Chrome sockets and switches

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Ciaran1988

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Looking to change sockets and switches from white plastic ones to chrome ones. Is this just a case of turning off the mains and taking old ones off and wiring up the new sockets and plugs the same as before. Or is there a lot more complicated things to this job?

The house was built couple of years ago and the back boxes are metal if this helps

 
The NIC do a course...

https://www.niceic.com/contractor/training-courses/electrical-courses/accessory-replacement

£435 (plus vat I assume) for 3 days, Its really aimed at domestic installers! :eek:

Here's a 20 page document in turning it off safely from another charity.

I'm not bitter.


Youve got to hand it to EC and pals, they really know how to milk a system, what's astonishing is they're supposed to be supportive of the trade? Which given the courses they operate beggars belief. 

 
Divide and rule is their strategy, If there were a single organisation we could all stand up and say we've had enough of this gravy train nonsense. but as it is there are too many fingers in too many pies.
Problem is that when they pull their fingers out of the pie there are a LOT that want a lick of the gravy. So they want more gravy, so,we provide even more gravy. The snouts  at the trough continue to increase so,even more gravy is called for. They get the gravy but we never even get to see the pie that we have paid for

 
Divide and rule is their strategy, If there were a single organisation we could all stand up and say we've had enough of this gravy train nonsense. but as it is there are too many fingers in too many pies.
Perhaps a mass migration to STROMA ,  I don't see them as mlking the system  , at the moment anyway , could be wrong .

 
Well in that case, leave the wife to deal with Niccy and they'll battle each other all day and you'll be left to do what you do best? 

Problem is that when they pull their fingers out of the pie there are a LOT that want a lick of the gravy. So they want more gravy, so,we provide even more gravy. The snouts  at the trough continue to increase so,even more gravy is called for. They get the gravy but we never even get to see the pie that we have paid for


Very eloquently put if I do say so myself. :Applaud  

 
Perhaps a mass migration to STROMA ,  I don't see them as mlking the system  , at the moment anyway , could be wrong .


The problem is the system is wrong, so paying any of the scams is a stupid idea. Opting out altogether en-mass would be the best action to send a message.

 
Yeah  I think you're right in one way  Luchio but with reservations .    A few years ago I too would have said  scrap the lot !

There has always been some sort of control over our trade.   A few days ago  I posted a form from the old area electricity board who were very picky about who they accept the old Contractor's Completion Certs from , usually to get a connection & meter .

I'd just become self employed and you had to notify them that you were trading etc.   My JIB Approved grade card was immediatly accepted.

Now today everything has changed , not many sparks coming through the old fashioned apprentice systems and are of varying degrees of competence...  a college course plus  lots of bits of paper and a shiny van insn't the quite the same .

I don't like the way its gone now , I don't like Part Bloody Pee  ,  ( Do Building Control REALLY store all the bumph that we send in ???)   I submit , online , details of a new build or kitchen extension ....why do they want a copy of the EIC ?    Then while the regulation is strict over those of us in the trade ...it would still appear that any Joe Soap can suddenly be an electrician .   Firemen used to to be renowned for it . 

I digress .

WOuld you want some bloke from the pub who was once a plumber's mate to come to commission your gas boiler  or would you prefer a GasSafe  man ?   

I think there SHOULD be some kind of registration of electricians ...I don't think it should cost £500 odd a year ...I don't think the regs should be re- written every 3 years ...I don't think we need a surveilance visit every year  once your standards have been observed etc.    Details of insurance , calibrations etc could be sent electronically.

Could we not have a one off thing such as this ?  

JIB Cards (2).jpg

 
You do realise that you're supposed to renew the card every few years, you've done well to get away using that one for these years! 

You are are however absolutely correct with what you say from a 'trade' perspective, however you have overlooked the fact that we the 'traders' do not have a say on our 'trade' we must listen and do as they with less interest in our 'trade' say and of course we must pay a 'trade' subscription for the privilege. 

Sad but true, the trade as with most things in this sorry country of ours has been broken by those that believe they know better.  

 
WOuld you want some bloke from the pub who was once a plumber's mate to come to commission your gas boiler  or would you prefer a GasSafe  man ?   


I sort of get your point, but ignoring the Gas Safe part I would like someone competent. Being Gas Safe registered doesn't guarantee that, and the inspectors all make up their own versions of the rules so it's actually quite a mess behind the scenes.

I think there SHOULD be some kind of registration of electricians ...I don't think it should cost £500 odd a year


The JIB would be a good thing to make compulsory, if it was run properly. There's too many other things being put in place that mean different things to different people, like part p, that some people have heard of and some people haven't. It all needs wrapping up and ratifying so it's more like the Gas Safe, so if you a registered electrician you are JIB graded as such, and that is all you need, but the JIB grading would need to do the inspections etc that are currently done by the scams.

I can't see any of this happening, so we electricians are left paying for multiple registrations and the customers have no idea who is competent and who isn't.

The simple solution to the regs is just to make it loose leaf and update sections as required for a lower cost. This hasn't happened so it sort of shows the willingness of the industry to change.

 
I once heard a saying, "absolute power corrupts absolutely" never more true than in this case. The NIC et al are only interested in lining their own pockets, I was speaking to a guy at an event recently, he'd been in a completely different industry and then gone into the sparking game. He was saying how good he found these forums as if he wasn't sure about something he could ask somebody how to do it. incidentally he was a fully paid up member of the much vaunted DI scheme! He was saying he wanted to "have a go" at the industrial stuff, and he passed work on to other sparks if he couldn't work out how to do a job. He'd recently advised one client to get another electrician in after being unable to isolate the supply to a light fitting that needed changing, when  I said that personally I would have done it live, he looked at me in horror "but nobody ever works live!" he exclaimed, now ok I know all the should and shouldn't and I can imagine some people throwing up their arms in horror at me suggesting such a thing, but haven't we all done it at some point?

No, what annoyed me was clearly this guy along with a great many others no doubt, should NEVER have been signed off to work on electrics, however by signing him up there is money to be made. The very people that are supposed to protect people from poor practices are actually putting profits before safety!

As far as I'm concerned any competent electrician should be able to disconnect 3 wires from a fitting, live or otherwise and reconnect them to a new fitting, same with the stupid 3mm of probe rule for GS38, stupid and dangerous, I've seen a couple of electricians think something is dead only to realise that the probe hasn't made proper contact with the terminal, Wago type connectors are a prime example, there's no way a 3mm probe will fit into the test port on these connectors. No I'm very sorry but if you can't handle a probe with more than 3mm of exposed metal then you have no business either using that piece of kit or being in that piece of equipment anyway. We didn't have all that nonsense years ago and we are still alive, it smacks to me of making up daft rules to protect those who through lack of proper training have no business trying to do what they are doing. 

 
it smacks to me of making up daft rules to protect those who through lack of proper training have no business trying to do what they are doing.


That's the long and short of it, it started at part p and really came to a head at Amd 3.

I did a job the other day and the board was an early 70's Wylex with metal lid so I'll probably end up changing it (ironically as it's in a garage it will probably get a 'new old stock' insulated board). I almost feel like leaving it in and just adding a couple of RCD's to prove a point!

 
That's the long and short of it, it started at part p and really came to a head at Amd 3.

I did a job the other day and the board was an early 70's Wylex with metal lid so I'll probably end up changing it (ironically as it's in a garage it will probably get a 'new old stock' insulated board). I almost feel like leaving it in and just adding a couple of RCD's to prove a point!
The trick with the plastic boards is to avoid removing the cover, although it's a bit tricky on an EICR (lim?) , apparently it's the removal of the cover that causes them to spontaneously combust. At least that's my take on it, after all if a board has been in for years and hasn't caught fire why should it suddenly become dangerous? Got to be something to do with removing the cover, change of air? or could it be inexperienced people who can't make connections properly, surely not? lol :D  

 
s and hasn't caught fire why should it suddenly become dangerous? Got to be something to do with removing the cover, change of air?
It ain't rocket science

when the unit was installed it contained 'compliant air'....as soon as the cover is removed the once 'compliant air' falls out and runs away as it is now illegal. It is then instantly replaced with the newly 'compliant flammable air'

the Scams get  their money, more gravy is purchased. The snouts at the trough increase in proportion to the amount of available gravy and the whole cycle carries on regardless of the poor sods pulling their stump out on a daily basis to provide the gravy

 
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