Contactum CU

[LesleyB]

Thought I'd drop in an update

A bod from the firm came round and he'd happened to do the orginal installation.

His first action was to query the rating on the warm air blower because of the cable size. He then had a look at the storage heater itself, and said 'look it can be run up during the day'. I pointed out the storage heater part usually runs up overnight and that is rated at 15 A in the 2-way unit I have covering the storage heater and night time immersion heater during the Economy 7 period. (It's also way to expensive to run the storage heater up during the day, from cold it takes about 60-70 units to get that thing charged up.)

So he finally stopped trying to justify the initial error he had made, (against my original instructions), and swapped the MCB's over. I hadn't realised they could be freed off the rail by unclipping them from below. Now I know how they come off, I'll never need to call someone out to correct an MCB's error again.

For your amusement:

1. Apparently there are consumer units with keys to release the MCB and these keys are plastic and always break. (Anyone ever heard of these style of consumer unit/MCB?)

2. He moaned about how he'd been on call outs all weekend, and while thoughts along the lines of 'if you've done the install, I'm not surprised' came to mind, I resisted the temptation to voice them.

I have checked the box and he hasn't put that earth wire to a terminal. The wire is a bit short so I suspect it was laziness on their part in the first place. I'll have to extend it with similar rated wire which I may have to sleeve up and then connect to that earth.

I expect to use an inline terminal block if I can fit it in there. Will this be safe ? It's got to be better than not having that earth connected at all?

I don't see the point in getting this firm to do a test of the installation.
I will be writing them a letter, a copy of which will go to Elecsa. If the company has moved office then they won't be getting their copy of the written complaint will they?

I appreciate the advice people have given me here and find the discussion about the expenditure on being fit to do the job interesting.

I know there are two views on regulations and regulatory bodies , one being do it by the book or don't do it at all and the other being throw the book away and use your head. Unfortunately, the latter doesn't take into account examples of plain idleness or inability to observe, understand and correct one's own errors - in effect the ability to be conscientious about the work to be done and the ability to analyse a job done. At least with the regulatory bodies in existence we all have a measure of expectation.

Regards

L.

 

[Adam_151]

I know there are two views on regulations and regulatory bodies , one being do it by the book or don't do it at all and the other being throw the book away and use your head. Unfortunately, the latter doesn't take into account examples of plain idleness or inability to observe, understand and correct one's own errors - in effect the ability to be conscientious about the work to be done and the ability to analyse a job done. At least with the regulatory bodies in existence we all have a measure of expectation.

This quote springs to mind here, very apt I think:

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

 

[Jaymack]

I know there are two views on regulations and regulatory bodies , one being do it by the book or don't do it at all and the other being throw the book away and use your head. Unfortunately, the latter doesn't take into account examples of plain idleness or inability to observe, understand and correct one's own errors - in effect the ability to be conscientious about the work to be done and the ability to analyse a job done. At least with the regulatory bodies in existence we all have a measure of expectation.

This quote springs to mind here, very apt I think:

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

I know it as: - "Rules are made for fools and the interpretation of wise men". Rhymes better and more apt, don't you think?.

Jaymack

 

[LesleyB]

I was contacted by an Elecsa representative to arrange a site visit with an electrician from the company.

That first visit took place on Monday, with the first appointment being cancelled and rearranged for later in the same day.

Replacement MCB's were required so a second visit was arranged and I asked for a different engineer to be sent.

The different engineer arrived this morning with the boss of the company and replaced two MCB's, testing the circuits for the shower, heater unit and finally the cooker circuit. I am relieved to say that all three circuits cleared the tests, I have the paperwork *and* there is now no floating earth in the building.

I hope the installing electrician does not lose his job but learns from this experience and gets further training.