B&Q Selling Consumer units

[big_vic]

I'm sorry but this just drives me insane....

In the last week i've had 2 instances that have just made me go totally mental....

I was in B&Q desperately looking for a SW/FCU as like an idiot i'd run out and needed one for a job... To say this place was in the middle of nowhere is an understatement and the nearest wholesaler was at least an hour further away.

Anyway i'm searching through b&q looking for it, passing over the meter tails, henley blocks, electrodes, 16mm earth...you know the kind of stuff you'd normally use on a diy job when i come across this couple in front of a pile of wylex CU's (with 10 free sockets per unit).

How difficult can it be says the woman...

I'm sorry but for the love of god should they really be selling Consumer Units?

And then.....

The same day i meet a kitchen fitter

who tells me that really....electrics aren't hard and he's changed loads of consumer units....

but the only thing he doesn't do..................... is pull the main fuse.

"Because thats dangerous"

 

[Adam_151]

They also sell gas boilers, soil stacks, sharp bladed implements, chainsaws, grinding wheels and heavy blocks

All of which can cause problems if you use them in a dangerous or incompetant way

The real 'crime' are the good idea leaflets which reduce fitting a board to 12 easy steps, not the fact that they actually sell them

 

[big_vic]

Yeah you have a point. It also makes clear how poorly the government has put the part p message across.

A part of me kinda wants to see the kitchen fitter change a consumer unit with the tails still live though.....

 

[comms]

Yes fantastic isnt it
I always go for a stroll down the electrical isles if I need a giggle, joe public huddled together talking in hushed whispers & you know they haven't got a clue. Then it just gets better if one of the staff arrives to impart their vast knowledge gained from the diy leaflets/boards on how to do the work required........no mention of testing, bonding, & all the rest that seems to get taken for granted by both JP & diy shed staff.
I'm a firm beliver that the likes of part P will never work while the diy sheds / screwfix etc are allowed to sell electrical items such as cu's & the like, & that electrical wholsalers should be trade only counters (contractors card to be produced before purchase or account holders only) where JP can not purchase items.

 

[JohnD]

not a contractors card

It would have to be a Certificate of Competence with photo ID

With an exam every three years

And endorsements for work below normal standards

Three endorsements in 3 years and you'd be disqualified

And your licence taken away for work below acceptable standards

You'd also need a safe for your certificates and your store of CUs and other non-DIY parts, to be inspected at your licence renewal

All CUs to have serial numbers and the number to be noted on the registration certificate

 

[Adam_151]

A part of me kinda wants to see the kitchen fitter change a consumer unit with the tails still live though.....

Easy enough as long as there is a henley block there, just drop them out...

Live terminal, dead conductor is one thing, vice versa is not so good, and destined to end up in disaster if they have to go be bent round to get in terminals!

Actually, the dropping the tails out of a an upstream terminal trick is safer than pulling the cutout fuse if it looks dodgy at all!

(Probably not in compliance with EWAR, but there you go...)

 

[comms]

not a contractors card

It would have to be a Certificate of Competence with photo ID

With an exam every three years

And endorsements for work below normal standards

Three endorsements in 3 years and you'd be disqualified

And your licence taken away for work below acceptable standards

That would thin out the others.

LOL
I was struggling to think of how best to word the card idea.
Ok lets start it up charge a yearly fortune to all that sign up for it & split the proffits JD







Sod it P scheme operators are doing it already

 

[Adam_151]

I'm a firm beliver that the likes of part P will never work while the diy sheds / screwfix etc are allowed to sell electrical items such as cu's & the like, & that electrical wholsalers should be trade only counters (contractors card to be produced before purchase or account holders only) where JP can not purchase items.

Very good on the closed shop and 'jobs for the boys' front... not so good on the safety front, I'm afriad.

(basically if people cant get the parts to do a half decent job, they may try and do it the best they can with what they can get, or might not bother altogether!)

 

[big_vic]

I don't understand why we aren't pressing for some kind of official standard that is clearly shown to customers.

I don't know if maybe i'm cursed or something but the amount of shocking (no pun intended) DIY efforts i see is beyond belief.

Last week i went to a job where the home owner had in his words "put an rcd in"... his efforts included wrapping the "earth wire" (his words) round the supply cable... Don't get me wrong we aren't talking about fixing it with a clamp etc...no i mean wrapping it round the supply cable because he couldn't find a place to fix the earth.

Best thing was it was actually a TT system and he'd taken the ELCB out of the system because it looked "old"

Sorry rant over, b&q etc just make me go mental!!!!

 

[Adam_151]

There are also a fair few electricians who should know better doing daft things.... standard split boards on TT systems, showers added on by splitting the tails and feeding them into an enclosure that contains only RCD protection, no overcurrent device

Then there are the legions of drive-by PIRs for letting agencies, admitedly this is a supply/demand issue... the letting people just want a piece of paper that says its ok and passes on liability...

I don't know if maybe i'm cursed or something but the amount of shocking (no pun intended) DIY efforts i see is beyond belief.

Thats always going to be the case... the ones who can do a safe job have no need to call you out to put it right

At the end of the day, the amount of people killed by electricial installations is far less than that of people who meet a sticky end at the hands of such things as motor cars, chip pans, cigarettes or ladders, so you have to consider just how dangerous it is really, and maybe that 6mm² main bond is only a code two, not a one, afterall

 

[DavePrior]

Seems fairly straightforward to me. Boiler installation must be done by CORGI registered folk, therefore not DIY. B&Q is a DIY store, ergo it should not sell boilers.
CU installation must be done by registered folk, therefore not DIY, ergo it should not sell CUs.

Or am I missing something ?

 

[Adam_151]

CU installation must be done by registered folk, therefore not DIY, ergo it should not sell CUs.

Or am I missing something ?

I reckon you are, drinks are on me if you can find a statutory document stating that

 

[dingbat]

Seems fairly straightforward to me. Boiler installation must be done by CORGI registered folk, therefore not DIY. B&Q is a DIY store, ergo it should not sell boilers.
CU installation must be done by registered folk, therefore not DIY, ergo it should not sell CUs.

Or am I missing something ?

Dave, you are missing quite a big thing.

Regulations, such as they are, quite rightly apply to the work and not to the person doing the work. That is, whatever the job, there is a required standard, not a required qualification.

If you take the 'closed shop' argument to the extreme, you would not even be allowed to clean your own windows without some sort of qualification to use access equipment (ladders to you an' me).

(On another tack entirely, I will be 2391-ing in Brum next week... fancy a beer?)

 

[firegazer]

Next you will be suggesting that we stop halfords selling break pads

 

[dingbat]

CU installation must be done by registered folk, therefore not DIY, ergo it should not sell CUs.

Or am I missing something ?

I reckon you are, drinks are on me if you can find a statutory document stating that

Steady on Adam...


...if anybody, it will be me taking the drinks from young Dave!