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Imperial cable was better quality, in heavier gauges it had more strands and hence was more flexible and was less prone to poor terminal clamping. Talking about old ideas, funny enough they've just realised that metal CUs are safer than plastic. They knew that in the 1930's, and that ceramic...

Honda units are hard to beat. One safety point is that however you connect it you must ensure that it cannot feed current back into the (dead) supply feed, since that could cause a hazard for the linemen. The extension lead and separate socket approach is the safest in this respect, any...

Well, if you're wearing any rings don't stand still too long when there's an electrician around. Seriously I thought what I said was clear enough, there is NO requirement to bond metal which is unlikely to ever have a live or earthing role for personnel. There was one newsworthy case in which a...

The issue here is that the battery will be receiving charge intended for the capacitor. If it's alkaline it may burst and damage the electronics. If NiMh the charge current may still not be right for it, and the same may happen. These supercaps are available from electronics suppliers and I...

The principle is to ensure that in a location where a person may simultaneously touch two metal objects with wet hands/feet, there can be no difference in voltage between those two objects. The collection of bonded objects also should be earthed by at least one route to the supply earth, but a...

Okay, so done little enquiring elsewhwere, and seems that private gasfitters typically charge about £50ph or upwards of £250 a day, which I would have thought was fairly reasonable. A far cry from a couple of thousand for a day's work, though.

I didn't realize it was so few. From the panicky publicity you would think it was a couple of thousand a year. In any event, most tradespersons have to shoulder some degree of responsibility, and need some specialist tools, but don't charge several times more than the local brothel per hour...

Friend was quoted around £2500-3000 to replace a gas combi boiler. This actually seems to be a typical price for the job. Yet, gas combis with concentric flues range from £400 to £800 at wholesalers, depending on quality and output. The job hardly looks that difficult, the only major...

The valves are in fact a bit dearer than I thought, about £75 seems typical. So, his price for the valves is not unreasonable. Though if they're that dear he should have asked before changing two. -What hourly rates do plumbers typically charge these days? I'm still finding it hard to...

Recently called-in a plumber to change a sticking Honeywell-style 2-port valve on HW side of boiler. He changed both HW and CH valves on the basis that 'if one was sticking the other would soon follow suit' although he didn't get my permission to do this. I'd been expecting him to charge...

Agreed, and I don't understand why they are still using such obsolete technology, unless it's that they have huge stocks of old chips.

If you bothered to read my OP you would see that it answers this point. Trolling reported to moderators.

No, but I smell a troll. :x

Multimeters are fairly complex, and you will need to gain some experience of using it in order to understand all of its functions. Perhaps the most important point is never to put the prods ACROSS a supply when the meter is on any current (Amps) range. This will cause a short, and may damage...

Just bought a new combi micowave/grill, and although it's a good piece of kit, was dismayed to see that even today these appliances are STILL being made with a builtin time-of-day clock which goes into an error condition if the power is ever disconnected. Point of fact, a clock on a...

The receptacles are are designed to take a much larger conductor volume, which is good, but this also means that the screw pressure is 'diluted' over a much larger surface area. Provided you're using the right screwdriver -usually Pozidriv 2- and not for example a Phillips driver, then there...

There are as many different opinions on cable ratings as there are cables. And then some. Basically, 6mm should be adequate provided the cable is protected by a 40A breaker (MCB) and NOT run under or inside thermal insulation, and provided it's not trunked-in along with other high-current...

The basic concern is that it should not be possible to overload any given cable run, even if someone (for example) cobbles a 3kW heater onto your spur. Provided the fuse or breaker will disconnect in such a case before the cable is seriously overloaded, in principle it's OK. As always you...

One of the issues with MCB's (breakers) is that the design of cable-clamp used on these needs to be MUCH tighter than on the older fused CU's, to achieve a reliable high-current connection. A lot of DIY'ers -and some electricians- don't realise this, and fail to tighten them sufficiently...

Proabably been asked a zillion times before.. but why are hot-water 'radiators' always painted white? Every physics book tells us that a dark-coloured surface will radiate about 50-100% more heat than a white or silver one at the same temperature. ..and while it's true that they aren't...