Exposed wiring and rain?

LolitaLove

jack_pott wrote: »

The black plastic that's been put around the cables is not really doing anything at all, so it's no more dangerous without it than with it. The installation is generally pretty shoddy and unprofessional, but the cables look intact, so you don't appear to be in any immediate danger from them getting wet.

Thank you, do you think the cables going from the big shed could be removed? As there's nothing in the big shed that would need electricity from the smaller shed. I'm not sure who installed the wiring it was there when we moved in.

[Deleted User]

LolitaLove wrote: »

So the fuse box wouldn't trip the switch before a fire started?:(

No, not necessarily. This applies to any electrical installation.

A fuse or circuit breaker can only protect against the circuit drawing more current than the fuse is rated at, but the current doesn't need to increase in order to start a fire. All you need for a fire is that the power goes into a place where it wasn't intended. An appliance fused at 13A could safely draw up to 3000Watts without the fuse blowing, but if the power goes somewhere it shouldn't you can start a fire with 1Watt or even less.

The captions are a bit melodramatic, but this video illustrates:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2HyTRxzwXs
What you are looking at is a poor connection which has a higher resistance than it should. This causes the joint to heat up, but it will cause the supply current to drop not to increase!

Myser

Looks like a DIY botch job! If you don't require electricity in the other shed, then you can ask the landlord to remove the cabling.

Blackpool_Saver

Another useless landlord situation, you have my empathy, I have similar issues here.
Is this a managed let (agent inspections) set up?

[Deleted User]

LolitaLove wrote: »

Thank you, do you think the cables going from the big shed could be removed?

It's impossible to tell from your photos whether the cables are doing anything necessary, but either way removing them is not something you should attempt yourself, and particularly if you don't know where to switch off the supply.

jamesd

LolitaLove wrote: »

So the fuse box wouldn't trip the switch before a fire started?:(

It's possible in some cases for water to travel down the wires to a fuse box and cause a fire there. Various other potential problems. In general, ignoring your specific situation, it's entirely possible for a fire to be caused by things like loose connections or rats or mice eating insulation and causing a short that way. Not enough of a short to trip the fuse but still more than enough to cause a fire. Think of one of the electric heaters with glowing metal elements or just a toaster. Red hot and powered by the normal plug-in supply without the fuse tripping.

But now we know that the conductors aren't directly exposed and how the cables are arranged. No trunking and it looks as though the way the cables are run means water can't get to a fuse box. Still protected by the insulation around the conducting wires - which still might have small cracks that could be a problem - but not immediately horribly dangerous.

That makes little practical difference. You still need to get an electrician to look at it and arrange a safe setup. The current installation doesn't look like a very good one. Probably something done as a DIY job. Looks like ordinary internal wires used outside and not run in trunking - a rigid metal or plastic tube - to protect them from damage and the elements.

Don't just go and try to remove the wires yourself. Parts of this may be live even though the supply in the shed isn't working. That could just be a loose wire there, with the wires you're looking at still live. Definitely don't do something my mother once did and use all-metal scissors to cut a cable that turned out to be live. She survived the experience, you might not.

It's not an emergency and has probably been that way for years but nice not to let it go on for a long time because it's not actually safe, just not instantly dangerous either.

jack_pott wrote: »

Not correct! A fused supply can provide more than enough power to start a fire.

I know a fuse does not provide absolute protection against fire risk from water ingress - and wrote that.

lstar337

If there is a fuse box, is the second shed on one of the fuses?

If so, remove the fuse. The wire can get as wet as it likes, no harm will come of you.