Watchdog tonight

[ultomoat]

You can probably find it on iPlayer shortly. Tonight's episode covered an 'electrician' named Derek who was doing Part P work without being registered. I was slightly dubious about their description of what work is notifiable, particularly that stating that fitting an outside light required notification to the council.

The first job they had the guy do was fitting a double socket in the kitchen. He removed an existing fused spur and replaced it with a double socket. He made a complete balls up of removing the tiles (and glued the broken shards back to the wall with what looked like window putty). Oh, and didn't bother to screw the box to the wall.

Perhaps the best bit was when the guy was replacing a fuse box with a consumer unit. As the light was fading he simply pulled the lid off the service cut-out and jammed the feed to the downstairs lighting circuit into the feed from the street with his screwdriver.

Excusing the typical BBC Watchdog hype it was pretty shocking to watch.

 

[EddieM]

Very very dangerous and absolutely no need to work that way, one slip and he could well have been toast... utterly irresponsible.

 

[RF Lighting]

I think he was a pretty good representation of many electricians these days judging be the amount of truly abysmal work I see day in day out.

The expert clearly doesn't have much experience if that cu was one of the worst he's ever seen. It was pretty reasonable compared with some I come across.

 

[securespark]

I know it was bad, but he was probably hamming it up for the cameras.

 

[AndyPRK]

The prepay meter was at a nice low level

 

[ultomoat]

Did anybody else notice that everybody tonight was a "forensic expert"... Forensic car expert, forensic electrical expert... forensic mobile phone blows up in your pocket expert...

 

[deadshort]

I think he was a pretty good representation of many electricians these days judging be the amount of truly abysmal work I see day in day out.

The expert clearly doesn't have much experience if that cu was one of the worst he's ever seen. It was pretty reasonable compared with some I come across.

What does he expect for a six hour job! I don't recall a price being given ?

Regards,

DS

 

[EddieM]

Well it will astound many of you but I got my CU replaced a few years ago for £150.00 and yes all notified and certs logged. (But the I guess I knew the guy)

 

[EFLImpudence]

I hope winston didn't watch the rest of the programme.

A 1.2 litre car is not a Fiat 500?

 

[JBR]

Yes, I saw that. The 'electrician' was appalling, although I think they overplayed the removal of the socket without turning off the mains. I've loosened sockets and switches before to make painting easier but, before I get shot down, I didn't actually remove them. Just enough to avoid getting paint on the plastic and, even then, I took the greatest care.

 

[flameport]

What does he expect for a six hour job! I don't recall a price being given ?

It wasn't 6 hours. 6.5 hours in total, of which 4.5 was spent elsewhere, so only 2 hours to remove the old and install the new.
There was no price for the CU, it was £40 for the socket.

Presumably nothing else was checked, this was implied but not actually stated.

Obviously a poor job, but removing the FCU with power on was hardly crime of the century.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Tonight's episode covered an 'electrician' named Derek who was doing Part P work without being registered.

Show us where it says he has to be.

 

[DaftPunk]

Yes, I saw that. The 'electrician' was appalling, although I think they overplayed the removal of the socket without turning off the mains. I've loosened sockets and switches before to make painting easier but, before I get shot down, I didn't actually remove them. Just enough to avoid getting paint on the plastic and, even then, I took the greatest care.

I'd be very interested how they think you could carry out the proper safe isolation procedure on an FCU without unscrewing it from the wall

To be fair to watchdog they said the "electrician" was not a member of a self certification scheme and he had not applied to the LABC in advance to carry out the work. They seemed to have their facts right even if they did over play some of the minor misdemeanours.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'd be very interested how they think you could carry out the proper safe isolation procedure on an FCU without unscrewing it from the wall.

Well - you might start by turning off the power to it.

 

[DaftPunk]

How do you know the power is off without testing the terminals of the FCU?