Silly things

[ebee]

I thought it might be interesting for us to make a list of silly things we have heard said in the way electrics is used and safety etc, primarily.
Skewed or False Logic, sometimes makes a sentence even funnier than a comedian on stage but the really funny thing is that they actually believe it!

One such "old chestnut" (things that get said regularly) is that your plug fuse lets too many/too few amps thru so it will not work properly - even though you explain that a fuse has only two states, blown or not blown, they still do not get it.

Has any of you ever written a book about such things?

 

[Mottie]

An electrician mate of mine told me of a time when he had carried out a full rewire on a house that the owner had told him the lights were now a lot brighter.

 

[SUNRAY]

An electrician mate of mine told me of a time when he had carried out a full rewire on a house that the owner had told him the lights were now a lot brighter.

They probably were.

 

[JohnW2]

One such "old chestnut" (things that get said regularly) is that your plug fuse lets too many/too few amps thru so it will not work properly - even though you explain that a fuse has only two states, blown or not blown, they still do not get it.

Along similar lines, there is the seemingly widely-held belief that protective devices 'limit the magnitude of current' - e.g. a 30 mA RCD 'limiting' the current through a shock victim to 30 mA, that a 13A fuse or 32A MCB 'limiting' the current that can flow to 13A (or 32A) etc.

The truth, of course, is that none of these devices can have any effect on the magnitude of a current (which is determined by 'circumstances'), being able only to limit the duration of flow of current above some threshold.

Has any of you ever written a book about such things?

Who knows - but that certainly does not stop you writing one!

Kind Regards, John

 

[Jurassicspark]

One where someone said it's good to paint backboxes and switches as it provides support if the screws/lugs fail.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Dare I mention the regulation, where it is suggested, you are not allowed to fit a 13amp socket, on a lighting circuit

 

[JohnW2]

Dare I mention the regulation, where it is suggested, you are not allowed to fit a 13amp socket, on a lighting circuit

The amazing thing about that one is that the reg in question explicitly states that one is allowed to

 

[bernardgreen]

Forteen years ago I installed these three FCUs

The oven lamp holder short circuited on Friday and while dealing with the blown fuse I discovered something silly about these FCUs

 

[SUNRAY]

Forteen years ago I installed these three FCUs

The oven lamp holder short circuited on Friday and while dealing with the blown fuse I discovered something silly about these FCUsView attachment 381929

You don't have a gas hob?

 

[bernardgreen]

You don't have a gas hob?

Yes I do have a gas hob. needs electricity or a box of matches to ignite the gas.

 

[Munroast]

the house I was brought up in had one of those wiring systems where the steel conduit is the earth, so in every wall socket there was only the red and black wires (was this a genuine wiring thing in the 50s/60s ? or was it just an odd house)

anyway my dad had decided our house wasn't earthed so when ever he fitted a plug to anything he used to just snip off the earth wire thinking there was no point in them

non of us were electrocuted or anything.....

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

the house I was brought up in had one of those wiring systems where the steel conduit is the earth, so in every wall socket there was only the red and black wires (was this a genuine wiring thing in the 50s/60s ? or was it just an odd house)

They often installed grip steel conduit. Our 1955, had lots of this, put in originally when it was built, then ripped out in the 1970's then the remainders ripped out in 1986 during a full, back to brick, refurb. The tube was a lightweight folded to round, with unwelded seam, the boxes, elbows and etc. simply clamped on the cut ends of tube, after cleaning the paint away, to provide the CPC. They were never really reliable, as an earth conductor.

 

[SUNRAY]

They often installed grip steel conduit. Our 1955, had lots of this, put in originally when it was built, then ripped out in the 1970's then the remainders ripped out in 1986 during a full, back to brick, refurb. The tube was a lightweight folded to round, with unwelded seam, the boxes, elbows and etc. simply clamped on the cut ends of tube, after cleaning the paint away, to provide the CPC. They were never really reliable, as an earth conductor.

The 1951 house I grew up in had this and each poweroutlet, all 7 of them, had a copper clamp for the earth, 5 of those still exist although now significantly added to and rings formed, the eicr from 2022 was complex testing such a rings so L&N tested as normal but each outlet checked as R1+R2. Sadly light circuits not earthed originally and some tubes too full for additional wiring. Allegedly total rewired some 25ish years ago under insurance following water damage but did they heck?

 

[JohnW2]

They often installed grip steel conduit. Our 1955, had lots of this, put in originally when it was built, then ripped out in the 1970's then the remainders ripped out in 1986 during a full, back to brick, refurb. The tube was a lightweight folded to round, with unwelded seam, the boxes, elbows and etc. simply clamped on the cut ends of tube, after cleaning the paint away, to provide the CPC. They were never really reliable, as an earth conductor.

The underfloor spaces and roof spaces in my house are full of that stuff. Over the years/decades I've gradually removed bits when Ive had reasoinabvle access, but there's still a lot there (not to mention the bits buried in plaster, which my drill occasionally finds )

 

[ebee]

All in all considered, the skills used at the time of such conduit used they were often actually more intact for earthing than you might otherwise think, and they blew fuses successfully, lighting often not earthed as a requirement but metered tests showed them sometimes a near success, the electricians of the bygone age were quite neat artists in many respects and that could often save the day. I have been amazed how such systems had some reasonable earthing, even using a 20A test current to confirm that you might have half a chance at least, so much was done by hand such as cutting wood plugs and hammering them into walls and holding the conduits in with spikes, I will not mention the horsehair found in walls either.