I'm an old industrial electro mechanical engineer and agree that this guy is extremely professional. Great guy for such a young age. Keep up the good work.
Absolutely fantastic hand work. Master material. Adam is a lucky bloke to have you showing him the ropes. An outstanding repair, going over an above for the customer (who I am sure was breathing down your neck all day). The work with the Megger was top notch and very well worth finding. Bet the customer had no idea it was like that for years. Best Regards, Gerald Magill B.Eng in Electrical Engineering (Hons). My respect.
Hi Nick, from an old spark from the 60's. I enjoyed watching you undertaking this job. This is just an observation not a criticism, wouldn't it been easier to replace the tails and to cut back burnt cables to a sound piece then used a signal injector to fined the location of all the cables rather than spend time trying to untangle that mess? Peter.
I’m not sure about easier or quicker but it would have been enough cleaner that it would certainly have been my inclination. I suppose being able to replicate the exact breaker values and numbering of the old circuits has some value, but honestly… this seems like a “start from fuckin’ scratch” situation if ever there was one.
Well done both of you . I think it’s every electricians nightmare that something could happen on their jobs. We all try to be diligent but having seen a missed lose neutral at a D.B that had started to over heat . I can testify to being capable of making mistakes. The trade is not only demanding, but also comes with a lot of responsibility. Seeing what can result when things do go wrong is a very sobering thought . Regards from Mike
Strongly preferred, but not essential. With Dual RCD, if one trips you lose half the circuits. John Ward does some good videos explaining the differences. See here ua-cam.com/video/WNe1xHlI5i4/v-deo.html
I wouldn't get a consumer units without individual RCBOs as they are far less annoying as you only have to work out what's on that circuit that's causing the trip instead of losing half the house and having to work out witch circuit first is causing the tripping
@@leexgx I would agree and do the same myself, but there is a cost difference which means that dual RCD units are still being installed. Annoyance is one thing, but the person building the house isn't the one who will be annoyed. Imagine how much fun it must be in the older houses with single RCD protection...
@@gavinminion8515 Hands up, lived in an older house that was single except the new basement wiring, which was a different rating and had its own box for a while. Not fun. Was super grateful when our new box was individual.
What I don't understand is ours has dual but they put all the sockets and lights on one side, bloody moronic. Surely upstairs lights and downstairs sockets on one side, reverse on the other, would make more sense? That way if it trips on the lights you can always plug in a lamp while checking for the problem.
I bet the smell in there was wonderful I've had to straighten out a blowed up board before in your hands stink for days even wearing gloves Keep On Keepin On
This is the first one of your videos I've watched and I am absolutely fascinated. My parents (U.S.) had a basement fire half a decade ago from just... 80 years? of patches on patches. The washer and dryer ran on a literal fuse box up until around 2000, which was then patched into the breaker box... While they were on vacation, a fire started in the wall behind the box, where the old wiring for the fuse box was. Near as anyone could tell, decades of the washer and dryer running had shaken connections loose enough that when the heat kicked on, something went. We're thankful we had a neighbor watching the house who saw the smoke well before the fire got hold of the main structure. Cracked the foundation on our porch addition; the fire on the porch was stopped getting into the foyer by old asbestos siding if you can believe. Smoke damage through the whole home; we're still working on last wallpaper replacements etc. 7 years later. We now have a massive beautiful breaker box that's well rated for all our modern appliances and wiring, plus upgrades to the upstairs, and then some. And, not labeled with masking tape... So this video was fantastic to see, personally, to have an idea of just some of what must have been done to coordinate the spiderweb of original 2-prong cabling going through the whole house (the base wires were upgraded on repair to prepare for running grounded wiring to the upstairs), grounded cabling to the kitchen, another set of grounded cabling to the basement den, the newest grounded wiring to the basement bathroom with GFI outlets... Thanks so much for sharing.
Good stuff Nick, Feel for the client, glad you put this out there hopefully the general public view this and realise all these improvementsl/ costs and EICR (reports) not certificates do have a valid reason, and not just making jobs for the boys, Well done 👏 👍
@@bluke5285 Don't know what your electrics are like, but you need to work on your English grammar. Your comment is ambiguous at best but in its current form it does imply that 6mm, 10mm and earth were different items. Lack of punctuation seems to be the problem. Just saying.
I came here after watching the Big Clive post-mortem. As I said on his video, it was the UA-cam equivalent of eating dessert before the main course. This video is a great example of why the UK requires some fire-blocking where the cables pass through the wall. Had that not been there...
Nice clean work. So different seeing not 120/240v 60hz. In Us branch circuits are going Combo arc fault/ magnetic overload breakers. Just a lower MA trip here.
Great work I'm doing a domestic Installers course at the moment and all your videos are always informative. Hope Adam realises how lucky he is to have someone willing to teach him and tech him the right way. Keep up the great work.
domestic installers courses are dangerous in my opinion, all tradesman should be time served its the only way you get the experience needed to be competent at the job, seen many jobs messed up with "electricians" who have done 6 week courses.
Great video nick, as a firefighter currently retaining as a spark found this this interesting as go to 2 or 3 of these a year. Good to see gloves as that fire damage is full of carcinogens that will be absorbed by the body that can lead to cancer.
Fantastic job guys; and great video too. Quite apart from the actual cause of the fire to start with, a great case study for why DNO's should be obliged by law to put a customer operable isolator between the cut out / meter and the board / service splitter ... customer very lucky to have got away relatively lightly but (assuming they were on site when it happened) with an isolator they could have removed the source of ignition before the service fuse went ..... might already have been too late to make the damage less than it was but on the other hand might have helped a bit.
I have an overhead supply with the DNO's supply cable running through my loft then dropping into the meter cupboard. The CU is mounted below the meter board so if my CU burned with the ferocity that the one in the video clearly did it would have set fire to the meter board destroying the meter, cut-out and the insulation off the end on the DNO's supply cable. So although I have an isolator switch, mounted on the meter board, it wouldn't help in the least with a similar fire. There is an in-line fuse in the cable just outside the house but its 30 ft above the ground and spliced into the supply cable, so not exactly convenient to pull in an emergency.
Yeah, but that might cost the DNO a couple of quid extra and that isn't going to happen. They will merrily chuck in Smart Meters, running into ancient Consumer units, and then when that board finally is going to be upgraded, I have to call them back in to put a switch in - and they charge the customer around £50. I'm sure they must be paying the contractor more than that to come back and do it, so why not just do it as standard anyway, especially if the consumer unit isn't fairly new and is probably going to be changed in the near-ish future? It's just a pain in the arse trying to decide whether to cut the seals on the main fuse when they have only been on for a couple of months, rather than having to wait a fortnight for them to come back and put a switch on so I can disconnect and replace the consumer unit. (And of course, we never cut the seals, right guys? ;-) )
@@davidfaraday3085 Gimme a break, I've only just got out of the habit of referring to the Electricity Board, haha! Of course, I used "DNO" there incongruously, for the sake of brevity - really meaning "Them" (upstream of the consumer's installation) as opposed to "Us" (the end user or those of us needing to safely disconnect the supply whenever necessary). I didn't really want to get into DNO/Meter Operator/Energy Supplier relationships and who does what, but at the end of the day, it's the DNO's network and they must have some sort of agreement with those they contractually allow to install equipment. It's surely not beyond the wit of man to ensure that an isolator is fitted whenever new cutouts/meters are installed or altered, by the aforementioned "Them", so that a safe disconnection can be made easily and conveniently? Or, they should stop getting shirty about cut seals and pulled fuses!
I really liked this video, was cool seeing you two diagnose the mess at the beginning in almost real time. Nice little change of pace, especially having a camera guy for some of it.
Great video and the finished job looked neat and very professional. I think the assumption that the fire was probably caused by a slack terminal is right and as another commenter had pointed out that there is an important difference between torque and tightness as over tightening can cause significant damage and stress on a terminal. I would point out that I am not an electrician but my life has been spent in the aerospace industry where instruction on torque tightening was a full 2 day course! The other point is that had the CU been a metal unit and sealed correctly then the fire would most likely have been contained and avoided a lot of the damage. My CU is in my attached garage and I have a smoke/heat detector in there for peace of mind. Keep up the good work and finally thank you for the effort you put in to produce some excellent content which we can all benefit from.
Very lucky they still have a house. Good work lads. Wouldn’t it have been easier to replace all the fire damaged cable, identify the rings with end to end test then install the C/U, liven up and identify the other circuits once live?
The fire service and DNO were involved, meaning until all the dead tests are done and you're ready to live test they will not put the fuse in. It's just the legislative steps you have to carry out after an incident like this.
Top video mate. Makes you realise the importance of tightening things up properly. It's not a game we're playing, people can die due to sloppy installation.
Brilliant job guys, its great to say that a visible hatch is needed in that bathroom for the junction extentions, people would just tell the customer to plaster board it in. The water pipe that was hanging off the wall where you were working would have bugged me, dont ask me why but I would have been scared in case I snagged on it and burst it, so I would have secured it to wall. I feel sorry for the bloke of that house. But still a brilliant job you did.
Depends on the load, if the heat build up from a loose connection is enough the enclosure will stay intact but the wires and protective devices can melt internal and external of the metal casing. What likely saved this property in all honesty was the fact it was a plastic consumer unit, the earth bar support melted and dropped into the meter tails causing the DNO fuse to pop.
I imagine look rather un healthy. But not spread like this did. If the relevant fire proofing was put it would probably run out of oxygen before any sizeable flame could get going. But I imagine arcing would continue for much longer if not indefinitely. Will be interesting if afdd's will really make it in to the domestic world and just how far they will achually go. I've never seen much arcing damage apart from on large incoming supplys. Generally caused by people not ensureing tails are correctly tight, then wiggle then Re check tighness. Easy to do especially once the bored is energised. Personally on every eicr tails should be checked to the correct torque. But that gets a bit iffy with "working live"
@@jenton93 I've worked in commercial across continents for the majority of my career and the biggest hazards are always large amp loads and incomers. Factories and alike have always had metal enclosures for the most part and it hasn't been uncommon to attend and find the heat build up has migrated outside the enclosure which has then caused a fire (proximity to combustible materials). AFDD's in that situation would help protect against the fault. I am however against AFDD's in a domestic setting for 32 amp and below, above makes sense below does not. Also tails should be checked on every EICR for the correct torque. Caveat in the regs allows working live where it is impractical or unsafe to turn off. Checking tails for correct torque falls under that.
I was an electrician, now retired, In australia we used to use mains in 100A fuse, main breaker manual only, ELCB. for wet areas, 8A breakers for lights. 16 amp breakers for power points, 32 amp fuse for oven / cooktopm, 32A for hot water, plus others for Air Conditioner hot water boost element etc. had a problem with one circuit, the hot water service. the fuse holder had a badly treaded screw even though it was tight it wasnt gripping the wire 100 percent. the screw was missing about two turns worth of thread. the inital punn and jiggle the wires then retighten the screw didn't reveal a problem. It took about a month before it failed. Had to remove the fuse holder and clean up the wire hole in the fibreglass panel then refit a new fuse carrier and no more problems. Great video and give Adam a payrise. 12 hour shift without complaining. What month was this done. you both looked cold. Do you have any more like this. BTW big clive Sent me.
Great work Nick & Congratulations to Adam for learning his skills. Being an electricians is like artwork of cable management which done right, looks awesome to have some pride over it. Excellent video Nick... Keep them coming bro.
Have a look into cable identifiers (tracers), clip it onto a de-energised cable and walk around with a probe. Don't need to take off accessories either, saves a lot of time. It sends out a pulse on the cable and the battery operated receiver picks it up. They claim to be 100% accurate with no false positives.
I've got a relatively cheap one and definitely wouldn't say 100% accurate but if you've got access to the other end of the cable you're looking at, you can short it and if the signal disappears, you've found it. Connect the tester to a socket or lighting point, hold the receiver to the wires in the CU and if it picks up on several, short line and neutral one by one until the signal goes out.
@@Ragnar8504 Which one do you have out of interest, not sure if I misquoted the manufacturer but the one I saw was the Megger CI (Cable Identifier). They claim never to have false positives, but doesn't say anything about accuracy of not picking up the pulse on a dead cable.
Fire sealant is a must over here, good little fine in the mail if you get picked with a gap bigger then 5mm2 and then every job is checked for how ever many
DNOs don't like making an installation live before there's a suitable board with circuits in place. Bit daft given that they mostly fit isolator switches now anyway!
Big Clive sent me! At least you are not in someones house in a cramped hall cupboard with the owners constantly bothering you with questions and watching - nothing worse than having a customer leaning over your shoulder putting you off!!! 🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕
Interesting job I'd say you stank after. Two questions, what is the band used to fix the kopex called and also a bit unrelated but what's the support wire for stringing cables from one building to another called?
@@davidfaraday3085 They do when the wires are forced to carry too much current. That's precisely how fuses work - except there's nothing around them to catch fire.
@@millomweb Why would the wires suddenly be "forced to carry too much current"?? Are you suggesting that they were incorrectly sized when the original DB was installed? If so why didn't this happen much earlier? An overloaded circuit would have tripped the MCB. It is a well known fact that fires in consumer units are almost always due to poor connections.
My college years learning as an electrician were cut short, but I've learnt more on site and helping along the way. I'm shocked at some of the so called professional work I come across and thats from from a novice like me!! Enjoy all your work, its informative, professional and enjoyable to watch....keep the videos coming lad 😁👍
Did 5 yrs apprenticeship ,its when you come out of your " time " that you really start to learn because you don't normally have someone to fall back on .
It's good Adam has seen fire damage and how to tackle the testing I feel this can only be done in the field as each fire damages are different, well done Adam good job
Agreed. I fix cars, and an apprentice hasn't truly learned until they have seen consequences and how things can go wrong. This one is a free-bee for Adam.
You two are exceptional. Brilliant job, very compliant, my bullshit detecter meter was set to high, as I've been an electrical engineer for 43 years. You didnt trigger my meter once. You might be getting a phone call.
Tbh a torque screwdriver would not necessarily solve the issue of a board fire. It might have helped but often the torque settings from the manufacturers arent good enough and you can still move the cables in the terminal. In essence not using a torque screwdriver isn't the main problem, its that a cable was loose in the terminal and probably arcing.
if something was brushing against them every day then every day was increasing the chance of an arc, thats the only way I can see it happening even when torqued correctly. tails don't move unless they're moved. my guess is the family car door mirror was clipping it every day.
I'm not an electrician, but I can see you guys took the time and effort to do a great job. You even went the extra mile by adding a light switch. Too many trades people just want to be in and out as quickly as possible or are too lazy to do the job right.
This is gonna happen alot more with wylex boards as there main switch and rcbos have recessed screws that only the slimline torque screwdriver blades fit
Great video, the white beads in the cavity wall (meter cabinet) look like expanded polystyrene - will damage the PVC insulation over time. John Ward has a video on the subject amongst others. Worth advising the occupier of the risk. 👍
Wonder how far along the cables the heat was conducted. Nice and hot. Firefighters wear medical gloves under GP gloves. This may help you when dealing with the crispy CU. Guessing the smell is horrendous. Will smell for a while. Great job. Well done!
Years ago in the auto industry we were warned never too touch burnt cables due to hideous carcinogenic problems. Don't know if household cables are the same but fire service back it up. I know you wore gloves eventually but try to never touch the stuff, we were told some horrific stuff.
Excellent repair. I have been a qualified electrician since 1982. Luckily I have not had to deal with any domestic house bashing electrics apart from friends and family 🤨. Fortunately I work on industrial repair and maintenance. I came across several burnt out installations just much bigger !! 🔌😎
What wonderful work - a long day yes but starting from the disaster you were faced with at 8 am to finish with such a neat and safe job at 8 pm deserves a pat on the back. Just a pity you're too far away to be my go to electrician.
@@nomadicsoul34 Some insulation produces hydrofluoric acid when burnt,certainly with automotive cable. It penetrates the skin and attacks bone,the only treatment is amputation.
Looking at the fire damage it looks as if most of the damage is above the MCB's and RCD's so id make a guess that it was a loose connection on the neutral bar. Unless that's the remains of the main switch hanging down then as you say a possible loose connection there... I torqued my MK one a few months ago and the main neutral connection was quite loose. Board installed 2010. Not something you think of checking. Maybe we need to have an "annual maintenance check" ... Oh yes we do it's the EICR :) but only on demand. Ever since my mother ignited a chip pan in our kitchen and I saw the damage fire scares the cra* out of me. Keep up the good work BUNDY10....
Out of interest, if you come to do a board change and there's no isolator switch for the incoming cables, do you have to get western power out or get their permission to remove the main fuse to isolate?
Hello from America, very interesting on how different we are when it comes to electricity. Enjoy watching your videos, just a bit of terminology barrier but I am learning.
A nice professional job - well done. Very neat and organised. The crimp system with junction boxes speeded up the job I expect, not like the old days where everything had screw terminals. The cause of the fire could be an interesting one. Clearly the fire started above the mcb’s and flames found all the cables going vertical. I would suspect the heaviest current circuit(s) or loose connection on the neutral side bus bar ?. I dare say the fault was there a while and no-one noticed. Perhaps the meter tails were never tightened up correctly ?, or never rechecked once they had been settled in ?. The fact that the system was extended also significant ? - two electric showers in use ?...
Wow, nice job. I'm ok with basic electrics, wiring lights, sockets, pond switches, but even if I could I wouldn't touch it and leave it to the pros. Nice job. Surprised the householder us gonna leave the the joists like that, surely needs s light sanding
18:37 what's the name/brand of the stripper adams using, I have a similar version from wish but it's not great. I'm not looking for the side stripping ones you see everywhere prefer the straight in one, thanks 😁.
Lol When Adam is testing the board with his bobble hat on and big Jacket, he looks like Kevin McCallister LOL The Job Looks great guys well done, perfect reason why EICR's are so important
28:54 Why bother with the Henley block and old tails? There is no Cut-out Fuse so you can cut the tails back close to the meter, install an Isolator and then run the new tails all the way into the CU?
Hands up who watched this unit get Clived?
Yep, watched Clive's video then came here!
Me!
Yooo! It came up randomly in suggestions and I thought hey that looks exactly like the unit I watched him go over earlier.
same straight from clives
Me!
I’m not even an electrician and yet I can’t stop watching these videos 😂
You might be an Ohmosexual?
Couldn't resist could you??
@@edglue6138 culdnt stop laughing
I love that joke
@@topchannel1000 haha
You're not alone!
I'm an old industrial electro mechanical engineer and agree that this guy is extremely professional. Great guy for such a young age. Keep up the good work.
Yes I agree very professional keep the good work up guys.
Bit of Kopex and insulation tape would have been reet.
Haha
Looked in comments for this. Did not disappoint 🤣
Big Clive's patreon squad reporting in
Big Clive's cheap-ass viewer squad ready for action.
Aye!
@@kellyrjohnson7693 Big Clive's ass squad ready for action......
The first decent and honest electrician I have seen on here that doesn't spout crap. Great job well done you!!!!
Look at Artisan Electrics too
Big Clive sent me here
15:30 Thank you for saying my mistake and not my bad
Ugh I don't think that one ever caught on over there. Most fortunately!
@Ian Clegg Not sure about shot, that's a bit far but definitely would be finna' get smacked ;)
Absolutely fantastic hand work. Master material. Adam is a lucky bloke to have you showing him the ropes. An outstanding repair, going over an above for the customer (who I am sure was breathing down your neck all day). The work with the Megger was top notch and very well worth finding. Bet the customer had no idea it was like that for years. Best Regards, Gerald Magill B.Eng in Electrical Engineering (Hons). My respect.
Congratulations to Adam, he has learnt his trade knowing his tests
Great team. Absolutely perfect apprenticeship and Boss for Adam.
Big up Nick and keep up the good work lads! 👏🏽👌🏽👍🏽
All those peculiar UK tests for ring mains.
Hi Nick, from an old spark from the 60's. I enjoyed watching you undertaking this job. This is just an observation not a criticism, wouldn't it been easier to replace the tails and to cut back burnt cables to a sound piece then used a signal injector to fined the location of all the cables rather than spend time trying to untangle that mess?
Peter.
I’m not sure about easier or quicker but it would have been enough cleaner that it would certainly have been my inclination.
I suppose being able to replicate the exact breaker values and numbering of the old circuits has some value, but honestly… this seems like a “start from fuckin’ scratch” situation if ever there was one.
Well done both of you . I think it’s every electricians nightmare that something could happen on their jobs. We all try to be diligent but having seen a missed lose neutral at a D.B that had started to over heat . I can testify to being capable of making mistakes. The trade is not only demanding, but also comes with a lot of responsibility. Seeing what can result when things do go wrong is a very sobering thought . Regards from Mike
Is putting everything on individual RCBOs the preferred way now?
Oh, and hi from Big Clive's channel!
Strongly preferred, but not essential. With Dual RCD, if one trips you lose half the circuits. John Ward does some good videos explaining the differences. See here ua-cam.com/video/WNe1xHlI5i4/v-deo.html
I wouldn't get a consumer units without individual RCBOs as they are far less annoying as you only have to work out what's on that circuit that's causing the trip instead of losing half the house and having to work out witch circuit first is causing the tripping
@@leexgx I would agree and do the same myself, but there is a cost difference which means that dual RCD units are still being installed. Annoyance is one thing, but the person building the house isn't the one who will be annoyed. Imagine how much fun it must be in the older houses with single RCD protection...
@@gavinminion8515 Hands up, lived in an older house that was single except the new basement wiring, which was a different rating and had its own box for a while. Not fun. Was super grateful when our new box was individual.
What I don't understand is ours has dual but they put all the sockets and lights on one side, bloody moronic. Surely upstairs lights and downstairs sockets on one side, reverse on the other, would make more sense? That way if it trips on the lights you can always plug in a lamp while checking for the problem.
I bet the smell in there was wonderful I've had to straighten out a blowed up board before in your hands stink for days even wearing gloves Keep On Keepin On
This is the first one of your videos I've watched and I am absolutely fascinated. My parents (U.S.) had a basement fire half a decade ago from just... 80 years? of patches on patches. The washer and dryer ran on a literal fuse box up until around 2000, which was then patched into the breaker box...
While they were on vacation, a fire started in the wall behind the box, where the old wiring for the fuse box was. Near as anyone could tell, decades of the washer and dryer running had shaken connections loose enough that when the heat kicked on, something went. We're thankful we had a neighbor watching the house who saw the smoke well before the fire got hold of the main structure. Cracked the foundation on our porch addition; the fire on the porch was stopped getting into the foyer by old asbestos siding if you can believe. Smoke damage through the whole home; we're still working on last wallpaper replacements etc. 7 years later.
We now have a massive beautiful breaker box that's well rated for all our modern appliances and wiring, plus upgrades to the upstairs, and then some. And, not labeled with masking tape...
So this video was fantastic to see, personally, to have an idea of just some of what must have been done to coordinate the spiderweb of original 2-prong cabling going through the whole house (the base wires were upgraded on repair to prepare for running grounded wiring to the upstairs), grounded cabling to the kitchen, another set of grounded cabling to the basement den, the newest grounded wiring to the basement bathroom with GFI outlets...
Thanks so much for sharing.
Good stuff Nick, Feel for the client, glad you put this out there hopefully the general public view this and realise all these improvementsl/ costs and EICR (reports) not certificates do have a valid reason, and not just making jobs for the boys, Well done 👏 👍
Be interested to know insurance company's thoughts.
The 2 of you have done a cracking job repairing that mess... 👍
Bigclive brought me here too :)
Big Clive sent me here. Top shelf work, mates. Total pro!
No way Adam "bro'd" you! The cheek of these youth today! 🤣
Also - wonder leads? Wander, wonder, same thing!
Great job though gents! Excellent work! 👍
@7:33 You can always tell a 6mm from a 10mm from the earth, 6 has the single solid core where as 10mm has the multiple stranded cores for the earth.
are you familiar with 6mm cable?
Hint, 6mm isn't solid core.
@@TheChipmunk2008hes refering to just the earth core in them 2 different sized cables :)
@@TheChipmunk2008 im clearly just talking about the cpc. Are you familiar with 6mm pvc? Or are you that unaware?
@@bluke5285 Don't know what your electrics are like, but you need to work on your English grammar. Your comment is ambiguous at best but in its current form it does imply that 6mm, 10mm and earth were different items. Lack of punctuation seems to be the problem. Just saying.
I came here after watching the Big Clive post-mortem. As I said on his video, it was the UA-cam equivalent of eating dessert before the main course.
This video is a great example of why the UK requires some fire-blocking where the cables pass through the wall. Had that not been there...
Nice clean work. So different seeing not 120/240v 60hz. In Us branch circuits are going Combo arc fault/ magnetic overload breakers. Just a lower MA trip here.
Very relaxing to watch
Great work I'm doing a domestic Installers course at the moment and all your videos are always informative. Hope Adam realises how lucky he is to have someone willing to teach him and tech him the right way. Keep up the great work.
Surely that's the WHOLE point of an apprenticeship?
domestic installers courses are dangerous in my opinion, all tradesman should be time served its the only way you get the experience needed to be competent at the job, seen many jobs messed up with "electricians" who have done 6 week courses.
I served a 4 year indentured Apprenticeship plus an extra 2 years day release to get my HNC. Not a fast of these short courses I'm afraid.
why didnt you just run new mains tails ? the main board is just behind the wall
Great video nick, as a firefighter currently retaining as a spark found this this interesting as go to 2 or 3 of these a year. Good to see gloves as that fire damage is full of carcinogens that will be absorbed by the body that can lead to cancer.
Guy with Batman cap. Top lad! Great work in this video. Learning so much from you mate. Keep up the good work.
Fantastic job guys; and great video too. Quite apart from the actual cause of the fire to start with, a great case study for why DNO's should be obliged by law to put a customer operable isolator between the cut out / meter and the board / service splitter ... customer very lucky to have got away relatively lightly but (assuming they were on site when it happened) with an isolator they could have removed the source of ignition before the service fuse went ..... might already have been too late to make the damage less than it was but on the other hand might have helped a bit.
Absolutely spot on one of the reason we have now under our code all external disconnects. I actually spent having them done.
I have an overhead supply with the DNO's supply cable running through my loft then dropping into the meter cupboard. The CU is mounted below the meter board so if my CU burned with the ferocity that the one in the video clearly did it would have set fire to the meter board destroying the meter, cut-out and the insulation off the end on the DNO's supply cable. So although I have an isolator switch, mounted on the meter board, it wouldn't help in the least with a similar fire. There is an in-line fuse in the cable just outside the house but its 30 ft above the ground and spliced into the supply cable, so not exactly convenient to pull in an emergency.
Yeah, but that might cost the DNO a couple of quid extra and that isn't going to happen.
They will merrily chuck in Smart Meters, running into ancient Consumer units, and then when that board finally is going to be upgraded, I have to call them back in to put a switch in - and they charge the customer around £50. I'm sure they must be paying the contractor more than that to come back and do it, so why not just do it as standard anyway, especially if the consumer unit isn't fairly new and is probably going to be changed in the near-ish future?
It's just a pain in the arse trying to decide whether to cut the seals on the main fuse when they have only been on for a couple of months, rather than having to wait a fortnight for them to come back and put a switch on so I can disconnect and replace the consumer unit. (And of course, we never cut the seals, right guys? ;-) )
@@Mr.MFuckingYTchangedmyname It isn't the DNO that installs smart meters, its the metering companies contracted by the energy suppliers.
@@davidfaraday3085 Gimme a break, I've only just got out of the habit of referring to the Electricity Board, haha!
Of course, I used "DNO" there incongruously, for the sake of brevity - really meaning "Them" (upstream of the consumer's installation) as opposed to "Us" (the end user or those of us needing to safely disconnect the supply whenever necessary).
I didn't really want to get into DNO/Meter Operator/Energy Supplier relationships and who does what, but at the end of the day, it's the DNO's network and they must have some sort of agreement with those they contractually allow to install equipment.
It's surely not beyond the wit of man to ensure that an isolator is fitted whenever new cutouts/meters are installed or altered, by the aforementioned "Them", so that a safe disconnection can be made easily and conveniently? Or, they should stop getting shirty about cut seals and pulled fuses!
I really liked this video, was cool seeing you two diagnose the mess at the beginning in almost real time. Nice little change of pace, especially having a camera guy for some of it.
Great video and the finished job looked neat and very professional. I think the assumption that the fire was probably caused by a slack terminal is right and as another commenter had pointed out that there is an important difference between torque and tightness as over tightening can cause significant damage and stress on a terminal. I would point out that I am not an electrician but my life has been spent in the aerospace industry where instruction on torque tightening was a full 2 day course! The other point is that had the CU been a metal unit and sealed correctly then the fire would most likely have been contained and avoided a lot of the damage. My CU is in my attached garage and I have a smoke/heat detector in there for peace of mind. Keep up the good work and finally thank you for the effort you put in to produce some excellent content which we can all benefit from.
Very lucky they still have a house. Good work lads. Wouldn’t it have been easier to replace all the fire damaged cable, identify the rings with end to end test then install the C/U, liven up and identify the other circuits once live?
The fire service and DNO were involved, meaning until all the dead tests are done and you're ready to live test they will not put the fuse in. It's just the legislative steps you have to carry out after an incident like this.
I didn’t want to risk anything being live until I knew exactly what did what bud
Top video mate. Makes you realise the importance of tightening things up properly.
It's not a game we're playing, people can die due to sloppy installation.
Brilliant job guys, its great to say that a visible hatch is needed in that bathroom for the junction extentions, people would just tell the customer to plaster board it in. The water pipe that was hanging off the wall where you were working would have bugged me, dont ask me why but I would have been scared in case I snagged on it and burst it, so I would have secured it to wall. I feel sorry for the bloke of that house. But still a brilliant job you did.
Why does it need to be accessible??
Wonder what would have happened if it was a metal board.
I wanna try it out some time
Depends on the load, if the heat build up from a loose connection is enough the enclosure will stay intact but the wires and protective devices can melt internal and external of the metal casing. What likely saved this property in all honesty was the fact it was a plastic consumer unit, the earth bar support melted and dropped into the meter tails causing the DNO fuse to pop.
I imagine look rather un healthy. But not spread like this did. If the relevant fire proofing was put it would probably run out of oxygen before any sizeable flame could get going. But I imagine arcing would continue for much longer if not indefinitely. Will be interesting if afdd's will really make it in to the domestic world and just how far they will achually go. I've never seen much arcing damage apart from on large incoming supplys. Generally caused by people not ensureing tails are correctly tight, then wiggle then Re check tighness. Easy to do especially once the bored is energised. Personally on every eicr tails should be checked to the correct torque. But that gets a bit iffy with "working live"
@@jenton93 I've worked in commercial across continents for the majority of my career and the biggest hazards are always large amp loads and incomers. Factories and alike have always had metal enclosures for the most part and it hasn't been uncommon to attend and find the heat build up has migrated outside the enclosure which has then caused a fire (proximity to combustible materials). AFDD's in that situation would help protect against the fault. I am however against AFDD's in a domestic setting for 32 amp and below, above makes sense below does not.
Also tails should be checked on every EICR for the correct torque. Caveat in the regs allows working live where it is impractical or unsafe to turn off. Checking tails for correct torque falls under that.
I was an electrician, now retired, In australia we used to use mains in 100A fuse, main breaker manual only, ELCB. for wet areas, 8A breakers for lights. 16 amp breakers for power points, 32 amp fuse for oven / cooktopm, 32A for hot water, plus others for Air Conditioner hot water boost element etc. had a problem with one circuit, the hot water service. the fuse holder had a badly treaded screw even though it was tight it wasnt gripping the wire 100 percent. the screw was missing about two turns worth of thread. the inital punn and jiggle the wires then retighten the screw didn't reveal a problem. It took about a month before it failed. Had to remove the fuse holder and clean up the wire hole in the fibreglass panel then refit a new fuse carrier and no more problems.
Great video and give Adam a payrise. 12 hour shift without complaining. What month was this done. you both looked cold. Do you have any more like this. BTW big clive Sent me.
Great work Nick & Congratulations to Adam for learning his skills. Being an electricians is like artwork of cable management which done right, looks awesome to have some pride over it. Excellent video Nick... Keep them coming bro.
Have a look into cable identifiers (tracers), clip it onto a de-energised cable and walk around with a probe. Don't need to take off accessories either, saves a lot of time. It sends out a pulse on the cable and the battery operated receiver picks it up. They claim to be 100% accurate with no false positives.
I've got a relatively cheap one and definitely wouldn't say 100% accurate but if you've got access to the other end of the cable you're looking at, you can short it and if the signal disappears, you've found it. Connect the tester to a socket or lighting point, hold the receiver to the wires in the CU and if it picks up on several, short line and neutral one by one until the signal goes out.
@@Ragnar8504 Which one do you have out of interest, not sure if I misquoted the manufacturer but the one I saw was the Megger CI (Cable Identifier). They claim never to have false positives, but doesn't say anything about accuracy of not picking up the pulse on a dead cable.
I love how neatly you have done everything.
Its always the last one you try , when you find it , you don't try any more ..lol
Fire sealant is a must over here, good little fine in the mail if you get picked with a gap bigger then 5mm2 and then every job is checked for how ever many
Wow thats mad
Brilliant bit of workmanship fantastic board well done guys
Did you try turning it off and on again??
Could you have called western the moment you made the tails good into the henley?
DNOs don't like making an installation live before there's a suitable board with circuits in place. Bit daft given that they mostly fit isolator switches now anyway!
@@farmersteve129
They mostly fit isolator switches? Maybe around your way.
Big Clive sent me!
At least you are not in someones house in a cramped hall cupboard with the owners constantly bothering you with questions and watching - nothing worse than having a customer leaning over your shoulder putting you off!!!
🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕
Good video guys, what a mess that was. Welldone for sorting your way through that and not just hacking it apart in a rush.
Interesting job I'd say you stank after. Two questions, what is the band used to fix the kopex called and also a bit unrelated but what's the support wire for stringing cables from one building to another called?
In north America we call the supporting cable from one point to another "messenger" , from the pole to the building it's also the neutral conductor.
Given the extreme proximity of the meter box, why not pull through new earth and main tails?
What was powered up just before the fire? May hint as to what circuit was faulty.
It looked to me that the fire started in the main switch, probably due to loose connections
@@davidfaraday3085 I think it was in the wires to the RH RCD as these wires run behind the main sw close to the incoming wires.
@@millomweb Fires start at connections, not in wires.
@@davidfaraday3085 They do when the wires are forced to carry too much current.
That's precisely how fuses work - except there's nothing around them to catch fire.
@@millomweb Why would the wires suddenly be "forced to carry too much current"?? Are you suggesting that they were incorrectly sized when the original DB was installed? If so why didn't this happen much earlier? An overloaded circuit would have tripped the MCB.
It is a well known fact that fires in consumer units are almost always due to poor connections.
My college years learning as an electrician were cut short, but I've learnt more on site and helping along the way. I'm shocked at some of the so called professional work I come across and thats from from a novice like me!!
Enjoy all your work, its informative, professional and enjoyable to watch....keep the videos coming lad 😁👍
Did 5 yrs apprenticeship ,its when you come out of your " time " that you really start to learn because you don't normally have someone to fall back on .
Just ordered some EnviroBurst and Intumescent strip for my shed DB... that looked a tough job to unpick and re-connect. Great job both!
Very good work lads, that's probably the best Electricians video on UA-cam. Class!!.
It's good Adam has seen fire damage and how to tackle the testing I feel this can only be done in the field as each fire damages are different, well done Adam good job
Agreed. I fix cars, and an apprentice hasn't truly learned until they have seen consequences and how things can go wrong. This one is a free-bee for Adam.
Great work, neat job, staying late to finish it. You're good lads for others to follow. Adam is lucky to have you.
Excellent job nick,
That looked like a fecking nightmare of a job. But you and Adam got it sorted , well done lads 👍👍
Fantastic video as always
Liking the battery hover! I have one too. Handy bit of kit
Cor I know exactly what that garage stanks like! I did a rewire on a property that had fire damage throughout. Rank!
Great video 👍👍
Excellent job. If I ever need an electrician I hope I'll find one this good.
Not an electrician but I’m astounded by your professionalism! Meticulous working out of what was a horrendous s**t show!!!
Very scary and very lucky - could definitely have been quite nasty! Excellent job dealing with all of that, it cannot have been fun!
What a lovely job you made of that unit. Very impressive work mate. A Real Credit to you. I bet the customer was made up with the result.
You two are exceptional. Brilliant job, very compliant, my bullshit detecter meter was set to high, as I've been an electrical engineer for 43 years. You didnt trigger my meter once. You might be getting a phone call.
Holy crap! What a mess to have to clean up! Is this how they wire houses in the UK?!
Tbh a torque screwdriver would not necessarily solve the issue of a board fire. It might have helped but often the torque settings from the manufacturers arent good enough and you can still move the cables in the terminal. In essence not using a torque screwdriver isn't the main problem, its that a cable was loose in the terminal and probably arcing.
if something was brushing against them every day then every day was increasing the chance of an arc, thats the only way I can see it happening even when torqued correctly. tails don't move unless they're moved.
my guess is the family car door mirror was clipping it every day.
Great video only comment could you have pulled in new tails instead of Henly blick
I'm not an electrician, but I can see you guys took the time and effort to do a great job. You even went the extra mile by adding a light switch. Too many trades people just want to be in and out as quickly as possible or are too lazy to do the job right.
This is gonna happen alot more with wylex boards as there main switch and rcbos have recessed screws that only the slimline torque screwdriver blades fit
Great video, the white beads in the cavity wall (meter cabinet) look like expanded polystyrene - will damage the PVC insulation over time. John Ward has a video on the subject amongst others. Worth advising the occupier of the risk. 👍
Great job on sorting out that charcoaled consumer unit. Brilliant result at the end.👍🏼 Adam is doing really well with all his testing knowledge. 👏🏼
Mate that's terrifying, they were very lucky. Cracking job on your work.
Wonder how far along the cables the heat was conducted. Nice and hot.
Firefighters wear medical gloves under GP gloves. This may help you when dealing with the crispy CU. Guessing the smell is horrendous. Will smell for a while.
Great job. Well done!
Yes burnt electrics smells fishy.
cjr did a videoon consumer board fires.. he had a plastic tube you put inside the board and if it catches fire it pops and puts out the fire..
Hey I've got the same vacuumcleaner from Bosch. Nice piece of kit.
Years ago in the auto industry we were warned never too touch burnt cables due to hideous carcinogenic problems. Don't know if household cables are the same but fire service back it up. I know you wore gloves eventually but try to never touch the stuff, we were told some horrific stuff.
Excellent repair. I have been a qualified electrician since 1982. Luckily I have not had to deal with any domestic house bashing electrics apart from friends and family 🤨. Fortunately I work on industrial repair and maintenance. I came across several burnt out installations just much bigger !! 🔌😎
What wonderful work - a long day yes but starting from the disaster you were faced with at 8 am to finish with such a neat and safe job at 8 pm deserves a pat on the back. Just a pity you're too far away to be my go to electrician.
It might have been cjr or artisan but they showed some fuse board fire defences
It was CJR
😂😂
Artisan is too expensive for that.
CJR showed the fire defence, that was a brilliant little pice of equipment that went into that consumer unit.
@@shaynemacdonald3051 he show you how for 1k
That new board is beautiful. Nice work.
Nice job. Doing a great job with Adam. He is knocking out the park.
Well done on doing a great job, Should suggest to the customer to fit a smoke detector in the garage. Another great video
Good idea
Heat detector for garage
Gloves on when handling burnt cable as carcinogenic and can be absorbed through the skin (I was told)
I thought that when watching m8
I think that's the case if fire-fighting foam is used.
I remember learning years ago during my fire service officers exams that PVC cables create Hydrogen Cyanide when burnt.
@@nomadicsoul34 Some insulation produces hydrofluoric acid when burnt,certainly with automotive cable. It penetrates the skin and attacks bone,the only treatment is amputation.
@@nomadicsoul34 Hydrogen cyanide is not carcinogenic but a fast acting poison.It will evaporate quickly,boils around 25C.
Looking at the fire damage it looks as if most of the damage is above the MCB's and RCD's so id make a guess that it was a loose connection on the neutral bar. Unless that's the remains of the main switch hanging down then as you say a possible loose connection there...
I torqued my MK one a few months ago and the main neutral connection was quite loose. Board installed 2010. Not something you think of checking. Maybe we need to have an "annual maintenance check" ... Oh yes we do it's the EICR :) but only on demand.
Ever since my mother ignited a chip pan in our kitchen and I saw the damage fire scares the cra* out of me. Keep up the good work BUNDY10....
Looking at the MCB the NSB type where recalled due to setting on fire. I’ve replaced a couple of these
I'm glad we've always had metal enclosures in the US.
So much for safety fuse. or switch?
Out of interest, if you come to do a board change and there's no isolator switch for the incoming cables, do you have to get western power out or get their permission to remove the main fuse to isolate?
No safety first cut the seal and pull the cutout fuse. They might moan but tough.
I wonder if the fire had anything to do with the recall wylex had on its mcbs a few years ago. Possibility if it was a wylex board..
Hello from America, very interesting on how different we are when it comes to electricity. Enjoy watching your videos, just a bit of terminology barrier but I am learning.
19:14 What was in the bag?
Do you tag them to identify them after you cut them off the main board .
A nice professional job - well done. Very neat and organised. The crimp system with junction boxes speeded up the job I expect, not like the old days where everything had screw terminals. The cause of the fire could be an interesting one. Clearly the fire started above the mcb’s and flames found all the cables going vertical. I would suspect the heaviest current circuit(s) or loose connection on the neutral side bus bar ?. I dare say the fault was there a while and no-one noticed. Perhaps the meter tails were never tightened up correctly ?, or never rechecked once they had been settled in ?. The fact that the system was extended also significant ? - two electric showers in use ?...
Wow, nice job. I'm ok with basic electrics, wiring lights, sockets, pond switches, but even if I could I wouldn't touch it and leave it to the pros. Nice job. Surprised the householder us gonna leave the the joists like that, surely needs s light sanding
18:37 what's the name/brand of the stripper adams using, I have a similar version from wish but it's not great. I'm not looking for the side stripping ones you see everywhere prefer the straight in one, thanks 😁.
Why not replace the tails from the meter to the board to save the use of henry blocks
Meter sealed and didn’t want to pull cables thru wall I expect.
Why are you not allowed to put in a main fuse you said earlier about waiting for the electric company to do it ?
Lol When Adam is testing the board with his bobble hat on and big Jacket, he looks like Kevin McCallister LOL The Job Looks great guys well done, perfect reason why EICR's are so important
Can't wait for Adam to start launching paint cans down the stairs like He did in Home Alone🤣
@@paultipton743 or when he electrocutes Marv in the 2nd.... Watch out Nick, you could be Marv if you tell him to get off his phone again 😉
Only a couple of vids ago he was still wearing the snickers shorts now he's looks like he's off on a ski holiday
So true. 😂 He’s in a garage though.
Is there such a device that listens for arcing and cuts the main if it senses a bad connector? Maybe an Alexa option in the future. :)
Would metal enclosures be a better choice to prevent this type of damage!!!
Hi Nick surprised you are not using the fusebox module blanks (ADRB) that sit on the din rail much better than the gash metal ones they supply
I use a dentist mirror to check the bus bar is well located into the bottom of the mcbs.
This looks like a good fire !!!
28:54 Why bother with the Henley block and old tails? There is no Cut-out Fuse so you can cut the tails back close to the meter, install an Isolator and then run the new tails all the way into the CU?