AnOther Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 A colleague here at work has just shown me this which he discovered in his son in laws loft after the property had been 'professionally' rewired. Words fail me and I'll never hear a bad word uttered against French electricians again [:-))][IMG]http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p123/biskitboyo/0022.jpg[/IMG] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIG MAC Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 "I've been getting away with it all my life"Perhaps the motto for said electrician......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Théière Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Doesn't actually look any worse than a french Boite de derivation apart from the lack of extra colours [;-)]Untidy but done some time ago as it has no harmonised colours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarksinfrance Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 I'm no expert, but is that English "twin & earth"? if so the whole house will need re-wiring; to bring it up to current regs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted January 18, 2009 Author Share Posted January 18, 2009 It's in UK (colleague here at work) but technically you're correct because red and black was replaced by brown and blue when the UK 'Part P' regs. came in a few years back and the picture was taken before the remedial work was done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 Pity it was changed as it is rather pretty. I like the idea of the white lego bits too, they give it a certain class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 I would say that it was done many years ago judging by the colour of the earth sleeveing and the twisty grip American style terminations.I reckon whoever did it was a real master, I challenge anyone to terminate that many cables in a junction box that small using dominos. Here is one example of the wiring in my property [IMG]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff295/jr7man/Electricity/CIMG0820.jpg[/IMG] The colour of the sleeving used has me banged to rights for being the perpetrator who bodge repaired it but not the original work of art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 And my all time favorite of a 5kw electrical shower head in a Bolivian, or possibly Peruvian hotel that I stayed in.I guess that the electrician had run out of the twisty connectors and decided that other than the lack of insulation that would do. It was indeed a 240v supply not 110v.Crazy as it was by that time things like that were so commonplace they were no longer scary, I was by then very smelly having slept rough for some time and I decided to chance it, things got a bit tingly once the steam started and I dried myself before turning off the by now live metal tap with a towel.Other residents were complaining of getting a shock each time they turned on a tap or touched a pipe![IMG]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff295/jr7man/Electricity/DSCF0408.jpg[/IMG]The shower heads themselves were a great idea and worked very well when properly connected and earthed, its a shame that they could never be sold in Europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 and the twisty grip American style terminations.Still very popular in South Africa in the 1950s, but made from porcelain rather than plastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnRoss Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 I thought Screwits went out when British cables went from multistrand to single core, late 60's was it. Mind you I am not too keen on the choc block or barrier strip you find everywhere in French houses but when in Rome!.................JR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 ...a 5kw electrical shower head in a Bolivian, or possibly Peruvian hotel...Common in South and Central America from Mexico to Patagonia. Simple and easy to use with only one tap to worry about; for a 5 kva unit the water pressure must have been above average. I bought one in Rio once before returning to Zambia via Cape Town, Joeys and Gaberone. I thought it would be a good idea to bring cheap hot showers to the townships, cost less than $ US 3. As a graduate engineer from Imperial I realised that it would not conform to the Central African Wiring Regulations and I was sorely annoyed when a bonehead with City&Guilds cut it in half to examine it and stuffed it up. There was a perfectly good X-ray unit at the local mine hospital.[:(] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 On reflection I doubt that it was 5kw Pachapapa but the water got pretty hot fairly quckly and flowed very well, better than some 7kw Uk showers that I have used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Le Plombier Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 Does anyone know the average lifespan for a Bolivian electricianI suspect it,s about five years longer than a Bolivian electrical testerThank God I am a plumberLe Plombier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonzjob Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 We ain't got no 'Screwits', just chocolate block, but we got nicer, more sedate colouring [8-|]http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f180/Jonzjob/?action=view¤t=Jar-a-worms.jpgAll installed by pro French ellecies in 1982. There are loads of these around the house and all seem to be to the French norm.Oh for crying out lud. Photobucket has changed and now how the hell do I post a photo rather than a link? Bloody PCs![+o(] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owens88 Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 [quote user="Jonzjob"] We ain't got no 'Screwits', just chocolate block, but we got nicer, more sedate colouring [8-|]http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f180/Jonzjob/?action=view¤t=Jar-a-worms.jpg[/quote]Is this in the correct section ? Looks like some Klingon 'ready-meal for one'. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 Perversely I'm actually relieved to know that this is something of a norm for the era as I have some like this in my 70's house. It doesn't exactly help when they are wallpapered over so you don't even know they are there though [:'(] and I wasted hours trying to trace cables until I finally discovered them. I think in those day it must have been a free for all and one day I'll rip it out and redo it, thank God for gaine ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 [quote user="Le Plombier"]Does anyone know the average lifespan for a Bolivian electricianI suspect it,s about five years longer than a Bolivian electrical testerThank God I am a plumberLe Plombier[/quote]The only one I know is the average life expectancy of the underground workers I met at the Potosi silver mine, - 37 years most of whom start work at 10 years of age [:(]No pensions for them or their family, whenever I see or hear people moaning about winter fuel allowances or saying their income has dropped through no fault of thir own I think of these and other souls and tell myself how lucky the rest of us are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyv Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 I thought mine was bad, but you lot have me beaten!here and here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonzjob Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 At least ours is single phase! Mind you those boxes are all over the house and I've only looked in a couple [:-))] ! I do like the colour scheme in some of them though. I think that green/yellow has been reserved for 'earth', but otherwise the palet seems to be quite open> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyv Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 How to use 3-core cable for a 3-phase distribution? Simple - just use green/yellow for one of the phases, blue for another ... [+o(] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Or how about my NFA (Norme Francaise Artisanale) tableau/[IMG]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff295/jr7man/Electricity/CIMG0816.jpg[/IMG]This was the total protection for a 6 bedroom hotel with bar, kitchen and dependances; wired porcelain cartridge fuses (no problems with that) but as they are by their nature single phase and whilst they stop the circuit from working by disconnecting the neutral it remained live as the incoming EDF supply was reversed (and has been so for about 60 years).Throw in for good measure that most of the circuits do not carry an earth conductor (it is old fabric and shellac insulated cabling in lead conduits) and for those that do most of them were not connected because the earth piquet had long since dissappeared together with the copper cables and links and you get an idea of the overall safety. The EDF engineer wished me good luck and suggested that I said a few prayers when he reconnected the incoming supply, - still with reversed polarity [:-))]I have poked up with it this far apart from doing the bodged repair to the secondary fuse on the other photo but recently I was forced to reinstate the earth piquet when I could no longer use my pillar drill without gloves because of the tingling. I should add that the apartment wher I live in the former dependances has passed Consuel and is safe, well as safe as my work can be [:)]The secondary fuses I showed were used to cut off the lights in the bedrooms when the place was a brothel, the patron would do this if a client spent to much time with Madame Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonzjob Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 All excitinf stuff 'ere init!What happened if the clients re-fused JR?[8-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 ...the underground workers I met at the Potosi silver mine, ... now that is seriously off base; interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave&Olive Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 hi OK this to me looks like a wind up . it`s not french and it`s a not UK system .colours are wrong for UK and for France American twist fit joints??? to me it`s probably legal in the country the picture was taken in .....sorry Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 If you're talking about my original photo be assured that it is most definitely not a wind up [:'(]The property is in a small village N of Inverness and belongs to the son in law of a work colleague who himself did the remedial work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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