ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades DIY Work

Householders Rule of Electrical Failure#3:
If a Light bulb fails, the wiring is at
fault, it could not possibly be the new bulb that I have just replaced.
This discounts broken Neutrals,etc.

Texas,
Thats a pretty small sized circuit to be running a washing machine off, especially with 1mm2, feeding it, normally this would be a minimum cable size of 1.5mm2,protected by 16A MCB, over here in NZ.

Sure it is. Here it would be a dedicated circuit 2.5 mm2 with 16A MCB (1.5 would be ok, but 2.5 is better). This was old work (1914), and this lovely old lady had the washing machine hooked up by her even lovlier plumber (this is where the pic with the cord routed through a hole in the wall in the photo discussion section came from, it was the washer cord). This guy was notorious for installing horrible wiring in taht appartment, though he's also a licensed electrician. For example he installed a "boxless" receptacle in the kitchen. He just had a hole in the wall and installed the receptacle in the hole. It was a Schuko receptacle, but never saw a ground wire. I assume that it was him who changed the 6A fuses for 16A ones.

For a 16A radial circuit I'd always go with 2.5 sq. mm as a minimum, even if 1.5 is just about allowable under the Regs. for some situations.

A big concern,
is the installation of ELV(12V) Dichroics,
by Homeowners, we have a new Code over for these particular lights, mainly because of their Heat transfer, most Home owners dont care about this until the ceiling goes on fire.