Please ensure your electrics are up to date!!!!!!!!!

dwarvenassassin

gromituk wrote: »

I do find this constant stating of the obvious from those with a vested interest (i.e. electricians) does get a little bit tiresome. If a plumber gets it wrong it can also kill you - plumbers do gas appliances too (not to mention water leaking into your electricity meter etc) - yet you conveniently forgot to mention that.

Wrong. If water leaks into your electrical supply, it is the electricity that kills you, NOT the water.
If a plumber does anything withgas, then he is working as a GAS FITTER - plumbers only do water. It may be the same person, but NOT the same job description.

gromituk wrote: »

Not going for the cheapest simply because it is the cheapest is a sure way to drive up electricians' income.

I think this is argument is for arguments sake. What is known as trolling.

gromituk wrote: »

I think you're splitting hairs here. I'd be very curious to see a lamp fitting that is rated for a 40W bulb not being able to handle the current of a 100W bulb, let alone a 60W bulb. And this is irrelevant anyway, as the discussion was about whether to use the actual consumption or the "equivalent" value for a low energy bulb when determining the brightest lamp that can be installed in a fitting.

If I had bothered to keep any of the many light fittings I have had to remove for this very reason, I'd gladly send you some photo's - unfortunately, they are only fit for the bin and so that was where they went. The coment may have been made during the discussion on low-energy bulbs but this was not what the poster was saying at all. a 100W EQUIVALENT bulb in a 40W lamp holder is not an issue because the actual wattage and heat output are significantly lower than a 40W traditional bulb. What the poster was WRONGLY implying was that the wattage limit was only due to the heat effects issues (and possibly bulb size restrictions) created by shades. It was
suggested that removing the shades removed the restriction, I was simply pointing out that this was not true.

gromituk wrote: »

Don't you mean all work carried out by a contractor, rather than by the householder?

No, the British Standard (BS7671) requires that ALL electrical work be covered by the relevant certification. It doesn't matter whether you are an electrician or a DIYer. Electricity suppliers are required by law to guarentee the safety of their systems. Anything and EVERYTHING connected to those systems (ie. the wiring in your house) can have a direct effect on those systems, therefore compliance with BS7671 is required. The only way to prove compliance is through certification. In a nutshell, even DIY work should be inspected, tested, and certified as safe. The supplier has the right to permanently disconnect any instalation which is unsafe either wholely or partly and they DO exercise this right on a regualr basis.

gromituk wrote: »

This makes no sense to me, as it's just as likely that they are all from a good batch and so none will suffer faults. Assuming no distorting factors like dud batches being dumped as bulk packs, there is no advantage either way.

Ever heard of averages? Lets assume that 1 batch in 1000 is a bad one, you buy a bulk pack of 10 and they are all from the same batch and your chance of getting 10 bad bulbs is 1000:1. You buy the same number of bulbs seperately and the chances of getting 10 bad ones is a lot less likely than hitting the jackpot in next weeks lottery.

Next time you want to go trolling, do it somewhere else and leave the advice forums for people who want to give or recieve good, honest and ACCURATE advice. If you HAVE to post, make sure your facts are 100% correct and not just what you believe to be correct.

gromituk

dwarvenassassin wrote: »

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Wrong. If water leaks into your electrical supply, it is the electricity that kills you, NOT the water.

Once you, the electrician, have been sued by someone following that advice after a botched job by a plumber, you should consider a new career in comedy - you've really made my day with that one! :rotfl:

inspect

gromituk wrote: »

Once you, the electrician, have been sued by someone following that advice after a botched job by a plumber, you should consider a new career in comedy - you've really made my day with that one! :rotfl:

If you have had your electrical installation installed correctly then the electrics should disconnect safely when a fault such as above occurs. It’s relatively easy to make an electrical circuit work – it is far more challenging to make the circuit work safely.

When there is a plumbing problem you see water, you may get wet. When there is an electrical problem you see nothing, you may die.

gromituk

inspect wrote: »

If you have had your electrical installation installed correctly then the electrics should disconnect safely when a fault such as above occurs.

Not if the fault occurs in a non-protected area, such as water getting into your electricity meter, which was the example I gave.

The whole point is that I was trying to counter this scaremongering by those with vested interests, caused by deliberately ignoring situations which don't support the argument. Just because you could argue pedantically that a "plumber" is not a "gas fitter", it doesn't mean that gas fitters are not employed by the homeowner in just the same way as electricians are, and the consequences can be just as dire. Or another example: builders removing structural walls without putting in RSJs, or removing chimney breasts without putting brackets to hold up the stack. Dangerous consequences of botched jobs are far from limited to electrical work, and it is dishonest to give the impression that the latter is the only thing you need to worry about.

inspect

I think you are missing the point. This is an electrical safety thread where people are commenting on issues relating to electrical safety. Who better to give advice on electrical safety but those with a vested interest – electricians.


:beer:

dwarvenassassin

I am glad to see I am not the only one who can see how ridiculous these arguments are. Thanks Inspect.

BTW, don't feed the trolls ;-)

stephen_v

I asked an elctriciana bout testing my house circuits and he said he'd test for £100, i asked about VAT so there ws no hidden cost and he said no I wont chrge u VAT.

Is he an electrician to be trusted???
He kinda looked at the wires in fusebox and then said it didnt need rewireing but a test would "tell him if the circuit was spur wired to spur wired to a spur etc and so on

What can a electric test really tel u????

Another electrician said it didnt need a test cos all the wiring in sockets and plug look ok

Confused!!! Help

dmxdave

After a "proper" NICEIC test you will be given a copy of the report. This will detail your electrics and point out if anything needs done and how serious it is.

Just because he not charging VAT doesn't mean he is a cowboy but it would be better if he was NICEIC registered.

http://www.niceic.com/niceicgroup/householder for more advice

Sorry but a visual test is not enough

stephen_v

dmxdave wrote: »

After a "proper" NICEIC test you will be given a copy of the report. This will detail your electrics and point out if anything needs done and how serious it is.

Just because he not charging VAT doesn't mean he is a cowboy but it would be better if he was NICEIC registered.

http://www.niceic.com/niceicgroup/householder for more advice

Sorry but a visual test is not enough

apparently both are NICEIC reg!!!!

what actual happens with an electic test....what can it detect??

gromituk

inspect wrote: »

Who better to give advice on electrical safety but those with a vested interest – electricians.

Because, as you have seen, they are wont to exaggerate the dangers of electrics at the expense of everything else.