phil d
Well-known member
Well,I got called out last week to a rather interesting one,the farm rang me up to say the sockets in the farmhouse kept going off.Now I thought I'd cured this recently by virtually rewiring the ring main concerned,However this time there was a new twist to the tail,the lights were going off as well.This is a typical farmhouse,owned by a typical farmer in his 80's,there's still a lot of rubber cabling in there,but it's the same old story".it doesn't need a re wire,it's been ok all this time!" So I head out there around half six in the evening and start asking questions,even though I've made my mind up on the way over as to what the fault is.I'm then treated to a brilliant demonstration of the fault,the farmers wife has a few lights lit and a radio playing and all is fine,she then switches on the dishwasher and we are plunged into darkness,turn it off and the lights come on,turn on the cooker and we're back in the dark.Ok now I'm convinced,I head to the meter position,up a set of wooden stairs in a seldom used part of the house,I can hear a loud crackling sound coming from the cut out,I isolate everything and place a call to networks,the emergency engineer arrives and examines the cutout,it's burnt to a crisp inside,he calls out another engineer to replace it.Alongside the head is a recently fitted meter and the tails are tri rated (no ferrules),the call out lads are none too happy with this,and after making repairs they leave,muttering and cursing about meter fitters,incidentally they took the old numbered seals away with them (possible ass kicking party in the morning).
Now recently I had a new meter fitted myself and the young lad who fitted it was about to seal everything up when I asked him to recheck the connections,he was adamant they were tight,however he rechecked them just to humour me,the look on his face as he managed another quarter turn was a picture,he was amazed as I explained about copper creep and how it was wise to tighten then give it five minutes then check again, "oh they never mentioned that at the training centre" he replied.
Now given that they are making us use non combustible boards(metal) to protect from fires caused by electricians not tightening connections properly,surely there has to be a case for metal service heads and possibly meters,to protect the public from shoddy work by meter fitters?
Now recently I had a new meter fitted myself and the young lad who fitted it was about to seal everything up when I asked him to recheck the connections,he was adamant they were tight,however he rechecked them just to humour me,the look on his face as he managed another quarter turn was a picture,he was amazed as I explained about copper creep and how it was wise to tighten then give it five minutes then check again, "oh they never mentioned that at the training centre" he replied.
Now given that they are making us use non combustible boards(metal) to protect from fires caused by electricians not tightening connections properly,surely there has to be a case for metal service heads and possibly meters,to protect the public from shoddy work by meter fitters?
