DIY Dave strikes again!

[Gavin John Hyde]

Been on a job today sorting out some lighting circuits. The husband took it upon himself as part of his kitchen refurb/extension to install downlights.
He decided to wire it by feeding the lights from the switch as he thought that was the new way to do it to comply.
He hadn't given any thought to how he was going to test or inspect any of this mind as he had checked and it s not subject to building control as its a alteration and nothing new!
He basically messed it up from start to end and his only source of instruction was youtube!
He had bought a box of Ideal connectors, the cheaper version of Wagos and connected it in wrong at the switch to begin with, and at each spotlight used connectors without any terminal enclosure to connect up each cheap spot light which he had bought of ebay!
After connecting it all up and doing the bang test method and the rcd tripping, the wife called me to fix it.
So a after sourcing proper down lights that wont fall apart and MF enclosures as the lights he got online were so awful i doubt they would last a year. and sorting his wiring they now have lights in the kitchen and dining area.
When i asked him why he didn't buy any enclosures he said the connectors were on offer and cheaper than buying some MF enclosures for the downlights!!
You have to love DIY Daves, they pay my bills and always bring a steady stream of work. Turns out that as a contract manager for the council he thought he could watch youtube and be an electrician.
There should be a warning notice on electrical materials advising homeowners to call an electrician.

 

[Dave OCD]

There usually are such notices such as 'Must be installed by a qualified electrician' but these are generally ignored. Nothing wrong with Ideal connectors either, the 2,3 and 4 port variants are rated at 32a, better than the Wagos in that respect.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

There usually are such notices such as 'Must be installed by a qualified electrician' but these are generally ignored. Nothing wrong with Ideal connectors either, the 2,3 and 4 port variants are rated at 32a, better than the Wagos in that respect.

Agree with you on the Ideal ones being better than Wago, Normally find them cheaper too as Wago trade on the name and are also heavily counterfeited so be careful where you buy! Have used the Ideal splice orange ones to extend some wires in a CU change. Made life very easy.

 

[Dave Jenkins]

Recently came across a downstairs cloakroom in which all the lights, switches and extractor fan had been connected up with bell wire... including a weird microswitch arrangement for turning on the fan when the door opened...

 

[Dave OCD]

Recently came across a downstairs cloakroom in which all the lights, switches and extractor fan had been connected up with bell wire... including a weird microswitch arrangement for turning on the fan when the door opened...

I had a very similar thing a few years ago Dave, in my case he'd gone from a nearby existing switch with no neutral so one end of the circuit was connected to the backbox earth terminal. And just today I found a light switch with permanent and switched live in a connector and the neutrals through the switch - both red sleeved.

 

[Dave Jenkins]

'Kin ell!

 

[Spoon]

Recently came across a downstairs cloakroom in which all the lights, switches and extractor fan had been connected up with bell wire... including a weird microswitch arrangement for turning on the fan when the door opened...

I did something similar a few years ago, when my daughter was younger. Put a cupboard light switch on her bedroom door and wired a couple of LED lights to it, so when she got up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet the lights would come on. I used bell wire.... ok it was only 4v...

 

[Spoon]

I thought is was a great idea @Murdoch. Saved her trying to find the light switch when she's still half asleep.. but I'll take the 'Funny' rating... An attention is better than none..

 

[sevuk]

I've fed switches before, and then run a switch line and neutral from the switch.

The guy must have thought he was clever knowing that it's not notifiable work, but as you said, it still needs testing and a schedule of test results....

 

[Marvo]

I've fed switches before, and then run a switch line and neutral from the switch.....

The 'neutrals in switches' police will be along shortly.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

I've fed switches before, and then run a switch line and neutral from the switch.

The guy must have thought he was clever knowing that it's not notifiable work, but as you said, it still needs testing and a schedule of test results....

He admitted as much but he took his failure on the chin and when i dropped the certificates around earlier they have said they be asking me to do their bedrooms early next year., so another repeat customer
I hate it when the diydaves of the world think they are clever and go beyond their ability. I had a job once above a pub where the landlord had rewired his sockets using singles in conduit. but rather than use standard colours, he had acquired purple, pink and white single 2.5mm cables from a regular in the pub who was a technician of some sort where they made machines for making food in factories and used them in no consistent order throughout the upstairs accommodation.
Thankfully we were gutting it to completely refurbish it.

 

[sevuk]

The 'neutrals in switches' police will be along shortly.

As long as the switch is in the line conductor, what's wrong with it?

 

[Marvo]

As long as the switch is in the line conductor, what's wrong with it?

Here's a sample of a thread from several years ago discussing wiring designs, if you run a search for 'neutrals in switches' you'll find lots more. Back then there was a majority of sparks on the forum who wouldn't advocate looping feeds through switches......mostly from what I could gather because it just wasn't the way they were used to. Living in a country where it's always been perfectly acceptable practice I used to put tin hat on and avoided the heated discussions that invariably produced little more than highly emotional yet feeble arguments against it.