Loose wire

Could one of the forum electrical wizz kids please tell me where the loose yellow wire bottom left is meant to go?

A few more interesting installations for your enjoyment in this article

Well there's a turn up for the books - I didn't have you down as a Daily Mail reader. Is Fred Bassett still going?

Andrew

PS: It's not for me to tell people where to stick the wire, at least not on a public forum.

That did not just blow, it looks as if they launched a rocket in there. That is all just so wrong!

Clive

Loose yellow wire meant to go? Stick it anywhere, the previous 'sparky' obviously did with the rest of the wiring.

Looks OK to me!

Which is probably a good reason I passed my Mill PCB problem to a higher authority!

Martin

This installation passed the home buyers survey here in France.

In the first picture (Jason's), I like the rusty nail to the left of the meter to stop it falling off the board ? And is it (was it) a 3 phase supply. Looking on the net, these are used in India ?
BobH

Rick, don't worry it is not the back of my far eastern lathe, just a pic from the article I linked to.

Speedy, article says its from an office in Madras, not sure if that rusty nail is to stop the meter falling off or if it is the "terminal" for the yellow wire as most of the others seem to have been twisted around a couple of nails

When we bought our present house 17 years ago, after finding live earths on a clutch of power sockets, the subsequent exposure of a whole raft of other faults from years of amateur additions were child's play compared to these awful examples.

​I found out just recently from my son that in the USA you can do your own wiring, but plumbing has to be checked and passed by a 'Master' plumber. Gas fitting is another, thankfully, regulated area of work, but it is strange to say the least to find you are allowed to electrocute yourself, but not get wet.

Brian

Recently had a new consumer unit with MCBOs for each circuit "professionally" fitted. Interesting issue with the lighting circuits tripped every morning - no sign of leakage or any problem when tested during the day or in the evening. Discovered the immersion heater, fed from Economy 7, connected to the lighting circuit!

In Spain for Christmas many years ago, the mains fairylights outside the Town Hall were strung together using chocolate blocks and draped across the palm trees.

In that first picture, the meter and fuse carriers not being straight is a bit of a let down.

I had to change the consumer unit a few of years ago. After 20+ years of use, one night the main switch fizzed and buzzed for about 10 minutes, flashing the lights on and off, and eventually welded itself open. As I was prepping up the wires for the new consumer unit, I was puzzled by the two lighting cables going into one mcb. I discovered that one cable was only a meter long, and the other end of it was just stuffed into the cavity, between the inside and outside walls, without so much as a piece of insulation tape on the end of it! The house was wired in 1990.

Steve

Hi, I reckon the loose wire is from someone who hasn't paid their share of the electric bill, so have been cut off.

Regards Nick.

A few Burn marks in Jason's pic but none in Speedy Builder5's pic. So that must mean the the French sparkie got it spot on .

Rats nest springs to mind in both of them. Reminds me of the time when the Dike of Edinburgh opened a new factory a few years back, he was shown a big fuse box and remarked "my god , you would think it was an Indian the wired that up " And lo and behold it WAS !!... a Sikh Nothing unusual in the Duke putting his foot in it..

Looks like the reason I always have a neon test screwdriver around - even in the uk. Also check inside plugs on used items - the other end too at times.

Apparently the biggest single cause of fires is electrics. Hence the recent rules on the subject and it seems the need to pass an exam where you can take your books in with you. Suppose it indicates some literary skill and the ability to do some simple sums.

Afraid it's a source of irritation to me. At one stage I was authorised to allow the mains to be actually connected up to gear in a factory plus spec'ing wiring - 'cause the on site electricians couldn't always cope with what was needed at times. One day I might not be allowed by law to fit a plug. Why - idiots. Even the current regs are not hard to follow.

John

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That is bad practice, everyone should know that the heat in spain melts the chocolate

That picture looks familiar. We have similar installation here in Romania. Normally here there is no earth system just L/N. Neutral is supposed to be at earth potential, but usually isn't. Since most 3-core cable also comes with the standard green/yellow conductor, that gets used by the 'Electrician' for anything he likes, so it may be live. The colour codes are irrelevant - any electrical system is wired up using whatever colour cable the guy has - often all one colour. No ELTs, although we do have 'overload' trip switches, which usually don't.

We paid for a new mains connection to our newly built house (thats another story!), and the computer (E**L) fitted the latest hi-tech LCD display meter in a sealed box on a pole at the end of our drive (about 150 metres from the house). This box also contained a trip switch of some kind. After everything was connected up, I spent days trying to find out why this switch tripped out repeatedly. I could reset it, and by the time I had walked back to the house, it would have tripped again. Very worried, because the builder had buried some of the internal house cables under a concrete floor. Eventually I asked E**L to take a look - they told me it was fitted with the latest type of 'Brown-out' switch - if the voltage surged or dropped, then this switch would drop out. This is Romania - voltage can be anywhere between 200 and 260 volts AC, so eventually I persuaded them (bribed them) to remove the switch. Since then, all has been OK (relatively).

It is also not uncommon to find open bare wires connected to live mains - I have a second house on my property, and the incoming power arrives on bare aluminium wire to two plastic terminals (L/N) on the outside wall of the house. They are wrapped around the terminals, then simply buried in the plaster wall down to the meter (which once again, is a relatively hi-tech digital effort. I asked them to remove the meter (house not used), so they simply cut one of the wires out of the meter to a distribution box. Then I noticed the meter was still reading consumption of electriciy - about 10 kwH in two months. Now fed up, so I climbed up the wall wearing rubber boots and rubber gloves, and put an axe through the incoming cables. - I know, don't tell me, but desperation plays a major part in any dealing with companies in Romania, particularly a monopoly like E**L.

Needless to say, I have no faith in so-called 'professionals!'