TOT rigger's diary: sparky things did come out
 

When Hil was in hospital I got very little installation work done. I spent
most of the first week at her bedside, and after that visiting her and
travelling there was taking up half of each day. Most of the rest of the day
seemed to be taken up with doing Hil's work. My dad (86) was a hero,
spending all day here, doing the cooking, dealing with deliveries, and
generally running the place.

Now she's home I'm getting a bit of work done, and on Friday I found myself
in a loft connecting up a system that will carry nine camera channels, a
Sky+ box output and Emley Moor UHF to all the tellys in a large house. Just
above my head was my inspection lamp, which was fitted with one of those
special bulbs that resist impacts. Now this bulb has been a great success,
and has lasted for years despite getting banged about all the time.

The customer was in the loft having a chat. There was a small sound above
our heads, like a fingernail rapping on a wineglass. Five seconds later the
inspection lamp became brighter and then went out, leaving us to see, by the
dim loft lights, that it was emitting a small amount of smoke. The bulb can
be seen on
http://photobucket.com/albums/b191/L693MKY/
I've never seen that happen before.

Of course this event was quite traumatic so I had to go home and lie down. I
was comatose on the settee when I sensed that something was amiss. The
lights were on but the sockets were off. Hil had dragged herself into the
office to do some invoices and she'd just got started when the computer
died. Grandad's telly went off. They told me that the power was off, and
bleary as I was I said "Well go turn it back on!"

Five minutes later I heard Grandad say "Oh, let's just wait until he finally
wakes up." This was said loud and close and could be classed as a heavy
hint. He then dropped something heavy and clattery and said in a ludicrous
stage whisper "Whoops! I do hope I haven't woken him up!"

I went to the consumer unit and found that the circuit for the living room
sockets was to blame. The cause turned out to be a slug. The slug had
climbed up the inside of the ducting in the wall to the inside of a length
of trunking that holds a row of 13A sockets. Another slug had accompanied
it, and I found this second slug near the scene of the accident. I don't
know the exact chain of events, but I found a gooey mess adhered to the live
terminal screw and the earth rail. A slug's tail protrudes from the goo.
Pictures of this unhappy scene are to be found at
http://photobucket.com/albums/b191/L693MKY/
for your delectation and delight. Eating your tea? Don't click.

Of course we offered the witness slug trauma counselling, but it showed
little or no interest.

Oh yes. 'Sparky things did come out'? Well, when Carolyn was three she found
out how to push a 13A plug into a 13A socket, and also how to push a pencil
into a hairdryer, and she came running from the kitchen to say "Sparky
things did come out!", which has become a family saying.

Bill

Bill

TOT rigger's diary: sparky things did come out
 

Bill Wright wrote:

My dad (86) was a hero,
...
Five minutes later I heard Grandad say "Oh, let's just wait

If your dad is 86, your Grandad is doing remarkably well... ;-)

--
Mark.
http://tranchant.plus.com/

TOT rigger's diary: sparky things did come out
 

I went to the consumer unit and found that the circuit for the living room
sockets was to blame. The cause turned out to be a slug. The slug had
climbed up the inside of the ducting in the wall to the inside of a length
of trunking that holds a row of 13A sockets. Another slug had accompanied
it, and I found this second slug near the scene of the accident. I don't
know the exact chain of events, but I found a gooey mess adhered to the
live terminal screw and the earth rail. A slug's tail protrudes from the
goo. Pictures of this unhappy scene are to be found at
http://photobucket.com/albums/b191/L693MKY/
for your delectation and delight. Eating your tea? Don't click.


Hmmm, that's a great idea, I got bored of dropping the slugs into beer
pouring salt on to them, spearing them on a stick of bamboo or placing them
on the barbecue, sounds like the electric chair could be next!!!

:)

TOT rigger's diary: sparky things did come out
 

The electrics of my gas central heating is wired from the downstairs
lighting circuit.
Once I had to investigate why the 3 amp fuse in the spur box repeatedly blew
when the heating was turned on.
The cause was traced to a petrified chain of several ants whose misfortune
is was to find themselves across live and neutral.

As for the bulb in your inspection lamp, it looks like a normal GLS bulb.
I seem to remember that you could get special 'locomotive' grade bulbs that
had extra filament supports. I think the last one I purchased was a 15W
pigmy for an old Hoover Senior. Remember the one with the headlight?

I use low energy fluorescent bulb in by inspection lamp.

--
Graham.



%Profound_observation%

TOT rigger's diary: sparky things did come out
 

"Graham" wrote in message ...


The electrics of my gas central heating is wired from the downstairs
lighting circuit.
Once I had to investigate why the 3 amp fuse in the spur box repeatedly
blew
when the heating was turned on.
The cause was traced to a petrified chain of several ants whose misfortune
is was to find themselves across live and neutral.

As for the bulb in your inspection lamp, it looks like a normal GLS bulb.
I seem to remember that you could get special 'locomotive' grade bulbs
that
had extra filament supports. I think the last one I purchased was a 15W
pigmy for an old Hoover Senior. Remember the one with the headlight?

I use low energy fluorescent bulb in by inspection lamp.


I modified my inspection lamp (with some difficulty) to accept a 100 watt
equivalent low-energy bulb.. and stone me, if a-week or so later Lidl's
weren't advertising an inspection lamp, complete with low-energy bulb for
some mental price or other of around 6 or 7 quid!


--
Graham.



%Profound_observation%

TOT rigger's diary: sparky things did come out
 

Graham wrote:

I seem to remember that you could get special 'locomotive' grade bulbs that
had extra filament supports.

They're called rough service lamps - RS, as opposed to GLS. You get
considerably fewer lumens per watt, so 100 W RS is comparable with a 60
W GLS lamp.

HTH
--
Andy

TOT rigger's diary: sparky things did come out
 

"Andy Wade" wrote in message
...
Graham wrote:

I seem to remember that you could get special 'locomotive' grade bulbs
that
had extra filament supports.

They're called rough service lamps - RS, as opposed to GLS. You get
considerably fewer lumens per watt, so 100 W RS is comparable with a 60
W GLS lamp.

HTH
--
Andy

Indeed, and in the example Bill showed (photo 5) you can clearly see the
hammer symbol above the Philips logo to indicate that it is a RS lamp.

Incidentally, what be the photos 6 & 7 then Bill? :-)

TOT rigger's diary: sparky things did come out
 

Indeed, and in the example Bill showed (photo 5) you can clearly see the
hammer symbol above the Philips logo to indicate that it is a RS lamp.
Yes. I think a hammer overstates it a bit though!



Incidentally, what be the photos 6 & 7 then Bill? :-)
Err, one's that big FM aerial in Sweden, and the other is how not to
connect an underground cable to a CT100 cable.

Bill

TOT rigger's diary: sparky things did come out
 

On or around Mon, 24 Oct 2005 00:31:31 +0100, "Bill Wright"
mused:

I don't
know the exact chain of events, but I found a gooey mess adhered to the live
terminal screw and the earth rail.

I had a similar experience recently with a call to a faulty set of
electric gates. From the front of the control box I could only see
'excessive scorching'. On removing the PCB from the box (located
outside btw) the excessive scorching had been caused by a slug which
had pretty much disintegrated after shorting itself across phase and
neutral, which happened to be on an unfused spur from an unfused spur
to an outside socket with not an RCD in sight.

I managed to recussitate the PCB after resoldering some tracks on it
once it was on the bench. The slug wasn't quite so lucky.
--
| Stuart @ SJW Electrical. Please Reply to group. |

TOT rigger's diary: sparky things did come out
 

wrote in message
oups.com...
Indeed, and in the example Bill showed (photo 5) you can clearly see the
hammer symbol above the Philips logo to indicate that it is a RS lamp.
Yes. I think a hammer overstates it a bit though!



Incidentally, what be the photos 6 & 7 then Bill? :-)
Err, one's that big FM aerial in Sweden, and the other is how not to
connect an underground cable to a CT100 cable.

Bill

Yes, sorry about that - just caught up with the earlier threads after some
time away.