Electric Shock From Lamp And/or Mains Wall Sockets

Talk Electrician Forum

Help Support Talk Electrician Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I had a run in with an insurance firm once. I got insurance in installments. They told me the interest rate was "X" percent. I few days later, all this stuff came in the post from a finance company i had never heard of, AND they set up a direct debit without telling me [Yes, after a change in the law they CAN do this] Interest rate was more like double.

Now, i had the written bumpf from the finance company. I went back to the insurance company and based on the idea that there is no law in britain anymore, but i am bigger, stronger, and MUCH more aggressive than you are, [well, i was back then 10 years ago!], i marched round their office confiscating all the notices off the walls that gave their "terms of business" complete with the false interest rate.

I took the whole lot round to trading standards, who were interested initially, but once they had been threatened by the insurance company, just gave up, and i had ALL the written evidence they needed.... They are simply not interested anymore.

I had a friend that owned and ran a chip shop once. She told me, [and her husband was iranian but did not work in the shop] that they used to get regular inspections from the trading standards to do with health and all that, even though their shop was spotless, but that other chip shops near by, ones that were owned and STAFFED by foreigners, got left alone, as the trading standards people are scared to go to them, lest they are accused of being "racist"

If anyone doubts this, all i can say is bradford....... what went on there then....

You will find if the shop you got the lamp is owned by foreigners, nothing will happen; If they are british, they MIGHT be in big trouble.

By the way, what OnOff says about how the TSO works now, is exactly right...

john...

 
Excellent post Apprentii , and I fear it is correct .

I remember going to one of our regular printing customers based in  B,ham's Jewellery Quarter , a hive of  Victorian workshops & small units etc.

We parked the van and began walking , in front were two official looking blokes stopping to look at each business as we passed ,  mostly a cluster of foreign owned garment "sweat"  shops , cheapo anoracks etc , dodgey wiring etc. 

Passed them all until they got to "our"  printers and made a beeline in .  They were fire inspectors , announced that the printer should install a full commercial alarm .    They got me to quote it , some thousands of pounds , told the fire people they were moving out in a year so they were told to just fit a mains ,domestic alarm above the reception desk   :C  

 
I can't go into specifics you'll understand but a close relative WAS for many years a civil servant in a government department that had at their disposal various statutory powers (which my relative in fact help draft new, tougher versions of) whereby they could enter premises with if necessary police back up. The companies they looked at, well we're talking big names in the soft drink and car manufacturing world. As often as not any time the team visited they would be confronted by a wall (quite literally at the front desk) of the companies lawyers. They had some successes too.

Part of the brief was UK wide travel and included overnights, liaison with regional authorities, taking witness statements & even stake outs. Some of it was of some potentially nasty characters. So, they had this law giving them much stronger investigative powers. Around that time those powers, in real terms, were shall we say "curbed". Travel, overnight trips and similar expense were simply stopped. Instead, with much fanfare and press invites a "centralised" call centre with banks of computers and operators was set up. Witnesses are now expected to call in and detail stuff over the phone or by email. The personal touch has been lost to such a degree that the stronger powers actually have less effect. A person reporting something is much more likely to put the phone down whereas if you're sitting opposite them etc. Almost as if someone somewhere engineered it................

Money talks I guess.

 
Something to consider, with the lamp hanging down there will be heat travelling back up through the pins onto the terminal connections.

What wattage lamp do you have in the fitting and what is the stated maximum wattage.

I have a customer who has a habit of putting the highest wattage lamp she can fit into table lights.

This Melts the flex on the connections and blows the fuse, however this may have melted the live insulation which is touching body.

Could be incorrect wattage lamp used, just saying.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
On a slight tangent, this has got me thinking, bear with me....

To date we have 47 posts about a table lamp.......all posts being informative and/or pointing out the pitfalls.

This lamp consists of

Base unit

Bit of chain

Lamp head

Lampholder

Flex

Moody looking bit of flex taped up

A plug

A fuse

Yet we have 47 posts helping the OP

It, in my worthless opinion, just goes to show how involved /complex some of our jobs are on a day to day basis. And possibly how little,the general public understand about our mystical world, the standards we have to adhere to, the testing we have to do etc etc etc This is not a job that can be learned in days

Just saying

 
On a slight tangent, this has got me thinking, bear with me....

To date we have 47 posts about a table lamp.......all posts being informative and/or pointing out the pitfalls.

This lamp consists of

Base unit

Bit of chain

Lamp head

Lampholder

Flex

Moody looking bit of flex taped up

A plug

A fuse

Yet we have 47 posts helping the OP

It, in my worthless opinion, just goes to show how involved /complex some of our jobs are on a day to day basis. And possibly how little,the general public understand about our mystical world, the standards we have to adhere to, the testing we have to do etc etc etc This is not a job that can be learned in days

Just saying
Well no it can't Kerch , it takes 5 weeks .......apparently  :innocent :coat

 
Well no it can't Kerch , it takes 5 weeks .......apparently :innocent :coat
I am admittedly a slow learner!

40 years on and i have just about got my head around the important bits. Much happier now we have red white and blue for the 3/.029 and 3/.036. Not too sure what that bare shiny one is for...probably for stripping the sheath. I mentioned it in the wholesalers the other day whilst trying to get some tinman's and tallow

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think I must have been on the wrong course , back in the day,  seemed to go on forever ...more like 6 years than 5 weeks TBH :C

And that was just the threading nipple sticks section .

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Top