VRF Equipment fed off local Lighting Circuits

Never nice to hear someone is not returning home to their loved ones. 


Ts

A couple of years ago I went to an altered and "improved" bungalow which the customer said had been completely rewired by the builder and his mate "the electrician" despite my pointing out it still has red and black cabling. 


The lights kept tripping randomly,  I gingerly put my head up into the loft and announced I could see the problem,  the customers said that was a quick bit of fault finding, I replied that I could see the arcing from the fault lighting up the loft,  so it wasn't hard to spot the location.  I threw the main switch before entering that loft, heaven only knows what dangers are lurking up there.


I told them the house had not  been rewired,  but desperately needed to be done, but unfortunately I was too busy to quote.  The idea of completely ripping apart their recently refurbished home did not appeal to me.


Andy B

That's bad. All the more reason why it's good practice to throw a main switch before you enter a void tbh. Which is our company policy. It could have been far worse if you'd lifted the loft hatch and put your hand onto something arcing or a joint box with a lid missing. I can relate to this though when I was an apprentice back in the 1980s I found a trapped cable in a loft arcing away and it saved me hours of time fault finding simply because the power was still switched on. Dammed if you do dammed if you dont but this day and age it's all about risk assessments.

When looking for a fault in a loft or other void that is causing the circuit protective device and/or the RCD to trip I tend to assume there is vermin damage resulting in stripped insulation, if you assume the worst and proceed accordingly the job tends to go better.


Andy B.

There has been a bit of thread drift here, but concerning risk assessment ...


My first thought concerning the chocblock was that perhaps copper had been left showing (which would not have been competent under any circumstances), but then it occurred to me that if the suspension wire had been bent back into a loop, its tail could enter the tunnel around a screw. Of course the provision of an enclosure would have avoided the issue altogether.


Similarly, in respect of the plumber, there can be no excuse for fitting a JB without a lid, but it could have been due to a distraction rather than intentional sloppiness. (Don't buy a car built on a Friday!)


My point is may a risk assessment assume that previous work has been done competently, or should it assume the worst?