Did they then come back and replace the CU which they had wrecked?
Which Unit
- Thread starter Sonny2017
- Start date
Sponsored Links
There is absolutely nothing stopping a manufacturer from producing a modern board just as well, or even better, designed and made.
Nothing, that is, except the sure and certain knowledge that a vast number of his potential customers buy on price.
Of course.
Very true, although I'm not convinced that "buying on price" is even remotely a new phenomenon. I think that (in most walks of life) it has been a downward spiral driven primarily by the manufacturers, rather than the market. If one goes back 50 years, I'm not at all sure that there were any 'cheap and nasty' electrical accessories for cost-conscious people to choose.
I'm also not convinced that enough thought goes into the design of many of these things, since one can often think of some 'improvements' that could be achieved with little or no increase in cost of materials or manufacturing.
There have also probably been changes in expectations of length of service life. Those Wylex Standard boards were probably intended to remain in service for many decades (and many have!), whereas I doubt that many of the CUs being installed today will still be in service in 'decades' (particularly if the LFB bully the regs into yet more new requirements!).
Kind Regards, John
It's not. Although he didn't say it, Ruskin, to whom a well known quotation on the topic is missatributed, lived in the 19th century.
It may have been started by a manufacturer, but it continued because so many people in the market did buy on price. And it could well have been started because the manufacturer knew this.
Sponsored Links
Quite. When people in the market only had a choice between reasonable-quality products at fairly similar prices, things were different. However, the moment one manufacturer decided to offer lower-quality products at appreciably lower prices, then the ('buying on price') market jumped at them, which meant that most/all other manufacturers then had to follow suit, creating the 'downward spiral'.
Kind Regards, John
As well as that, it has led to the throw-away society.
Products could be made better (more expensive and locally), with a view to repairing in the future, but that is uneconomical when a replacement is cheaper and people (not me) like new things every couple of years.
Products could be made better (more expensive and locally), with a view to repairing in the future, but that is uneconomical when a replacement is cheaper and people (not me) like new things every couple of years.
Indeed. That's really just a different way of saying ...
Having said that, I suppose that the "throw away" culture is not necessarily all bad. Now that so many things are manufactured very cheaply by machines, it does not necessarily make any sense (economically, or even necessarily 'ecologically' etc.) to expend appreciable human time/effort in repairing things, particularly if there is effective recycling of replaced items.
Kind Regards, John
I disagree with it being ecologically sensible and would question whether sending millions of repairable products half way round the world, to be dismantled by those not considered important enough to protect from hazardous materials, is effective recycling.
It really depends - one obviously has to factor in all the 'ecological/environmental costs' of undertaking repairs - for example, every minute spent by a repair person will have all sorts of such costs, both direct and indirect.
Indeed - and that's why I said "effective recycling", which is often theoretically possible. However, whereas it is obviously always beneficial in terms of preservation of resources, one has to look carefully at the net effect on ecology etc. (e.g. energy usage), since recycling itself obviously has an ecological/environmental cost.
Kind Regards, John
I don't think there was ever a time when products were not made cheap to sell cheap.
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/4813.html
(probably a misattribution)
Dont be silly, it must have been 5 years before I went in there again
Dont be silly, it must have been 5 years before I went in there again
That may be true as a concept, but which were the 'cheap and nasty' CUs and electrical accessories in the 50s/60s/70s? When most/all such products were manufactured in the UK (or, at least, Europe), there was limited scope for 'making them cheap'. It was surely when the Far East came into the picture that things started changing?
Kind Regards, John
Or, was it - plastic?
Well, that was obviously what facilitated 'flimsy' enclosures, but that would not explain changes in the 'contents'. Nor did the appearance of thermoplastics prevent the persistence (to today) of non-flimsy resins (usually urea-formaldehyde I think) for nearly all white accessories. Even the majority of surface-mounted boxes/pattresses (other than the minority of PVC ones) continue to be made out of such materials.
Kind Regards, John
DIYnot Local
Staff member
If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.
Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.
Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local
Sponsored Links
