OT Electrical Summer Holiday job

[ARW]

Swapping two crap DBs in a school.

What wanker designed this?

[Adrian Caspersz]

All Single Phase?

[ARW]

Single phase conversion unit below the main switch:-)

And a fail as a single phase DB requires the neutral switching via the main switch

[Andy Burns]

not the only time i've seen 3ph to 1ph "conversions" on similar age boards ...

[John Rumm]

You mean the DB or the way it is wired?

(not much wiring space around those great big fugly MCBs either!)

[Theo]

I'm also enjoying the taped up neutrals (?) that are floating around very close to some live terminals.

And it appears one of the MCBs is outputting live on a black (non-oversleeved) wire.

Is that all being fed from a 25A RCD at the bottom, or are they separate?

Theo

[ARW]

I suspect that there may once have been a 3 phase DB there or more likely two 2 phase DBs. Both DBs are fed from 3 core pyro.

The RCDs are just to add RCD protection to individual circuits.

I'll take a photo when I take them off the wall.

[ARW]

I suspect that when I take them off the wall there will be more trouble.

But imagine working on that DB with all that nice shiny live metal all over the place.

Not even the incomers are shrouded.

The single insulated cables pass through random holes in the back of the DB with no grommet strip

[John Rumm]

It would be even worse if it actually was three phase with 400+ volt between all those easy to touch shiny bits!

Mmmm, nice :-)

[Colin Bignell]

They look like the 3-phase distribution boards I had in my factories, except those had covers. One up the centre, carrying places for identifying labels, and one over the main switch and its terminals. They did need to be removed to access the terminals, so it looks to me as though somebody just didn't bother to replace them after. Unreliable memory suggests they may have been Crabtree, but I had trouble getting new breakers 20 years ago, so I don't know how old the design is.

[Colin Bignell]

Memory today suggest Wylex.