A report in today's local rag.

I am fully sure there are many potential cases like this under the streets.

What interests me is about 2/3 of the way through the article where it says that EDF engineers checked company meters in homes every two years.

I must have been out when they came round.

Anyone know of this happening?

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S George
http://www.state-it.com

I would have thourght that an independent investigation is more apppropriate. As if EDF would ever admit to a fault!
Also, since when did meter readers ever check the quality of their incoming service as suggested in the article?

Isn't this one of the reasons for extending the recommended period between inspections from 5 to 10 years and introducing the minor works certificate?
Also the reason why supplies are not longer shoved under the stairs. The solution will not happen overnight, all we can do is recommend - we can't even check the tightness of cutout/meter connections as the suppliers are perfect.

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Norman

sure EDF check my supply all the time!
3 little pigs come round on a flying magic carpet and do it!!!!!!

P

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Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine....

Every man has to know his limitations- Dirty Harry

It is always interesting to see how many different views can come out of a single news story. Looking at the existing article, I am going to do some quotes from the article as well:


It is always interesting with press stories to see how often they are going for the headlines. The first comment doesn't really sit with the statement from their specialist witness.

Regards,

Alan.

Why is so much emphasis being placed on the supplier here? It seems more likely the fault was on the consumers side, loose neutral in the c/unit maybe? Possibly meter or cut-out maybe but more likely c/unit I would think,
Dave.

I had a letter from BG saying my leccy meter had to be checked, thinking an electrician would come to check but no it turns out it was the meter reader asked him if he was checking it his reply was "I have".

What aren't you going to check the connections or anything he looked at me as if I had 2 heads and said what you taking about I've checked and it's ok

Probably just gave tails a tug, as they didn't come out or start arcking it was all ok!
Dave.

Checking has many meanings, like the Visual Condition Reports used by the NICEIC brigade, I hear that the more sophisticated ones, are carried out looking through the letter box.

Regards

It makes better headlines if the "supply in the street" has to be checked, imagine the number of householders now worrying about it.
If PIR's or similar were a legal requirement for all (along with smoke alarms) then a great deal of these situations would be avoided. (oh sorry, perfect world head on again !)

There was some mutterings in the last ESC mag about the skill levels of staff likely to be involved in smart meter fitting and that if the work was done by "skilled" persons then it would be great chance to improve safety generally. We still frequently find TT installations with no RCD protection and they've had replacement meters fitted in the last couple of years. As long as the martindale has three neons on it they are out the door. Surely it's time to teach them how to do a Zs reading at a socket.

Stu

If it's a Victorian area, the street cables could be 80 years old.
What was the previous fault, six months earlier?
Why did the street lights dim ?

But more to the point, what would that have to do with a fire under the stairs? Maybe you're thinking failure of the dno's cable insulation at the intake? highly unlikely I would think,
Dave.

That would make them a good quality paper/lead cable, so they should last at least another eighty years.

Regards,

Alan.

I tend to agree.
Most cutout/meter problems used to occur when NSH were in fashion. Now it's usually the main switch on the CSU and less often, the good old 3036 30A fuse with a 10Kw shower pushing things to the limit.
Which brings us back to the customer side and weak wristed electricians!

This morning my neighbour was telling me that the street lighting cables on the site he works (major TV site in Herts), are being replaced. He just commented that they were installed just after the war. Apparently the 3 phase cable had a fault and the decision was taken to replace the lot. Cables buried 6 feet down and the tarmac was melting 4 feet away - no, the fuse didn't expire. Still it should reduce their electricity bill when done.

PS - If Victorian could be 80 years old? More like 100

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Norman

The clues are all there if one peers through the trees, it was probably a case of a fault around; or within
the DB that caused the fire. Inspector Closseau would have also come to this conclusion.

Regards

An open or high resistance neutral in the mains in the street could cause wide variations in voltage, with risk of fire in extreme cases.
More likely to be a fault in the consumers instalation though, as others suggest.

And as for the frequent replacement of lamps, a fair proportion of the population believe that something must be wrong because they have to replace lamps !