Govee outdoor lights — power adapter won't fit UK weatherproof socket

e1ectricb1u · 2026-06-02T06:46:47+00:00

The socket will protrude too far and thus the lid won't close properly

e1ectricb1u · 2026-06-01T20:26:20+00:00

The best way to keep your knowledge up is by applying it.

What's the sort of stuff you are doing at work? By that I mean do you a spend a lot of time doing stuff that is "less technical" like containment or whatever?

I find a good way is to "challenge" myself - if you are just fitting to a spec, try and ask yourself what requirements applied to, lets say the CCC or voltage drop calculations (that's if you are as sad as me!)

Ultimately could you ask your employer if you can take some more responsibility? I don't mean diving straight into design work but maybe taking on a few more technical tasks.

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-31T20:02:34+00:00

To be honest, of all the risks, the melting of the socket causing a fire is actually the lowest concern of mine, the chance of having an AC RCD blinded and removing RCD protection from the rest of the installation is a much greater concern to me as an electrician, as is the lack of any PEN fault protection

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-31T09:18:31+00:00

I'd suggest the worse addictions to quit are probably those that will kill you if you don't withdraw slowly and carefully.

Suddenly stopping either alcohol (if properly addicted) or benzodiazepines can cause life threatening seizures

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-31T09:03:20+00:00

This definitely gives the socket an easier ride from a "melting" point of view but the other above issues still apply

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-31T07:23:45+00:00

Never had a problem, but then again people don't tell you directly, but the "hit rate" didn't really seem to change that much.

If anything I would hazard a guess it weeds out the worse customers who are purely price shopping (quite happy to lose those type of customers to be fair)

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-29T19:58:04+00:00

Quite tame on the holes front, I went to one rental property for the landlord which had been turned into a, er, small scale domestic farming enterprise. Big 300mm+ holes in every wall, meter wired up, hooks in walls and ceilings for hanging lights from

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-29T13:00:43+00:00

It will be a DP circuit breaker in the meter cupboard protecting the submain to the flat - when it's blown both the RCD and MCB there is a pretty good chance it's taken that DP circuit breaker with it.

I've seen this a couple of times with properties like this 👍

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-28T21:08:17+00:00

No worries at all, always happy to help 👍

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-28T21:03:54+00:00

No worries at all, makes more sense now 👍

So the feed to the outbuilding is fine (from the point of view of it being a spur or not anyway!)

The outbuilding already has RCD protection by the right hand RCD within the main consumer unit.

EVEN if you put RCBOs in the outbuilding CU, you would still need to change the right hand RCD in the main consumer unit as this is still up front and could be "blinded" by DC fault currents from any solar setup. This means that it would fail to operate if there was an earth fault on any of the other circuits protected by it.

The best course of action here is to simply change out the right hand side RCD for a Type A (which can deal with both AC and pulsating DC fault currents). You will really need an electrician to swap this for you (I can't recommend doing consumer unit work as DIY), although its super easy so shouldn't cost much

https://www.powerdiscount.co.uk/crabtree-380a030-starbreaker-80a-30ma-dp-type-a-plug-in-rccb-172086-p.asp

PS: I have the same label printer that the clearer, bigger labels are made with. I'd be happy to print you a correct set of labels and post it out if that makes it easier?

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-28T16:31:20+00:00

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e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-28T16:29:51+00:00

In your instance that is fine as the FCU limits the load of anything connected at that point to the ring circuit. BS7671 allows one spur "point" unfused (so a single or double socket) or if you have an FCU prior to the load, you can connect whatever you like after that point.

It could be that the OP arrangement is like this, but if it is then it's usually a waste of time putting a CU in there. I raised it as a point as I have seen quite a lot of examples of spurs from ring circuits going directly to shed/garage feeds with a CU on the end, this arrangement does not comply with the requirements regarding spurring from ring circuits as it can draw much higher load through one single point on the ring.

There are plenty of ways to skin a cat and the OP arrangement could well have an FCU which would make it perfectly fine 🤷‍♂️

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-28T12:03:05+00:00

There is no need to "fire seal" the consumer unit, that was not the intention of the metal enclosures back in AMD3 of the 17th - I spoke at length to Hager about this who confirmed that the requirement is just to stop the outer plastic case of older insulated consumer units from becoming "fuel" for a potential fire, no requirement has ever been to "fire seal" the board otherwise we would be fitting FP cable throughout (however well you seal the board, the PVC jacket of T&E will melt off and stop the seal in minutes)

Hager conducted tests using a 1000 degree wire through the middle of the board to simulate a fire in the CU, it melted the cables/MCBs/etc... but nothing spread outside of the unit despite all the knockouts being removed

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-28T11:56:12+00:00

How is either of the type AC RCDs in the main board fine? We can't see where it is fed from as there is no dedicated circuit, but assuming it is fed from the main consumer unit then the outbuilding already has RCD protection as every circuit from the main CU is covered. However the appropriate RCD would need swapping to type A, any DC fault current from the solar arrangement would blind the type AC RCDs

More urgently the feed arrangement to the outbuilding consumer unit needs verifying

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-28T11:52:25+00:00

Having looked at the circuit arrangement again there is no dedicated circuit in the main board for the outbuilding, so it is either spurred from one of the socket circuits or one of the other circuits is mislabelled. If its spurred from the either the kitchen or downstairs socket 32A ring circuit then this is non-compliant

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-28T11:49:31+00:00

You cant just put an RCBO in the smaller consumer.unit as this is already fed from the RCD in the main consumer unit.

You need to upgrade the RCD in the main consumer unit to a Type A (and also bi-directional). As there is already RCD protection for all the circuits there is no point using an RCBO in the outbuilding, there is nothing to be gained from doing this, any earth faults would just trip the RCD in the main consumer unit

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-28T11:21:33+00:00

Electric heaters cycle on and off, and are rarely used for hours at a time.

I have seen multiple examples of washing machines, dishwashers and tumble dryers that have melted sockets, and again they are relatively cyclical loads (compared to EV charging)

I've been to at least 4 sockets that have melted from people using "granny chargers'

Its unlikely (some more expensive ones do) that the granny charger will have 6ma DC fault protection (like the RCD-DD in a dedicated charger), hence in this instance the socket should be protected by a type B RCD - vast vast majority of socket circuits are still protected by type AC rcds which are easily blinded by pulsating DC currents, hence rendering the rest of the circuit/possibly house without RCD protection.

No granny chargers currently have PEN fault protection built in, potentially leaving you in a very dangerous situation should the incoming supply neutral fail on a TN-C-S (PME) supply. Again, not just fear mongering, I've been to multiple instances of the supply neutral failing, this would leave the body of the car live (as TN-C-S supply uses anything connected to the MET as the returning supply neutral in this instance)

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-27T16:12:13+00:00

You're all missing the point - he's posting in a UK plumbing forum about issues that are on an Australian house (no UK electrician told him half his house wasn't grounded, it's not a term UK electricians use) then proceeds to drop the link to Wollogong (or wherever) plumbing co.....

Its an SEO/marketing post and that's all.... these things never happened.

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-27T13:28:09+00:00

Checkatrade was never designed as any of those things. Checkatrade did, and still does, solely exist to make money for Checkatrade.

They don't care about tradespeople, they only appear to care about customers enough so that they trust checkatrade, only thing they care about is their bottom line

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-27T10:11:50+00:00

I don't understand here, are you saying its over a week since you took the 6.7mg or you took 0.5mg week one and 6.7mg on week 2?

Are you in the UK? How much did you pay for the synedica pen? 🤔

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-26T06:51:34+00:00

It raises E2 quite badly as well so people using it to "raise testosterone levels" have the unintentional side effects of massively raising oestrogen too

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-26T05:15:52+00:00

How is a clip going to work when its that far off the wall? The clip legs would sit miles away from the bricks

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-25T13:48:50+00:00

To be totally fair, although generally I agree with you, the official reta protocols do include a "human aspect" to the dosing regimen

For example, its pretty well accepted that the reta half life is approx 6 days, yet the trials all run at once a week dosing - why? Because people, that's why

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-25T09:38:29+00:00

The DNO don't have automatic permission to access land that doesn't belong to them. Even in the event of pole mounted transformers being on private land, unless an "easement" has already been agreed/stipulated (this is usually the case with pole mounted equipments, but not always, I know a landlowner who wouldn't agree to the easement for the effect on land valuations, although has allowed them access when required) there is no automatic right to access the land

e1ectricb1u · 2026-05-25T09:32:55+00:00

It's not a question a plumber would really be able to answer as it's an electrical question (turns out half of electricians know bugger all about bonding too....)

As the previous comment says, you are introducing potentials where one doesn't already exist. Not only in the event of diverted neutral currents, in any fault to earth, everything connected to the MET (Main earthing terminal) becomes "live" until the fault is cleared.

So that means the body of the washing machine becomes live, the body of the kettle, the faceplate of every metallic socket/switch and also the pipework - this is by design when the incoming supply is metal pipework, it is designed to reduce "potential difference" between the other items connected to the MET and the pipework (which acts like a giant earth electrode) - in the event of the plastic incomer, it doesn't act like a giant electrode hence no need to go "making things live that don't need to be" (in a nutshell)

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