Dodgy wiring!

[stubuzz]

The house where I live had a safety cut consumer unit fitted before we moved in. I was looking at it last night and the main cables are about 8 inches too long and  loop out of the top of the box. So, last night I gave them a gentle push and the live cable came out of the main breaker: darkness! Luckily, it slid straight back in. My wife called the sparks who is a PEA worker and he was there in 20 minutes and tightened both the Live and Neutral which were very loose. 

 

Anyway, I asked about fitting a main breaker/isolator before the AC unit that has been tapped straight into the main cables 5 meters before the consumer unit. The sparks said that it is better to fit the ac that way and that he did not want to fit a cut out in the existing main cable at guttering height (it is a bungalow), but he wanted to extend the main cable down the wall and fit a breaker at chest height. I did not like the idea of splicing/extending the main cable and I did not like the idea of taping the ac into the main before the safety cut. Maybe time for a new sparks.

[Crossy]

1 hour ago, stubuzz said:

Maybe time for a new sparks.

 

Maybe??? ⚡⚡⚡

 

[Robin]

Not tightening screws on electrical connectors is a common Thai 'electrician' fault.  Can lead toa poor connection and overheating= fire or smoke from connector.

O/P could you take your aircon supply from where the main cable enters your consumer unit?  

Always a good idea to have any appliance wired in with a main switch and fuse, if not a RCD.

Was your aircon tapped into the supply cable o save on wiring?  Sounds the sort of thing a Thai Sparks would do.

False economy, , but typical of local village work, when the cheapest is considered the best.

My observation of Thai electricians is that theri main skill is being able to tack cables to the wall in nice straight lines using he cheap local tags.  Looks very nice, but.....

[Photoguy21]

The Safe-T-Cut should feed the distribution box where you have the CB's. If it doesn't then you need your wiring seriously to be looked at.

[stubuzz]

3 hours ago, Robin said:

O/P could you take your aircon supply from where the main cable enters your consumer unit?  

Always a good idea to have any appliance wired in with a main switch and fuse, if not a RCD.

Was your aircon tapped into the supply cable o save on wiring? 

The outside ac unit is about 4 meters away from the main cable. The breaker box is about 15 so they took the easiest/quickest route.

I will run a new feed from the breaker box this week hopefully, but I am uncomfortable disconnecting the taped connection from the main cable.

[Crossy]

13 hours ago, stubuzz said:

The outside ac unit is about 4 meters away from the main cable. The breaker box is about 15 so they took the easiest/quickest route.

I will run a new feed from the breaker box this week hopefully, but I am uncomfortable disconnecting the taped connection from the main cable.

 

Employ a local!

 

If you really have to do it yourself pull the live at the meter output (turn off all loads first).

[bluejets]

Not uncommon to get loose cabling at breakers....some elcheapo brands have terminations that simply refuse to tighten any further than first attempt.

i.e. tighten screw and it locks when in contact with the cable........decent breakers will allow an amount of extra tension on the terminal screws.

That plus cabling with say seven strands, much more difficult to get a good tight fit as opposed to the "flexi" type.

[Muhendis]

3 hours ago, bluejets said:

Not uncommon to get loose cabling at breakers....some elcheapo brands have terminations that simply refuse to tighten any further than first attempt.

i.e. tighten screw and it locks when in contact with the cable........decent breakers will allow an amount of extra tension on the terminal screws.

That plus cabling with say seven strands, much more difficult to get a good tight fit as opposed to the "flexi" type.

I wonder how many of you have tightened the terminal screw to it's max. But the cable still not clamped, then slackened the clamp screw fully and the cable is solid as a rock. 

Me too......