Hi Bren,
With appliances such as ovens and electric showers that draw a large current, I would always recomend getting an electrician involved if at all unsure. Connections carrying a large current are more likely to overheat and potentially cause a fire if not made properly using suitable...
FYI the control module looks to be just a standard DIN mounted programmable time switch. I would have thought this would switch in the contactor to the left of it which is basically the switch for the heaters. It probably isn't manufactured by the same company as the heaters but could be worth a...
Yes, well possibly anyway. Fuse wire, and the thermal trip element of an MCB (a bimetalic strip) have a time/current curve so as current increases the time to trip decreases. MCBs also have a magnetic trip, which for a B type breaker will operate in less than 0.4s with a current of 5x its rated...
Were you there when the work was done? The electrician should have spent a good couple of hours (if not longer) going round the entire house carrying out out tests on all sockets and the light fittings/switches. Any idea if any of that happened?
If you get somebody to just swap that double pole switch for a 2 gang switch, putting one pole on each switch, you should end up with a switch for the lights (which can be left on) and a switch for the fan. (This is assuming 1 pole is the lights and the other is the fan, but would be a good...
It would be worth measuring tbe resistance of the mats to check for short circuits, and also the current they are drawing whilst they are on. I would have thought the MCB would be the least likely component to fail in that setup. There might be an intermittant short on a mat which is triggering...
If you did still want to remotely isolate the shower, a contactor would be the way to go. This could be driven by low current smart switch of some kind.
If you wanted to go low tech, you could get 6 dimmer switches and a 2 way centre off master switch. It could then be wired so the master switch could be On, off or dimmed, in the dimmed position each of the individual dimmers would control the lights. You could possibly even add a master dimmer...
I would agree that this should alway be step one of any test. You could add some kind of ohmmeter to the bench and a list of resistance measurements for each type of device to be tested.
A note on point 3 - a spur, and rules on spurs from spurs etc only really apply to ring final circuts. This is because the protective device is sized for overload protection of two cables in parralel (each leg of the ring) and a spur wired in a single cable from this point would not be...
The thin data cabling looks like it's probably part of a door entry system. The leaseholders in the building I am in (we rent) discovered they were paying a yearly maintenance charge to a door entry maintenance company (for a system that was never maintained). You might find you also are and...
What is your location? This will affect the price. As you say the house is new to you, did you get given an Electrical instalation condition report (EICR) with the sale? If not, it would be advisable to have one done as a first step, as any faults found here will have to be repaired and made...
Some more info (which may or may not make it clearer)
An RJ45 plug has 8 pins in a line.
These are numbered from 1 to 8 in order, and are always the same for every manufacturer. (With the clip on the bottom and the cable exiting towards you, pin one is on the left)
The socket also has 8...
Not sure what the official line is here but as others have said the EICR is just a report detailing the condition of the instalation. If a different company comes in to carry out remedial work then perhaps they could issue a cover letter with the certs, confirming that all defecfs noted in the...
Can you get to the live terminal by popping the fuse out and sticking a prove in to the fuse holder? And the earth via a faceplate screw? That would give you R1 R2. The resistance might be slightly higher through the screw though so you would have to compare.
EDIT: Actually, thinking about it...
If I have understood correctly and the circuit is fed from a 32A MCB, then surely the 32A fuses are redundant as they dont add any aditional protection, and I would have thought the MCB would always operate first (unless maybe its a D curve?)
Asside from the safety issues mentioned, it seems a bit pointless to me to wire it this way. There must only be around 5 meters of this 3 core to the first light in the dowmstairs circuit, then a split to some 2 core to run upstairs. So they have maybe saved 5 of meters of cable but the 3core is...
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