Mixed wiring colours

[eamonn1983]

When working on an installation with mixed wiring is it adviable to sleeve the conductors if two differant colours are present at the same accessory or is it ok to just place a mixed wiring notification at the db?

 

[ipf]

VIR cable, by the description. Was it in conduit.......bet it wasn't capping and casing

 

[tazz]

Vulcanised indian rubber thats the suff.......surprised the rubber is still intact, has a habbit of crumbling after some long years.

 

[ipf]

Vulcanised indian rubber thats the suff.......surprised the rubber is still intact, has a habbit of crumbling after some long years.

I've come across it in very good condition in certain circumstances.

 

[Geordie Spark]

I've come across it in very good condition in certain circumstances.

Plugging electric fires into the lighting socket with one of those "Y" adaptors that let you plug a bulb / lamp / spherical glass globe with wire in it along with something else didn't do much to help prolong the life of the cable and then when another "Y" adaptor was added so the wifey could do her ironing that was something else!

And yes .. I have seen this done by both my Granny and my Mother.

 

[Skimpy Wan]

Well thanks for the info and for not taking the **** (which lets face it I was expecting!!).

 

[markc123]

Are you trying to say this forum is full of horrible angry men lol?

 

[ipf]

Plugging electric fires into the lighting socket with one of those "Y" adaptors that let you plug a bulb / lamp / spherical glass globe with wire in it didn't do much to help prolong the life of the cable and then when another "Y" adaptor was added so the wifey could do her ironing that was something else!

And yes .. I have seen this done by both my Granny and my Mother.

Aye...twisted vir's to the lampholder, I'll wager.

 

[ipf]

Well thanks for the info and for not taking the **** (which lets face it I was expecting!!). 

The peee isn't taken out of everyone who's not old enough to have worked with the stuff, you know.
On the other hand, why the bleedin' hell didn't you go on google for a 'history of cable' check rrr:

 

[Geordie Spark]

Aye...twisted vir's to the lampholder, I'll wager.

Yep. Mums house had that and VIR singles in metal slip conduit. Porcelain ceiling roses and Bakelite toggle switches too until I rewired the place in the late '70s.

Consumer unit only had 2 5A porcelain with (wait for it .. DEADLY ASBESTOS shields!! ) fuses in it and one of those was on the neutral!! But, that was the way it was done (apparently) when the house was built in the early 1930s. The fuses were to protect a lighting circuit only as that was all there was - apart from a funny toggle light switch in the kitchen which as well as operating the kitchen light also had 2 holes in it to accept a 2 pin plug.

The mains incomer was a lead sheathed cable that struggled to be 4mm and the "Earth" for the whole place was a bit of bare stranded copper wire that was twisted around the lead sheath of the incomer. Clamps & suchlike must have been a luxury that nobody could afford.

Dad hated the new "plastic rubbish" that I put in. Didn't want MK plate switches .. he wanted his old toggle switches back!!

 

[Geordie Spark]

Well thanks for the info and for not taking the **** (which lets face it I was expecting!!). 

It all depends on how you present yourself as far al I'm concerned.

Come across as cocky or stroppy or as thick as pig slurry and that's what you get in return.

There was NOTHING wrong with your question or the way you asked it.

 

[tazz]

Infact it brought back some good memories on working in the old Butlins camps...which were used as military bases during the war hence the vir cable, which was still being used in the late 80`s

 

[Geordie Spark]

Infact it brought back some good memories on working in the old Butlins camps...which were used as military bases during the war hence the vir cable, which was still being used in the late 80`s

Butlins??!!!!! Don't talk to me about bloody Butlins!!!

Mum & Dad had scrimped & scraped to get enough money to take us on holiday and so it came to pass one day in 1956 we found ourselves in a hut in Butlins "Holday Camp" in Filey and I hated ever bloody minute of it.

All these idiots in silly clothes bullying you into getting involved in playing games and other pointless activities and telling you to laugh or cheer when there was nothing funny or interesting to laugh or cheer about. If I want to play a game or laugh,scream, shout or clap my hands I'll just do it ..or not. I DON'T need an idiot in a red blazer and silly hat to tell me to!!!

Then there was the dreaded Tannoy with it's "Good morning campers" like an Imam calling the faithful to morning prayers at half past frickin' sparrow fart telling you to rise and shine and march half a mile up the road in the pi$$ing rain and gale force wind to the canteen where breakfast would be served.

At the end of that 1956 "holiday" it was almost a pleasure to get back to school with I normally hated and I vowed NEVER again to set foot in a Butlins Holiday Camp - and I haven't and won't!!

The best part of the whole thing was the ride home on the train which was steam hauled. Wish I knew what the loco was.

Edit: I think it could have been a K1

 

[ipf]

Yep. Mums house had that and VIR singles in metal slip conduit. Porcelain ceiling roses and Bakelite toggle switches too until I rewired the place in the late '70s.

Consumer unit only had 2 5A porcelain with (wait for it .. DEADLY ASBESTOS shields!! ) fuses in it and one of those was on the neutral!! But, that was the way it was done (apparently) when the house was built in the early 1930s. The fuses were to protect a lighting circuit only as that was all there was - apart from a funny toggle light switch in the kitchen which as well as operating the kitchen light also had 2 holes in it to accept a 2 pin plug.

The mains incomer was a lead sheathed cable that struggled to be 4mm and the "Earth" for the whole place was a bit of bare stranded copper wire that was twisted around the lead sheath of the incomer. Clamps & suchlike must have been a luxury that nobody could afford.

Dad hated the new "plastic rubbish" that I put in. Didn't want MK plate switches .. he wanted his old toggle switches back!!

Early thirties? Didn't know you had running water up there in the thirties!

There's an old terraced house, just down the road from us, that used to belong to a 96 year old lady who used to say what she wanted...and nothing more or less. Grand owd lass, about 4'10'' and lived on her own 'till the end. After her husband died in the nineties, she used to shove a little note through the letterbox 'Excuse me, somatts up wit lectrics, can t' call an ave a looke forus'. Now that was a hell hole, twisted vir extensions all over and fixtures much akin to those you mention with her late husbands DIY additions everywhere. It was usually changing a lamp or a tube/starter in the kitchen fluorescent. But she wouldn't change anything and always tried, unsuccesfully, to pay before I left. Real shame when she had an accident with her gas cooker and ended up in hospital badly burned and couldn't recover. One of the old school.....damn shame for Alice, going like that.

 

[Geordie Spark]

Early thirties? Didn't know you had running water up there in the thirties!

There's an old terraced house, just down the road from us, that used to belong to a 96 year old lady who used to say what she wanted...and nothing more or less. Grand owd lass, about 4'10'' and lived on her own 'till the end. After her husband died in the nineties, she used to shove a little note through the letterbox 'Excuse me, somatts up wit lectrics, can t' call an ave a looke forus'. Now that was a hell hole, twisted vir extensions all over and fixtures much akin to those you mention with her late husbands DIY additions everywhere. It was usually changing a lamp or a tube/starter in the kitchen fluorescent. But she wouldn't change anything and always tried, unsuccesfully, to pay before I left. Real shame when she had an accident with her gas cooker and ended up in hospital badly burned and couldn't recover. One of the old school.....damn shame for Alice, going like that.

Oh aye ... we had running water and a hot water tank & flushing netty in the hoose!

The hot water tank was a total disaster. Mounted high up on the kitchen wall and heated by the open fire in the front room. This thing had a patent on it because it was special in it was supposed to store both hot AND cold water in the same tank!!!

It never worked. on the day of Bath Night, Mother would be stoking the fire like a demented fireman on the footplate of the Flying Scotsman and she'd keep that fire blazing all day - even in summer - in the vain hope that in the evening we would have six inches of hot water in the bath!!

Your Alice sounds a bit like my maternal Granny - a hard as nails no nonsense business woman who made a lot of money selling petrol, coal, ladies lingerie and baby clothing during the war. God knows where she got it from - it was strictly rationed - but she got it from somewhere & did quite canny for herself.

She kept the business going until the late 60s and had a garage, coalhouse, air raid shelter and a bedroom full of "stock".

Watch Last of the Summer Wine on telly & you'll see my granny in the form of Auntie Wainwright.

 

[tazz]

was funny how they wired these old chalets.....in the apex roof, center was a full length bare copper cable for the earth, left was vir run for neutral, and right vir was line......each chalet was tap off and feed 1 5amp socket and a 1kw heater, later they tapped off with 60amp wirelex fused boards....totally crazy......dont know abaut 56 but in the 80`s it was more like a knocking shop...lol