Does anybody know the answer?

[andemz]

I have recently had a sparky to do the electrics for me in another house of mine. they took the old consumer unit off the wall and seemingly attached a socket to something so that they were able to have electric i.e. a kettle while he worked. If you are totally re-wiring how do you still maintain electricity whilst you are working. Did he connect directly to the meter leads or something and is whatever he did common practice amongst sparkies? This baffles me

 

[Millennium_Boy]

They may have has a Portable Generator outside, to supply power for their lighting and kettle etc.

 

[andemz]

they definatly didn't have a portable supply it came of the mains some how or another... anymore suggestions are welcome of anybody

 

[benthebuilder]

I saw this once too, done by a sparky who seemed quite content to work with live meter tails! He just connected the meter tails into something like a 60A switch and then from the switch to a socket with T+E. I also saw him add a new shower CU to an old fusebox with the tails live. He really seemed to be enjoying working with live tails, I just stood well back and watched him! Btw, I'm not saying this is good practice, just saying what I saw. I would never ever work with live tails, just not worth the risk.

 

[andemz]

so it is still possible to work with electric on from the meter supply i.e the tails connected to something whilst you rewire a house....

 

[securespark]

It is not sensible to work live unless you have:

The right training

The right equipment.

 

[Big_Spark]

This is quite common for electricians to do this, but it will always be safe and should never be attempted by the amateur without a really good grounding in the subject matter.

The only time I would be concerned was when the supply was not fused down when only feeding a single socket.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Did you get a close enough look at the "something" to which he attached a socket to be sure that it wasn't a small CU? Believe it or not, some professional electricians recognise the need to keep themselves and other trades supplied with power when the rest of the house is off, and carry with them a small (e.g. 2-way) CU with a couple of 20A MCBs in it for just this reason.

Andemz - your recent posts have told us that you have just moved house, and you're asking questions about lights which seem to me to indicate that you don't know an awful lot about electrics.

You're asking questions about moving CUs, what height should sockets and switches be and how to still have power when the CU has been removed.

Maybe I'm adding 2+2 and getting 7.5, but I'm beginning to worry that you might be planning to do things that are beyond your ability....

 

[andemz]

quite the opposite, it's about having somebody to do a job for me who is qualified i.e. with relevant qualifications to support what i need doing but for me as a customer to understand what is being done within my own house.

Ban-all-sheds being capable of electrical work should be no secret, it is an open forum for all as i thought this was, which would enable an individual to learn, you jumped to the conclusion that i would be undertaking work, i have my own business and although i'm interested in my spare time in gaining knowledge of electrical work it would be financially disadvantageous for me to undertake such work which would keep me away from my own business...

I take the point of the small CU that you stated in you above post, i would agree that this could have potentially been what the electrician used.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Well - I'm sorry if I offended you - I hope you can see how it might have looked the way it did to me. You were asking the sorts of questions that someone planning to DIY might ask, and when you started in with the "how do you keep an electricity supply running when you're replacing a CU", I got concerned. And I did say that I thought I might be jumping to a conclusion...

I'm not a pro trying to keep business to myself, I'm also a DIY-er.