ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades New Thread NZ kitchen gear

I found a similar situation a couple of years ago. The homeowner was doing his own rewiring but wanted me to install a new MCB panel to replace the old rewireable-fuse and ELCB combination.

When I tested the earth I found, er, no earth. Traced the cable back to where is disappeared into the cavity where he'd built a new brick shell around the original outer wall.

I couldn't find where that cable ran, but he eventually confessed that when he was building it was in the way so..........He just cut through it!

A friend of mine just had a look at a newly (or at least within the last 10 years) renovated attic apartment (finished attic, a big thing in the cities here to get more expensive living space without building new houses, even heavily subsidized by the cities). Rather new panel, quality breakers (Made in Austria), GFI, everything. The test button on the GFI didn't do anything. Took off the cover and, for some reason, started tracing the main ground wire. Flex conduit in drywall cavity. Pulled on the wire... 10 cm came out... 20... 50... and after one metre of wire the ground was over... the original installer just didn't hook it up to anything...