Blown Wall Plug - Advice Needed!

[Coryton]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

In later years they were fitted with fuses and there were also 2A round pin plugs/sockets as well. All three are to BS546 and is still current!

 

Popular for theatre lighting, I think.

 

I remember the 2A sockets - I know of one university Hall of Residence that provided them in the rooms requiring a change of plugs at the start and end of each term (extension leads were strictly forbidden). 

 

Conveniently, the circuit breaker for each room was in the corridor above the door in case anyone fancied turning the power off as they passed by.

 

When sinks were added to the rooms, they came with a shaver socket powered from a different circuit which became popular for powering alarm clocks so they couldn't be turned off.

 

Someone did manage to run a radio station briefly from one of the rooms, though I think they had to use something to hold the circuit breaker closed.

 

 

 

[kevinlms]

2 minutes ago, phil-b259 said:

 

Which rather calls in to question the chorus of those on here insisting that 'Call a qualified Part P electrician' as the solution to all electrical woes...

 

I accept that may be the 'correct' and 'official answer - but that doesn't always turn out right.

Maybe true, that on occasion you might get an electrician that makes a mistake. But the odds are better than someone who knows nothing and thinks that 'it can't be that hard' and just gets out the tool kit.

 

I went to a house once (I'm not an electrician FWIW), and discovered that some power points didn't work, unless a certain light was turned on!

I pointed this out to the owner, who told me that there is all sorts of strange things with the electrics and stuff falls off the walls.

Turned out that the previous owner, drove a delivery vehicle for the electricity supply company. So he had free access to the correct materials, but NFI on how to use them.

 

Advised them to get an electrician in ASAP.

[melmerby]

4 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

 

As regards ring mains versus radial networks - I am aware that both can be installed, but if done correctly radial circuits should not only be easier to identify from the consumer unit, but are also an easier concept for a layman to get their head around.

You normally use thicker cable.

if you feed from a 30/32A breaker you need a minimum 4mm T&E, probably 6mm, 2.5mm is (IIRC) only rated at atound 20A.

The ratings depend a lot on where the cable runs and what it is in contact with.

We had some radials in our guest house, each had two 13A sockets on 4mm T&E  (as well as about 6+ ring mains)

As regard the efficacy of the electricians work, In the guest house after some re-wiring by a proper sparky we ended up with two ring mains cross-wired to two 32A breakers so both were fed from both breakers.

Makes fault finding difficult!

[melmerby]

5 hours ago, Coryton said:

 

Popular for theatre lighting, I think.

 

 

 

All the soldering irons where I worked were originally fed from 2A fused plugs.

After some building refurbishment everything was on 13A plugs but each workstation (bench!) had a separate supply from it's own RCD

[sharris]

On 09/02/2019 at 19:27, JJGraphics said:

 

I have just shown this comment to a friend who is a qualified electrician and he says that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES would he consider working on a domestic installation without turning off the main isolator and ensuring that it cannot be turned on again by the householder whilst he is working.

 

John 

 

Indeed, plugging a lamp into a nearby socket makes the assumption that both sockets are on the same circuit. Mains electricity isn't something I'd want to make assumptions about, so I'd rather switch it all off to be sure. 

 

On 09/02/2019 at 22:05, 96701 said:

Woah, woah, woah. It cost us a huge amount of money to replace our consumer unit and on top of that got all sorts of spurious trippings of the new RCDs, so yes, they do offer much greater protection, the cost being high to replace the consumer unit and various items from outside lighting to tape recorder / player from the hi-fi stack.

 

 

If you're getting a lot of tripping on RCDs it's quite possible that it's not your actual equipment that's bad, but you may well have shared neutrals somewhere in your wiring (e.g. whoever installed the lights may have borrowed a neutral from the ring for the return). When that happens the RCDs say aha, "the current going out into a circuit is different to the current coming back from it " (because it's going out through one circuit breaker, but coming back through two or more), and thinks "that current could be going through a person, I'd better shut down". Ok, maybe I'm going a bit far anthropomorphising an RCD, but you get the idea.

[sharris]

8 hours ago, Coryton said:

 

Popular for theatre lighting, I think..

 

Stage lighting uses the larger more beefy 15A plugs and sockets - those lanterns can put out a couple of kW (some even more) and anything smaller wouldn't be up to the job.

[Coryton]

1 hour ago, sharris said:

 

Stage lighting uses the larger more beefy 15A plugs and sockets - those lanterns can put out a couple of kW (some even more) and anything smaller wouldn't be up to the job.

 

They haven't gone over to low energy bulbs then?

 

(Or is using the word "bulb" in stage lighting as much of a faux pas as in signalling?)

[royaloak]

40 minutes ago, Coryton said:

 

They haven't gone over to low energy bulbs then?

 

(Or is using the word "bulb" in stage lighting as much of a faux pas as in signalling?)

You need to be careful or somebody will come around and 'lamp' you one! 

[sharris]

37 minutes ago, Coryton said:

 

They haven't gone over to low energy bulbs then?

 

(Or is using the word "bulb" in stage lighting as much of a faux pas as in signalling?)

LEDs are getting used more but as far as I've seen tend to be in situations where rapid colour changes are required rather than as general stage lighting. Theatre lighting designers have fought back over proposed low-energy directives for stage lighting complaining that white LEDs do not have similar enough characteristics to tungsten to make the change viable at the moment - the limited spectral output compared with the continuous spectrum of tungsten, the smoother fade up/down characteristics of tungsten and the flicker of PWM LEDs have all been noted as problems for replacing tungsten with LEDs.

[Jonboy]

22 hours ago, sharris said:

 

Stage lighting uses the larger more beefy 15A plugs and sockets - those lanterns can put out a couple of kW (some even more) and anything smaller wouldn't be up to the job.

 

It is also common to have two or more lamps running from a socket via splitters and it would be a bit of a b****** if a lamp blowing in one takes out a fuse 25’ above the audiences heads halfway through a show, hence unfused plugs running back to protected dimmer/distribution racks.

[Coryton]

Ohhh that makes a lot of sense! Interesting.