High Ze, Whose. Responsibility.

[ChrisElectrical88]

Morning chaps,

A bit of background. Finished a job yesterday, it was a bathroom install for the council on a private job. So with these they are grant work for the disabled, existing installtion dated, we have to note this on the certificate and install new circuit off a small new board for our installation. Earthing and Bonding ok etc etc. My installation all Fine and conplies with the regs.

Before starting noted it was a TN-S system, phoned up told it was an 80A fuse etc etc.

Came to test the Ze, PFC, initial IRs at the end of the first fix. Open up the dated unsealed DNO head. Found a fused neutral, Ze reading of 6.63 Ohms. Phoned the DNO, within a hour someone had come and put a front end RCD on the whole installation then 2 Hours after that they were under next doors floor repairing the cable, new head fitted top job. New Ze of 0.24 Ohms.

Now, this house had had a hob fitted on a new circuit by a local NIC electrician 6 months ago, got hold of the certificate and he had got high Ze readings aswell. I asked the owner (90 year old lady) and she didnt know anything, however her daughter said the electrician told them there was a high reading they needed to sort, but gave them no contact details, info or anything. He left the house knowing the 3036 fuses in her main board (2 of which had 1.5 in them instead of fuse wire, which i replaced, when doing these grant jobs i alway make sure the existing fuse wires are atleast fused correctly) would not be under their maximum Zs readings(No RCD).

Which brings the question, i have always notified the DNO on behalf of the customer for anything not fit... Is it our responsibility or the owner of the house?

Cheers

 

[buzzlightyear]

Pat your self on the back, take the next day off ..im glad you helped the customer .not many do .

 

[Nigel]

Our responsibility to make the customer aware of our findings. The customers responsibility to sort.

 

[SparkyChick]

I tend to make a judgement call... if I think the customer can handle it, I make them aware and let them deal, if not, then I talk to the DNO on their behalf.

I do the same when requesting de-energisations and isolators.

 

[Sparky Pat]

I would do the same as you. Had a similar situation once and when I rang the WPD call centre they did not want to know , would not acknowledge that the TNS supply was anything to do with them and it was down to me to sort it out. Fortunately I had the phone number of the local office and was able to sort it through them.

 

[buzzlightyear]

Open up the dated unsealed DNO head. Found a fused

haing read this post again ,the qestion why did you do that .when you could have tested for the main isolator .

 

[ChrisElectrical88]

haing read this post again ,the qestion why did you do that .when you could have tested for the main isolator .

I was double checking there was inface a 80A fuse inside as advised over the phone prior to starting.

 

[littlespark]

Pat your self on the back, take the next day off ..im glad you helped the customer .not many do .

Hmm. Spelling seems ok.... punctuation good.

Ok you imposter, what have you done with the real Buzz?

 

[telectrix]

thing is, when contacting DNO you should always ask for the "duty engineer". usually, the above is not polishing fingernails or covering zits with face cement.

 

[Andy5678]

Do you actually phone and ask about the fuse? What’s the process?

Asking for a friend...

 

[ChrisElectrical88]

I rarely do it, did it because i was putting in a 9kW shower, no existing shower in place. We also install a 2kW downflow heater in these due to an outdated spec. Wanted to know there was at least east a 80A fuse in place.

Just phone the DNO, they should have the information to hand.

 

[Andy78]

I always offer to call the dno for non emergency upgrade work, and always handle the calls for emergency situations such as these, especially for 90 year old customers.
You did good.

 

[Toneyz]

thing is, when contacting DNO you should always ask for the "duty engineer". usually, the above is not polishing fingernails or covering zits with face cement.

Morning Tel, Say it how it is.

 

[Andy78]

thing is, when contacting DNO you should always ask for the "duty engineer". usually, the above is not polishing fingernails or covering zits with face cement.

To be fair to the competent ladies who answer for Northern powergrid, They have always understood my every phonecall without repeated explanation no matter what the issue.
Situations have included cast iron service head upgrades, high Ze reports, damaged equipment reports, new supply requests, and the time the joint failed under my garden path.

 

[Percyprod]

So you illegally broke the seals on the cut out to check the fuse was big enough for the load. And the size of the cable back to the sub station? If you are connecting additional load you are supposed to check the complete supply is sufficient, not just the fuse. There are still a lot of properties where the whole street us fed by a 16mm paper insulated cable. Used to be a standard question when we went to a blown main fuse which was a rewireable 15 amp "ok who was in the shower".

 

[richy3333]

So you illegally broke the seals on the cut out

I don't think that's what he said at all?

 

[telectrix]

op said that fuse was unsealed. all very well to call DNO to come out and check, but who pays for my time waiting for them ? can't tell customer that they will be out in 5 hours, so i'll be charging £25/hour to sit there doing nowt.