Dodgy trade pictures for your amusement! - 1 Million Views!

[Darkwood]

Right ... Just been nudged to set this up by Paul.M and sounds a good idea following recent threads I've done in the Arms..

Rules....No Offensive material... edit if required before posting as this is the public arena.
Anything to do with the trade or in and around it ...H&S pic's welcome.



I've posted this a few times and this is at a mates house following a kitchen refirb several yrs ago. mg_smile:

 

[ipf]

Engineer is an extremely loose term sometimes

Hence the inverted commas....'engineers'.

It might be all about engineering different ways of throwing IT cables in.

 

[telectrix]

if you insure with direct line, they can get you an electricain, a plumber, and a "drainage engineer". since when did a shyte shifter deserve such a title?

 

[Mikegh]

I think I've got it...it only makes sense if there's a break in the bus bar behind the mortar though.
Otherwise the RCD would trip if the far right breaker that reverse feeds the non-protected half was on.
Special!

View attachment 89132

Theres a gap ,i think u have it right on the busbar

That's the feed terminated in bottom of 32amp mcb and looped across to RCD ?

32amp mcb feeds lighting ways and RCD is direct off supply, daft arrangement if that's it

 

[Electrics]

if you insure with direct line, they can get you an electricain, a plumber, and a "drainage engineer". since when did a shyte shifter deserve such a title?

Hey my old man was a 'glass maintenance technician'.

 

[pc1966]

In more detail the argument goes something like this:
There's a reg that's new in 18th edition (536.4.203) which refers to components that are used in consumer units and

The regs are more general, it is really a reference to any assembly of electrical parts. In the domestic world that really comes down to the CU, but beyond that it really applies to anything to put together to do a job in an installation.

Some aspects of the standards cited are only applicable to big systems (forget the details but over 100A at least) where it covers aspects like would busbars bend under huge fault currents, etc, etc. But generally the way it is interpreted is as @timhoward say - stick to a supplier's pre-assembled CU or at least the list of parts they declare as compatible.

While I am normally happy with sane and reasoned attempts to replace difficult parts instead of ripping the whole lot out, when presented with something like that I would agree with @westward10 and feel very uneasy at re-using something obviously bodged and of unknown provenance. Especailly as the cost of fixing it properly would be dominated by the skilled time, not by the likes of a budget Fusebox (or similar) CU where it is known to be as specified..

 

[James]

Hey my old man was a 'glass maintenance technician'.

in my younger days, I used to maintain glasses, plates and cutlery in our local pub.
i don't recall many of my colleagues referring to me as an engineer or technician!!!!

 

[pc1966]

i don't recall many of my colleagues referring to me as an engineer or technician!!!!

As an artist perhaps?

I could be slightly more specific...

 

[Electrics]

in my younger days, I used to maintain glasses, plates and cutlery in our local pub.
i don't recall many of my colleagues referring to me as an engineer or technician!!!!

If I listed them, most of the would look like this f*ing **

My old man had to buy hundreds of pennies worth of equipment too. He only needed 3 tools though. One was a large volume moisture retaining vessel, one was the rubber-tipped water vapour scraper and the most important tool was the multicellular water dispensing unit which could be used to effectively maintain the glass. Technical stuff.

 

[Electrics]

The regs are more general, it is really a reference to any assembly of electrical parts. In the domestic world that really comes down to the CU, but beyond that it really applies to anything to put together to do a job in an installation.

Some aspects of the standards cited are only applicable to big systems (forget the details but over 100A at least) where it covers aspects like would busbars bend under huge fault currents, etc, etc. But generally the way it is interpreted is as @timhoward say - stick to a supplier's pre-assembled CU or at least the list of parts they declare as compatible.

While I am normally happy with sane and reasoned attempts to replace difficult parts instead of ripping the whole lot out, when presented with something like that I would agree with @westward10 and feel very uneasy at re-using something obviously bodged and of unknown provenance. Especailly as the cost of fixing it properly would be dominated by the skilled time, not by the likes of a budget Fusebox (or similar) CU where it is known to be as specified..

I didn't take any of this into account. An important lesson for me going forward so thanks guys for explaining it.

 

[telectrix]

My old man had to buy hundreds of pennies worth of equipment too. He only needed 3 tools though. One was a large volume moisture retaining vessel, one was the rubber-tipped water vapour scraper and the most important tool was the multicellular water dispensing unit which could be used to effectively maintain the glass. Technical stuff.

 

[Electrics]

?

 

[littlespark]

I’m proud to be a “negative electron logistics consultant”

 

[pc1966]

I didn't take any of this into account. An important lesson for me going forward so thanks guys for explaining it.

No worries.

Though looking at that example it is not the 'modified CU' aspect that bothers me most, it is the obvious lack of knowledge/care in installing it that rings alarm bells. There are a lot of circuits coming off what looks like 4mm T&E and even without totalling up loads, etc, you start to wonder "was this actually designed at all?" from the point of view of total load and any requirements for selectivity so faults have a reasonable chance of being isolated to the circuit responsible.

So it is more than changing the CU, it is looking at the whole installation and trying to figure out what is needed and how best to do it for the client.

 

[pc1966]

I’m proud to be a “negative electron logistics consultant”

Just hope you never meet a positive electron logistics consultant!

 

[Mikegh]

The issues for me looking at that board

Supply to the board doesn't look adequate

No isolation on the board

Non standard method of wrong the breakers, dunno what the rules are on that
They may be identical top and bottom and work both ways but when i switch off an mcb I expect the top to be dead here

Probably more issues