Boiler room

[john4703]

The caretaker at the church I go to phoned me recently as the heating was not working. I ventured into the boiler room and discovered the cable to the pump was broken, I think a squirrel had got in and chewed it. That was an easy fix but I looked at some of the wiring and wonder who would do this sort of work.
I think the photos will give enough information to let you see why I don't think it is a good job. I am going to recommend a EICR and will ask the inspector what he thinks.

 

[muffking]

Bang in some grommets and finish off the conduit and jobs a good 'un. Fair play to you for getting stuck in.
I think your advice is sound. I wouldn't do it though as I'd have to live with myself after taking a fair amount of money off them to do it right. I much prefer working for heathens and fornicators where I feel less guilty about profiteering

 

[Jackrae]

Installed by that well known company Adam & Eve Ltd
It needs a lot more than a few grommets, especially the CPC work, switchgear and conduit completion.
Paying for an EICR would be a waste of money. Get a sparky firm in to do it pro bono or at least give you a price to make things 'good'

 

[john4703]

Installed by that well known company Adam & Eve Ltd
It needs a lot more than a few grommets, especially the CPC work, switchgear and conduit completion.
Paying for an EICR would be a waste of money. Get a sparky firm in to do it pro bono or at least give you a price to make things 'good'

If I get the EICR I'll have a bit of paper to back up my opinion that it needs rewired. We need an EICR for our insurance anyway.

 

[Jackrae]

I wasn't suggesting you don't get an EICR, I was suggesting you could try badgering them to do it as a charitable donation. Once you have it (paid or for free), there's no going back. Good luck. It'll be interesting to see what it actually says. Please keep us advised.

 

[flameport]

Given the extreme age and poor condition of the installation, you would be better just getting a quote for replacement.

 

[SimonH2]

I't dangerous, but by no means unusual - different people have done "fixes" over the years, and often these people are well meaning but not competent. My guess is that the switch labelled decorations has been replaced at some point, and whoever did it couldn't make the replacement fit the conduit so has just left bare live wires exposed in the gap between the switch and the conduit - and made no attempt to protect the wires with grommets.
If it's anything like our church was (before I sorted it last year), you'll have re-wirable fuses, no RCD protection, "questionable" earthing, lack of physical protection - basically a long list of C1 and C2 defects. Based on the photos and extrapolating, if you get an EICR then you WILL get a "Not Satisfactory" result.

 

[john4703]

If it's anything like our church was (before I sorted it last year), you'll have re-wirable fuses, no RCD protection,

The one good thing is that there is RCD protection. The RCD tripped when a squirrel chewed through a cable which I have now replaced.

 

[ericmark]

I love the old stuff, once found some old knife switches on a bridge, but days before we all walked around with cameras in our pocket, they were also still live. Oddly I now do volunteer work on a steam heritage railway, but the electrics in the main comply with 18th Edition. Seems odd to have automatic half barriers on a 2'6" gauge steam hauled railway.

Hope it is still there after the coronavirus? All now shut down, but some grants have time limit, so some work still going on, not sure for how long, the population here is increasing every day as people occupy their second homes, we would normally have 1800 people living in this small town, but that has increased a lot in last few days.