Dodgy trade pictures for your amusement! - 1 Million Views!

[DPG]

No. That was the electrician.


Easier to snap apart?

Never liked using them as a fixing hole, unless it’s a really thin screw.
The thread cutting into plastic could get too close to a live terminal.

Agree. It really needs to be a machine screw and nut so that there is no risk of that happening

 

[Dustydazzler]

I have come across connectors completely split open when sparks have driven big wood screws into the hole in the connector to fix it to something. if you really feel the need to anchor the connector to the box then a dob of super glue would be better imo

 

[ipf]

Connector blocks have holes in the middle of them for a reason.

Drain holes?

 

[mainline]

Can you come and have a look, I think my consumer unit has got a bit warm.

 

[DPG]

Can you come and have a look, I think my consumer unit has got a bit warm.
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Jeez that's a bad one. What's the verdict? Apart from that it's knackered obviously!

 

[Julie.]

Can you come and have a look, I think my consumer unit has got a bit warm.
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Pretty obvious why that's gone wrong!

They have used the old wiring colours, and haven't put a notice of colours to one or more version of the regs!

Missing that notice, and there was bound to be a problem!!

 

[LewisM]

Looks like the fusehead had melted?

 

[littlespark]

Can we make consumer units out of the same material as that meter?
Its virtually unscathed

 

[123]

Can we make consumer units out of the same material as that meter?
Its virtually unscathed

In fairness the consumer unit main switch/rcd's/mcb's all look fine also...it looks like the supply cable is the issue, not sure why it's not just a set of metre tails or quite what's got wrong there

 

[Julie.]

Can we make consumer units out of the same material as that meter?
Its virtually unscathed

Err plastic?

Perhaps we should see the dangers of metal cu's and move over to plastic.

Seemed to work last time we did it.

Old plastic (bakelite) - dangerous let's move to metal.

Old metal - dangerous let's move to plastic

Old plastic - dangerous let's move to metal

So when's the next switch over planned for?

 

[Fazz711]

Err plastic?

Perhaps we should see the dangers of metal cu's and move over to plastic.

Seemed to work last time we did it.

Old plastic (bakelite) - dangerous let's move to metal.

Old metal - dangerous let's move to plastic

Old plastic - dangerous let's move to metal

So when's the next switch over planned for?

Make them out of asbestos lol

 

[mainline]

Jeez that's a bad one. What's the verdict? Apart from that it's knackered obviously!

Dno called out to renew the head and move it outside, they were very lucky that the place never burnt down.

 

[brianmoooore]

Last time I had that scenario (DNO head burst into flames and set fire to CUs directly above it), DNO sent an invoice to the customer for replacing the head, claiming that the source of the fire was one of the CUs.

 

[mainline]

Looks like the fusehead had melted?

The feed to the head looped down the side of the cu, when they overheated they melted the side of it.
Having an 8.5kw electric shower along with 9kw electric central heating didn't help.

 

[mainline]

Last time I had that scenario (DNO head burst into flames and set fire to CUs directly above it), DNO sent an invoice to the customer for replacing the head, claiming that the source of the fire was one of the CUs.

Basically the same scenario here, dno moved to an outside cabinet at no cost.

 

[brianmoooore]

Basically the same scenario here, dno moved to an outside cabinet at no cost.

At no cost would have been fine. Customer didn't want the agro, and just paid up (£800 or so, I think). Still had to pay me for replacing the CUs. I said she should send my bill to the DNO, but she never did.

 

[Raptor0014]

Amazing what you find hidden in ceiling roses.

 

[Raptor0014]

At no cost would have been fine. Customer didn't want the agro, and just paid up (£800 or so, I think). Still had to pay me for replacing the CUs. I said she should send my bill to the DNO, but she never did.

I’d have gone through the agro for £8. For £800 plus cost of CU etc, I’d have been camped outside head office pestering like that plank in Westminster with the megaphone!

 

[nicebutdim]

Amazing what you find hidden in ceiling roses.

View attachment 105741

Enclosed within the rose and accessible. While not the most elegant of solutions, were any regulations breached?

 

[brianmoooore]

I’d have gone through the agro for £8. For £800 plus cost of CU etc, I’d have been camped outside head office pestering like that plank in Westminster with the megaphone!

There's a bit more to the story that I've stated. This was a 40kVA single phase supply that was connected to a bigger than normal service head, rated either 200A or 300A max. This was connected to an old rotating disc meter, officially rated at 100A max.
Tails were 35mm, the fuse must have been at least 160A, and everything had worked happily for decades.
Enter someone to change the meter (expired calibration), who must have reduced the size of the DNO fuse to match the new meter, so 80A or 100A. This, of course, resulted in frequent power failures, where the fuse had popped, eventually culminating in the fire, when the well cooked head finally cried enough.
The eventual solution was to fit a polyphase head, with two fuses connected in parallel to the incomer, and connected to two channels of a three phase meter. The metered output tails then went to a large Henley, and on to the original wiring.
I turned up on site just as they were finishing this, to sort out the damaged CUs (which were actually Wylex 160s to two sub mains), and pointed out to WP's cowboys, that the four 16mm2 tails, with all their insulation burnt off, that were running horizontally just a few mm above their newly fitted meter board, had been live (from a 25kVA back up generator) all the time they'd been working.