Violations from Austria - ECN Electrical Forums

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Finally I got some images scanned, so here they come.

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Photo #1 shows an ungrounded 3way adaptor like it was common in the 60ies. When the plumber couldn't find a receptacle for the new washing mashine in the bathroom (Back when the wiring was installed outlets in bathrooms were banned, only shaver outlets with an insulation transformer were allowed) he hacked a hole into the brick wall, threaded the cord into the adjacent room and hooked up the grounded Schuko plug to the ungrounded receptacle.

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Photo #2 shows a light switch that was mounted on a doorframeFirst it is mounted sideways, which is at least a little bit strange. The wires emerging the switch are a 4" piece of zip cord. The block connectors are my work, the wires weren't connected at all, just taped up. I also added the tape on the single wires emerging the plaster wall.

Greetings from Austria
Texas Ranger

I don't personally like the idea of
strip connectors being used to effect a
disconnection, although my screen does not have the resolution, to see what is going on
there.

The adapter pic shows one of the problems that I see with the Schuko plug in the hands of non-technical people. It's all too easy to plug into an ungrounded outlet.

The strip connectors are common here, where they're often referred to as "chocolate blocks" (because many were brown originally, usually clear these days). They're perfectly acceptable if enclosed in a fixture box, but I'm afraid we see them hanging open like this all too frequently.

Trumpy, it isn't your monitor, I'm afraid the resolution of the pics is horrible.
The strip connectors aren't meant for disconnection. When I got there, the light wasn't working. All the wires seen in the picture were covered in a mess of white tape. I guessed that the twisted splice must have gone faulty. After screwing out the fuse I started to take this bunch apart. To my not too small surprise I found that each of those 4 wires had been taped seperately. There wasn't a connection at all! The strip connectors are a temporary fix installed by myself to make the light working. (This is now a worksite) I already installed a new switch to solve this problem. In the future all this wiring will have to go.

Geezus, that installation with the triple-outlet pictured up top is gross. Reminds me of an apartment I was living in as a kid where they had put that fake wood panelling on the walls and covered the outlets.

So to solve the problem they snaked those 14/3 SPT grey air conditioner cords with the 90 degree plugs from the socket through a hole cut in the panelling.

If you ever remove that outlet from the wall, can I have it for my collection? :-D

btw, the stuff the switch is mounted on is a solid pile of asbestos. Installed to fire proof the switch on the wooden door trim.