Are things done differently in your area?

[Evans Electric]

A couple of posts have highlighted slight differences  in the way we all carry out our work .

Just wondering if  there are that many around the country or by the firm you work for . 

1)   We covered  using White twin/earth  (LSF)  darn sarf   .  In the Midlands the norm would be grey.   Order white in specially. 

2)  A firm my mate worked for had a few of their own "Regs" 

       You can't fit a pendant in a kitchen  , must be a batten holder.

       A shower pull switch string "must be in reach of the  shower user. "  

3)   Many firms I worked for ..when installing a TPN supply to a machine  in conduit ...would  always use  3 X Reds  + a black  .    Sometimes the maintenance  guys at a factory would     

        throw a fit ,  they always used R/Y/Bu /Bk  .           But as contractors the firms would be caught out with drums of Yellow  and Blue  they  couldn't use on  a new school , multi storey car park etc .  

4)     Couple of firms I worked for insisted on using those tight  little inspection elbows  on their conduit ,  the ones you can't wire round ,   instead of pulling a bend or fitting an angle box. 

 

[Zeespark]

Mr Dekeington, I served part of My apprenticeship at Heathrow Airport. The owners at the time, BAA, would read the regs, then go a step higher, ie, 2.5 mm singles for lights, 4mm for sockets, and the fly leads would have to be the same diameter, after second guessing them, I just got on with it, they over engineered everything it seemed.

Andy Guinness

 

[kerching]

Back in the day We never used heat res batten holders....always standard Ashley ones with a pattress base.

i asked why

answer......because when NIC bloke comes round he will spot it, ask if there is any heat res sleeve  fitted  ? ( there wasn't)

he was then happy he had found something and 'got one over on us' and then stopped looking because he ( in his mind ) had won!

in over 40 years I have never used an MK lamp-holder...just saying

 

[Blue Duck]

Dunno about geography but the firm I'm working for is insisting on 4mm SWA for all 16a radials.

Also insisting to not earthing any containment but that could be an oversight.

:C

 

[Zeespark]

Bluey, is there a CPC being run between accessories on every circuit?

Andy Guinness

 

[Blue Duck]

Dunno? were still on 1st fix.

Some basket is bonded some isn't, the tray isn't, the ladder is. 

 

[Evans Electric]

Mr Dekeington, I served part of My apprenticeship at Heathrow Airport. The owners at the time, BAA, would read the regs, then go a step higher, ie, 2.5 mm singles for lights, 4mm for sockets, and the fly leads would have to be the same diameter, after second guessing them, I just got on with it, they over engineered everything it seemed.

Andy Guinness 

Reminds me of a neighbouring council to Brum ......  sockets in a school were  MICC    2H4   .

For those unfamiliar with Pyro   sorry MICC   ,  because of it's greater current carrying capacity ,  a ring main in MICC  we would do in 2L1.5    (2 core  X 1.5mm grade L)  but they went up two sizes  and the next grade   so  2H4     (  2core X 4.0mm X grade H ) 

 

[binky]

these things seem more to do with opinions than facts - get a lot of that on old Naval Estate houses, where every weird and wondeful thing seems to exist like Aluminium Cables and Skeleton boards..

 

[kerching]

We always ran a 6mm earth from the backbox of an MK surface metal cooker Unit to the skeleton grid at the front which contained the switch and socket

If the needle didn't move ( or only moved a bit) on the loop tester it meant the circuit was ok .!

it was years before we realised it didn't work.....this was a VERY along time ago

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

A few years back, we did work all over London for BT. Any  wiring  had to be done in the next size up from the calculated values. Due to the size & amount of drops in some exchanges a 4mm ring was wired in 6mm. Yes, you could just get 2 x 6mm in a MK socket, doubt you could now

 

[rapparee]

Mr Dekeington, I served part of My apprenticeship at Heathrow Airport. The owners at the time, BAA, would read the regs, then go a step higher, ie, 2.5 mm singles for lights, 4mm for sockets, and the fly leads would have to be the same diameter, after second guessing them, I just got on with it, they over engineered everything it seemed.

Andy Guinness

We have a press made by Wilkins and Mitchell

It is rated at 250 tonne

But it is absolutely bullet proof, we put in a suite of tools that normally requires 400 tonne of pressure and it worked perfectly.

We were talking to a fitter from Schuler Engineering in Birmingham and he was telling us, that the engineers who designed there presses were paid a yearly bonus based on the tonnage of their machines that we're sold.

So when they were designing and building these machines, they over-specced everything, and upsized it so as to get a higher bonus at the end of the year.

 

[rapparee]

http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/Darlaston/WM.htm

This is a trip down memory lane for this old British company.

 

[Geoff1946]

It seems that it is large organisations, rather than areas, that have their own rules.

The large aerospace company I worked for had some;

Shop floor 13amp sockets were always wired in 2.5H MICC.  - occasionally steel trunking and conduit but then 4mm cable

Office circuits were always 4mm.

Only radials were used. No rings anywhere.

I'm sure there were more local regulations but those are ones I remember.

 

[Evans Electric]

Towards the end of my apprenticeship  ( with contractors)  we were  working at GEC   in Witton  , Birmingham .  They made giant generators  etc   .  the section we were laying out did plastic injection ...mainly telephone shells .

There are two things I remember from that job .

Each machine was connected TWICE  to the overhead  TPN tap-off trunking  .  We did a conduit drop , then flexible con. & pulled in a 4mm TPN supply  from the nearest tap-off box ...then did the same again  from the next box , connected in parallel  :C  .    The first  feed was enough for the machine ,  I never found out why , none of our sparks  knew , just told to do it .  

The other memory was unfortunate.   In the big vacant  toolroom next to us , our guys had pulled in two  200A sub mains  ...one was connected in a large distribution panel ..the other cable end was lying on the floor .       They  switched it on ...found the panel was dead ,  much scratching of heads then someone said  they must have powered up the one on the floor .

A guy lifted it  .   the cores withdrew down  slightly   ...we were told....  the section in the end became  ionised  & when he inserted the testers it blew in his face  ...     we heard that he was blinded  but there was some sort of cover up , although we were in the next shop and saw nothing  we were all sent to different sites all over Brum  and I never heard any  more of the incident .     

I run into a guy who was in our crew  on a job, about a year later...asked him if he remembered it  and he said no  , which found hard to believe.  

 

[Zeespark]

Another one from My airport days, rings were wired with each leg hopping over the next, so that at the end socket there were all short tails, saved pulling one huge tail in if something went wrong apparently.

Andy Guinness

 

[Evans Electric]

Another one from My airport days, rings were wired with each leg hopping over the next, so that at the end socket there were all short tails, saved pulling one huge tail in if something went wrong apparently.

Andy Guinness

That sounds normal to me Zee , if you are pulling cables through conduit  you drop the legs off alternatively  until you reach the last socket .      Otherwise you have one leg being 300 miles long .

 

[Sharpend]

Isn’t that the correct way??

 

[Zeespark]

It was the only time I have seen it done that way Sharpend, I havent really seen it since, and you dont really design house wiring circuits like that, it was just a first for Me, so it seemed a bit odd when I first heard about it.

Andy Guinness

 

[Evans Electric]

Don't worry Zee ,  I've had sparks who came to work for us in the past  saying they needed to run a conduit back from the last socket  to the board.