Anyone know what this is?

[COVIAN]

Hi all - my daughter recently bought her first house and found this electrical device in the loft. Any idea what it is? It appears to be connecxted to something else though we cants see what yet.

Neighbours have told her that the property was used previosuly as a 'weed' growing house, with lights and other bits and pieces in the loft. The police raided it (some years previously) and removed the installed kit. Could it be related to that? A transformer of some sort?

Thought I would ask the experts and very grateful for any contributions/suggestions
Thanks
Ian

 

[DPG]

It's basically two transformers. These will either step up or step down the mains AC voltage to a different AC voltage. On it's own this board won't do anything, so it would be good to know what it connects to.

The style of transformer on the left makes it a good few years old I would say. Possibly 1970s or earlier. But of course it could have been repurposesd at some point.

It doesn't look like typical grow room equipment I wouldn't say. But I'm no expert!

 

[COVIAN]

Hi DPG. Much appreciate the response. Your insight makes sense as scratched on one of the plastic covers is '115V 50Hz'. Since I posted I pulled back more of the insulation and the cable running from the transformer appears to go to the bathroom ceiling, in the area where an extractor fan makes sense (there is no such fan installed but there is an outlet airflow path, so one was fitted at some point).
Do you think it could have been a 115V extractor? niche I know...

 

[Avo Mk8]

There's a white label near the bottom of the pic that appears to say something like "MECA PANEL CONTROL RIG'" (could be wrong).
Maybe if it was dusted off we could see more!?

There's a mains filter at the top, so that could be a clue
My vote is for something to do with supplying power to a model railway in the 1950's - 60's, though I'm not sure if the fuses support that! The white date stamp on the left transformer says 11 Mar 19smudge

Maybe the naughty weed growers repurposed it from something else?

PS I hope it's not still connected to a live supply!

 

[littlespark]

Afaik weed growers use fairly modern equipment. Some form of street lighting gear if I recall.
Something much newer than what you have there.

Maybe a previous, previous owner of the property collected vintage electrical items??

if it’s not connected to anything, take it out. It’s definitely nothing that should be in a domestic attic.

 

[Avo Mk8]

Do you think it could have been a 115V extractor? niche I know...

It could have been that a previous occupant had a piece of 115V equipment/fan/whatever, and repurposed this old unit to give the necessary power from the mains. I think the unit pre-dates any regs requiring a bathroom fan !

I was thinking that the incoming supply to the unit is from the junction box at the top of the photo (modern brown/blue etc colours), and the output of this whole 'transformer' box was from the bottom junction box.

Which of the wires goes to the bathroom?

 

[COVIAN]

It could have been that a previous occupant had a piece of 115V equipment/fan/whatever, and repurposed this old unit to give the necessary power from the mains. I think the unit pre-dates any regs requiring a bathroom fan !

I was thinking that the incoming supply to the unit is from the junction box at the top of the photo (modern brown/blue etc colours), and the output of this whole 'transformer' box was from the bottom junction box.

Which of the wires goes to the bathroom?

Hi again - I think the brown/blue wires are 'internal'. The 2 white cables appear to be the input and output. I'm not entirely sure as we have tons of junk to move, but I think (?) that the 'input' side comes from the bathroom lamp, and the 'output'goes to where an extractor fan would be if indeed it had one.I plan to spend my next couple of birthdays removing the junk and then I can see for sure, but will anyway remove this transformer and chalk it all up to wonderful learning experience.

Big thanks to you and the other kind people who took time to respond. I love these kinds of boards.

 

[COVIAN]

Hi again - I think the brown/blue wires are 'internal'. The 2 white cables appear to be the input and output. I'm not entirely sure as we have tons of junk to move, but I think (?) that the 'input' side comes from the bathroom lamp, and the 'output'goes to where an extractor fan would be if indeed it had one.I plan to spend my next couple of birthdays removing the junk and then I can see for sure, but will anyway remove this transformer and chalk it all up to wonderful learning experience.

Big thanks to you and the other kind people who took time to respond. I love these kinds of boards.

There's a white label near the bottom of the pic that appears to say something like "MECA PANEL CONTROL RIG'" (could be wrong).
Maybe if it was dusted off we could see more!?

There's a mains filter at the top, so that could be a clue
My vote is for something to do with supplying power to a model railway in the 1950's - 60's, though I'm not sure if the fuses support that! The white date stamp on the left transformer says 11 Mar 19smudge

Maybe the naughty weed growers repurposed it from something else?

PS I hope it's not still connected to a live supply!

Just to close this out I took the unit out today and guess what? It was live. Fed from the bathroom lamp upstream and with the wiring from the transformer going to where a 115V extractor fan would have been some years previously. It's now in the bin...

My daughter and her partner had been in the loft many times and I don't want to think about what could have happened as this thing was out in the open, uncovered. Thanks again to all of you who took the time to respond.

 

[DPG]

Just to close this out I took the unit out today and guess what? It was live. Fed from the bathroom lamp upstream and with the wiring from the transformer going to where a 115V extractor fan would have been some years previously. It's now in the bin...

My daughter and her partner had been in the loft many times and I don't want to think about what could have happened as this thing was out in the open, uncovered. Thanks again to all of you who took the time to respond.

Glad you got to the bottom of it. Thanks for letting us know.