Worst DIY electrics

[martygturner]

From my experience all electricians at the end of the day have issues....

Junes example ...EICR on a rental, new electrician,

no grommets on back boxes and boxes not earthed - they are all plastic.

No earth on kitchen lights - all fed 12v from transformer - which he could not find - clue its on the wall with a sicker saying kitchen lights transformer and wifi switchgear right above the isolator in an enclosure just outside the kitchen which leads on the "shocking and potentially deadly" his words, state of the kitchen light switches...having no earth...except they are all piezo switches and have no external power.

Same for bathroom - same design. no 240v all 12v fed from outside the bathroom.

No isolator for bathroom fan - he thought the isolator which was for the bathroom transformer 12v was not connected to the fan.....however there is no bathroom fan...the flat has a central fan serving the heat exchanger and 6 room intakes...which does have an isolator but he missed that and disconnected the wiring at the consumer unit as he could not find where the wiring was going...despite having a wiring diagram...

Ring broken and inappropriate mcb at 20 amps- ..there are no rings in the flat they are all radial circuits- he may have been confused as the 3 serving the bedrooms have 2 cables in each mcb..so I am assuming he saw two cables and thought it must be a ring..despite it being clearly shown on the wiring diagram and stated on the consumer unit.

Then he took mcb for the lighting circuit off the rcb without being asked...for safety apparently as the flat would go dark...despite each room having an emergency light fitted...which he might have found if he had bothered to drop the lights or perhaps wonder why the lights all come on when you trip the power or for that matter when they all spark up when you disconnect the smoke alarms or test them or trip the general alarm....which he did when he entered the property as the log says.

Still mus'nt grumble..he got a badge from NICE so he must be good, £375+vat..with a quote to put it all right of £1900....



Second ecir - put right what he had "fixed and redo the eicr -£425 inc no faults found....

 

[hllns]

All of this is speaking as a non-electrician

I watched this video before it came up on here, looks shonky (and there'll be loads like it out there) but what is to be done?
Realistically barring any issues such as the one that triggered the callout this sort of install is going to stay like this till the property is acquired by new owner. 5/10 yearly EICRs to try and spot the truly dangerous?

Even limited to non-notifiable work I could potentially split a ring main or disconnect an earth if I replace a socket.

With my house purchase the surveyor stated "fuses be replaced with miniature circuit breakers." when he saw the rewireable fuseboard and "rewiring will be found necessary" but from what I've seen there's only two spurs and the rest looks in good condition and fairly unaltered from when an extension was added in the early 90s, I plan to get the CU replaced with a modern RCBO unit at some point but this is currently waiting behind fencing and windows.

In terms of checking "invisible" faults I bought a Kewtech 107 Loopcheck (https://www.kewtechcorp.com/products/loopcheck-107/) to do some basic check for faults just before we moved in which has showed earth/polarity and the RCD covering some sockets are all good.

 

[old duffer]

The absence of a catastrophe does not make the situation "safe".

like the absence of evidence does not mean you are not guilty of a crime...that logic?

 

[old duffer]

"Competence" is having the skills, knowledge, experience and (in some settings) qualifications, to be able to carry something out to an acceptable standard.

Therefore, there are levels of competence.

You might feel competent to spur off a ring, but not to replace the CU.

so what skills? what knowledge? what experience? so qualifications are only relevant in some settings?
So level of competence is proportionate to what then? Arbitrary judgement calls?

 

[denso13]

so what skills? what knowledge? what experience? so qualifications are only relevant in some settings?
So level of competence is proportionate to what then? Arbitrary judgement calls?

If you were competent, you would know.

 

[old duffer]

If you were competent, you would know.

so is that the standard response when stopped if your over the limit for drink driving? But office, I'm competent, I just know I am LOL

 

[denso13]

so is that the standard response when stopped if your over the limit for drink driving?

No.

If you know you have the necessary skill and knowledge, through training and experience, then you would be aware of that and confident to say "I am competent to to whatever".

If, on the other hand you don't actually know how to do something safely, but you carry on regardless, then that would demonstrate incompetence.

There isn't a scale of competence.

 

[Brigadier]

like the absence of evidence does not mean you are not guilty of a crime...that logic?

Your statement is nonsense.

So no.

 

[Brigadier]

so what skills? what knowledge? what experience? so qualifications are only relevant in some settings?

Already answered in my post, which you quoted.

So level of competence is proportionate to what then?

If I have unravelled your word salad correctly, as above.

Arbitrary judgement calls?

As my first response.



Really, you are arguing for its own sake; all of your questions were already answered (if only you were interested in looking / able to appreciate it).

 

[blup]

I just stumbled across this.

I'm not in any way electrically-proficient, so I'll defer to the author's opinions on this.

Doesn't look a quality install though

As a YouTube business fair play to the guy he has built up a good subscriber base albeit with plenty of click bait, he claims to charge premium prices for 5* work but to me he just seems competent with high charge out rates. He seems to specialise in electric charging now, doubtless very good business in and around Cambridge. As for the house he inspected, yes at the bodge end of installation but does it matter if it is electrically safe?

Blup

 

[Brigadier]

yes at the bodge end of installation but does it matter if it is electrically safe?

Trouble is though (if it were me), I'd be concerned about what was lurking, unseen, if that was the state of what could be done at easy reach......

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

As a YouTube business fair play to the guy he has built up a good subscriber base albeit with plenty of click bait, he claims to charge premium prices for 5* work but to me he just seems competent with high charge out rates.

My opinion is somewhere in between. He seems a bit of a drama queen, but where would his YT channel be without the drama?

 

[blup]

Trouble is though (if it were me), I'd be concerned about what was lurking, unseen, if that was the state of what could be done at easy reach......

A full and I mean full eicr would address that.

Blup

 

[blup]

Or to put the reverse argument a modern outwardly compliant installation with a selective eicr can miss major problems

Blup

 

[LeeJC]

I watched for about 2 minutes and then turned off.
All got too 'Electricians version of Love Island/Big Brother/I'm a celebrity' dramatic for me.

It was lacking in the aspects you could anticipate a DIYer who isn't keeping a £1000 tester or a 7671 On Site guide handy.
I saw some extensions in extensions, some mixed wiring from T+E to singles and a few other things 'I' wouldn't do but click baiting it as 'The worst DIY electrics ever'........... and then disconnects a single cable and leaves everything else as is............... in over 2 hours............