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:

 

[GBDamo]

View attachment 50637

Just opened up this CU on a garage conversion.

Sweet Jesus.

Whole thing wired in 1mm 3 core.

Into a b50.

Supplies sockets and a utility room...

More later.

By far and away 1st prize in the "Not having a effig clue" awards 2019.

Maybe even a lifetime underachievement award to boot.

 

[GBDamo]

Not calling you a liar but you'd have to try pretty hard to do worse than that.

The scary thing is , I have seen far far worse in peoples houses

 

[Dustydazzler]

Not calling you a liar but you'd have to try pretty hard to do worse than that.

Try a consumer unit under the stairs with no cover on it , the cover was broken and just left laying on the floor...

 

[SparkySy]

I have seen worse where the tenant had used cat5 for basement lighting fed from a B50 mcb for some led fittings!

 

[Dustydazzler]

I have seen worse where the tenant had used cat5 for basement lighting fed from a B50 mcb for some led fittings!

I have come across bell wire quite afew times in older properties where alterations and additions to the lighting have been made by the houseowner

 

[Marcus Vaughan]

I've tried three times to write an appropriate comment but words are letting me down. You'll have to invent some colourful new vocabulary for your report... I don't think standard English is up to the job.

E2A sorry I can't stand the suspense. You have to tell us what the polarity of the 'submain' is, what with the brown wires all being connected to the case and that. Pleeeease say it's the neutral or show us the other end.

Nightmare.

Cannot find the other end (the supply) at all. Must be buried in a wall or a JB under a floor. Maybe I'll find it tomorrow. Floorboards up tomorrow.

Polarity?

The grey to the bottom of the MCB is permanent live. This then makes the neutral bar top right an....erm...ehhh...'live bar'?

Then you have the three circuits, grey live and brown neutral on each, all from 1.0mm three core with black snipped.

Oh - and one of those 3 cores feeds sockets, including a washer/drier (or at least it did).

Worse still, this 3 core supply seems to have been put 'in-line' with an older radial socket circuit on 15amp BS3036 which serves bedrooms upstairs. so when I disconnected at this new CU, the upstairs sockets went dead.

What a mess.

 

[telectrix]

nice little earner putting that lot right. start @ £400.

 

[ChrisElectrical88]

I have no idea how that even works??

 

[Bellendian]

I have no idea how that even works??

Not entirely sure that the chimp that installed it did either?!

 

[Marcus Vaughan]

I have no idea how that even works??

Turn mcb on, twisted 3 core to top of mcb becomes live, as does the bar it connects into (normally a neutral bar). Hey presto. Everything works, until some meddling electrician comes along...

 

[Baddegg]

It works......it’s fine......just need someone to sign it off.....

 

[Toneyz]

That there is a total abortion, @Marcus Vaughan
I can’t see one regulation that HAS been adhered to.
The gray sheath is inside the enclosure though

 

[-Matt]

Interesting one I found the other week, nice laser cut and labelled front panel (sorry no picture), yet they couldn't think of a better solution for the earth and neutral bars other than a choc block!

 

[casperLennon]

Is the rcd not serving any purpose? This picture is really hurting my eyes and head.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Can we actually make a list of what's wrong? It's kinda tricky because some of the errors have mistakes in them. It's non-compliant in so many ways, perhaps more interesting is to work out where the real danger lies.

If I'm reading Marcus's comments right, it's fed from a 15A BS3036. On paper the cable is not rated for that (nor for 'power' circuits of any rating) but in truth it would be very hard to overheat it badly on a 15A fuse unless it's fully embedded in thermal insulation. Seems the fuse hasn't blown, so although the Ib, Iz and In are all the wrong way about, it's probably not going to hurt anyone.

The MCB rating is irrelevant - if the incoming cable isn't going to melt, the outgoing ones won't either. There are lots of legacy circuits without RCD protection; not connecting it doesn't make it any more dangerous than those. The colour code doesn't make any difference until you start modifying or testing. The leccy doesn't care which wire is which. Grommets, bare copper, chock block, meh.

Which brings us to that earth bar, sorry, neutral bar. The one used for the neutrals because the lines are in the proper neutral bar. It's connected to the case, although the outgoing earths are connected to earth, it seems. This gets my vote as the main risk here - one loose connection and that casing goes live. (TN-C is also prohibited, FWIW).

Thankfully that is easy to solve - take the link out, job's a good'un!