Different voltage

[ban-all-sheds]

No wurriz - if I had a pound for every time I'd done something like that I'd be able to afford an electrician....

 

[vgarcia]

Guys,

I know this is not the plumbing section; however the focal point of this discussion is the following.

In UK you only have 2 type of electrical hot water storage systems: Vented and unvented.
Plus you have that ugly copper cylinder. Clear!

Plus you have all these regs about placing a socket only in zone 3, etc. Clear!

So now if an unvented system cost £ 300 and something similar in Europe costs 100 euros, is there anything wrong in buying the good in Europe, modify correctly the socket and placed correctly in the zone 3 without covering it?

 

[vgarcia]

I forgot to clarify further. The ugly copper cylinder I ve got now is in a cupboard, so I am sure has been fitted following the law (I cannot see at the moment).

I do not want to do anything different or illegal. Simply replace the existing tank

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Plus you have all these regs about placing a socket only in zone 3, etc. Clear!

No NOT CLEAR.


YOU CANNOT HAVE A SOCKET IN ZONE 3.

YOU CANNOT HAVE A SOCKET ANYWHERE IN A BATHROOM. NOT IN ZONE 3, NOT BEYOND ZONE 3, NOT ANYWHERE.

If your bathroom was the size of an aircraft hangar you would still not be allowed to have a socket in there. It makes no sense I agree, but that is what the regulations say.

Subject to all the other concerns expressed here, you can have your water heater, but it must be wired to a flex outlet, not to a plug and socket.

 

[vgarcia]

Well,
ban-all-sheds I am only guessing how is fixed now, cause I cannot see, but if you say so I believe id fixed as you say.


However it is a bit funny. In EU they have sockets, so by now they should be all dead.

 

[masona]

I've been to Spain,Canary Island etc and don't remember the holiday reps saying "please don't use the power socket in the bathroom as it's dangerous" !!!! So do people have accident over there ? Surely it should be mention in the holiday guide book for safety???

 

[ban-all-sheds]

However it is a bit funny. In EU they have sockets, so by now they should be all dead.

I've been to Spain,Canary Island etc and don't remember the holiday reps saying "please don't use the power socket in the bathroom as it's dangerous" !!!! So do people have accident over there ? Surely it should be mention in the holiday guide book for safety???

Maybe in the past it was dangerous, but as you can now get sockets with 10mA RCD protection, I think that our regulations may be a bit behind the times.

 

[il78]

I've been to Spain,Canary Island etc and don't remember the holiday reps saying "please don't use the power socket in the bathroom as it's dangerous" !!!! So do people have accident over there ? Surely it should be mention in the holiday guide book for safety???

Regardless,

In the UK the IEE Regs set the standard......A majority of sparks do not agree with some of there requirements.......but tough, I dont think your big enough to challenge them if something where to go wrong.....

 

[AdamW]

fwl_engineer had some interesting statistics, included here

Now if these statistics are true, then I am sure that our bathroom electricity regulations help this. The scene in Groundhog Day with the toaster in the bath would take deliberate planning and an extension lead (that would hopefully have an RCD with it anyway). When I went to the states and found a hairdryer plugged into a socket in the bathroom I did have to wonder. I always get comments from my continental colleagues to the effect of "you puff", when I insist on wearing a seatbelt in the kamikaze taxis of Rome. This attitude possibly extends to electrics.

Now, when I was a student a friend of mine lived in a flat with a dodgy 70s del-boy style. Now, in her huge bedroom there was a bath built into the floor. Would this categorise the room as a bathroom, and thus mean that all the plug sockets in her bedroom were illegal?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

So an interesting (?) question about "legality".

Come the day that I get so fed up with my toothbrush charger living in the bedroom that my patience snaps and I fit a 10mA RCD socket inside the airing cupboard in my bathroom, although if discovered I'd get a black mark on a PIR, can I be compelled to remove it?

 

[vgarcia]

Guys,

this discussion on UK regs is fascinating.
I lived in Italy for 25 years and I used to have a shower in a bath 1.7m x 1.9m with a fitted electrical water heater in the opposite corner of the shower and with a nice socket, a mirror with a plug, and I used to dry my hair after the shower, and no window for the steam to go out.

Funny enough I am still alive to tell you this story.