Ever had one of those days?

[Gyn_Paul]

You know when you say, "I couldn't do that again if I tried" ?

I'm in the midst of installing 2 new tableaux de distribution, one in the loft, and the other in what will be the hall, but is currently something which resembles a garage without doors (we're waiting for the custom-made front door and windows to turn up).

"Move the car along a bit, so people have room to park" said La Direction, so of course I complied.

I hadn't noticed that the front wheel had been resting on the hose-pipe.

Similarly, I was unaware that the tap was turned on.

It had also escaped my notice that the coils of the hose were resting on the trigger of the pistol on the end of the hose.

And it was perhaps unfortunate that La Direction had been the last one in the car so the rear-view mirror - even if I'd looked in it - was giving me a splendid view of the back seat.

It was only when I got out of the car some 20 yds further along the front of the barns that I looked back and noticed a pretty fountain of water spraying into the air

And it was some second later that I realised this fountain was spraying directly onto the joists above where the electricity installation was.

Of course the cover was off the front of the box, and of course it was live.

I'm here to tell you that modern disjoncteurs are remarkably water resistent! Even under a cascade there was no sparking and - in retrospect rather ominously - nothing tripped out. I found a big stick and poked the trip, then went indoors and tripped off the EDF disjoncteur before returning with towels and paper towels to do a thorough drying off.

I now see the sense in running the incoming tails to the 30mA disjoncteur at the bottom rather than the top !

I know there're supposed to be splash-resistant, but I wouldn't have expected the full force of a hose to have been shrugged off so easily.

However,I'm also going to do a little controlled earth testing tomorrow, I think.

p