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I'm not a Sparky, so beyond testing my new reel, what would I do with it? Actually I can answer that:- I would test every piece of loose wire that I came across, every bit of circuit that I can sensibly access and several other things probably, like wood, and maybe even the children, just to see...

For that, I will be needing tools that I don't possess, and whilst I absolutely bloomin love tools, I am pretty convinced that the Mrs would go nuts if I dropped, ooh, say £500 on a Megger... I'll be getting a Sparky back in a few weeks to wire up my garage. May as well ask him to run an IR...

Well, it came from Toolstation. I'd be surprised if they bought fakes. It certainly looks okay, stamped along the full length, solid core, definitely copper, the PVC insulation actually seems a little thicker than that you would find on 'normal' T&E. The Chinese can fake an entire Mercedes...

I've just bought a 25m reel of 2.5mm T&E. It's all BASEC approved, 6242Y, BS6004, but looks like no T&E I've seen before. The grey outer sheath is sort of in a figure of 8, a bit like big speaker wire. The inner cores are completely normal, but the PVC is not flat on the outside like all...

Aw - maybe he's just a bloke who wants to wire some sockets into an existing circuit. Maybe he figured out that if he came here direct and said he wanted to open his CU, he would be flayed alive. Maybe when he says 'electric' he means 'electricity'. Come on guys, it's like the Spanish...

I think it's good practice to close down old threads, especially with a happy ending. As suggested above, it did turn out to be the garage circuit (running off an FCU from the ring that was tripping the new RCD). We don't know what it is in the garage which is causing it, but as the building...

You've fired up everyone's favourite debate on this forum, and you may as well give up now, but for what it's worth here's an answer to your question. The reason you have different colours going into the different MCB's is most likely because the circuits were wired at different times...

Had mine changed from 60A to 100A recently by the DNO. Totally free. Was amazed. Nobody does anything for free nowadays. I've never been so happy.

Thanks, yes, you're absolutely right. As nothing bar the boiler is attached to the circuit, my suspicions lie with the lighting that is on it. In particular today I found an aged security light which doesn't illuminate, but does appear to be on. We'll start with that. As the house is empty it's...

I've done all of this, but at the last step I opened up the CU, got something wrong, really hurt myself and burned half the house down. Why did you tell me to do this? I don't think I'm competent...

I don't know. I wasn't there (I have to work), but according to the wife they spent the best part of two days walking around the house with 'machines that beeped, fiddling with plug sockets'. Hey? Attack? No you're right - I don't know anything about 'proper testing procedures'. That's why...

My God Ban, if only I could have married you. You would have got all of this sorted for me. I'd know who to employ, how to tidy my loft, the seasonal activity of wasps, when and when not to employ metal conduit, proper 'procedures' etc etc. it would be great. You could read the 17th to me every...

Yes, I suspect this won't be an easy one to find. It's a bit of a dogs breakfast of a circuit that's causing the problem. In a barn conversion attached to the house, where for some reason the whole barn (inc lights etc) is running of one circuit, which also feeds boiler, garage etc. LOTS of...

Don't worry - I was pretty rude to him myself when he called!

No to be fair - the Sparky is a good guy. And he's registered with Elecsa and I don't have any paperwork yet as clearly it doesn't work yet (and of course, the Sparky therefore doesn't have any money yet!!) The phone call was exactly as TTC stated. Had I done something in the interim (the answer...

So... The new CU was installed 3 days ago. All is well, but tidying etc required. Sparky back today. Finishes tidying and demonstrates how CU works to wife. Whereupon one circuit starts tripping the new RCD (previously there were no RCD's). It's Friday night. The boiler is on that circuit...

Actually, while I'm at it, we need to talk about the toilet... I know that this is not your area of expertise, but the handle at the top right is for 'flushing' the device. A torrent of water will flow through it removing the effluent that you have produced and Dear God man, what have you...

ELECTRICIAN... Many thanks for the new cable and shiny consumer unit etc.. and... - the chance to use my screwdriver to replace the 50% of floorboard screws that you decided probably weren't needed. These house builders are so wasteful... - the game of hide and seek that you deemed I...

Long story... but ok... The LCD TV will be mounted on a chimney breast above a (non-working) fireplace which looks nice. There is a substantial beam running along the ceiling in front of the fireplace, so from most parts of the room, you can just see the whole TV screen but nothing above it...

You mean the kind of twisty things? Kind of like these. When I was in Dubai, we wired up our office with a similar thing where you could shove sockets into a kind of trunking wherever you like. But for a one off socket for a simple connection I think it might be overkill, but I'll have a...