What electrical regulations?

George_Bray

Beefster, the forum has a useful facility whereby you can modify your messages after posting, to tidy up any spelling mistakes, etc. I use it frequently! You can also delete any posting which you make.

Thanks to someone pointing out toolstation.com as a better alternative to screwfix, at least for small orders (free p&p) I should be able to buy a fused spur box for about £2, so that's what I'll do, to avoid any controversy over the electrical fittings.

Ivor_Headache

Hi all, I would just like to chuck my twopenneth into this!

Last year 42,000,000 (yes, million) electrical jobs were carried out, one third of them by qualified electricians. I am sure you can work out that means 28, million jobs were carried out by non qualified persons.

In reality, 10 people died, (10 too many I know), and 750 were seriously injured. What is not ascertainable from the goverments figures, is whether or not those deaths and injuries were as a result of faulty DIY workmanship, appliances being faulty, or indeed if a qualified electrician was to blame. A good percentage I wouldn't mind betting was due to faulty appliances or equipment, lawn mowers a classic example!

Just one further example of lunacy, where my wife works, a set of Christmas tree lights were brought from one of their other offices. Because those lights did not have a moulded plug, and the 'on-site' person who was allowed to check plugs to see that they are wired correctly, was off work sick, they were not allowed to use them. Just as now, she is not allowed to use a chair that does not have armrests. I suppose companies will have to provide slippers for it's employee's before long.

Is this not yet another case of this government taking a pile driver to crack a peanut?

George_Bray

Ivor_Headache wrote:

Last year ...28 million (electrical) jobs were carried out by non qualified persons. 10 people died, (10 too many I know), and 750 were seriously injured...(plus another example re. Xmas tree lights)...another case of this government taking a pile driver to crack a peanut?

Any death is sad but we need to keep things in perspective. Think of the number of deaths on the roads (100s a year) yet they are not about to ban private motoring. Tony Blair must have been given an estimate of the number of soldiers and civilians likely to be killed upon invading Iraq. He would have OKed / approved that figure (tens of thousands) as an acceptable price to pay. He signed it off. He has no regrets over the decision, so he must think that was OK, yet he increases the cost of our DIY work by £100s per year, just to (possibly) save one or two lives. I'm so angry.

shockingmoment

And the need for greater regulation....

Whilst some may be perfectly competent, others are not

I particularly like this one: '3, 4" nails hammered into a ceiling joist. These had then been used to wrap the copper cores of what was the lighting circuit for the farmhouse'.

http://www.iee.org/forums/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=205&threadid=4792&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

https://www.BobJames.co.uk/Photos.htm

They'd be really funny if they weren't so lethal!