Recent content by onzadog

Last time it happened was in the summer when it was really warm. There's just two strip lights in the loft and 6 normal pendant type lamps, most of those have energy saving bulbs in. It's stopped doing it now but I don't know why. That's the bit that makes it really hard to diagnose...

Well, I can't see any sign of that sort of out put. We have an energy monitor in the house as well. Right now, even running the laptop, the TV and all the usual background stuff like fridge freezers etc, we're not even using 600W so I guess that points to an intermittent low resistance short.

Cheers guys. Swapped the MCBs from the up and downstairs lighting circuits earlier and the upstairs has just gone pop again so I guess it's not a faulty MCB. Wish it was, that would have been an easy one. I've just done a quick visual inspection of pendants and switches and I can't see any...

Hi folks Wonder if anybody can help shed some light on a little problem I'm having? House built mid 1980s, consumer unit replaced about 3 years ago. Upstairs lighting circuit supports only 7 lamps, therefore worst case even if these were all 60w which they're not, then we'd be drawing less...

That's good to know. Do they have a branch in Nottingham?

So how his conduit better than capping? Do I really want to be bashing away at the breeze block with a cold chisel if I can avoid it? If there's good reason, I'll do it, just wondering what it might be.

Thanks for the info. I couldn't find any conduit shallow enough. Don't think the other half would take too kindly to unsightly bulges in the walls.

Possibly I am. The stuff I'm using just sits over the top and the sides will just squeeze under the plaster board. Is that called capping then? I guess it's just to stop the filler knife from catching the cable. I suppose long term there is an arguement that it will make a rewire easier...

Thanks for the info. I thinka bit of paranoia is setting in. Everything else I've found in the house so far has been bad news. I'm starting to worry that everythings not as it should be. Good to know they got some of it right!

what are my chances of becoming a mate at 32? The training is www.electrical-skills.com I called the number but they couldn't tell me a price, wanted to send an "advisor" to my house to "discuss options". Sounds like a double glazing salesman to me or am I just too cynical?

I was going to reroute the lighting circuit in the loft to fit in around some other projects. I can only find one line in to the loft and only one line out to the Consumer unit. I was quite surprised to find it was a radial. The house was build in the mid 1980's. Would i be right in...

I keep seeing adverts in the back of the paper advertising courses to become and electrician or a plumber. Anybody have any opinions or experience of these? Are they any different/better/worse than city and guilds at local college?

I've just chased out the plasterboard wall and I've got my conduit but do I need to clip the 2.5 mm T&E to the wall as well? The run is only about a meter and a half and runs from a socket to a FCU in the loft. To clip or not to clip and if to clip, how often to clip? Cheers in advance guys.

Thanks to all those who offered their thoughts on what might be up. Thought you might like to know what happened. I took the cupboard down behind which I expected to use a metal detector to trace the cable behind the plasterboard. However, what I found was much more amusing. There was a...

there is isolation for the cooker in practical terms but I'm not sure if it's the formal way to do it. Both the electric oven and the (ignition for) the gas hob run off a double socket in one of the cupboards. It'd only because I know it's the oven, there's no switch labelled as such. Not one...