Result !!! Technology wins over duff electrician

[Andrew Mawson]

Half way through our refurb we had to change electricians as the original one ceased coming! He was moonlighting it turned out and his employer found out. Good thing probably as we have found numerous dangerous things he'd done ( such as using the earth /cpc conductor as the switched live on our shower light/extractor).

Latest thing we found was two 'wired' smoke detectors not connected to mains or the other detectors. Carpets newly down, ceilings freshly painted, no access.(He'd assured us everything was tested and ready to seal up) New electrician was flumoxed how to proceed. I got out my telecoms wire sniffer comprising a transmitter/oscillator intended to connect across a pair, clipped it to live and neutral of the isolated detectors and was able to trace the wire with the sniffer receiver across the floor, up a hollow partition wall and into the loft under a mass of insulation that would have stopped anyone finding it by normal means. He'd left it coiled up forgetting to connect into the adjacent detector. Mistake by prat overcome by technology

AWEM

[Owain]

They're fun. I remember the first time I used mine for real, finding the right wire out of about 80 in the door entry system.

Owain

[Brian Gaff]

What you really need is a prat detector that shows the person to be a prat first then....

Brian

[Huge]

We had that here, too. Except it was the feed to the twilight detector that switches the external lighting on. The detector failed and when I came to swap it, I found the moron that installed it had used the cpc as the switched live.

[bert]

In message , Brian Gaff writes

That would be an ADAM.

[Sam Plusnet]

Pretty embarrassing when the thing starts beeping the moment you switch it on.

[ARW]

So how did you find this electrician?

[Andrew Mawson]

Worryingly he was recommended by a friend who had developed several houses in the past ten years and thinks the sun shines from various of his orifices. I am seriously concerned that he is putting people at risk. He had left the shower extractor / light without an earth as he'd used the cpc for a switch live (!) and the rcd of that circuit was one of two in the installation that failed to trip. We (the new electrician and I) have gone though every circuit, and every connection just in case.

AWEM

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 19 January 2013 13:23 Andrew Mawson wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Was the last guy registered with a professional body (he should have been) - and if so, have you reported him?

[ARW]

He deserves a good kicking.

[Andrew Mawson]

Yes he's registered through his employer. I totally agree with Adam, but Tim's approach is a problem in a small community.

AWEM

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 19 January 2013 23:22 Andrew Mawson wrote in uk.d-i-y:

He lives locally?

It's tricky - because he is clearly a dangerous sod and should be stopped from doing any further damage - and his empoyer taken to task as he is responsible.

And "they" say that DIY electrical work is dangerous...