I had a Call-out on Tuesday night that has stuck in my mind ever since.
Please let me explain my case here.
I'm on call after 5pm and I was rang by a friend of my Fianc'ee.
She said that she had a fuse that had blown and her boyfriend had tried to replace the fuse but had burn't his hand when the fuse blew again.
So I went and had a look.
I had a quick look at the switch board, old one (No labels).
I asked what could have caused this Fault, as in, what was on at the time of the fuse blowing?
I was told that the kettle was boiling and the toaster was on.
Sure I thought, simple over-current, I proceeded to to refit the porcelain fuse (with 11kV gloves on),when the whole switch-board erupted in flames and the hallway turned White-Blue.
But, to the crux of this, I noticed a piece of 1mm2 2C+E going up into the roof from behind the switchboard.
I asked the girl what that was for and her reply shocked me.
"Oh my Boyfriend put the Dishwasher, 3 power points and the outside water fountian on that wire, I thought it was legal".
After I told her that there would be absolutely no way that I would be re-connecting that circuit and that there would have to be an RCBO installed to ensure compliance, even if the circuit was re-wired.
Cut the wires at the switch-board and Man did I get told off when I got home!.

Trumpy...I notice you said "even if the circuit was rewired"..I hope you stressed that rewiring of the circuit would be a MUST and that it should be done with the correct size cable!

Oh dear....... I've just finished writing up a report from an inspection which has numerous undersized cables: 1.5 mm2 spurs to sockets, 2.5 mm2 feeding a 7kW shower, 2.5 mm2 feeder to a sub-panel on a 30A fuse, the list just goes on.

But hey, the dishwasher worked on that 1mm2 cable didn't it? Must be OK then.

Paul..would I be correct in thinking you have found one of those houses that lends weight to the argument to ban DIY sparks!!

Yep. It's the place I've been talking about in this thread.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 05-16-2004).]