Pictures Submitted by Alan Belson

Pic 1: Friend's very small holiday-house he's starting to renovate. He's retired but lives in the UK, and no, that's not my hat. He asked Poco for a new meter & their engineer requested a wooden board for meter etc., duly made in mahogany by me to engineer's spec. Crew arrived and fitted meter box alongside board. - "Board is too close to door." We explained door will be smaller. "Too late, I've already drilled my hole." (The power of a monopoly!) Poco removed old meter and fuse box. Friend got a registered 'electrician' to put in a temporary supply for builders and self, as he'll be living in a caravan this summer during the remodel. Electrician fitted a 3-phase cable with no breakers, fuses or grounding, with choc-blocs wrapped in orange builders tape, direct to the meter tails. There is NO ground rod, looks like there never was, and this is a 65A 230v supply.



Pic 2: The other end of the 3-phase cable. Again, choc-blocs and builders tape. Taken straight to the original house wiring, note unconnected ground wire. The blue marker is lining-ins for a new staircase.



Pic 3: Don't look Ethel! A light switch dangles after a stud wall is demolished, now cunningly disguised as a polythene bag. Owner did this. "I could see the copper conductors!" I still could!.



Pic 4: 13A ( 3kw ) French extension-lead receptacle wired with twin 5A ( or is it bell wire?! ). It has melted around the hot socket. It had enough slack to be dropped straight into the original wash-basin, now removed- you can just make out the original plumbers pencil marks. Even our new french plumber was horrified.

Pic 5: Other end of the 5A twin wire, going into a bird's nest of wires and choc-blocs, in a box with no cover. Note the 3 original wires entering. Note the wires cemented directly into the wall, and the use of high-tech automotive masking tape. Are those porcelain fuses 'dead'? - dunno, and I'm not touching them to find out!.



Obviously this can't be ignored and I' ve arranged for a registered (brit) electrician to put in a safe temporary supply, work commences shortly. Meanwhile, I've got the house key and the supply is off.



[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 05-23-2005).]

Ah... The wonders of French wiring. They do have a certain je ne sais quoi about their lashups.

Wow! That tops most of the Austrian wiring I've seen!

The last pic shows somethin I've never managed to take a picture yet - surface mount Bergmann conduit, consisting of sheet metal covered asphalted cardboard. It's easy to spot by the way it's bent. Must've been an art, I've once seen a picture of a bender for that stuff.