Who said that professionals cannot learn from DIY enthusiasts ?
Recently I've purchased a terraced house in Manchester from an old man.
I've learned that the owner was moved to an old people's home and I was initially quite sad really as I used to talk to him every now and then on my street.
When I finally got the keys for the property and open the front door, I was in awe when I saw the electrics ! I really couldn't believe that the guy was such a brain. Let me just explain.
First, the property doesn't have a consumer unit, in fact it doesn't need one. All the electrics in the house including all lights, mains plugs etc were running from a 5A wire fuse from the supply. The fuse was in an original 1900's wooden box and it had been wired with a thicker fuse wire. All wiring in the house was made of a a very thin white cable similar to the one used in electric razors. It does get better.
The lounge as you can see in the photo, was full of hooks that were serving cables ending up in a plug. The size of the cable after the hook didn'tt depend on the rate of the machine to be powered up rather on the physical weight of the appliance. So, if he wanted to power up a heavy TV, he used a thick cable where for something like a small radio, he used a thin cable. The guy is a genius. Why nobody else thought of this before ?
As far as the consumer unit is concerned, why pay more for MCBs, RCDs etc ? All you need is a distribution centre, well in this case a terminal block where all the cables are connected together. You can see that on the photo above the door frame at the left hand side.
There were many more innovations that I discovered including a number of personal alarms made of sand bags, nails a battery and a speaker ! but I'd rather keep them a secret as I might have to apply for a patent first.
I'm wondering why all the big brains are not understood why they are still alive ? !!
Recently I've purchased a terraced house in Manchester from an old man.
I've learned that the owner was moved to an old people's home and I was initially quite sad really as I used to talk to him every now and then on my street.
When I finally got the keys for the property and open the front door, I was in awe when I saw the electrics ! I really couldn't believe that the guy was such a brain. Let me just explain.
First, the property doesn't have a consumer unit, in fact it doesn't need one. All the electrics in the house including all lights, mains plugs etc were running from a 5A wire fuse from the supply. The fuse was in an original 1900's wooden box and it had been wired with a thicker fuse wire. All wiring in the house was made of a a very thin white cable similar to the one used in electric razors. It does get better.
The lounge as you can see in the photo, was full of hooks that were serving cables ending up in a plug. The size of the cable after the hook didn'tt depend on the rate of the machine to be powered up rather on the physical weight of the appliance. So, if he wanted to power up a heavy TV, he used a thick cable where for something like a small radio, he used a thin cable. The guy is a genius. Why nobody else thought of this before ?
As far as the consumer unit is concerned, why pay more for MCBs, RCDs etc ? All you need is a distribution centre, well in this case a terminal block where all the cables are connected together. You can see that on the photo above the door frame at the left hand side.
There were many more innovations that I discovered including a number of personal alarms made of sand bags, nails a battery and a speaker ! but I'd rather keep them a secret as I might have to apply for a patent first.
I'm wondering why all the big brains are not understood why they are still alive ? !!
