Onoff

I'll give you implausible: Working on a ring once in an empty house. Old Wylex board.Fuse pulled and in my pocket. The biggest electrical storm right overhead the house. TN-S system & v close to the substation. I was changing the face place so had the two legs of the ring exposed and hanging out of the back box. A lightning strike and a foot long blue "spark" came out of the back box next to me. People don't believe me. Dread to think if I'd have been touching it all. Still got a pic of the old board: EDIT: My bad just realised that's a MEM!

Yep unless they're true DP. More testing on the other circuits I think just to be sure. What joy! At least the cu isn't wedged against the ceiling...oh wait it is! At least my eyesight's still good...oh wait it isn't!

Certainly feels like it here!

And a plumber, SE, landscape gardener, roofer etc but mainly a TILER! I had all the breakers off except this ring and the trip wouldn't reset whilst either room stat was calling. Everything was unplugged from the rest of the ring. That downstairs 2 port valve is a bit manky inside, I've just had the cover off. Got a spare luckily. The two 2 ports share N & cpc feeds. Going to sleep on it! I'll disconnect that earth that was loose tomorrow and see if I can get it to trip again. Sure it's coincidental.

15 cats in a cage on the wall for the living room wasn't it?

Been meaning for years to tidy the wiring centre for the hot water / central heating! It's a traditional system, oil fired boiler with copper hot water cylinder. Everything as in the controls and boiler is powered via the downstairs ring from an fcu. Of late I've had some nuisance tripping of THE rcd. Consumer unit is fronted by a single 30mA RCD before a row of 9 Crabtree C50s. (Yes, I know, why haven't I changed it! Well, cu position is moving from the porch to inside with an all DP rcbo board but before I do that I need to block up a door, rip up the floors upstairs. All this will happen "eventually"...my eventually... ). Did the usual of narrowing down to which circuit and identified the downstairs ring. This downstairs ring is the original wiring circa 1987 and prior all in T&E. As a quick check I even tested/ramp tested the RCD & the continuity and IR checks even cross connecting the ring ends and testing at each socket (save for two I couldn't get to) fearing rodent damage. All good. Found one (Had to pi$$ about taking the USB socket out as my IR tester doesn't have a 250V setting). Discounted the dw & wm that although in the kitchen are actually on this downstairs ring as opposed to the kitchen ring. Also the big fish tank. That left the central heating / hot water system (no immersion btw). The system is a bit odd I think in terms of layout and wiring. Downstairs ch is still a 3/4" nominal bore single pipe system. When we bought the place there was no CH upstairs so I added 4 rads. I also added two contactors and two 2-port valves to split the CH from the 3-port valve. Something like the unfinished (photo of the) drawing below: (As an aside from the thread the drawing might be the subject of another post; started it in Draftsight and working on it now in AutoCAD. Tried plotting as a web JPEG from AutoCAD 2010 but I must be doing something wrong as the quality is terrible compared to on the CAD screen. All I could do was take a photo on the phone. Anyone who wants a go with the .dwg and can tell me where I'm going wrong in the plotting process?) Back to the fault & I narrowed it down to when EITHER room stat was turned and called for heat the rcd would trip. So either calls for heat, they each bring in the upstairs, downstairs or both contactors via the yellows onto A1 of each contactor. Contactor comes in and feeds the brown on the 2 port valve opening it. At the same time, the white from the two contactors, calls the 3-port valve. The ONLY thing I found so far is one earth wire to a room stat had come adrift from the 12-way terminal block. Remade and no more tripping. L,N & E for boiler and pump btw come off of terminals 6, 9 & 12 respectively. A few earths not shown either. The 7-core dives off to a pair of Towerchron QE2 programmers. One does Downstairs CH and HW the other just Upstairs CH. I'll work on the drawing to try and show all this. Apologies again for the poor image, makes it a bitch for anyone looking to help! Would a loose / detached earth cause this? I know the stat bumpf says it must be earthed "for correct operation". Cheers

A couple of points: Don't forget that since the 15th testing requirements have changed. It is arguable that having done the 15th you are not "up to date" and that could bring competency into question. Having done just the 15th, 16th or 17th (even the 18th) "book" exam isn't the same as having completed and apprenticeship or a recognised electro technical course with certification at the end of it. I think PL and PI insurance could be an issue too. In order to test you need to disconnect/reconnect various cabling. If you inadvertently leave something loose... Your kit should be calibrated to do this work. You have to put down the serial number of the test kit down on the schedules of test. If the EICR date predates the calibration date again a potential issue. On similar lines of you ask A N Other scheme member to take on your schedule of tests and sign off as his own why would be be using your test kit? OK, you could get his test kit serial numbers but it all gets a bit cloak and dagger.

Can you repost the photo in question to save everyone having to look back two or three pages?

All in and looks nice 'n neat! Have you got a waste trap to go on?

Camo net on a roll? https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B075SVTGJZ/ref=asc_df_B075SVTGJZ55351699/? They do a 20m roll for £45 inc delivery.

Scored, snapped and dressed the rhs of the 3 off cuts. Hmmm...from left not so good, fair then better. Need to wet cut the pseudo grout lines off:

Six cut out of 3 tiles. All the cut edges dressed under a running tap so they're pretty damn good considering cheap ceramic! I need 22 (maybe 20) like this to "border" the wet room corner. IF I can accurately wet saw the 3 offcuts I'll be up to 9 but that's a big if! At least one edge on each of these 3 I can score/snap/dress like these 6 I reckon. And there's the self doubt kicking in again or maybe lack of ale! Pint No.2 is in order methinks.

Ouch! Kick a man while he's drowning down why don't you!

Phew!... They haven't cut too bad I guess: Those 3 in a pack, flat, diamond files @Nickfromwales put me on to are great. Leaves with that bit of "waste" in the middle from which I'd like to get another thin one but I need to remove the pseudo grout line...

Once you've found a brick you like, nip back under the cover of darkness, with a sharp bolster and chip off a sample!

Some photos inside the cupboard in relation to the taps etc might assist.

Splashback.....wasn't that a track by Imagination?

Biscuits joints... I butt the two boards together the use bits of thin masking tape either side of the join. A pen marks across the join onto both bits of tape. Do for however many biscuits you're having. Separate the worktops and draw a line down the face. Centre your biscuit joiner on the line. When they go back together it's all bang on:

Fair point. Maybe it's PROPER Planning Prevent P**s Poor Performance?

I always thought it was Pi$$ Poor Planning Prevents Poor Performance? I mean, Prior Preparation is all well and good but if it's Pi$$ Poor.....

You could camouflage that tap to make it stand out less:

Looks a good job that. The tall tap will be ideal for home brewing & rinsing demijohns! Where does Peter say not to oil? He means just get rid of any oil on worktop surfaces you want to glue together! Thought it had been decided upon ages ago NOT to jig and bolt these worktops as so "thin"? You are going to have to think very careful as to how to protect that little upstand of plasterboard behind the sink. It's not moisture resistant pb and even then that's only "resistant". Maybe some exterior grade/waterproof PVA whilst you decide? My first thought is maybe tile the upstand and maybe the whole sill? Wiser people will chip in with advice shortly I'm sure.

Gumtree and Preloved are two sites I've had some cracking bargains off of. There's a small fee to pay on Preloved but well worth it.

My 7.3KW induction is wired in 4mm butyl (from TLC). https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CA4TQ3slash50.html It's on the original hob supply that's 6mm2 up to the ccu. The hob instrictions said to wire in "3x2.5" which I wasn't happy with guess they were applying diversity. The 4mm was a pig to get in though, Actually fed from a 30A C50. A 32 would have been belt and braces but hey, it's a C50 - they never trip anyway!

I only really work now on niche industrial 3P and the associated control stuff tbh. Hate domestic. My own place is like a mechanic's car! Not totally true, the bits I've done are well planned, tested and recorded. Been in the loft today tracing the original downstairs ring on the back of putting in a dedicated hot tub socket close to it. Been telling SWMBO of late not to overload a spur on the downstairs ring (actually in the kitchen) with the dw, wm and now the F**CKING HOT TUB! Keep catching her doing it and the response is "I keep checking if the socket's hot!" Parts of the ring are under the dormer, under felt covered roofs left in situ when the place was re-roofed in the 80's. JB's everywhere! The usual loft "tat" atop the flat roofs. The more accessible runs are under glued T&G floors with carpet and furniture on! I suspect vermin damage somewhere. SWMBO + youngest out tomorrow so I'll get some testing done in peace hopefully. Hate domestic...did I mention that?