

NT

[tabbypurr]

Mr. Rumm doesn't understand why we compare death stats, not other stats, which are too often vague or unavailable.

Anyway how are you going to get those from a 2 core lighting circuit on an RCD?

And finally when you brought up that stat a while back it included 'non-events but I was worried' in the huge figure, making it entirely meaningless.

NT

[charles]

MICC was around in the 1960s. I went on a workshop course which included making it up in 1961.

[Robin]

As you appear to have looked into this, where please did you find deaths from "electrocution from lighting circuits"? I have never seen ONS produce data which differentiates in that way[1]. Nor HSE.

[1] IMLE they usually use codes from ICD. And IIRC the distinction between electrocution and accidents caused by electric current rests on the coding from the death certificate.

[tabbypurr]

as I said I don't seem to have the reference recorded unfortunately. So likely we won't be able to check it.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

As are earths.

[John Rumm]

straw man...

You said they were mandatory, I was just correcting the error.

[John Rumm]

You are right, I don't know why you do it.

I know that where the chances of death are statistically insignificant, and the chances of injury are statistically significant, it makes no sense sense to focus on the comparative rates of the risk with the insignificant likelihood. Yet you do, every time. Perhaps you would care to explain why?

As you correctly say, the chances of receiving a fatal shock from a lighting circuit are vanishingly small. That does not mean the chances of getting a shock are vanishingly small.

We are talking about an old installation which almost certainly will not have a RCD.

While RCDs contribute to a massive reduction in injury from shocks, they do not prevent them entirely, nor reduce the magnitude of them, they simply limit the duration. That does not make them safe, pleasant, or necessarily without side effects.

I linked to the documents that provided a breakdown by case and severity.

I CBA to do all this yet again, however for those interested here is one of the previous discussions:

$20fusebox$20with$20RCD$3F%7Csort:relevance/uk.d-i-y/UFiNUzWnOX8/ePA2MA1hziMJ

Alas the doc linked to from the ESC site has changed to one focussed on electrical fire stats, and the wayback machine does not seem to have the original page. A web search will bring up some resources.

Anyway, I will bow out before NT gets back to suggesting soup as an answer... yes, seriously:

$20esc$20shock$20stats|sort:relevance/uk.d-i-y/U1jb6Q6vuXw/GXrq9Ocb4rMJ

[Chris B]

Not had chance to remove any sockets/light switches yet (don't have access to the loft to isolate the solar panels) but some photos of the fusebox area are on this link (if it works)