I got a call today with a complaint about a buzzing socket. It is at a house I rewired a few months ago so I went round and had a look (and listen).
Nothing, just silence. I told the owner that I could not hear anything and his reply was "Oh, it won't start buzzing until I plug my mobile phone charger into it".
Well that could be dirty contacts on the socket, or the phone charger.
If it doesn't buzz in another socket, well its the socket innit?
Did he pay your bill?
tim
Wait until someone fits a Texecom alarm panel with their wonderful bzzzzzzzzzz transformers.
Tottaly agree nowt' funnier than folk. Like the Doctor (yes doctor) who rang saying his alarm would not stop beeping even when it was turned off.He was so upset he had removed the fuse from the power supply and disconnected the battery before ringing . When arriving angry neighbours glaring and mummbling obscenities about bell going off outside for ages.
Upon inspection found smoke detector (fitted by them) above panel with flat battery. Dearest pp3 he had ever bought.
CJ
He did not. That means that I never need go back for any other snags he may have.
And your reply to *that* was?
I was polite.
I called him a vagina.
Had he been trying to wind you up or was he a genuine dope? Did he come to understand that he was a fathead, or did he still think it was the socket's fault?
He is a genuine dope.
If it's any consolation I have had a long, and head banging discussion with an electrician.
I want a 4-pole rotary isolator installed for use with a standby generator, a 6kVA unit that I already own. He insists that such a device cannot be fitted because it is not "modern". He wants to fit an ATS at a cost of £800. I pointed out that this would be useless because the genny, although it is electric start, has no ATS input; it is a case of insert key and start.
He then claimed that a rotary isolator would "confuse old people" and that I should scrap a perfectly good generator and buy another one for £3000 that would be compatible with the ATS he wants to install.
Next thing he's claiming is that all sockets have to go low down on the wall because "that is the standard". He then got very confused when I asked him where he will put sockets in the kitchen and why I can't have a socket positioned conveniently for the table lamps. I also, tongue in cheek, asked him if a rotary isolator would "confuse old people" why he is discriminating against them by insisting that the sockets be placed so low that the arthritic cannot reach them? He's gone off to think. He may be some time.
I think the "old people" he is referring to are me and my wife BTW.
I have to ask. How old is the electrician? :-)
I am not an old person but I do like old electrics.
I remember very nice clunky ceramic rotary three-heat switches (off- low-med-hi) for water heaters.
Owain
I think that your electrician has been messing with my server. This morning all the posts you made over the last week appeared!
Why are you still talking to the same electrician?
Today I found a borrowed neutral on a lighting circuit - live was wired in single sheathed red from the CU, neutral was borrowed from the nearby ring! I also have a second sheathed red that was connected to the adjacent neutral at the CU, and I'd rather assumed that it supplied the same light. Haven't found yet where it does go...
I must say I rather prefer domestic light switches here in the US to the UK, just because they make a "proper-sounding" thunk noise when you use them :-) We've got a few old-style fuse boxes and knife-switch disconnects on our property, too.
I love old electrics...
J.
I feel your pain - I have more unknown-but-wired light switches and live wires carrying power to places unknown at our place than I care to think about :-) (wiring in US houses is never planned - it just kind of evolves by itself. The older the house, the worse it is)
I did, however, finally work out the other day what the purpose of the fusebox above bath in our (unusued, for obvious reasons) spare bathroom was. Who the heck installs a fusebox above a bath? D'oh!
cheers
Jules
My house in Menlo Park had some pre-war knob-and-tube wiring (think that's what it was called), and a number of old polarised two-pin sockets, too. I must say I found all that a mess in the US. A mixture of sockets, a mixture of voltages (my washer/dryer ran on 240). Reminded me of Britain in the 50s.
We've just put some of these in:
Nice
So whats the plan - disconnect it to see what stops working?
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