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******************** Moderator's note: This is a DIY site Unsafe advice removed ********************

I got my c/o switch and ceeform inlet as a package deal for £65 off ebay, proper decent quality stuff too. I just modded the c/o to add a mains live alarm and indicators. As for cable spiking guns.... they soon taught BT a lesson many years back when we spiked what we thought was an 11kV...

Along the length of the tape, I would attach a couple of rods, then use the rod to attach the tape and cable to. Dont forget, taking a leak on the tape in the trench will do wonders to get them readings down (old electricity board trick) and the chemicals will stay in the soil ;) After a...

Site transformers are only designed for 'intermittent use' and are very cheaply made, they do get hot. Best transformer to use is a toroidal single wound autotransformer. Check these out, they are made to a very good quality.

I dont use them on single strand cable. Other than that they are fine.

By my comment it wasnt aimed at my work... its when i inspect other peoples. I never use crimps, i like to spend a bit more time and do things a bit more proper ;)

As the ratio of screws to crimps is a million to one, it doesnt surprise me in the least. Its not that im heavy with my tug tests (yes i do do them ;)) its just that (in respect of the screw:crimp ratio) too many crimps fail and they are almost always on solid conductors.

of course! lol... its the million other numpties who dont have them set properly. You can always tell the tightness of a screw though :P

it has happened, thats why we used a westminster to double check the HV side. Touch the live line, hear a fizz and look down the line to see the isolator is open, spend a minute scratching your head then hear the sound of a generator in the distance. Quite a common one!

Ratchet crimpers never seem to go tight enough do they ;) - Yeah I only spent 9 months working for the MOD as the working methods were a bit too 'militant' to say the least. I'm used to using initiative, fault finding and fixing things myself, but they had different departments which did...

I have had to fix chinese made generators, and the state of the wiring/workmanship is very poor, things easily fall apart. I would say from that experience alone... dont trust any chinese sparky as they seem to like to take 2 minutes to do a 2 hour job.

You will probably trip (or stall) the generator. But yes its very dangerous to do this. If your house is the only one fed from a small PMT (pole mounted transformer) what will happen is that you will end up backfeeding it, and it will step up your supply making the 11kV (sometimes 33kV) side...

Its not the vibrations but the flow of mains voltage through them, i've seen it happen which is why i made the original post. I know why it happens with solid conductors.... I have done military work myself, wiring up challenger 2's and crimps are no prob as the conductors used in these are...

... Which is why they work loose? - crimps are good on stranded conductors, pull them apart on solid conductors anyday. Its the minute spark-gap created by the higher voltage that is used (240v) that causes the probs.

It has happened, its in the guidelines. Plus when i was working for the electricity board as an engineer i sometimes got asked to help other departments, and that included installation inspections, upon which it was advised to look out for crimp connectors and check their integrity. We could...

It doesnt happen with small electrical crimps. Be nice if it did :)

Yep I made that happen before, was quite interesting too! Sometimes on CTE switchable 110-240v generators this happens, Just undo the socket panel inside the genny and you will see the link, just remove it. Sometimes its made through a wirewound resistor. When there was a power cut a local...

You can get conversion kits to let you run a petrol genny on gas, only problem is that petrol generators are much less stable. I would always recommend diesel as these never rev up/down un-necessary. Surge protectors and even some fitted avr's wont protect you from a petrol generator glitch...

Screws have alot more solid weight behind them than crimps, and if the conductor is doubled over in a screw terminal then it wont come loose if tightened properly. Crimps can only go so tight, however they hardly pinch on any (solid) conductor, certainly much less than a screw will. With a...

Put a n/e link in the plug that goes into the genny and you will be fine. What you can also do is make a very short lead especially for that purpose, especially marked 'neutral/earth linking lead' which means that you can use any normal lead to go from the genny into your house, and plug it into...