You have done a very good job of highlighting my concerns. There is a string of threads on the subject, discussing both sides of the argument with no moderator intervention.
Then the recent thread, where almost everyone is saying very strongly that pulling the main fuse is illegal and unsafe, and the moderators jumping on and editing the few posts that suggested pulling the main fuse is okay.
See my concern? the rapid change in forum members opinions, and the intervention my moderators to the few posts suggesting it's okay to pull the fuse?
That smacks to me of somebody has been leaning of the forum to make sure they give the "correct" advice.
I do hope that the reason was, as stated, that in this one case that action was taken, purely because the question was asked by a new member of unknown skills and ability.
Now lets try and turn this debate around into something more positive. Why is it, we electricians tolerate the situation we are in, where in a vast number of cases there is no safe way to isolate to do our job?
You don't hear of gas installers doing anything dodgy to isolate a gas supply to work on it? That's because a gas installation is designed with an isolating valve that is not sealed and is there to be used to isolate the installation for safe working.
So why is it, we put up with a situation where there is no legal means to safely isolate for a major job like a CU change?
The situation would be okay, IF all DNO's had a department you could contact directly to request an isolation, and they would make an appointment and come when they say to isolate the supply for you. That would have to be a system where you spoke directly to someone who knows what you are requesting, and does not raise an issue when the energy supplier and the DNO are different companies, and does not try to pass the request from one to the other denying responsibility.
The present system is unworkable in some areas as can be seen by the trouble some people have getting pushed from energy supplier to DNO with neither understanding what's required.
I thought the industry was moving to a "better" system with a lot of DNO's installing meters with built in isolators, but then one thread said one DNO had stopped doing that as it encouraged DIY'ers to inappropriately isolate.
My own experience with my local DNO is positive. I have met the "guys on the ground" many times, and they know I pull the main fuse and have told me they are happy with this, providing I inform them to go and re seal the fuse, which is why I continue to do it, and say that's the way I do it. But apparently not all take that view and some are dead against it.
So why are all the scam providers and the IET not combining their efforts and lobbying the industry to change?
What is needed is either an isolator fitted by the DNO on EVERY installation, or a system that electricians can access to book the DNO to come and isolate for them, and the DNO will do so without protest, in a timely manner, and without unreasonable charge.
Until there is some change in the industry, we will continue to have this issue, with huge differences in how to do it depending on where you are, and therefore with lots of different opinions on what is right and wrong from different forum members.
