Sparkies – How to not kill myself?

Footflaps: did you used to own my house? Small bungalow in Blyth, copper gas pipes set into concrete, electric plumbed into the water, boiler riddled with air traps, alarm system from a department store?

Footflaps: did you used to own my house? Small bungalow in Blyth, copper gas pipes set into concrete, electric plumbed into the water, boiler riddled with air traps, alarm system from a department store?

All pretty standard in my day, I’d expect nothing less 🙂

The screw had gone straight through the twin and earth of the spur to the socket supplying the washing machine. It had cut the earth wire in two and the screw was touching the socket side of the earth wire and also the phase.
Must happen often ?

All the time. Doing some DIY for my dad, involved drilling about 1′ below a lightswitch. “Dad, are you sure there’s no cable behind here?” “Definitely, it comes down from above…”

It’s amazing how much of a drill bit will just vapourise.

Still, not as good as a friend who was restoring an old town house and, up in the attic, he managed to drop a live mains cable onto a gas pipe, blowing a hole in it. He was left in the dark in the attic, with the gas rushing out, slowly realising how lucky he was.

ot_fiat – Member
Also worth using Tesla’s rule – always keep your left hand in your pocket so any shock goes down the right hand side of your body. I wouldn’t rely on it but it’s extra insurance.
erm, aren’t we wired top right to bottom left? So right hand in pocket & test with left?

No. The idea is to somehow let current flow down the right hand side- heart is mostly to the left.

You’ll see roadies (musical roadies) doing this.

somehow

somehow = ignoring physics, the current will flow through your whole body, dispersed according to the relative impedance of your guts.

However, holding L & N in each hand (which I’ve done) probably isn’t a good idea as the voltage will be across your chest and therefore across the heart. I managed this changing a ceiling rose when I’d pulled the wrong fuse (my fault) and then tested with a test pen (which didn’t work as I was on a wooden chair wearing trainers), so I went on to separate the cables with my fingers and ended up with L in one hand N in the other. Stung a bit….

Yeah, I know FF.

I didn’t say that roadies were right.

Part P isn’t needed for this type of work as it’s not a new circuit it’s pretty much like for like. You actually don’t need to be an electrician to become Part P registered

Don’t trust those stupid voltage pens, go to screwfix buy a decent multi-meter.
Make sure everything is dead before working. Fit what you need to fit power back up and test. Never work live

there’s history of electrical tinkering in my blood….

my grandad’s loft was like a spiders web there were so many cables criss crossing the space from his tinkerings. after he died (natural causes!) and we were clearing out his place I found a strip of wire 10m long with a plug attached at either end!!

I wouldn’t have one of them screwdriver testers in my tool box!
The official way is to test using a two pronged voltage tester across L/N and L/E but only after it has been “proved” on a known live source or a proving box (small battery powered box).

I mostly use the pen type that lights the end up but I do test that it works first.
But tbh it’s just as easy to switch the lot off as the rcd (if fitted) normaly trips.

I always use a multi-meter and check it on a known live source. They’re only about £15.

something like this is what you need. a multi meter is a bit more complicated to use, with the ability to measure capacitance, resistance, continuity, both ac and dc voltage. you just need to measure voltage at this stage. make no mistake, electricity can kill, and often does, but the knowledge is out there, go and learn. i’ve worked with loads of sparkies and plumbers, i wouldn’t let half of them anywhere near my house…the things i’ve seen on site would make you shudder…

Always found the pen testers work ok, but you should test it in situ while the mains is on to make sure it definitely lights up as it will rely on some leakage to ground (through your body) and depending on the surface/your footwear it may not work.

I’d also recommend rather than just flicking off the relevant fuse/RCD you physically pull it out and put it in your pocket. You don’t want your misses to come home and think it has tripped and flick it back on while you are working on it.

a well made test lamp / or similar 2 prong voltage tester like the following is far superior to a neon srewdriver (remember to test what ever Equipment your using on a known supply 1st)

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/voltage-indicators/7068577/

The old man across the street from our last house was a shop fitter. He’d done two noteworthy bits of work to his own home. Firstly – and appropriate to this thread – he’d done his own kitchen up, shopfitter style, ie with a metal frame and boards on this frame. The frame was live.

Secondly he’d built a two brick deep and two brick high ‘wall’ across the end of his driveway, in front of his bay window. A year or two before we’d moved in he was coming home drunk from the pub one night (as per usual) and smashed his car into the front of his house. He vowed it would never happen again and took steps to make it so!

When he died, his son found a note stuck to one of his many bin bags full of golf balls (his hobby was collecting them) asking that they be given to me! I’ve given most away now, but still have a few hundred (balls, not bags full of balls) in the garage…