Chichester Electricians

You know it's not going to be good when the socket is held in with a woodscrew?!

The customer asks, the customer gets. Not how we like to do things but it was requested to have the socket surface mounted. Nothing to do with them wallpapering then wanting electrical work done. Nope. Not at all🤦‍♂️

Adding a socket for a wall-mount TV, 50mm trunking for the HDMI and data cables, additional data point for the home office, and spacing the sockets

Property had been rewired without any thought given to future-proofing, or listening to what the customer actually wanted🤦‍♂️

Extending the existing aerial feed at ground level with Cabelcon compression fittings and the obligatory Wiska box

Ever had that feeling of being watched...?

A little conversion of a garage into a boot room with Warmtone 1800-2700K GU10's in the customer-supplied lights. These are my 'go to' LED as they provide a nice warmth compared to others on the market which still have a 'cold' feel when dimmed

to when and were having some remodelling done at home with keeping an eye on the work and helping where he could. I had nothing to do with the outside toilet. Honest, Guv'

Turd polishing

Particularly keen to hear peoples thoughts on the discoloured terminal blocks with the Henley's as all the terminals were tight

Both of the line tail's exit the lower Henley and go straight into the top right Henley (one goes behind the wooden board)

There's a neutral tail from the meter which goes into the top left Henley, and another which goes from the top left Henley, behind the wooden board and direct into the bottom of the incoming supply head

Why screw the box to the ceiling when you can make life difficult for yourself and use the screw holes for cable entry?

One job, they had one job to do🤦‍♂️

In the immortal words of Mr T, "I ain't no fool!", and today of all days you can't convince me there's a consumer unit behind there under the stairs...
..oh, there is🤦‍♂️

132.12 Accessibility of Electrical Equipment
"Sufficient space for installation, replacement of individual items, operation, inspection, testing, fault detection, maintenance and repair"

No wonder it was a struggle to try and pull the new cable through on this little lighting circuit rewire?!

Some of the cable jointing methods you find leave a lot to be desired🤦‍♂️

A lovely piece of British Engineering still working after 50+ years of use in a kitchen?

Using the Mk1 Eyeball on an EICR to INSPECT before testing. Another job for to rectify

With issues like this where there's a need for the DNO to be called out, we always like to call them ourselves and remain on site to liaise between the DNO and the customer. Not all customers understand the consequences of not doing anything, the ESQCR, MOCoP and EaWR, and when we have left it to the customer to do something they tend not to because of the potential inconvenience🙄

Diverted Neutral Current or...?

1.4A on the Main Earth conductor in this business. Had out to investigate things at the network end as we'd proved all the internal wiring was without fault. Initial tests by SSE proved the current was there and necessitated a shutdown after hours to investigate further ie. pull the fuses out!

There's a sub-station about 60 metres from this business and SSE have had trouble in this part of town before. Within the sub-station there's an auto-recloser which will automatically attempt to re-energise the supply a set number of times before the fault is deemed as being permanent and requiring human intervention to investigate and repair

Images show the customers' busbar chamber and isolators for the distribution boards on site, and inside the 3-phase incoming head (for those who want to know or haven't seen inside one)

to a hot tub install we did

Other than the exposed copper, what's this all about in a block of flats?🧐

Things you find on an EICR for a property to be rented

Fair play to the carpenter who made the enclosure for the incoming utilities but it does present one or two issues; that of being able to check the bonding, earthing system, state of the incoming supply cable, main earth terminal, size of the tails, visible signs of thermal overload. Needless to say, the enclosure was removed and inspected behind

Some other interesting finds on this one too, T&E for the 2-way switching with one conductor being cut off because it wasn't needed, no CPC to the metal switch and exposed copper on the meter tails where they left the meter. Remedial work carried out as we went

Heating Engineers' wiring for a new boiler and cylinder. So many 'issues' with it, a very poor installation and they also put in a new feed from the board😬

We've rectified the majority of it, back next week to install the immersion heater circuit

The customer would be none the wiser and take it as a given that the (original) installation was safe and to standard, having paid good money for it. Is it just me or are we seeing more and more shonky work from other trades when it comes to electrics?

#134.1.1

Whose hole was it first? In this case it was the Plumber's which the previous Electricians decided to also use

Of particular note is the feed to the electric shower passing through the steel, the judicious use of a layer of insulation tape to prevent any damage to the cable🤦‍♂️ Fortunately this was on a rewire so it was being removed

#134.1.1

An (almost) completed Neptune kitchen for one of our customers in Cams Hill. Integral EvoFire spots with dim-to-warm GU10's and Neptune Shaftesbury Glass Pendants. Pendants came with Wago connectors so top marks to Neptune for that as it makes our lives a lot easier😀

Satellite dish bracket for a property in Bracklesham Bay that we've been working on. Hot-dipped galv and extra-heavy duty because of the exposure to high winds and salt spray, mounted with A4 stainless coach screws, and a liberal coating of waterproof grease. A fibreglass dish is going on as a standard dish would start to rust within months of going up

We like to inspect ALL accessories where possible, not just the minimum because you don't know what lurks beneath

Thermal damage caused by an excessive number of halogen downlights on the circuit so this was replaced with a standard switch, the downlights scheduled to be replaced next week

investigating why the external lights weren't working, with the unsurprising cause being moisture ingress. The fun bit was locating the buried junction boxes😬 Generally poor installation methods, SY cable and no thought given to maintenance

We're very fortunate to be able to work in some lovely places, this being a few hundred years old and one of my favourites which we rewired back in 2016/7. We're currently back first-fixing the oak framed extension which is in keeping with the original building

Fire clips used throughout and notes scribbled on PIR board...

Rewiring a property in Bay and for once luck was on our side with conduit being in place to drop new cables for intermediate switching. Insulation tape used to pull the cables through into the box once it was fixed, and fl**ge head screws used as always. Countersunk screws have their place and it's NOT in a KO box

**ge

Bathroom light🤦‍♂️

We're in the process of rewiring for a kitchen and the new extractor hood requires a ø150mm hole for the ducting otherwise its warranty will be void (always read the manufacturers instructions!). The existing hole had been chiselled out and needed enlarging so a 'guide' was fabricated to get the core in the right place. A 465mm long Mexco bit (under £10) was used along with a Starrett UK core drill. There was some skipping initially as the castellated teeth caught on the original edges but soon settled down. Even though we cored through from the outside, PPE was still worn as inhaling brick dust isn't conducive to good lung function later in life

The customer supplied me with an external socket to fit early last year, so we duly obliged. Returned last week to do some other bits and my curiosity was piqued after a conversation with them. Can you guess which side of the socket they've been plugging their into?🤦‍♂️

Who doesn't love finding things under floorboards?

Quick little job at my customers' Airbnb property in Dell Quay. The old mechanical immersion timer had finally conked out after about 19 years of sterling service so was replaced with a NTT08 digital timer. Cheeky little QR code printed off which takes the guests to the instructions for the controller to avoid unnecessary phone calls if they can't work it

Arrived at the customer's house to do a few little bits this morning and and they mentioned "We can't get the plug out of the socket and it's crackled a few times?"

One suspects a loose connection but the neutral terminal had fused solid

Fault finding Friday😬

Trying to find a fault on a lighting circuit which had been installed by the builders of this extension many years previously. There were more junction boxes like this so each one was re-made and somehow the fault disappeared...

to a lovely property in Upwaltham. Work in progress on a bespoke eaves storage unit which slides out for access to more cubby holes to the side. Another project with doing the joinery

Replacing the aged light fitting with new ceiling spots. First things first though, access to the loft space in the extension...

Temporary labels for a bank of dimmer switches

We like building relationships with our customers as it's great for long term survival, looking after and enjoying working with them, and making them smile at handover time

When the customers' Son is a kitchen fitter and connects the electrical goodies...and also said it was illegal to have a socket under a sink🤦‍♂️

2.5mm T&E on the supply duties for an 11kw hob...

"Do you really need all of that to fit a socket?"

"Yes"

to a board change when we had to use an alternative to our normal choice of product due to supply (lack of) availability. This was the first and last CP Fusebox we would choose to install

Not a fan of the Fusebox range, as there's a 2-3mm gap at the edge of the blank (furthest to the left) once the lid is on

As we always do, blanks are used in between the RCBO's to allow for heat dissipation and avoids applying RDF (Rated Diversity Factor) when high load circuits are next to each other

Check and test, check and test. Proving the USB outlets work and noting on the certificate. Photos attached for proof that everything's tickety-boo to avoid an embarrassing callback; yes, it's happened to us before😳

Keeping with the automative theme, a battery charger from a well known German discount shop permanently installed in the van

Power cable extended with H07 flex to the rear of the van where it can be uncoiled and plugged in to give the batteries (yes, batteries) a good charge every month or so to desulphate and prolong its life. It's also useful over extended seasonal breaks to keep everything in a ready to go status