Date   : Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:58:39 +0100
From   : jgh@... (Jonathan Graham Harston)
Subject: Leccy @ Acorn World '09

Rick Murray wrote:
> Jonathan Graham Harston wrote:
> > It always gets me when I see the classic bathroom dangers cartoon
> > of a child in a bath with a radio/hairdryer/toaster precariously
> > balanced at the end.
> 
> Ridiculously over-emotional publicity. Who the hell would balance a
> TOASTER on the end of a bath? :-)
 
Have you never seen Family Guy? ;)
 
> * - this is in much the same vein as "crashing computers have showers of
> sparks erupting from within, and exploding keyboards" [#] which we all
 
Yes, and do floodlights really make a strange loud clunking noise
when they turn on?
 
Phil Blundell wrote:
> > Discussion on uk.d-i-y couple of days ago which agrees with my
> 
OSG(16):
> "A ring or radial circuit, with spurs if any, feeds ... an unlimited
> number of socket-outlets".
[snip]
> I'm also fairly certain that the regs themselves, both in the 16th and
> 17th editions, don't contain any specific restriction on number of
 
Yes, I can't track the thread down on uk.d-i-y, so I don't known
where they got it from. Checking the regs and the guide closely
does, as you say, state unlimited number of outlets per final
circuit, with a maximum of one outlet per spur on a ring (where an
outlet is defined as something with one set of terminals - so a
two-gang socket outlet is an outlet, as is a six-gang socket outlet
as long as it is constructionally a single outlet).
 
AlembicPrs wrote:
> place and trip people up. At least if at skirting board level the flex(es)
are
> out of the way. And why bother with 13mp fused plugs, if the consumer unit
 
If the socket's at skirting board level the flex is crushed against
the floor.
 
Mick Champion wrote:
> water. Remember it's the volts that jolt, but the mills that kills. So
 
I've never head that version before. I always knew it as Volts
Jolt, but Current Kills.
 
Mick Champion wrote:
> Here in London (though I expect there will be exceptions), our Earth
> wires are bonded at the substation and we get our Earth feed come in
 
Most UK urban supplies are wires as per the diagram at
http://mdfs.net/Docs/Electrical/mains.htm
 
Mick Champion wrote:
> sockets saying that was "Bad installation practice". Why did you think
> this is the case?
 
As taught at college ;) Also, see the Wiki article on BS1363 which
is quite accurate.
 
> arrangements with interest. Once again I do wonder why we have fuses in
> our plugs. While nobody could argue it's another form of protection if
 
Because it's an absolute bugger when the whole circuit is
disconnected and you have to trek all the way to the fuseboard and
do, effectivley, a repair beause of a faulty appliance, instead of
repairing the appliance itself. The opposite reason is why stage
lighting usually uses unfused BS463s with centralised fusing and
switching - it's an absolute bugger having to get the fourty-food
ladder out to change a lighting fuse on a spotlight.
 
> > Need to upload some after photos now that it's all nice and neat.
> 
> Please do.  I guess that you purchased the cable and ran them from the
> basement to the communal entrance to the flats yourself, then then had
> to pay the supplier to move and connect the supply wires to the meters
> and isolation switches? How much did the supplier charge for what 2
> hours work? Too much probably!
 
No, the supply cable is supplied by the supplier (!). I had to
remove all the internal wiring on the consumer side of the old
switchgear - which meant pestering the supplier for a proper
installation date, as it was unacceptable to strip out the old
switchgear and remove the wiring, leaving the tenants with no
electricity, on the off chance that the supplier would be turning
up.
 
I had to dig the hole through the cellar wall and provide a clear
accessway for the incoming cable. To do so I had to remove the
parasite cables that were supplying the flats from the shop next
door - leaving the flats with no electricity.
 
The supplier's navvies dug a hole in the pavement outside the front
door, neatly chopping through my yorkstone doorstep that the
surveyor had agreed could be lifted out. They also neatly fenced
off the hole from passing pedestrians, but with no consideration as
to how the tenents would get in and out.
 
The supplier's sparkies then turned up and fixed three new meters
and three new isolators to my (now) nice and empty distribution
board. Once tested, they then stripped the insulation from the
four-inch supply cable under the pavement and "welded" the supply
in place. Three new supplies, so a three-phase supply cable, so
connections to all three phases. They then enclosed it all in a
Mains Services Breaches Joint Box (it says here) and filled it full
of resin sealant.
 
It was about 1400 pounds for about six hours work.
 
Once that was done it was then about two hours for me to wire the
consumer side back into the new supply isolators.
 
Next morning the navvies returned to fill in the hole, nicking the
chopped off bit of stone doorstep in the process.
 
-- 
J.G.Harston - jgh@...                - mdfs.net/User/JGH
BBC BASIC for Windows and Internationalisation
  See http://mdfs.net/Software/BBCBasic/Windows/ProgTips