When is a Ring NOT a ring?

[1shortcircuit]

When some flipping ruddy IDIOT leaves one leg half way up the length of trunking because it wouldn't reach the socket!

I sh*t you not! I've been on this last job two days and I was only sent to add a spur for a washing machine.

Checked the gas and water bonding and all was well.

Circuit protected by 32amp RCBO so all well there too.

Tested end to end for continuity.... Doh!


First observation was that the house had been wired Front and Back rings as opposed to up down which threw me off track on day one. Today though I approached with a fresh head and quickly realised what was going on.

Only one thing wasn't adding up whilst I was testing between all the sockets and that was "WHY" when rewiring a house would someone just run a spur to one double socket in one of the bedrooms? There was no sign of where the spur had come from either? I guessed there must be a junction box somewhere?

I went in search and lucky for me all of the upstairs had no carpets. First board I lifted and hey presto... WTF! I spotted that there were actually two cables heading in the direction of the spurred socket... Um! This was never intended to be a spur... I could not believe that the second leg had been poked up behind the skirting board and JUST made it in to the trunking. There was NO SLACK on the cables so my only conclusion is that this circuit has NEVER been anything other than two radials on a 32amp RCBO with live conductors hidden behind the trunking :yikes


I am so pleased with myself for doing the initial checks before commencing the work that I had been sent in to do.

Just for the record, this was a council property and had recently (last two years) undergone a full rewire which I presume would have had to have been carried out by an NICEIC approved contractor?

This has just emphasised how important it is to test a circuit before commencing work. I know some of you more experienced would have learnt this a long long time ago and I've read posts explaining the same on here but when you actually do AND find a fault it makes it so much more satisfying.

Thanks for reading all:thumbsup

 

[topquark]

No just a load of socket-outlets connected together in a ring, no connection to the CU at all.

Powered by a zero point energy supply

 

[millwall ken]

When some flipping ruddy IDIOT leaves one leg half way up the length of trunking because it wouldn't reach the socket!

I sh*t you not! I've been on this last job two days and I was only sent to add a spur for a washing machine.

Checked the gas and water bonding and all was well.

Circuit protected by 32amp RCBO so all well there too.

Tested end to end for continuity.... Doh!


First observation was that the house had been wired Front and Back rings as opposed to up down which threw me off track on day one. Today though I approached with a fresh head and quickly realised what was going on.

Only one thing wasn't adding up whilst I was testing between all the sockets and that was "WHY" when rewiring a house would someone just run a spur to one double socket in one of the bedrooms? There was no sign of where the spur had come from either? I guessed there must be a junction box somewhere?

I went in search and lucky for me all of the upstairs had no carpets. First board I lifted and hey presto... WTF! I spotted that there were actually two cables heading in the direction of the spurred socket... Um! This was never intended to be a spur... I could not believe that the second leg had been poked up behind the skirting board and JUST made it in to the trunking. There was NO SLACK on the cables so my only conclusion is that this circuit has NEVER been anything other than two radials on a 32amp RCBO with live conductors hidden behind the trunking :yikes


I am so pleased with myself for doing the initial checks before commencing the work that I had been sent in to do.

Just for the record, this was a council property and had recently (last two years) undergone a full rewire which I presume would have had to have been carried out by an NICEIC approved contractor?

This has just emphasised how important it is to test a circuit before commencing work. I know some of you more experienced would have learnt this a long long time ago and I've read posts explaining the same on here but when you actually do AND find a fault it makes it so much more satisfying.

Thanks for reading all:thumbsup

And this my friend is what separates a sparkie from a five week wonder. I was taught two things from day one at school:
No1. If you don't understand Ohms law by the end of week two, term one, year one then you don't have the mental capacity to understand more complex formulas, so you should leave the course NOW!!!
No2. When you turn up on a job (domestic field obviously) you have an MFT, alongside your notebook and pen. Because the first thing that you do after noting down what work that the client wants done, is a visual inspection and basic testing.
How many times have some sparkies said on here that they've discovered a problem half way though an installation?

 

[Blowcat]

A few years back, I was initial testing some accomodation units at the Imperial College London.
On one unit a RFC was wired as a ring, with no conductors wired to the CU, just one socket-outlet connected to the next to the next etc.

Not surprised SPIN thats was an old old place but good fun. I worked at imperial for a few years (about 1997), thats where I put my finger in a cut off conduit and got a shock. I never put my finger in dark holes anymore.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

Not surprised SPIN thats was an old old place but good fun. I worked at imperial for a few years (about 1997), thats where I put my finger in a cut off conduit and got a shock. I never put my finger in dark holes anymore.

Did you keep your skin?

 

[millwall ken]

Not surprised SPIN thats was an old old place but good fun. I worked at imperial for a few years (about 1997), thats where I put my finger in a cut off conduit and got a shock. I never put my finger in dark holes anymore.

I was on there for Balfour Kilpatrick, Opera House as well.

 

[Blowcat]

Did you keep your skin?

No major harm done except for a couple small gashes when i pulled it out rather quick.

Was working with ABB doing maintenance and refurbs.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

I was on the swimming pool, with a company called something like Forest Gardener, not sure.
The Chief tester decided that even though the tray was innaccessible, that it should be continously earthed through out.
So they had to break holes in the plaster board all over the accomodation units to access the tray to connect earth conductors.

 

[Blowcat]

I was on the swimming pool, with a company called something like Forest Gardener, not sure.
The Chief tester decided that even though the tray was innaccessible, that it should be continously earthed through out.
So they had to break holes in the plaster board all over the accomodation units to access the tray to connect earth conductors.

Forest Gardner doesn't inspire me with much confidence for doing the electrics, if you said they were doing the gardening that would be different.
One day in the sports centre we had to work in the female changing room. A staff member came out of their, said its all free and in we walked. Out the showers came a totally naked uni student. Like I said it was good working there. :yes:

 

[ipf]

Adding a socket outlet for friends. Isolated ring and tested two T+E's for continuity at local point - no ring. Tested at cu - no ring. On closer examination I noticed another unstripped T+E tucked away behind cables in the cu. Aha me thinks! Sure enough, some idiot had got his b******s tangled and connected the wrong one. One live ring return cable unconnected in cu, one live unused cable somewhere in the house, god knows where.

 

[MarkieSparkie]

Well done Short, pre-testing and inspection is never time wasted. It's just annoying that some site managers time pressure sparks to the point they adopt bad habits as a result.

 

[1shortcircuit]

Well done Short, pre-testing and inspection is never time wasted. It's just annoying that some site managers time pressure sparks to the point they adopt bad habits as a result.

Thanks everyone, the most satisfying part of all this is that there was absolutely no comeback on me because I had not started the job that I was sent there to do. As soon as I had reported the fault it was just a case of please can you rectify it and that I did, in my own time with nobody getting on my back

I'd hate to think of the grief involved if I had only found this fault after I had completed my alteration

 

[1shortcircuit]

When is a Ring NOT a ring?

When someone leaves out under 16" of cable from one point to another! Can't believe I've found this again. Whilst fault finding and rectifying a fault that was causing the RCD to trip I stumbled across a second fault. Seeing that the circuit was protected by a 32A breaker I carried out my end to end continuity test first... Doh! Walked around knowing full well everything had been reconnected but double checked as it was on all three conductors. Turns out after quite a while of investigation that it could be only one thing, the ring was never a ring. Ran a piece of cable from one outlet to the other I suspected and sure enough tests proved that someone had never installed the last 15-16" of cable!

 

[a1guvner]

Had one a while back doing some work at a newbuild shopping centre, ring main wired in 1.5 - and with a C32 behind it

 

[SPARTYKUS]

Powered by a zero point energy supply

Is that like it was running at -273 degrees Celsius so it didn't need to be connected to the CU, just some juice pumped in that would perpetuate forever ...... ?

 

[SPARTYKUS]

When someone leaves out under 16" of cable from one point to another! Can't believe I've found this again. Whilst fault finding and rectifying a fault that was causing the RCD to trip I stumbled across a second fault. Seeing that the circuit was protected by a 32A breaker I carried out my end to end continuity test first... Doh! Walked around knowing full well everything had been reconnected but double checked as it was on all three conductors. Turns out after quite a while of investigation that it could be only one thing, the ring was never a ring. Ran a piece of cable from one outlet to the other I suspected and sure enough tests proved that someone had never installed the last 15-16" of cable!View attachment 9602

Amazing. So they couldnt even be bothered to crimp/heatshrink to extend their bad measurins' ?

Very lazy.