Upper class insulation resistance fault-finding 

You mean the cooker radial based on the 'axiom' 32A must have a 6mm circuit?

@@ef7480 With 3036 fuses, you must use a 6mm2 for a 32a load, but you can get away with 4mm2 on a 60898 as long as it's clipped direct. That would probably be the best real world example of the cables being oversized due to the protective device taking longer to trip.

@@AndrewStrydomBRP- correct

Actually, it's a wheelie bin.

@@dsesuk That sounds comfortable (not) 🤣

Kinetic is an option we have these days, thankfully, because we're not going to be able to do anything about some of the wiring on this site.

Caramel Log is the best

True, but here there's no need.

@@dsesuk yes I agree it's unnecessary here I knew you'd know i was just highlighting it for the young sparkies on here incase they come across it and have meltdown haha Great video though interesting aswell those sorts of properties are nightmare to work with as like you said you can't just chop into the wall or smash a few holes 🤯

Perhaps a case of the guy doing first-fix not being on speaking terms with the guy doing second-fix!

I won't be taking it down either, but I can get EFLI readings from the metal switches and use a wander lead to get an R2 out of the chandelier without disassembly to at least make sure everything's earthed.

Just looking at the pins of the 5A, they are about 3 times the size of the pins on the alleged 15A schuko sockets. I bet the 15A BS546 is good for at least 30A.

And a handsome front man too!

It's the profanity that tells you you're dealing with someone who knows what they're doing. The ones stood in a well lit studio reading off an autocue, with perfect audio are the ones you have to be worried about.

@@dsesuk that goes without saying! The Brad Pitt of the Electrical world! About the same age.

Wotcha Olly. Linda and will be at Ally Pally both days all being well. Will you be there? As for those choc boxes on this site, I suspect they were installed on halogen downlights and someone later fitted the JCC's. Rather than re-terminating them, they cut off the two-core to the halogen driver and fitted them into the JCC connector. That's my take anyway. You still get BS546 sockets of course - I've even been asked to install them before, however you'd think the manufacturers would have rated the plug and socket for 6A these days instead of it still being 5A.

@@dsesuk If I get the chance I will try and get there and buy you a pint (Linda can have a 0.0abv of course) I read the 5A sockets are still a thing in the likes of India ( Old Colonial days) and the BS546 standard for them over MCBs etc hasn't moved on and they are advertised there as 5A/6A nowadays.

@@dsesuk If you're not overloading them I don't see the problem. You're never going to be putting 5A through the average lighting circuit these days; perhaps when everyone had 100 or 150W incandescents everywhere, but not now. Look at radial power circuits; 20A breaker with 13A sockets, there's far more chance of overloading them with all the crud people plug in.

Cheers Sean. If it helps, I may be ten years younger, but I feel ten years older.

I was about to ask that - as far as I know there's no requirement for sockets to have switches anywhere in the regs, so how can that even be a code?

Exactly@@Ragnar8504 As quoted from DSES website: "1. Unswitched sockets are no longer compliant with regulations and need to be replaced with switched versions. False. Plugs and sockets have to comply with British Standard 1363, however this standard allows for both switched and unswitched socket variants. Older installations often have non-switched sockets and they remain perfectly acceptable; such can still be purchased off-the-shelf today as shown below. So long as the socket remains compliant with BS1363, is not damaged, impaired or faulty in any way, has sound contacts and passes requisite testing, then there is no need to replace it with a new switched faceplate unless you, the client, specifically want the ability to be able to flick any connected equipment on or off via the socket front. That’s up to you though, there’s nothing in BS1363 (plugs & sockets) or BS7671 (IEE Wiring Regulations) stating that unswitched sockets, where encountered, are required to be replaced for switched variants. In some online discussions, the need for 'emergency switching' is tiresomely dragged out as the reason why a socket should have a switch, but basic isolators such as socket switches, light switches, cooker and shower switches (etc.) are not installed for the purpose of emergency switching, only for localised operation or isolation for maintenance purposes. It's important to recognise the difference between functional switching and emergency switching, the latter seldom spotted domestically and usually recognisable by being big, red and with something like STOP being stamped upon them! Indeed, under regulation 537.3.3, BS7671 requires emergency switches be accessible, coloured (preferably red), labelled with a contracting colour (preferably yellow) and capable of being locked off in the OFF position, none of which applies to a switched socket outlet hidden behind your sofa. Emergency switching is also required to isolate all 'live' conductors (line and neutral wiring), however many socket outlets switch single-pole and only isolate line. It's evident that socket switching is only for functional convenience then. If BS1363 and BS7671 (the wiring regulations) disallowed the use of non-switched sockets, they simply wouldn't be available for purchase on the high street as they so readily are."

@@ElliottVeares Crikey, I forgot I wrote that - it was over ten years ago! I also just spotted a typo, that should of course say 'contrasting colour' - now corrected! But yeah, the more you go through this report, the more nonsense you find.

Ah. I perhaps should have explained. Strappers are the wires between light switches in a two or more way configuration. In this case, power goes into one switch, along one or the other strappers depending on which positions each switch is mechanically set in, then out the other switch to the light.

@@dsesukAhah! I did wonder if that was the case! Just not heard that term before!

I remember being 50... Come to think of it, I remember being 60 as well... 🥴

yea

It's not so bad if you take the piecemeal approach and go around tackling issues one at a time.

You edited this comment? You were asking if it was a 3 phase board?

@@londontrada Yeah, I realised it was obvious given the size of the property and when 400V got mentioned.

You'll be seeing more of her. She's a Saffa originally.

@@dsesuk Ah yes, of course!

Plus, what the hell is wrong with 5 amp lighting sockets other than the nomenclature. They are safe on 6 amp and make switched lighting circuits which are must safer than plugging in table lamps factory fitted with 13amp plugs and fuses.

The meter is a Hioki 3490 - a popular instrument down under although rarer on these shores. I bought mine from Farnell and, sadly, it was nicked with my toolbox last Friday. If one appears on the second hand market, it'll probably be the very instrument in this video. If you want to know more about it, there's a video in my back catalogue from summer 2022 when I first bought the thing.

Tracing faults like this is what ages me terribly.

These days we could do with a 12 or 24V DC distribution around the average abode to cut down on all the mains adaptors and products with step-down transformers.

That's the trouble though Steve, they look great, but they're a ballache to install properly!

Good point.

In both my Hioki 3490 and Nuisance Glowing LED Lights videos I used an apparatus to demonstrate how a screw could penetrate a cable where there was no resistive fault, yet it showed up on IR. If there's still a tiny insulation gap between the screw and the copper, be that an air gap or a sliver of PVC, then the continuity tester won't have enough EMF to get past the resistance, however the higher potential of the IR test will break down that insulation and allow current to cross it.

For the most part it works, and it's cheap after year one. It just has some stupid flaws.

I thought I'd never get to the bottom of that sucker!

Sadly, the Windoze version doesn't play ball. I would like to play with the android one. I had been wondering about a touchscreen Chromebook to get the best of both worlds (touchscreen and keyboard) for field entry.

@@dsesuk When is somebody going to produce a Linux version of all these things..? Not everybody wants to use Micro$$oft Windoze. And anything with "Chrome" in the name is spyware par excellence, steer well clear..!

It's funny with platforms, I always go jelly-legged but it's not because of me being up there, I'm always worried I'm going to drop a tool, tester or the client's light fitting!

It's the wild west out here because there's no registration system, so anyone can claim to be an electrician and perform electrical work. There are professional bodies one can register with such as NICEIC, Select and NAPIT among others, but even then there are a lot of shoddy operators and an overall lack of oversight.

Prior to 2005 electrical work in England and Wales was almost completely unregulated. In 2005 some electrical work was made "notifiable" under the building regulations, requiring it to either be notified to building control (which is an expensive PITA), or to be performed by an electrical contractor registered with a self-certification scheme. In reality most electricians are a member of one of those schemes, but the schemes seem to do a piss-poor job of keeping them members honest and diligent. Still it's probably an improvement over the pre-2005 situation. In 2013 the list of work requiring notification in England (but not Wales) was reduced considerablly, I don't think this made a huge amount of practical difference though. Scotland has their own rules, but I don't keep track of the details. IIRC electrial work in Northern Ireland is still unregulated.

It's the GW-7900B, radio controlled & solar powered.

I still have the mind of a teenage schoolboy and the body of a 60 year old.

It's a complicated and sprawling site to familiarise yourself with Dickie, but yes, tracking down what a lighting circuit is doing isn't too troublesome. Simply turn on all the lights, then see what goes out when the breaker is flipped!

= customer unwilling to pay more.

So wrong.

Thanks Stu!