In the confessional....

Dave Appleby · Aug 19, 2021

Morning everyone.

As the weekend fast approaches I thought a little confessional thread might be in order.

We've all seen and critiqued dodgy work, however, I thought let's try something different.

Have you ever had a moment where you have been on a job and suddenly had an. "Oh you stupid idiot" moment?

I'll start...

Consumer units work far better if you actually remember to insert the busbar.

Felt a right numpty when I finally realised what was going on.

Gavin John Hyde · Aug 21, 2021

littlespark said:
I thought this was going to end…..

“and it was then I realised I was at the wrong house”

I have done that too. Gone to 1a instead of 1b around the side and started testing. Tenants let me in . Only realised when landlord called asking where i was. Thankfully was only around 30 mins

loz2754 · Aug 21, 2021

Paul L said:
Before the days of ready made ceiling roses and pendant drops (mid 80s) as an apprentice I was given a great big pile of pre cut flex and pendants to make up the drops. Merrily carried on until near the end of the pile when I picked some up and discovered at least six pieces of flex with a pendant on each end of the same bit of flex!. A lesson learnt in concentrating a bit more after a bit of a telling off from the senior boys who were waiting to fit them

I remember those days only too well! I missed off the lampholder a few times, but never managed to get a double header!

loz2754 · Aug 21, 2021

littlespark said:
I thought this was going to end…..

“and it was then I realised I was at the wrong house”

Fitted a new shower circuit and shower at the right house but the wrong street! Boss was not amused...
Tenant never said anything (why would they!).

James · Aug 21, 2021

loz2754 said:
Fitted a new shower circuit and shower at the right house but the wrong street! Boss was not amused...
Tenant never said anything (why would they!).

Now that is great, I actualy laughed out loud!

Fender · Aug 21, 2021

In a hazardous area, I very neatly installed a 50 metre or so run of 4L 1.5 MICC for control wiring. Because it was a hazardous, the whole area was decommisioned for a week.

When I started to strip it, it very quickly became apparent that I had installed a 3L 2.5.

Same clip size, but slightly different cable.

DefyG · Aug 21, 2021

Pulled into big private house little bit early, no one in so thought we'd (apprentice and myself) have a picnic (lunch) on their patio. No sign after about 40mins so called agent only to discover it was the wrong house.
There was cctv and although never heard anymore about it, I'm sure they would have thought it a little cheeky to use their patio for lunch and just p........ off again!

Yahtzee · Aug 21, 2021

Testing a 30ma RCCB at the terminals this week and it didn't trip, tried ramp test and still no trip. Very strange as it was a recently changed board. Then the penny dropped........ maybe I should use the out going terminals ???

Flanders · Aug 21, 2021

Wire a house years ago with another spark .Turned on power all ok but one of the rings had no power at any of the sockets. After an hour of testing and trying to trace what the issue could be we realise neither of us had taken the legs back to the board
? .

ipf · Aug 22, 2021

Dave Appleby said:
I'll take the 5th

Slicing a sock?......Is that the little toe?

roper_ni · Aug 22, 2021

James said:
To be honest, I bet most people have done it at least once.

Putting a RCD on the wrong way round, it was one of those moments

Mikegh · Aug 22, 2021

Reconnected a sub-main minus the neutral

Blew emergency lighting, power supplies , washing machine, heating equipment

Mikegh · Aug 22, 2021

Short-circuited overhead busbar

Singed my eyebrows, the bang was something else

Radio was blaring but the whole factory was staring at me

Cut through live 3P SWA with hacksaw

Blew 2 fuses but no harm done to me

I like SWA

littlespark · Aug 22, 2021

are you safe to be anywhere near electricity? Anything more than a 13A plug, id be worrying.

Mikegh · Aug 22, 2021

littlespark said:
are you safe to be anywhere near electricity? Anything more than a 13A plug, id be worrying.

Alcohol had no small part in most.of.those events

telectrix · Aug 22, 2021

fitting a schneider easy 9 and got the polarity wrong on the back to front main switch.

littlespark · Aug 23, 2021

sigh

I wasn’t going to admit to anything, but I thought this recent incident just shows the importance of turning things off.

Saturday morning past, doing a little job for a friend. Old immersion switch, but no tank. Boiler has been installed elsewhere… so there’s a switch in the airing cupboard doing nothing.
I unscrewed the faceplate to pull it forward so I could test it…. No labels on the old CU.
Put my fingers over the plate to grip it and Ooooooya!

the flex was still connected but just cut off, and as the switch was on, there was power going to the cut end of flex…. As it had been for the so many years before whenever the hot water tank was taken out.

Lesson learned. Never trust a plumber to finish a job.

[ElectriciansForums.net] In the confessional....

Mikegh · Aug 23, 2021

I learnt a few lessons from my various disasters

Never trust 2-pole testers alone for proving dead

Never trust single pole isolation when working

If the installation is an unknown quantity , double pole main isolation is safest bet

Mikegh · Aug 23, 2021

Domestic main isolation i'm referring to above

Never trust 2-pole testers alone for proving dead

Never trust single pole isolation when working

If the installation is an unknown quantity , double pole main isolation is safest bet

Mikegh · Aug 23, 2021

Another one is putting the ladders on the van roof rack and then forgetting about them

And forgetting the clamps

loz2754 · Aug 23, 2021

Mikegh said:
Another one is putting the ladders on the van roof rack and then forgetting about them

And forgetting the clamps

Yup. Done that! And lost them on the M69....

brianmoooore · Aug 23, 2021

Mikegh said:
Another one is putting the ladders on the van roof rack and then forgetting about them

And forgetting the clamp

One and only time I did that it stayed in place until I had to brake sharply for an oncoming car in a narrow lane. Ladder shot off and landed neatly in the gap between me and the oncoming POLICE car. (What's the odds?)
Single female officer in the car, and it took quite a bit of sweet talking to get out of that one.

timhoward · Aug 23, 2021

brianmoooore said:
Single female officer in the car, and it took quite a bit of sweet talking to get out of that one.

In a former life driving an outside broadcast unit I occasionally wouldn't have the right shape number plate for the artic trailer. What you NEVER SAY is "it must have fallen off!" Penalty for carrying an unsafe load was considerably higher and 3 penalty points compared to a relatively cheap fine for lacking a trailer number plate.
Well done on talking your way out of that one!

SparkySy · Aug 23, 2021

So today my tape measure lied to me! (Well that's what I'm saying) cutting holes for downlights and oh b@gger!
The old measure twice cut once sprang to mind as I was screwing the bit of board back in! And re-cutting 100mm further back!?
Strange thing was the cable I had first fixed fell out the hole. Blinkin plasterers!

Luckily the customer was very understanding!

ipf · Aug 23, 2021

Picked up a 3 phase supply from the well populated DB on the left.. before realising where the board supply was coming from......
Not mentioning all the tails, that was another matter?