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Posted By: electure Dodgy Main Disco - 09/23/06 12:54 PM
From Britspark

Quote
Here are a couple of photos of a mains disconnect we were called to
at a Lebanese Restaurant in Battersea (central london)

The client wanted our company to do the final certification
on this job!!!!

You can see the faults on the board.

#1, Too many cables on the incoming supply
#2, Too many cables on the out going side
#3. No earth connection
#4, Dangerously hot, to the point of ignition
#5, Just plain lethal


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Posted By: Texas_Ranger Re: Dodgy Main Disco - 09/24/06 10:25 AM
Jesus, that's a bad one!
Posted By: britspark Re: Dodgy Main Disco - 09/24/06 12:41 PM
a liitle more to add on this on,

when we got to the site the owner was about to try and change the fuse, he noticed our van pulling up and came out shouting that`its hot i cant touch it `come quick and do something` !!

so i did waht most all sprkies would do,

pull the main fuse !!!!

only left him in darkness for about an hour, as we had already pre made the new disco and mains board combo.

at the end of the day he was very very happy knowing that it was now safe.

and we get to go back and re do all of the lighting !!!

Britspark
Posted By: napervillesoundtech Re: Dodgy Main Disco - 09/25/06 05:06 AM
man, had you been about 10 minutes later that could have really been bad.
Posted By: Trumpy Re: Dodgy Main Disco - 09/25/06 06:03 PM
Britspark,
Man has that fuseholder been hot!. [Linked Image]
I disconnected something like this when I was a PoCo Faultsman, except I had to use Cable cutters on the incoming mains.
Any ideas on what the extra phase and neutral wires did?.
Good practice here would dictate that if you remove a circuit, you also remove the wires after cutting them before the termination and strip and re-twist the conductor to fit the tunnel terminal.
Sloppy work I say. [Linked Image]

Many NZ Electricians will know this sort of enclosure, as it used to be used here in garage splitter boxes, like this one:

[Linked Image]


{Message edited for a typo}


[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 09-25-2006).]
Posted By: britspark Re: Dodgy Main Disco - 09/26/06 05:00 PM
Trumpy,
the extra Phase and Neutral conductors fitted tot he incoming side (bottom) were feeding another disco that then went on to feed an AIR CON unit,

the two top feeds were feeding;
one set to the kitchen dis board
one set to the coffee machine

when we cahnged overt he single disconnect to a proper dis board we had a load of 76 amps at the lower end and a peak of 103 at the high end,!!

after re routing supplies to balance the load between the two parts of the building we have it down to 67 amps peek now.

the supply is small 80 amp feeder and rewally needs to be up graded, but the man wont pay the POCO the money.

if he loads the service any further he will take out the main POCO fuse, then he will be in trouble.

britspark
Posted By: pauluk Re: Dodgy Main Disco - 09/30/06 08:08 AM
The fuse carrier appears to be one of the later plastic types which has been substituted for the ceramic one which would have been in this MEM unit originally (matching the rest of the "innards" in color).

I don't think those later carriers will actually seat properly in the older units, will they? That could account for a lot.

Quote
the extra Phase and Neutral conductors fitted tot he incoming side (bottom) were feeding another disco that then went on to feed an AIR CON unit,

What's the betting that those were just cut live when the air-con feed was no longer needed? Looks like somebody left the on/off tag from the other switchfuse in the bottom of this box too!
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