Thank you!

Bag it. Take it home. Dispose as you would if it was done in your garden. Basic good manners.

Telling people to “flick it” is basically saying it’s ok to be a irresponsible dog owner.

Whereabouts in Wales are you?

10mm2 armoured cable buried is rated at 60Amps. Voltage drop depends on loading but assuming a full 60A over 30m it will drop 7.92 volts. The regs. say that 3% voltage drop for lighting circuits is considered to be permissable which is 6.9 volts so you’re dropping more than you should given the lights in the garage. In practice it’s probably unlikely that it will be a problem as you’ll not be pulling anywhere near 60A except for short periods.

16mm2 over 30m at 60A drops 5 volts so good for the garage lights. 50m of 10mm to the tub will drop 5.5 volts at 25A. Assuming full loads the total drop to the tub will be 10.5v which is within the 5% drop suggested for non-lighting stuff. 6mm to the tub would drop 9.75v so cumulatively it’s too much.

These are worst case figures at 60A. A 50A mcb would just allow you to get away with 10mm throughout.

I’d go 16mm to the garage and 10mm to the tub. As said above, the cable is cheap compared to having to size up if you get it wrong.

You may struggle to get a 60A MCB, it will depend on the make of the board. 50A is more common and would fit in a normal consumer unit. 60A may require you to split the incomers to a separate enclosure with a breaker in it.

Don’t put the distribution circuit on the RCD protected side unless you have a TT earthing system in which case it should be a 100mA time delayed one or if it is unarmoured and runs less than 50mm deep in a wall in which case it will have to be a 30mA one.

The 30mA RCD for shock protection should be located in the garage where it can be easily reached to reset if it trips and also won’t take down any circuits in the house.

If you’re earthing is PME, I’d suggest an earth rod at the garage.

Yes, I’m an electrician and happy to answer any questions but the normal caveat applies in that I’m not on site so no liability accepted – it’s info only.

Rich.

Think “Black Beauty” was a Group4 car

Yes, of course.

Group B was great. I think this was a group B car.

If I’m right, you’d need to run the cable from the light to a junction box in the ceiling (make sure its maintenance free or accessible for mainetance purposes). Then, the junction box needs to be fed with a permanent live neutral and earth from the existing lighting circuit. Then, run a cable from the junction box to the light switch. This will be live down/switched live back. Make all connections in the junction box and it will work.
Rich.

It’s a bit difficult to be certain from the picture but I think it won’t work because you’ve not got a neutral at the light switch.
The right hand cable is probably brown=live black=switched live.
The left hand cable is probably brown=live at light black=neutral at light.
A bit uncertain why it’s run in 3 core with the grey taped up. Can you clarify?
Rich

Thin Lizzy – Still In Love With You

I wouldn’t do anything. He’ll do his own thing when he is ready. Be ready to support him, even if it’s not what you’d ideally like him to be doing. Just keep an eye on him to ensure that it is normal teenager behaviour and not symptomatic of depression or anything like that.

Trying to force him is more likely to make him go against what you’re trying to do than go along with you. Even if he likes the idea inside his head, kids won’t want to agree with their parents.

I’m a great believer that kids need an “uncle (or aunty)”. They can be themselves with someone other than their parents but that older person can bring some fatherly/motherly wisdom into their lives without it coming directly from dad/mum.

He’ll be fine.

Rich.

One of the problems with bathroom fans is the routing and length of the ducting. If you can core drill through the wall and run a wall mounted fan directly outside through a short bit of 100mm waste pipe they are more than adequate. However, they are often installed with ducting that has a long vertical lift into the loft and then a convoluted run to a soffit or slate vent. Many fans can’t lift the air that far and what compounds the problem is the warm air then condenses and you end up with water in the ducting which either leaks or acts like a U bend and stops airflow.

Bigger fans with more litres/second extraction than the standard offering are going to be required if the run is anything other than short and downhill.

Also, you can get condensation traps though I haven’t ever seen one fitted.

Rich.

Turn dhcp off on the linksys router?
Ensure the subnet mask and default gateway are configured correctly.
Set the channel to something different to the main router.

How accurate a cut do you need? If it is just a roughish cut I would get one of these rather than a circular saw.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-erb373rsp-1100w-reciprocating-saw-240v/80388

Rich.

Smell it – does it smell of chemicals? Chop it down the grain. Treated timber doesn’t always get treated through to the middle so will be stained at the edges.
If it looks ok, I’d split it and use for kindling, burning decent hardwood logs for sustained heat.
Rich.

Turn off the MCB. Turn off the isolator. Take out the hob.
Visually check the connections to see if you can see any loose/exposed connections. If it’s ok disconnect the cable. Ensure the conductors of the cable are not touching each other or anything. Ideally insulate the cables with choc. blocks or tape temporarily. Turn on the mcb. Turn on the isolator. Does it go bang? (the cables will be live so DON’T TOUCH!).

If so, I would turn off the mcb and check inside the isolator. The fixing screw may have penetrated a cable inside the box.
If it doesn’t go bang, reconnect the hob taking care to make the connections correctly.
Try again. Bang = faulty hob.
Rich.

Yes, I managed to see the pic. by looking at the web page source code and following the link from there!

All looks ok to me but obviously not being on site means I can only go with what I’m seeing and can’t be 100% so all mods. etc. at your own risk.

Rich.

Edit:
Ok, different picture! Yes, still ok but each RCD covers the MCBs to it’s left. The showers are covered by RCDs.

Ok. The big red switch on the right is the main switch which turns the whole board off. There is an RCD to the immediate left of the main switch and there is another RCD on the far left of the board. The two RCDs will cover all the MCBs in the board, the exact split is hard to say without taking the cover off but I think 3 left and 3 right. The main thing is that all circuits are RCD protected.
I would suggest pressing the test button on both to confirm they operate. This isn’t a full check as it doesn’t confirm that it trips in the required time but it is better than nothing. (you should do this every 3 months).

Confirm that the right hand RCD has 0.03A on it like the one on the left. If so, you’re good to go.

Rich.

It’s a bit hard to say without seeing it. You’ll need to switch off the RCD (with the MCB/fuse on) to see if the circuit is live. Alternatively post up a picture and I might be able to tell from that.
Rich.

alanl has it spot on.

For our 3 we took out pensions. We didn’t want them to get a big lump sum at 18 which might be blown (enjoyed?) on coke and hookers.
Also, with the demise of final salary pensions there was a good chance that they wouldn’t be thinking of retirement and would have other pressures on their incomes such as saving for a deposit on a house etc.

Not saying it’s perfect, just a suggestion to consider.

Rich.

I think the name if any should reflect the market your wife is targeting. If it’s general DIY regardless of the sex of the client I would just use

(firstname) (lastname)
Home Repairs and Maintenance

If she wants to specifically market the fact that it’s a lady doing the work then that could be done either with a reasonably classy company name or a suitable strapline after her name.

Personally I think company names for sole traders don’t really work and can be a bit offputting if they are a bit silly.

Rich.

Whichever ones are free at the Banff film festival givaway.

Served by a young lady at M&S recently. I did a triple take as her name badge said ‘Shalamar’

I bet she’d give you a night to remember….

I was a special with Surrey and Dyfed-Powys for 20 years. email me and I’ll return with my phone number. I’d be happy to chat.
Rich.

I’m sorry to say that you’ll find a lack of consistency between the same styles (ie one company’s “torus” or “ovolo” will be different to anothers). Also, more annoyingly, there will be differences between batches of the same style from the same company. You may find you will struggle to match it and may have to do the whole room.

Rich.

I’l chuck in a bit of a “left field” idea – Honda CRF250L. Good for commuting if you’re not using lots of fast roads. Great for the back lanes and very capable if you want to do a bit of trail riding.

Not doing down big bikes at all but personally I think there’s as much fun to be had on the lanes exploring as there is riding twisty tarmac.

I enjoyed the Transalp I had but I sold it on for a TTR250 which got me out and exploring. Lighter, easier to manoeuvre in tight places and would not have been a handful to pick up if I’d have dropped it (I didn’t!).

Rich.

The house would have an earth but it was fairly standard many years ago to install lighting circuits without a CPC (earth wire).

If there is an earth on the lighting circuit you should see it in the ceiling roses so take a look in there first. There should be one cpc for each cable. It can get complicated though if singles are used for two way switching.

If you think there are CPCs then as tjagain suggests, strip back the insulation a little in the switch and see if it’s been cut off.

Use BG light switches. These have a small plastic insert that goes over the cover so the screw head is covered.

I’d concur with AlanL on this. I was a bit concerned when you said “the main switch for the whole house” as its not good practice to put the whole house on one RCD. If its been done properly there should be at least 2 RCDs with circuits distributed between them.
Rich.

It does sound as if the RCD tripped as well as the MCB. I would like to see a picture of your new main board to be able to diagnose this a bit better though. Any chance of this?
Rich.

Edit:
Also I’d like to see a picture of the main fuse location – ie where it comes into the house as I am interested in the type of earthing system you’ve got. (Sad, I know!).

Speak to your DNO (Distribution Network Operator) which I believe is UK Power Networks. They are responsible for that big black incoming cable and the “head” – the big main fuses (interestingly a 3 phase head in a domestic property). Ask them for a quote to move it downstairs.
They may also move the meter but this might need to be done by your electricity supplier – the people you pay your electricity bill to.
You may need an electrician to then reconnect the meter tails (the cables from the meter to the consumer unit). This is the only bit the electrician can legally do.

UK Power Networks will give you a price and must do the work. IT IS NOT A DIY JOB! Any electrician prepared to move it for you is a cowboy and should be shown the door.

Rich.

He’s non-uk resident with a chinese license. The DVLA site implies he’s allowed to drive for 12 months on this. So, regardless of the UK provisional license, he does have a valid license.

The rented property is just a place that the rental company can contact him. I see no issue with this.

Offences committed then seem to be purely speeding. (stupidity is not yet criminal).

I would assume a summons would be issued, delivered to his rented property. If he gets the summons he then deals with it as required – either plead guilty by post if that option exists or have to attend. Not sure what happens if he is not able to come. Maybe then a warrant for his arrest.

If banned, he won’t be able to drive in the UK even though he’s not got a UK license. If he does he will then commit a whole host of offences that would incur a capital punishment in Beijing.

I don’t think the option of a speed awareness course is likely to be offered in this case.

Thanks Jen, I’ll mark that as spam then.

That, Trail Rat, is what continues to confound me…

The blues, once put together will form the continuous neutral path. One of them is the neutral from the main consumer unit (via other fittings). The other two are the neutrals that go to a) the outside light and b) the patio light (assuming we’ve understood things correctly).

If they are not together the circuit will not be complete and nothing will work.

What spectraken is trying to establish is whether there the switch has power to it or not. If so, then the outside light that has been fitted should operate. If not, then we need to establish why no power is there – probably because the connection hasn’t been made.

My guess is this is the case as it would be poor practice to make the live connection to fixtures that have yet to be installed. Neutrals disconnected would not stop voltage being present at the fixture if the switch was turned on and consequently you could get a shock.

The installation looks neat and tidy and my experience is that anyone doing a neat job is not likely then to short cut the safety bit. (I’ll be proved wrong now!).

I would have thought that your 3 neutrals should be together

Good spot! These should be linked together.

I still think the live is not connected though.

Ok. That all looks ok to me.

Picture 1:
Live in is going to the top left (commmon) connector on the switch. This is then bridged over to the common on the other, right hand connector. The two bottom browns are both switched lives.

Picture 2:
Blues are all neutrals. These are properly terminated.

Picture 3:
Earths look good too – terminated in the earthihng point of the back box.

(Nice job, but not as tidy as mine :wink:)

What might of happened is that he’s made all the correct connections but has not made the live connection at the point where he’s taken the live feed. You need to find out where this is – maybe the ceiling rose or more probably the switch for the kitchen area and see if there is a spare live unconnected in there.

Start with that and report back! Any questions, just ask.

Rich.

Check the connections in the bedroom ceiling rose first. Changing the bulb will not confirm that there is power getting to the actual fitting at the end of the cable. The fault may be at the rose (check both connections are secure). It also may be at the bit in which the bulb is put into – check the connections there too.

If you don’t have a multimeter or voltstick then get a cheap pendant set from the corner shop, take the flex/lampholder off it and swop with the existing one.

If this is ok then step 2:

Lighting is almost always run as a radial circuit. It will therefore be fed from a junction somewhere; quite often in another light fitting. (This is called “loop in” wiring).

It is preferable to trace the wiring back from the bedroom so if it’s possible to do that in the loftspace that would be good.

If not, I would take a look in the bathroom light fitting. If it is a simple pendant then I would be looking to see if one of the wires has come out from one of the middle set of connectors – these are the loop bit – there are usually three in there – the live in, the live to the next pendant and the live to the switch. It may be that one of those has come loose.

However, with bathroom lights it’s often the case that the fitting is a fancy one that isn’t compatible with a ceiling rose and the installer has had to do some “mods” to make it work. Some mods are better done than others and it could be that when you take it apart you’ll find a number of “chocblock” connectors, either in the fitting or maybe stuffed above the ceiling. It may be that one of these was not properly tightened and has come loose.

Remember that these will be live even with the switch off so isolate the supply. A proper safe isolation procedure is recommended but if you are in any doubt use the Big Red Switch to turn off the whole installation.

Rich.

I need to see a photo inside the double switch to be able to advise on this one.

Rich (electrician)

Sorry to hear. Sounds as if you’ve been a good friend when he needed you. The 28 years of friendship hasn’t gone though. You may not add years to it but it will always have been there.
Rich.

Almost forgot Cibies who had them ?

Of course! two up, two down!