House rewiring

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Never known a breaker blow. It might trip if overloaded, which is its purpose. As a fuse will blow. Know which one is more simple to sort, once the cause of the overload is removed.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Dave Plowman (News) escribió:

About 4 weeks ago.

[charles]

They should be sealed in place with a security tag which you break at your peril.

[harryagain]

Miniature Circuit Breakers provide a much closer degree of protection compared with fuse wire. Fuse wire will carry four times the rated load for around half an hour before melting. Long enough to start a fire.

Since MCBs appeared, electrical fault-fires have reduced by 90% so they are hugely more safe. They are designed to be failsafe.

PVC/polythene wire does not deteriorate as long as not subjected to strong sunlight. Switches and other hardware does but is easily changed.

The remaining source of fires is mainly mechanical damage of various forms. Rodent chewing wires, people drillling holes in walls etc. And flexes running along/under flammable things like carpets and curtains.

CFL are less likely to start a fire as they run cooler.

[Uncle Peter]

Easy enough to buy a new tag and clamp tool. Or just leave it untagged like an electrician I know does. The electricity board don't say anything. After all it's the only way to shut off the electricity into your house. My gas pipe has a shut off lever before the meter for an emergency, so the electric should have the same.

[charles]

why - can you have an electricity leak before the meter?

[Brian Gaff]

I agree. The only possibnble reason is if the house has, in its history had a flood or some other disaster like a fire. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

One thing it worth looking at though is the state of the sockets and if their connections are loose, same goes for switches and any jointing terminal blocks or whatever. Chances are at least one socket will be showing signs of heat damage and several loose screws will be found. Brian

[Andrew Gabriel]

Cable:

At 30 years old, it will be PVC cable. Life of PVC cable depends on running temperature. At max running temperature (70C), life is estimated at 22 years. However, at room temperature, standard PVC cable life is estimated at just over 1000 years, and most cables in a home spend most of their time at room temperature.

Accessories:

Wiring accessories (sockets, switches, consumer units, lampholders, etc) generally have a life of around 30 years. That's not to say they'll all die at 30 years old, but the first ones will start deteriorating by then, and you should consider an extensive inspection of them all to ensure any are replaced before they become unsafe. You might take the opportunity to change all the sockets and switches to a more current design, and so they all still match.

Accessories which handle high currents (such as electric showers, hobs, immersion heaters, etc) can age much more quickly, and in the process, can generate local heating at the cable terminations which rapidly ages the cable there too. These should be checked more often and high quality versions chosen to give best life of the installation as a whole.

Design:

The design of a wiring installation will become outdated as it increasingly fails to meet current needs.

In my parents' 1950's home (which was wired with a ring circuit and 13A sockets, fortunately), the standard was one socket per room, with 2 in the kitchen. They had to pay £1 for any extra sockets installed during the build (they paid for 2 extra in the living room).

In early 1960's, the Parker Morris report on standards in council housing was published, and recommended an increase on things like sockets. Although it only applied to council housing, the result was that council houses of the early 1960's were better quality than most new private occupier houses of the time, and the whole housing industry quickly adopted much of the Parker Morris report in order to catch up.

Nowadays, rooms will often have 12 lights, as many as 10 sockets (and nearly all doubles, not singles), with a cluster around the expected position of the entertainment centre. This is a far cry from a 1950's home, which although the wiring is probably fine if not abused over the years, original accessories will be well aging, and insufficient sockets if not expanded over the years.

So there is no one answer. It depends...

[Uncle Peter]

If something plugged in misbehaves when I knock the plug, then I look :-)

[Uncle Peter]

Because they don't know how to push a switch? Mind you when I worked for Sky, someone phoned up thinking their Sky box was broken. I figured out nothing on a socket was working (he had the light on and assumed there was therefore no powercut), and had to tell him likely places to look for a fusebox.

[Uncle Peter]

Yet above you're saying how convenient they are.

[Uncle Peter]

You mean before the consumer unit, which is inside, while the meter and main fuse is outside. Yes of course.

[Uncle Peter]

done for 30 years. Have you ever bothered? I mean if it works, why no= t just leave it? Wire doesn't rot.

It's obvious when a socket is f***ed. You can see it's falling apart of= charred or melted, or it makes poor connections when you plug something= in.

Only if the wrong wires have been used. Why do people insist on fitting= wires that get used near their maximum rating? My shower cable is 60 a= mps, yet it's connected to a 30A fuse in the CU and the shower is 7kW.

Most people just buy a 6 way strip to sit behind the TV. TV, DVD, etc u= se nothing like 13 amps.

-- =

Confucius say: "People who make Confucius joke speak bad English."

[Andrew]

Most women are 'horrified' about the things that blokes take for granted, like :-

Non-fluffy towels Pampas green bathroom suites Free standing fridges (as opposed to built-in) Effective Baxi Bermuda back boilers with radiant fire in front Single glazing in otherwise sound, well painted windows. Vauxhall Astras

I have all the above, except for the back-boiler, and that only went because the twots that built the house in 1976 threw all the cement snots inside the cavity walls and even inside the class 2 flue blocks.

The only 'problem' with houses built with modern PVC wiring but before

1984, is that the CPC is only 1mm. After 1984 it was 1.5mm. With rewireable fuses this (AFAIK) extends the cut-off time before the fuse blows after a serious fault. But there are fault conditions that will still kill but not blow the fuse. RCD's together with equipotential bonding will prvent this. Fitting MCB's on their own, in place of rewireable fuses will not save lives. In fact in densely occupied areas like central London the capacitance(??) in the supply system can melt cheaper MCB's before they can cut off.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've done this a few times over the years with no problems. There might well be if your electricity consumption suddenly drop to zero, though.

[Andrew]

And any professional sparky reading this will say that this is a pointless exercise, and in the case of the Wylex variety are actually more dangerous (under certain conditions) than the rewireable fuse they replaced.

Upgraded earth bonding and RCD's are what saves lives, not silly plug-in MCBs

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Where on earth did you find that bit of nonsense? More like a second at twice the rated current.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Then use the correct breaker. There are varieties available to allow for a switch on surge.

[Tim Streater]

I just had the sparks add four double-sockets behind where the TV etc sit. Then I got rid of the 6 way strip and the adapter. Much tidier.