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In really old houses it is worth taking out the lead pipes that used to feed the gas light too. Most common in 1850s terraces. Often when slum electrification came between 1910 and 1930, they would used the old gas pipe routes as a poor man's conduit - if there is any left that paper covered...

The problem is, as alluded early neutral break - and here is the mechanism. If the neutral is interrupted, and the live is not, both live and neutral cables rise to ~230V, now the leakage current to earth has been doubled, as instead of L-E capacitance with 230V accross it and N-E capacitance...

If the cable will be 'clipped direct', and there is no risk of more power being needed in the future to trigger a 100A upgrade, it would be fine, nad I'd be v. surprised if the DNO were that bothered. Check they are happy with your switch in their box, they may or may not be - if not its a...

There are 2 issues. If the outside light is a half kilowatt floodlight, the lighting circuit may overload, so these should always have their own feed. (Quartz halogens have a high inrush - cold current about 13 times the hot value, and if the circuit is already well loaded, nuiscecne tripping...

And, as in the other place, I will serve up the only official figures to have seen daylight. - You can then draw your own conclusion about what fraction of the UKs 60,000 or so electricians have not joined a scheme, and how many notifications there ought to be to building control. Which is...

You will need 2 ballasts, one per lamp, and you wire them as per the schmatic on the choke - the switch represents the starter. Hope that helps.

You could get a good DIY wiring book or two out of the library, but there is a fair amout to it - not a one line answer covers all possibles of the kind you will get here. Actually I would go as far to say that you will need more than one book's worth,and will need to set aside a fair bit of...

As sometimes occurs, my brevity and arm waving style returns to haunt me.. :) OK, The first one is ohms law with a bit of rounding - Adam spotted that, sums done in head tho so nearest kiloamp will do - apologies for the sloppiness! The I2T is the adiabatic equation re-jigged for fridays...

Either the lamps are mis-wired in a way such that you have introduced a live earth impedance or (as it trips when not on the RCD supply) a neutral earth impedance. However, assuming you have eliminated that then you are left with the possibility it is a radio frequency problem, and the...

look on the TLC website - they do the plug-in breakers. As noted above its not as good as a rewire solution, but at under a tenner a breaker may keep the show on the road for a few more years, and is most unlikely to be more dangerous than mis-wiring a carrier for a hot wire fuse...

D-lock "bypasses" RCDs without actually removing them from the circuit, by passing a large DC from neutral to earth, saturating the iron core of the RCD, so preventing the trip operating. (this is applied asa a slow ramp to avoid tripping when 'D-locking') When doing this deliberately, for...

If you are unsure of your abilities, it might be best to consider fitting them as a plug-in 'applience'. Otherwise the dreaded part P raises its head ! In any case I recommend RCD protection, and making sure that any fittings used are intended for this purpose. Low voltage units might well...

For a single phase supply (I presume 230V to neutral ? - just the fuse is rated at 440V max?) this is indeed a very low reading - the building spur must be a very short run indeed to the street main. 15KA is 15milliohms, 9KA is abut 25milliohms. The variable readings are only 10miliohms apart...

As a rule of thumb, if the pipes do not form a copper connection from the taps to the outside world, but are isolated by a total of meter or more of plastic from external sources of either earth or live, then no need to bond. If you do need to bond, 'cos the plastic lengths are too short, then...

seconded. But the people at the DNO are called that becasue they 'dunno' If you phone the number on the bill, you will find it very hard to pass the 'have a nice day' girls to reach anyone iwth enough technical savvy to appreciate what you are actually on about. Actually they do employ a few...

That would be preferable to what you have now. By the way, is ther a 3 pole isolator so you can service this fan with the lights on?

if you have identical breakers in the box you could swap the circuits or the breakers over and see if the fault transfers or stays. However, I'd suggest confirming the spetic tank theory, and making sure you know exactly what goes off with that switch (and label it for next time). You mention no...

But in the special case when the first thing that 2.5mm cable meets after the 32A breaker is a 13A fuse, and all things downstream are fed tthrough it, then all is well again, as the total load cannot exceed 13A, and the breaker is only providing short circuit protection. .... this is why a...

If you can afford two RCDs, it is wise to make sure that a fault in the shed cannot cut power to the house - avoids loss of freezer contents if a mouse chews cable in the shed while you are on holiday... An adaptable box is really just a metal box with ready knock-outs - screwfix do one for...

Or bury in the floor as originally suggested, in plastic conduit if you can make it more than 2" below final surface, where its not directly beneath where it surfaces for a fitting. Or use armourcald cable with an earthed armour. Or equivalent mechanical protection, but this has to be very...