3 phase motor rotation direction

And on that point I'm off to put the equivalent of 630 Kg of TNT the car.

Edited By jason udall on 08/03/2012 13:21:26

There is one point that does seem to have been overlooked. That is that those people who have certificates, who tout themselves as experts, do not necessarily know what they are doing. Or if they do, they sometimes display an appalling lack of understanding or care, witness thegas-fitter recently convicted of man-slaughter.

I have been in the unfortunate position of being on the receiving end of some of these so-called experts, so much so that these days, I simply do not trust anyone until their work has been shown to be satisfactory. This seems to apply in all trades. Maybe I've been unlucky. Maybe my standards are higher than others. Which does lead me onto....

I am not a qualified electrician: I am, or was since I'm now retired, a qualified telecoms technician/engineer, and as such I do know a small amount about electricity and electronics. Unfortunately, I have come across two domestic installations which in my opinion were dangerous, indeed on one installation where my wife had persuaded me against my better judgement to attend, I changed the faulty fuse, walked out, and refused to attend when the fuse blew again within a few days. One reason for my refusal was because the lightswitch by the only external door to the house was missing its cover plate thus exposing bare terminals. The local electricity board attended and simply covered the switch with insulation tape. In my opinion, that installation should have had the main fuses withdrawn until it had been brought up to an acceptable standard. Simply bodge covering this switch did not necessarily force the owner to upgrade.

For people to say that no-one other than a qualified individual should be allowed to work on whatever it is, smacks of protectionism, even union demarcation rules, of the worst kind. It is true that the ever increasing complexity of modern equipment, think today's car as against 50 years ago, does mean that there is less scope for the amateur, however, I would submit that a lot of household systems, electric wiring, telephone wiring, gas and water, due to their simplicity are eminently suitable for a responsible amateur to work on - provided the relevant rules are followed. Unfortunately, not every amateur is responsible. Which is why we have restrictions on what we can do. Nevertheless, I do believe there is scope for the amateur to DIY, even if it does mean paying good money to Building Control to have your work checked.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw