ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Violation Photo Forum Earth/bonding violation (U.K.)

It must me a UK thing, but in my opinion nothing there looks safe, and to point out a fire caused by a wire being crushed....? Are most other services like this there...or am i way off?

xGROMx,
Lead sheathed cables don't tend to like being crushed.
I'm glad we don't use them cables anymore, regardless of the toxicity issue.
They were just a nuisance to work with.

Unfortunately, the service pictured above is quite typical (the ground connection issue notwithstanding). A lot of services here do tend to look as though everything was just thrown at the wall!

Click here for a typical single-phase domestic service which has had bits added over the years.

This is definitely one area in which I think a properly installed American service is much better than what is considered acceptable here.

Right on!!! those look like regular " NA " Style FPE breakers and look like they would plug in to a regular FPE panel here... The only difference I can see is the red handles ( wide NA style breakers don't have that here, and the marking for "on" and "off".. Ours actually say " ON" or "OFF"
Very cool none the less!

A.D

I did wonder about the on off thing as to me this is labelled I and 0 so in and nothing Sometimes in boards like these it is difficult to tell which way is on and which is off. The use of a arrow or green/red flag is good. This panel has a lot turned off so there is a bit of ambiguity which are off and which are on especially in low light. The panel and breaker seem very sturdy compared with dorman smith stuff. This breaker is 24mm wide and 85mm long. I dont have any 3 phase breakers though. This is rated at 415V AC 3 Phase. Maybe you can tie them together?

The trend toward "I" and "O" markings is one I dislike intensely. What was wrong with having switches and breakers labeled "On" and "Off" in plain English?

If you are trying to sell to the whole world rather than just the English speaking part then I & O make perfect sense.
--
Tom Horne

"This alternating current stuff is just a fad. It is much too dangerous for general use." Thomas Alva Edison

I have to admit I've never seen _any_ panel like that anywhere in Europe!

All older breaker types I've seen so far had wire jumpers instead of a load side bus, bus bars came up in the 1970s and those were mostly imported from Germany, used in big commercial buildings. Residential and small commercial installations used wire jumpers right into the 1990s.
The bus bars are all the kind known from DIN rail panels that clamp under the line side terminal screws.

Ragnar, do you mean that the breakers are arranged on a DIN rail and then pieces of cable are used to link from the main switch to all the live side of all the breakers? That seems a bit labour intensive, I could, of course got the wrong end of the stick!

I still think vertical breakers should be more clearly off or on. It is especially confusing when many breakers are off and on. Red and green flags seem a good idea to me.

I will try to get some more pics of our eclectic range of panels. All the panels I have seen have a bus bar of sorts.

I now am responsible for having a PIR done on all our factory electrics, this should yield some interesting points! The other day I found a radiator earth clamp used to tap directly off a panel bus bar without any fuses!