electrical question again....lol....

helpimcrap

helpimcrap

helpimcrap

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Joined
13 Jan 2004
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Location
Leicestershire
got the shower in, all wired up now, waters connected, switched on, and is not leaking etc.

my question is as it won't actually power up and i need to check something:

red is live, green/yellow is earth and black is neutral.
is that right? i always thought black was earth but after looking on the web it appears yellow/green is and that's how it was wired up.

next step is to start stripping apart the cupboards to see if the wire is actually connected. :confused:
 
Unless you are 100% sure what you are doing, then call in an expert.

Black and red wire codes were phased out ages ago.

So unless you you want to get yourself in hot water (see the amazing pun there). Get some one in, as it is technically illegal to muck about with electrics in your pad.

The shower should be connected by an RCD, has that tripped?
 
So, how long have you had this death wish?


If that is the quality of your knowledge on the subject, I really must say GET A PROFESSIONAL IN!!
 
it will all be checked by a sparky afterwards for the house insurance so don't worry. however i'm not going to call in a sparky when there's no sparks lol. gonna cost me a fortune - got quoted £5k to do this and so far it's cost me about £250 so all i need to do is get it checked at the end.

deathwish? i dunno..... i can remember testing the wires coming through the ceiling to see if they were live. so i touched them and nothing- so they weren't. ;)

will take a lot more than that to kill me. ;)
 
helpimcrap said:
it will all be checked by a sparky afterwards for the house insurance so don't worry. however i'm not going to call in a sparky when there's no sparks lol. gonna cost me a fortune - got quoted £5k to do this and so far it's cost me about £250 so all i need to do is get it checked at the end.

deathwish? i dunno..... i can remember testing the wires coming through the ceiling to see if they were live. so i touched them and nothing- so they weren't. ;)

will take a lot more than that to kill me. ;)
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£5k to wire a shower in :confused:
 
JBuk said:
£5k to wire a shower in :confused:
Click to expand...

essentially it was a bare room with wiring for isolation switch and shower plastered in. all the rest had to be done.

so i've done:
tiled 4 walls from floor to ceiling, put a shower base in and got it all plumbed in for waste, fitted a shower door (had to create a 1" partition from chipboard for that), grouted it all, painted it all, fitted the shower. after thats all sorted the wash basin will be plumbed in too.
 
JBuk said:
£5k still sounds way way too much for that
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i completely agree. tiling would be about 3 days work, fitting shower a day and base a day, and door a day etc.

the reason no one wanted to touch it was coz my dad had started the wiring before he died and thats whats causing the issue now.
 
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really shouldnt be touching any electrics if u dont know what colour wire is what without searching the net! to be safe i would get a voltage tester pen for a couple of quid from your local electrical wholesaler, this will tell u if any cables are live just by putting it near the cable in question. this will also tell u if you have a live feed running from your fuse board to your isolator switch and then to the shower unit, if both of these show up as live then your problem is on the neutral side of the wiring. if your fuse boards are that old they possibly wont have any rcd protection so a seperate rcd would need to be installed to pass the part p test. I would install a new fuseboard if u feel safe and comfortable doing this that way u will be all upto date with the latest 17th edition if everything is fine circuit wise. Each ring main or spur should be on its own seperate fuse and should have the appropriate fuse for its use. A descent electrian should charge around £350 for a new fuse board and to bring you earth cabling upto the required 10mm for gas and water main bonding. They will then test every circuit for continuity and test the residual current. I would advise this purely because if you ever sell the house you will need to be upto date and your insurance company will require proof the house is safe.
 
helpimcrap said:
deathwish? i dunno..... i can remember testing the wires coming through the ceiling to see if they were live. so i touched them and nothing- so they weren't. ;)
Click to expand...

I use a voltmeter, but when testing a cupboard light switch the leads were a few feet short of my ground. Got my brother to hold the test probe with one hand and touch the hot water boiler with the other to make up the gap, test meter said 220V, brother said "AAAAAR".

Yep, live.
 
well when ya house burns down you gunna wish you got that sparky in. I can see this ending in disaster!

Oh and i do hope u have smoke alarms fitted ?
 
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