My mum is having her house rewired, her house had bakerlite cup cake light switches on wooden blocks and we had plug sockets in the bathroom from before it was even a bathroom.
You can't have anything electric fixed (by reputable people) unless the whole house is "safe" so this means a complete rewire. I hope I don't ever need anything as I can't spare the 3 weeks off work to get it done.
Anyway the new health and safety rules are daft.
Light switches have to be a stupidly low height so that short people can reach them, for those with a lifetime of knowing the height of light switches they are too low.
Sockets can't be on non brick walls which limits you somewhat from where they are actually needed. Especially in terraced houses where you can't drill into the brick party walls either. They also have to be high up on the wall on not near the skirting board which I suppose is good.
You can't have a light bulb in the bathroom except in a closed fitting flourescent thing. This is so you can't get out the bath and change a light bulb even if you are 5 foot 2 and the ceiling is 11 foot high. This means arthritic people will have to spend a long time up a ladder trying to remove the fitting in order to change the light bulb.
You can't have a plug socket in the bathroom which is not new my house rewired in 1980s doesn't have one and I have blown the fuse from trailing electric cables from the one plug socket in the bedroom many times. I dread to think how arthritic old people will get along, probably trip over the trailing cables.
Fridges can't be into a plug socket. The cable has to go into a blank socket thing and the fridge is on its own circuit. It is only 20 years since we started selling electric items with moulded plugs was to prevent people from wiring the plug up wrong. So now when people buy a fridge with a moulded plug , they will have to cut the plug off the fridge , take the plug socket off the wall , and wire the fridge up to the wall. Or pay an electrician which is probalbly the idea.
The consumer unit is a good idea though with just circuot breakers and not needing to replace fuses. My mum has got the old ones out the bin and given them to me as I melted one of mine (lucky I had a spare as I don't use a cooker) and you can't buy new ones.I have an ordinary bayonet fit light bulb in my bathroom. It is totally enclosed behind a screw-in shade and is operated by a corded switch. It is safe. It is also environmentally friendly because a low energy one would fail early because it is turned off and on for short periods of time. If I spent hours in the bathroom that might not be true, but I don't, so it is. I have a fridge freezer with a moulded plug that goes into an ordinary socket on a non-brick internal wall. It is well away from the sink and other water outlets. This is far more important than silly rules about what the damned wall is made of. My toaster and microwave oven also work from sockets in the same internal wall. I will not be changing them.
lucky I had a spare as I don't use a cooker
Furbs, you shouldn't use a cooker fuse for your ring main. It's far too high a value and could be dangerous.Ah, the joys of repairing Olde houses. We only have one room that has grounded outlets [the kitchen]. Everytime there is a storm or high wind, I have to unplug the computer and modem completely, or risk surge destruction.
Speaking of Olde houses, we had a chimney fire yesterday, from a huge old hornet's nest which swept up out of an unused secondary chimney, into the main one and burned intensely for half an hour. My husband invented a new Olympics event, ice skating with a fire extinguisher on a raised seam roof.Icy roof? I take it you're not from one of the sunnier States? All UK sockets have to be earthed by law I think, except for shaver sockets. A UPS with circuit breaker sounds your best bet for your PC stuff. That way it'll just trip off if you get a power surge. I have a little plug in thing for my PC. If it blows, I think I have to get a new one but it's better than replacing my PCs, router and printer. I should get one for the TV really.Icy roof? I take it you're not from one of the sunnier States? *Northern Virginia, between the Blue Ridge and Catoctin Mountains. Our house is in a mountain overlay district, with rocky elevations, dense mixed forest, water meadows, pond and creek. We get lovely mild spring and autumn seasons [gentle enough for cherry trees], bright hot sunshiny summers, and moderately cold winters with some snow fall and ice.
All UK sockets have to be earthed by law I think, except for shaver sockets. *Ours are supposed to be also, but the first part of this house was a log cabin from the colonial era, the rest added gradually over the next 200 years, and the electricity is vintage Edison era. The newest rooms were added in 1950 or thereabouts.
A UPS with circuit breaker sounds your best bet for your PC stuff. *I do have the circuit breakers inline with all my electronics, and we have tried various manufacturers' products with no success, which we attribute to the lack of grounding, or perhaps the near proximity of lightning strikes. Eventually we'll rewire the house, I suppose, but the new roof is first on the list of must-do repairs [heh.]Asymphototropic, that sounds like a wonderful place to live - I'm envious!. I'd happily put up with a few wiring problems.
I wouldn't be so keen on the rooftop ice skating, but the real fire might be worth it. I haven't seen one of those for a long time.
Furby, it's just rules for the sake of it isn't it. There may be reasons to wire in a cooker, but a fridge? When I drag mine out to clean it I unplug it. They're saying that washing it with it wired in is a giant leap forward for safety?"In the blue ridge mountains of Virginia on the trail of the lonesome pine" . That was a hit song by Laurel and Hardy in the 1970s. It sounds lovely.
It is all very well to say one won't be changing as indeed my mum has for 40 years, but if the lights go out you have to get them fixed.
The light cables were the old fabric ones and had rotted and crumbled, after only 70 years or so, shocking quality these days. So it had to be done, and they won't do a little bit and leave the other bits dodgy. I suppose if you could find a nice cowboy you could just fix the broken bits.
I am quite advanced in Electric matters really as I did a project on Electricity when I was 9 and have remembered it all, so I changed the fuse wire to the correct 15amp type but in the 30 amp cooker fuse holder. I know it works as it has blown twice since when the 15amp radiator was accidently put on full.
It is rules for rules sake and jobs for electricians and inspectors I bet. They don't care about my mum having to wash in the dark as she can't change the bulb or pani getting food poisoning as he can't wash the fridge. At least the house is safe.Many years ago I travelled down the eastern states starting in Buffalo, New York, ending up in Florida. We travelled through the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains. It's beautiful country, and I'm envious lke the others.
That was a hit song by Laurel and Hardy in the 1970s. It sounds lovely. 