Worst tested cable I ever found doing a EICR

[Sam cook]

Last year at night I was carrying out Electrical Inspection and Testing and Found the 300mm 4 core SWA sub main cable to a chapel was recording 0.09 ohms on carrying out high insulation resistance testing between phases. 25 thousand pounds later its rectified.

Would love to hear other people's great finds on carrying out Inspection and testing.

 

[PEG]

i agree Vortigern I must admit I've been part of that stupidity when I was an apprentice. I got told to make tea for the 4 sparks I was serving, they told me to go and make tea in the other end of the school because they were doing dead testing where we were based. I was too lazy to do that, plugged into a ring main circuit in a classroom out of sight they were testing and kettle went on/off several times until it went off. The sparks were so ****ed off because it was morning tea they each gave me a dead arm and I had to walk to Tesco and buy another kettle. Bloody good sparks though!

Pretty radical dead testing,to blow a kettle...were they using a defibrillator?

 

[Sam cook]

No they were probably using a wind up megger lol. This kettle was a camping kettle with about 3 inches of flex which had been cut several times for temporary leads.

 

[westward10]

IR tests with kettles or tablet chargers plugged in is never going to cause them harm, no different to a PAT.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Boy that sounds like a job and half! Best IR test I did on EICR was frying the landlords tablet, I need to qualify that. I was testing the ring and told the landlord who was hovering throughout, that I have unplugged everything the mains is off (safe isolation etc.) and that I was about to inject 500v down the cable. Should have been enough of a clue? No, the landlord quietly plugged his tablet in as it needed charging, (He knew the mains was off and big volts coming down the line) I tested, strange result checked to see if I had missed something saw the Landlord attempting to charge/use his tablet. It did get fried. Worst thing (for him) was that it was his wifes. Anyhow he saw that it was stupid on his part and did not make a big thing of it, had a bit of laugh actually, until he got home! Just goes to show you can never be too careful!

It would only fry the tablet if you tested L-N.
Only ever carry out a L-N test on an initial verification of new work where you are in control of connected loads. On an EICR L/N-Earth is the way to go, wont fry anything.

 

[The Ghost]

L/N-Earth

Yep always got told that by the 2391 supervisor, never quite got my head around that. So you will never know IR on L to N that way, always feel its a bit slapdash. Prepared to be corrected though! I can see it where there are fifty flours and I want to do some IR testing at least, things like that.

 

[westward10]

Doubt L/N would do much damage, no it wouldn't.

 

[The Ghost]

Well the landlord said it was working, and maybe it wasn't, and it was not working after he left he says so I just presumed the power supply had got fried perhaps not the tablet, but then again more likely as it runs on low DC. May have got a bit of a rise in the supply for a while. Why do you think that would have no effect @westward10 ?

 

[Sam cook]

Yes we agree, on new installs we carry out full insulation resistance testing and where possible on EICR works. It's not always possible to remove sensitive electronic equipment We just completed a EICR on a sports hall and the client wished for a full 100% Inspection and Test which meant we disconnect all 100 Light Fittings. We've just completed a few EICR tests on our installs 5 years old and it was lovely because we could unplug all klik roses, had all the data from our install certificates, pleasure to test.

 

[Pete999]

Yep always got told that by the 2391 supervisor, never quite got my head around that. So you will never know IR on L to N that way, always feel its a bit slapdash. Prepared to be corrected though! I can see it where there are fifty flours and I want to do some IR testing at least, things like that.

50 flours? is that fluorescent fittings or floors?

 

[The Ghost]

Flourescent fittings

 

[westward10]

Yes we agree, on new installs we carry out full insulation resistance testing and where possible on EICR works. It's not always possible to remove sensitive electronic equipment We just completed a EICR on a sports hall and the client wished for a full 100% Inspection and Test which meant we disconnect all 100 Light Fittings. We've just completed a few EICR tests on our installs 5 years old and it was lovely because we could unplug all klik roses, had all the data from our install certificates, pleasure to test.

No quality control in the factory will stress test sample batches with voltages up to 2.5kvdc, if any fail the previous run will be discarded/investigated.

 

[Pete999]

Flourescent fittings

A correct description would avoid unnecessary cryptic replies