Electrical Fault Finding.
The majority of installations in domestic properties have at some time had some wiring alterations.
Experience has found a number of these changes to have been faulty, wired incorrectly, do not comply to the regulations and potentially Highly Dangerous practices have been carried out.
Changes like this can cause damage to installations; equipment or even a person, this type of alteration has the potential to cause injury or even death. More reason to call upon a professional to carry out your wiring alterations/ installations.
Examples of faults found.
Here are a collection of typical faults found whilst working on electrical installations.
- Burnt Wiring - Loose connections - this creates a hot spot which travels up the wiring thus overheating and burning the protective insulation.
- Incorrect switching of light fittings - Neutral conductor switching - This usually happens when a non-competent person changes a light fitting or switch.
- Burnt Fuse board - Due to overloading the fuse holder incorrect fuse wire was used in a rewireable wylex fuse - the circuit was dangerously overloaded in a take away restaurant, the extent of the damage was unrepairable thus the distribution board needed to be changed.
- Nails in wiring - Hanging of pictures / careless installation - This fault may be done quite easily and in one instance, this was found on a routine fuse board change over and upon testing the existing wiring a fault was found on the socket circuit. An extra socket added and was incorrectly installed the nail went straight through a cable and was plastered in the wall this remained live in the wall until the fuse board was updated in the property to 17th edition regulations.
- Pest/ Vermin having chewed on cables and no inspection after removing the pests. Animals like Rats, Mice and Squirrels get into your house and chew through the electrical cables, this is quite serious as the animals are exposing live wires, which has the potential to harm anyone touching them, You may actually find the animal stuck to the cable if it has electrocuted itself whilst chewing. As a fault on the system this could also mean damage to the property if a fire were caused. A common problem after you have had a these animals in your loft space are nuisance tripping/ blowing of upstairs lighting fuses this may not occur straight away.
Diagnostic Fault finding.
Using calibrated test equipment I can diagnose faults in a wide range of electrical installations.
I have experience of diagnosing faults in the Domestic and Commercial sectors.
Before and After.
Andy B Electrical and Property Maintenance is continuously improving the safety of customers electrical installations.
On the left we see the old type of Fuse Board this one has plug in circuit breakers, instead of rewireable fuses commonly seen. This board is approx 30 years old.
On the right we see the new type of consumer unit, 17th Edition wiring Regulation compliant. This board is a split load unit fitted with Main Isolator, two RCD's and Circuit Breakers.
Shower pull switch fault.
The photo on the left shows a shower pull switch which was found to be the problem behind an electrical shower fault. The burnt wiring was on the live cable going to the shower, this was caused by a loose connection on the terminal. This shower had only been installed less than 6 months, by a none electrician.
The damage caused to the switch was un-repairable.
The photo on the right you can see the new type of shower pull switch, which was fitted to this installation.
Electrical Overload
As you can see the socket shown has had a bad overloading problem,
this could have resulted by plugging in too many appliances or caused by loose connections in the back of the socket / plug.
This highlights the need for Periodic Inspection and
Testing and Portable Appliance Testing.
The problem could have been found much sooner before the fault happened and destroyed the socket.
Also this fault could have been much more serious as a FIRE was the next stage in the fault progressing. Luckily the fault occurred during the business opening hours and not during the night!