I got a phonecall from my uncle he lives in a bungalow the other day asking if i could have a look at one of his four storage heaters as it wasn't working.
So i went and had a look and he told me it was ok until march when it was warm but put it back on when it went cool this month and now it's not working.
As it's E7 there's no supply during the day so i connected a lead to the heater on a 13 amp plug to test it and it worked ok
So by checking the wired fuses on the 4 way wylex board and they checked out ok so after finding out which fuse the heater belonged to i could not see 17.5 ohms resistance for the heater at the fuse with my fluke meter.
The meter board is at the back of one the kitchen cupboards one of most awkward places i've seen as i have sit in the cupboard to get to the fuses if you want to use both hands.
Today i went to check the cable continuity as the C/U is only 6ft from the heater i used a piece of wire from the C/U to the heater switch and tested each conductor in turn and the result is L/N open circuit but the earth is ok.
So the big question is why has the 2 conductors in the cable failed in that way?
I asked him if he had any work done in the vicinity of the cable which goes under the floorboards and the only work was when he had gas installed as this estate was originally all electric no gas.
Anyway the gas board only installed an earth for the gas pipes and this is nowhere near the storage heater cables.
So i think either someone had drilled through the cable but he says no or rodents but can they chew through copper as i would not think so but correct me if i'm wrong.
So the cable needs to be replaced.
Andy
So i went and had a look and he told me it was ok until march when it was warm but put it back on when it went cool this month and now it's not working.
As it's E7 there's no supply during the day so i connected a lead to the heater on a 13 amp plug to test it and it worked ok
So by checking the wired fuses on the 4 way wylex board and they checked out ok so after finding out which fuse the heater belonged to i could not see 17.5 ohms resistance for the heater at the fuse with my fluke meter.
The meter board is at the back of one the kitchen cupboards one of most awkward places i've seen as i have sit in the cupboard to get to the fuses if you want to use both hands.
Today i went to check the cable continuity as the C/U is only 6ft from the heater i used a piece of wire from the C/U to the heater switch and tested each conductor in turn and the result is L/N open circuit but the earth is ok.
So the big question is why has the 2 conductors in the cable failed in that way?
I asked him if he had any work done in the vicinity of the cable which goes under the floorboards and the only work was when he had gas installed as this estate was originally all electric no gas.
Anyway the gas board only installed an earth for the gas pipes and this is nowhere near the storage heater cables.
So i think either someone had drilled through the cable but he says no or rodents but can they chew through copper as i would not think so but correct me if i'm wrong.
So the cable needs to be replaced.
Andy