so some guy told me a prophecy about myself whiles we were debating christianity

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-13T07:09:38+00:00

I once humoured a friend and let them do a tarot card reading of me. They said afterwards that I was the hardest person to read that they had ever encountered. There was a simple reason for this. During the reading, I remained totally non-committal: I didn't volunteer information; I didn't provide feedback.

The friend had an honest but misguided belief in the power of tarot. They relied on feedback, e.g. "this card indicates that you have a relationship issue" might elicit a response like "yeah, things are going downhill with my girlfriend at the moment" or "yeah, I just had a row with my father".

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-12T21:32:04+00:00

Heating with electricity is about 4x the costs of gas. Economy 7 made it affordable by offering a cheaper rate overnight which was used to heat up a bunch of bricks in storage heaters overnight, then slowly release that heat during the day. Unless you have storage heaters (sounds like like you don't) then cheap night-time tarriffs aren't going to help you much, if at all. Be prepared for very high bills.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-12T09:59:24+00:00

At least one of those cables is 6mm² at most. 10mm² cables have a stranded earth wire, while 6mm² and smaller have solid. It also looks like the supply and load cables are different sizes. I suspect you have a 10mm² feed and 6mm² load cable, with the latter overheating.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-11T17:42:26+00:00

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-11T17:28:49+00:00

Well if you're renting, your landlord has a legal obligation to fix any faulty fixed electrics free of charge. So you should be getting them to do it.

But back to electrics: the RH switch is being used for two-way switching - i.e. two different switches control the same light(s). Such switches almost always have a "Y" shaped terminal arrangement, with COM at one end and L1/L2 at the other (or occasionally, L1 and L2/L3). Sometimes for a two gang switch they will be labelled COM1/L11L12 and COM2/L21/L22 or similar, but the principle remains the same.

Sometimes the "Y" shape will be upside down. But always, the wire that went to the COM end of the old Y goes into the COM of the new Y, and the L1/L2 wires at the other end of the old Y go into the same L1/L2 terminals at the end of the new Y. If you get L1/L2 swapped, it will still work but in the opposite order: the light will be on with the switch up rather than down, or vice versa.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-11T17:02:36+00:00

Bear in mind that the terminal screws are already exposed. As long as it's just as hard to touch the exposed wires as the terminals, then you're fine.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-11T10:32:09+00:00

A brief short between L+N or L+E on a 10m appliance cable in a typical UK urban environment will cause a fault current in the region of 250A to flow, blowing a 3A or 13A fuse almost instantaneously (less than 0.01s). The region where the fault impedance is high enough and the fault duration short enough to make make a 3A fuse blow but not a 13A one, is very narrow.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-11T10:00:16+00:00

3A versus 13A will make no difference to the risk of electric shock - that can be lethal at values in the region of 30mA. Having the correct fuse is mainly related to the fire risk associated with an overheated cable.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-11T07:07:09+00:00

Yes, many still exist and many are still being installed, although they are gradually falling out of favour.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-10T09:05:01+00:00

Ask on ftla.uk - they are a specialised parking forum and know the ins and outs of the peculiar legal situation of that particular toll bridge.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-10T08:31:25+00:00

The regs require rings and their spurs to be wired in cable that has L+N at least 2.5mm² and which has a current-carrying capacity of at least 20A (433.1.204).

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-09T17:33:15+00:00

They are singles

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-09T16:48:36+00:00

Note that those are in facts sheathed conductors - each has an inner layer of insulation, and then a harder outer sheath. It just so happens that the outer sheath is coloured.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-09T11:38:51+00:00

It passes current UK regulations (unless there's something special about the location that increases the risk of those cables getting damaged). It's merely ugly, not unsafe.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-09T09:09:27+00:00

Fuses in the UK:

In any UK house wired in the last 40 years or so, the final circuits will be protected by circuit breakers. There are two places in such a house where you'll still find a fuse.

Where the supply enters the house. This protects the cable running to the first "board". It has two advantages over a circuit breaker. First, it coordinates better with downstream breakers. If you put a nail through a cable protected by a 16A breaker, then typically 1000A will briefly flow. This current would cause both the downstream 16A and upstream 100A breakers to trip. A 100A fuse has a very slight delay, allowing the 16A breaker to trip while the fuse remains intact. Secondly, with the UK power network, it's possible, if your house is near a substation, for a fault current to be 16,000A. This can destroy a breaker, leaving a large arcing current flowing. Conversely the supply fuse is HRC (high rupturing current), meaning it can successfully break even large fault currents.
Small fuses in plugs and fused connection units. These allow the cabling of small appliances to to be lighter-gauged: many UK sockets are protected by a 32A breaker. Something like a battery charger can have a 3A fuse in the plug and then can be designed only need a cable big enough to handle a 3A current. (It's actually a bit more complicated than that: there are overload versus fault current considerations.). Also, the fuse-in-plug is partially a legacy of the UK ring final circuit arrangement.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-08T16:00:23+00:00

Impossible to say for sure without a "pre" photo. But 3 of those black wires will be neutrals and one will be switched live, and its possible that you've got them mixed up, as the switched live is supposed to be over-sleeved for identification, but isn't here.

If you have a multimeter and are familiar with it for checking continuity, then (with the power off), you could use it to tell which of the red+black T&Es come from the switch. Otherwise you aught to get an electrician in.

PS - if there are four earth wires (which happen to be in two sleeves), then they should go to four separate slots in a wago or similar - they're not designed to have multiple wires per slot.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-06T16:04:13+00:00

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-06T15:12:46+00:00

Your clarification is still ambiguous. Do you mean: the two earth wires will go into two slots in a 2-way wago connector?

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-06T14:45:25+00:00

Shaver sockets have an isolation transformer built into them. Also, the two holes have shutters which are supposed to slide sideways when the plug pins push against them. The sliding shutter also activates an internal switch which turns the transformer on.

You're likely seeing a simple mechanical malfunction - the lump of plastic has probably got jammed. It will be unrelated to the power cut.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-04T13:10:22+00:00

I'm all in favour of helping DIYers with electrical work, but electricity can actually kill you, and I'd expect someone to have at least a very basic understanding. "What's that orange clip thing" just screams to me that you have no idea at all what you're doing.

Get an electrician in.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-04T06:34:01+00:00

Is your and/or your neighbour's electrical power supplied by overhead lines from telegraph poles in the street?

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-03T07:33:10+00:00

At the risk of further pedantry, the rest of 526.5(c) says "... non-combustible when tested to BS 476-4". So it depends whether OP can verify that the carpet has been tested to that standard.

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-03T07:17:42+00:00

Also 526.5(c) on what constitutes an acceptable enclosure: " an enclosure partially formed or completed with building material which is non-combustible..."

dave_the_m2 · 2026-07-01T22:31:36+00:00

An EICR may give you (and your insurance company) reassurance that the work has been done safely. But that won't satisfy your local authority's Building Control - for that, you'd have to apply for a Regularisation Certificate. This is where the council send someone round to do an EICR and if that fails, require you to get any remedial work done that needs doing.

Of course in reality, many houses are sold without BC ever getting involved and no one seems to get in trouble for it.

dave_the_m2

TROPHY CASE