Ok, good evening ladies and gents. Today I climbed this place
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuilcagh It is pronounced ' Kull Ka' and I thought I should climb it today after watching T
he Shawshank redemption last night.
Anyway after refusing to do this work , and then agreeing to do it under duress I then informed the customer it must go in a duct, all the way. He asked why as it never goes in a duct in the pavement. I explained that the regulations he works to (DNO) and the regulations I work to ( BS7671) are different and that in my world it is armoured or ducted and it must be done even though the job was pants anyway. I then specified a 30mA RCD at the origin, even though it was on a TN C S supply and asked for an earth rod to connect the earth terminal of the inverter to this to be installed rod. When he bailed out to get the duct my boss asked why i was so up tight about it. As a teacher and not having my books close to hand I quoted and am sure this is not exhaustive, so please feel free to add to it to make me feel even better.....
Regulation 8 EAWR 1989 (system must have earth)
Chapter 52 ( don't mix dissimilar metals that cause corrosion) Some of you may know brass and aluminium is the worst of the worst.
Chapter 41 (cpc shall be run to all points in wiring)
Chapter 54 (mother earth is not listed as a type of cpc)
Appendix 1 and chapter 61 ( all materials shall be approved with correct marking)
I did not speak to anyone all day, just getting it done and counting down the minutes to going home. I wired the mains end with mcb, rcd, isolator and generation meter. No probs there. I had to fit an adaptable box under the unit with henley blocks to drop the circuit from 35 mm to 2.5mm :B-
The lads had an extension lead down the bottom end fitting the panels so I headed down to find the customer running in my cable and just popped a rod in. I decided to take a loop reading using the extension lead down there. As I got the meter ready, i was bombed with one of those game changing statements as the customers says " So you are looking for less than 0.35 then" I felt like Eddie Murphy in trading places
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emvySA1-3t8
Nope, says me,
it should be less than 200 ohms. When it did the beep beep thing it came back reading 1200 ohms. You will have to do better than that I remarked. No probs he says and drives his jeep away to get bare earth wire and more rods.
I headed back to the house to fit his new solar immersion do dah. To explain.... you only get 5.5p per unit of energy exported so it is better to use it if you can as the cost to buy energy is around 17p. They make gizmos now that fit on your immersion heater that have a small CT fitted around the meter tail at the mains. This CT watches what you are making and using. As a last resort it will turn on the immersion heater to divert spare energy to the heater rather than let it go.
I had already explained to the customer that the sub main from the garage to the house was connected straight into henley blocks with no protection so a short on that cable may result in fire or damage to the cable. He shrugged his shoulders. BTW it was some sort of heat shrank four core utility cable... Anyways, I fitted the unit and did a quick loop impedance test on it. Beep beep 80 ohms. I went to see the customer and explained that his install was in fact a TT with a non metallic earth, with a sub main with no protection , feeding a split load board with half of it with no earth fault protection. So, what is the big deal he said... I explained of the serious risk of shock/ electrocution risk and that his solar immersion would have to be removed. I added that a switch fuse on the garage end of the sub with a 100mA rcd would fix all. He said I was talking bo11ocks and that the install was a PME. We went to the outdoor cubicle. He said " There, there is the earth wire going into the side of the cut out." I retorted that this earth wire then disappeared down the wall to a possible rod outside, not going near the mains. BTW the earthing conductor from the mains came through the cabinet and disappeared out the bottom with this 'PME' wire he was going on about. I think he installed this PME wire to be honest.
He said, "no probs I will PME it then". I said you cannot do that as it is a network decision. I went on to explain that a broken PEN or combined earth neutral on his supply could result in someone he cared for dying around his house. He shrugged his shoulders and told me to go for dinner.
When I came back the loop was 0.42 ohms. I now have shooting pains behind my eyes.... I went down the field and wired the inverter through another isolator and checked the new earth arrangements with two rods and a partially buried earth wire. It was 235 ohms. Near enough for me so time for the big switch on.
I walked up to the customer and explained the situation by saying " I explained today that this job is w4nk and that after 33 years I just dropped the book in the bin. As well as that I blatantly broke the law. But, I said I was not going down for it as my defence was that I repeatedly said it was bad and that I would not switch it on. I said that the privilege belonged to the customer. He shrugged his shoulders and walked off to the garage. A moment later the inverter sprang into life.
I went home to tell my loved ones about my day, the worst day ever. The best therapy is to just say it so I did. The job was left 'safe' but 'wrong' well wrong ....
