Electrical Test
- Thread starter Pensdown
- Start date
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Spark123 said:Was I even close?
Just by chance one of your wild stabs in the dark was right
6 Months before we attended the power lines were hit by lightning. The main bolt hit the church, which is about 200 yards away. This took about 10ft of the steeple. It then hit the overhead lines between the pole and the house.
I understand from the householders the head; meter and AMF were completely destroyed.
As far as they concerned the only other damage was to a hair dryer that stopped working after the strike.
This is where it gets unbelievable. The householder called their insurance company and they appointed a loss adjuster. The loss adjuster contacted a local sparks to meet the DNO. The DNO replaced the head and metering and also fitted a 100A switch before the AMF. The sparks then bypassed the contactors with 60amp terminal block, reversing the polarity in the process.
When he tried to re-set the 30mA RCD it tripped so he replaced it with a 100mA, which at the time held in.
He then went, no testing, no certificate, nothing. The insurance claim was settled and the file was closed.
We had a smilar issue last year.
Tranny in a village went up in a puff of flame of smoke, presenting 11,000v down the 400v network.
We had numorous calls - central heating controls damaged, control panels on hot tubs, RCD's knackered, dimmer switches, cookers, plenty of shaver sockets and flourescent fittings.
It was a good wipe out through the village!
Not had to sort a lightning strike yet!
Tranny in a village went up in a puff of flame of smoke, presenting 11,000v down the 400v network.
We had numorous calls - central heating controls damaged, control panels on hot tubs, RCD's knackered, dimmer switches, cookers, plenty of shaver sockets and flourescent fittings.
It was a good wipe out through the village!
Not had to sort a lightning strike yet!
We got called to a lightning strike earlier this year.
The lightning hit a sattelite dish, vapourising the down cable, destroying the sky box, and the fuse in the plugtop shattered. It also set fire to the fellars lounge curtains
The (hager) RCD was also killed, but other than this the installation survived very well, perhaps because of the breaking capacity of BS1362 fuses.
The telephones and modems of quite a few surrounding houses were also damaged.
The lightning hit a sattelite dish, vapourising the down cable, destroying the sky box, and the fuse in the plugtop shattered. It also set fire to the fellars lounge curtains
The (hager) RCD was also killed, but other than this the installation survived very well, perhaps because of the breaking capacity of BS1362 fuses.
The telephones and modems of quite a few surrounding houses were also damaged.
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Once the lighting has hit a target, the voltage and current will deminish quickly as it dissipates through hundreds, if not more, parallel paths.
It does cause huge damage to the things closer to the site of the hit, but as you work your away away from the site of the hit, the damage becomes less and less.
It does cause huge damage to the things closer to the site of the hit, but as you work your away away from the site of the hit, the damage becomes less and less.
Although I've read about the damage that lightning strikes can do to wiring this was the first time I had actually seen it.
I could not get my head around the fact that apart from the hairdryer, no other appliances were damaged. The TV, fridge, computers were all plugged in and although we didn’t PAT test them they were all working.
To do that much damage to the cables I would have thought some of them would have been damaged, and why just the hair dryer?
To finish the story, we contacted the insurance company to explain the situation and they put us onto the lose adjuster. Their first reply was “tough, the claim was closed 6 months ago”. So I asked this nice chap to send me a copy of the test certificate that was issued when the supply was re-connected. His reply was “what test certificate”? After a 30-minute conversation he agreed to meet us at the house.
We ran through the test sheet with him and pointed that this type of testing should have been done before the supply was re-connected. We also pointed out that his representative reversed the polarity and changed the RCD, which could have had disastrous consequences, even more so because in this case the wiring was shot to bits.
We contacted the NIC to see where we stood if we left the installation live, knowing it was badly damaged and with a 100mA RCD on a TT supply. Rather than move the householders into a hotel the NIC agreed that if we supplied enough plug in 30mA RCDs, (1 per double socket) then they could see no reason why we could not re-connect the supply.
As we left, the poor lady of the house was in tears at the thought of her beautiful house being ripped apart.
The loss adjuster was also close to tears at the thought of having to pay for the re-wire and builders work.
And the moral of the story? Make sure when you have work done you get a test certificate otherwise you wont have a leg to stand on if it all goes Pete Tong.
I could not get my head around the fact that apart from the hairdryer, no other appliances were damaged. The TV, fridge, computers were all plugged in and although we didn’t PAT test them they were all working.
To do that much damage to the cables I would have thought some of them would have been damaged, and why just the hair dryer?
To finish the story, we contacted the insurance company to explain the situation and they put us onto the lose adjuster. Their first reply was “tough, the claim was closed 6 months ago”.
So I asked this nice chap to send me a copy of the test certificate that was issued when the supply was re-connected. His reply was “what test certificate”? After a 30-minute conversation he agreed to meet us at the house. We ran through the test sheet with him and pointed that this type of testing should have been done before the supply was re-connected. We also pointed out that his representative reversed the polarity and changed the RCD, which could have had disastrous consequences, even more so because in this case the wiring was shot to bits.
We contacted the NIC to see where we stood if we left the installation live, knowing it was badly damaged and with a 100mA RCD on a TT supply. Rather than move the householders into a hotel the NIC agreed that if we supplied enough plug in 30mA RCDs, (1 per double socket) then they could see no reason why we could not re-connect the supply.
As we left, the poor lady of the house was in tears at the thought of her beautiful house being ripped apart.
The loss adjuster was also close to tears at the thought of having to pay for the re-wire and builders work.
And the moral of the story? Make sure when you have work done you get a test certificate otherwise you wont have a leg to stand on if it all goes Pete Tong.
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