markthespark Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Was just reading the post about the bloke changing the consumer unit and the mains fuse, etc. reminded me of one of the scariest things I came across while serving my time (as a spark). Me & my tradesman (good guy, knew his stuff) called out to a house where RCD was tripping, board had been replaced by others a few years earlier. Switched off the main RCD and a motorised siren (it was 1986!) could be heard starting up. Customer gets his keys and disappears off to a cupboard to switch it off. Battery must be done I thought. Opened up consumer unit to find a 6 core entering the board. Green & yellow onto the earth block, blue & black onto the neutral block and red & white wrapped onto one of the screws on the main busbar. The only over-current protection to this cable being the 100A service fuse on the incomer (I imagine the cable would burn long before the fuse even thought about getting warm). We disconnected the cable then went back and wired and fitted a new spur later and left it for the customers alarm engineer to come and conect to. Just thought I'd share the tale with anyone who likes horror stories. P.S. It was his immerser that was tripping the RCD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Samholland Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Went to install a intruder system that the customer had started to install himself and cocked it up. Had the mains connected from alarm panel (no spur even) to double socket using very thin 2 core speaker cable...Oh and it was a scandinavian house, built with solid wood..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deltaseven Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 When I used to install in Zimbabwe, we would tap into the back of an existing mains socket to take the 220V for the panel. At one installation, I refused to continue when we realised that every socket in the house had been wired using twin-flex speaker cable (0.5mm). Oh, and PVC conduit - so not even earthed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alarmrepairs Posted April 6, 2004 Share Posted April 6, 2004 I was once wiring an alarm feed from a socket, all mains off I thought, My socket was dead when customer appears with a brew. Kitchen sockets still live. Advised client to have mains checked by electrician. A few weeks later called in on customer, the electricians report The kitchen electrics were wired to next door........ Baz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dale Posted April 6, 2004 Share Posted April 6, 2004 My mate once went to a house like that Baz, it used to be a shop that was converted back into a house, the entire upstairs was wired to next doors and the downstairs was wired to the nomal consumer unit. Whats even worse was the two houses were on different phases... would have been entertaining had they wired the upstairs and downstairs circuits together! Dale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stuartbe Posted May 12, 2004 Share Posted May 12, 2004 My horror story was a day that I would like to forget. I was called out one morning by a chap who had installed his own system " here we go I thought ". When I arived on site the guy had managed to get hold of a scany 9500. He would not tell me where he got it from ! I had a look at the system and there were no lims installed anywhere in the system. The user had wired all the zones in series on the tamper return He had managed to wire the keypad correctly. Checked the system over and it was reporting a power failure. I checked the mains supply on the block and there was no power. It was when I checked the wiring that I got my second shock. This muppet had changed his consumer unit and managed to wire the live from the tails into the earth block, the Nut. to the live and the earth to the Nut. feed. All of the appliences in this guys house were live. The unit kept tripping so the guy had gone round and cut all the earth tags to the pipes. One excuse that I needed parts and a quick phone call to his electricity supplier later I returned and pulled the company fuse. The guy went nuts - I gave him the electricity supplier number and told him that someone will need to come out and re-wire it. I then spent an hour arguing with the guy and he even tried to stop me leaving. I took great plesure in making out the invoice - The guy actualy paid it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGMarsden Posted May 12, 2004 Share Posted May 12, 2004 Why do people do such stupid things. They are risking their lives to save themselves a few quid. How Stupid. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UKS Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 One job I saw was a mains fault at a set of flats, a tenant needed a couple new lights hung, and at the same time suggested that a socket outside her flat be replaced (the plastic had cracked) even though it wasn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pkh911 Posted August 15, 2004 Share Posted August 15, 2004 About 10 years ago I was still in Liverpool, and we were called to a job in Widnes Cheshire. (you know the place by the smelly mile) anyway when we got there the customer said that the system had been installed about three weeks earlier by a NACOSS company. From the same area, we asked why they didnt call them back out, only to be informed that they where not impressed with the company and that they just cut thier losses. After about an hour looking for the problem (staple through bell box cable in a dark loft), we eventually rectified the fault. The customer then mentiond that since the installation had been installed, they could constantly smell gas. As such nice blokes we were, we investigated, BELIEVE THIS OR NOT the PRATT of an engineer had drilled through the gas pipe (just nicking it) then binded it with insulation tape!!!!!. On telling the customer he went apes*** imagine our satisfaction when we invoiced the customer got three more jobs from him because we didnt rip him off and then putting two fingers up to a large NACOSS company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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