PaulSC
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2010
- Messages
- 102
- Reaction score
- 0
I thought I'd share something I experienced just before Christmas as I thought it might be useful for some of you new to the industry. The older guys on here will have much better stories to tell.
CU change in small mid-terrace house. Only one ring final, two lighting circuits, cooker and heating so in and out in no time - or so I thought.
Prior to starting work everything worked fine. The young couple had just moved in and wanted some piece of mind so new CU and switch plates throughout.
Took out the old Wylex fuseboard and began replacing sockets and switches while the installation was dead. Took a bit longer than normal as I found a few faults which needed recifiying.
Installed the new CU and began dead testing. All fine apart from the ring final which showed IR dead short L-E :C Removed all sockets and checked for pinched/damaged conductors. Everythings fine :C Use my CalCard to check the meters reading correctly. All as should be. :C Now I'm confused as everything was fine a couple of hours ago. Then I see the couple in the back garden pointing and throwing things at the roof. Curious, I pop out with my brew to compose myself and they tell me a squirrel moved in just the day before (I think you can see where this is going).
I wasn't expecting this type of install to have ring final running into loft as the first floor had floorboards, but thought I'd have a look anyway. Lifted the loft hatch and there was our furry friend staring at me (squirrels make some weird noises when ****ed off). After persuading him to move with a broom I had a good poke round. Now were getting somewhere. Found two 2.5's dissappearing under a boarded area. Chased the cable back right into the eaves and there was a good 2 inch section where the conductors were completely exposed. Bingo. Replaced the damaged section and IR now >299 mohms.
Finished the install and showed the owners the damaged section. They were stunned that these furry little fekkers could do so much damage in such a short time. They had someone out within hours to deal with them as obviously they could do the same again, though at least now they have RCD protection.
Moral of this story? Well there isn't one really, it's just that things don't always go to plan (hardley ever for me). Expect the unexpected. Especially if you don't have years of experience to fall back on, which I don't. This all happened within an hour or two.
1. I wasn't expecting such a poor IR reading, but I knew something was wrong. I paid good money for my Megger, so I have to trust what its telling me. It would have been easy for me to simply disregard the reading and energise the circuit, when things would have gone seriously pear shaped.
2. I wasn't expecting the ring final within the loft. But I didn't wire the house so I can't make that assumption. It was in there and so was the fault.
3. One of your best tools is your gob! Talk to customers when things look hopeless. What's changed and when did it stop working? Even the most suposedly complex problems are usually solvable.
4. Why don't squirels fry when they bite through mains cable?
BTW No animals were harmed during this install. The broom was merely for self defense :innocent
CU change in small mid-terrace house. Only one ring final, two lighting circuits, cooker and heating so in and out in no time - or so I thought.
Prior to starting work everything worked fine. The young couple had just moved in and wanted some piece of mind so new CU and switch plates throughout.
Took out the old Wylex fuseboard and began replacing sockets and switches while the installation was dead. Took a bit longer than normal as I found a few faults which needed recifiying.
Installed the new CU and began dead testing. All fine apart from the ring final which showed IR dead short L-E :C Removed all sockets and checked for pinched/damaged conductors. Everythings fine :C Use my CalCard to check the meters reading correctly. All as should be. :C Now I'm confused as everything was fine a couple of hours ago. Then I see the couple in the back garden pointing and throwing things at the roof. Curious, I pop out with my brew to compose myself and they tell me a squirrel moved in just the day before (I think you can see where this is going).
I wasn't expecting this type of install to have ring final running into loft as the first floor had floorboards, but thought I'd have a look anyway. Lifted the loft hatch and there was our furry friend staring at me (squirrels make some weird noises when ****ed off). After persuading him to move with a broom I had a good poke round. Now were getting somewhere. Found two 2.5's dissappearing under a boarded area. Chased the cable back right into the eaves and there was a good 2 inch section where the conductors were completely exposed. Bingo. Replaced the damaged section and IR now >299 mohms.
Finished the install and showed the owners the damaged section. They were stunned that these furry little fekkers could do so much damage in such a short time. They had someone out within hours to deal with them as obviously they could do the same again, though at least now they have RCD protection.
Moral of this story? Well there isn't one really, it's just that things don't always go to plan (hardley ever for me). Expect the unexpected. Especially if you don't have years of experience to fall back on, which I don't. This all happened within an hour or two.
1. I wasn't expecting such a poor IR reading, but I knew something was wrong. I paid good money for my Megger, so I have to trust what its telling me. It would have been easy for me to simply disregard the reading and energise the circuit, when things would have gone seriously pear shaped.
2. I wasn't expecting the ring final within the loft. But I didn't wire the house so I can't make that assumption. It was in there and so was the fault.
3. One of your best tools is your gob! Talk to customers when things look hopeless. What's changed and when did it stop working? Even the most suposedly complex problems are usually solvable.
4. Why don't squirels fry when they bite through mains cable?
BTW No animals were harmed during this install. The broom was merely for self defense :innocent
