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My dad drilled into a wall with an unmarked 3 phase cable behind it, took out the fuse at the substation. 🙂
Mind you, I once pushed a wrong button on the lighting desk at a theatre with a somewhat, uh, "rickety" set of dimmer racks and accidentally turned on about 50kW of stage lighting in a snap fade. Saw the blue flashes from the electrical bay through the varnished wooden floor(!), then the power went off. Then the burglar alarm went off. Went outside looking as nonchalant as possible and discovered that power was off to most of the town...
After that incident they replaced it with a proper 3-phase installation. 🙂
What a waste of time this forum is!
right then i've got to the cable which wasn't too bad and there's a bit of slack. As you can hopefully see the live has only just been touched and has suffered not much damage but the earth has melted through.
As for either end, the top goes up to the new bathroom with the newly tiled floor so that's not coming up and as far as i can tell the bottom goes to an old socket that's behind the boiler which you can't get to so will never be used.
Don't if this sheds any different light on things??
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You have to way it up really. Get a sparkie in to do it properly or take the risk of bodging it yourself, invalidating your home insurance and possibly loosing the lot.
There has been plenty of advice but the best has been to get a sparkie to have a look at it. There is loads about and theyre not going to charge a lot for that.
But hey your the one who lives their.
*Note to self never buy anything from Swisstony! lol*
If you are asking for advice on here you really don't know what you are doing!
Just pay someone 100quid to fix it. A couple of hours at the most and a spark can sort that out.
Naaaahhhhhh..........bit of leccy tape and away ya go. Don't skimp though, I'd use a whole roll on that if I were you.
Disclaimer:I [b]AM[/b] joking
If you think it goes to a socket which will not be used in future, first you have to check it's not part of a ring. Cut the live ends and put them well clear of contact with anything and turn power back on - check if the socket still works. If it does then the cable is part of a ring and needs to be reconnected for safety. If not just cap it off with a junction box after cutting away the defunct section. Uh, remember to turn the power off again after the check above 🙂
If it has to be reconnected then the crimp idea sounds good as screw terminals do have a tendency to loosen over time...
I am very not sure about using crimps on ring mains. Myself I would junction box it and stuff it back in the wall but that ain't best practice for sure
Get a qualified electrician to come in an sort it out. He'll tell you your options, after seeing the damage 1st hand. The fact you say 'the live has only just been touched and has suffered not much damage' says alot really.
also, i have a feeling your fuseboard is going to be quite out of date... The circuit really should have tripped/ blown after that.
I won't tell you what you should do yourself, as you shouldnt do anything...
And yes, Im qualified.
What does it feed in the bathroom, you should be able to get to it by taking down parts of the ceiling. The only right thing to do is replace it. BUT use a competent person.
It doesnt nessecarily need replacing. It could be joined. You just need to know what youre doing. Just using terminal blocks and burying it n the wall really isnt a good way of doing it for instance.
I agree with lyons
also, i have a feeling your fuseboard is going to be quite out of date... The circuit really should have tripped/ blown after that.
You need to get a sparky in. The fact you have caused an earth fault via damaging the phase and neutral would have tripped the 30mA RCB on a split board v quickly - Its design to prevent you from killing yourself in the event you drill though a cable 🙄
If you want to keep the existing cons unit make sure the earthing and bonding is correct. the operation of old type fuses and CB's is dependant on the quality of the earth. If it has fuses and you have a poor earth they will not blow and you will have a fire in the end.
The repair is an easy one - the fact that you are thinking of bodging it could risk your house insurance - not worth it
The fact you have caused an earth fault via damaging the phase and neutral
Should read phase and earth