Some simple words that can save you a lot of grief

[skatingsparks]

Hi

On a quotes I do for electrical works I am very glad I had, in the terms and conditions of the quote, the words -

'Any part of the existing installation which is to be added to or altered is assumed to be compliant with current SANS 10142 standards'

It can get you out of trouble if you find lots of problems once you start.

A job I quoted on looked neat, tidy and proper. I took a few covers off to have a look before quoting. The client wanted some alterations which were pretty standard. It's only when the faithful fluke 1653B was brought in we found SO many problems which caused the client to get upset and go after the guy who had done the original works.

We found that pretty much every single point had an earth wire in it, but stopped (cut) a couple of inches outside of the various points. You looked in the box and it looked new and neat, pulled the earth wire and found it was just there for show, just went into the conduits a little way and stopped. DB board the same!

Yes, he had a COC.

No, he was not happy.

No, I can't believe people would cut such corners to save a few bucks.

[Dave A]

We found that pretty much every single point had an earth wire in it, but stopped (cut) a couple of inches outside of the various points. You looked in the box and it looked new and neat, pulled the earth wire and found it was just there for show, just went into the conduits a little way and stopped. DB board the same!
...
No, I can't believe people would cut such corners to save a few bucks.

Neither can I. That's criminal!

[tec0]

I actually know for a fact that that is not the first time... I recall doing contract work "i was tiling the bathroom" When i saw a something scary... You know that nice thick red wire and black wire they use for Live and neutral? Well they only go in for about 10cm and then is spliced with a normal twin-flex speaker wire... I told the owner and well... He blew wasn't very happy...

I highly recommend checking ALL the wires... But not bother actually installing the earth wire... Well that is low...

[AndyD]

Yep it's illegal but not that uncommon. I've come across installations where there's 25mm wiring at an isolator switch and it's been ferruled onto 4mm wiring a few inches into the conduit and same again at the DB. The original issue was low voltage causing the machine to shut down intermittently and the sparky that installed it had been back and bypassed the safety system which caused complete motor failure. It was only when loop impedance tests made no sense that we decided to replace the 40 meters of wiring we discovered the joints and the undersized wiring. We couldn't even get the 4mm wires out of the conduit because they'd gone rigid and hard with the heat.

[tec0]

Got this from a friend a month ago.

Right what do you think is missing here...

That Thud you heard was my IQ... There is no trip-switch of any kind... This is part of a much larger and more scary picture but i took the really scary stuff out...

Before i forget it his 3 Phase