House rewire ??

[Smallfry]

The Mcmansion's around here have been getting by with a measly 400 amp service.
That's qty (2) 200 amp main panels next to each other.....
Reduced carbon footprint my ****.....

You are on 110 volts though ? Here that would be a 200 amps or so, so still a lot !

 

[mark roberts]

My place has ceramic rewirable fuses, when I boarded out the loft I found loads of defunct cloth covered red and black ran in steel conduit. Replaced with red/black twin and earth. I reckon its a good candidate for a rewire.

 

[Robotstar5]

My place has ceramic rewirable fuses, when I boarded out the loft I found loads of defunct cloth covered red and black ran in steel conduit. Replaced with red/black twin and earth. I reckon its a good candidate for a rewire.

My parents house had old lead sheathed twin wiring when they bought it.

 

[Cobbler]

My parents house had old lead sheathed twin wiring when they bought it.

My parents did until they both died … 25 years ago, plus a fuse on both the live & negative sides, how dangerous is that, neg fuse blows, nothing works, but still live! Also there was a 10am? 2 pin socket in the bedroom, no earth, the rest of the house was 5 amp & 15 amp. Whenever we said anything we were told it will see us out & it did. The 10 amp socket, I’ve never another like it, must have been standard at some time.

 

[Morrisman]

Most countries don’t have an earth system in houses, and the U.K. seems to be at the cutting edge of plug design. Good solid fit in the socket, fairly flush to the wall, earth, non reversible fit etc.

In many countries the wire pokes out the back of the plug, rather than run neatly down the wall. They have no earth and are fully reversible.

When we moved to the far east 15 years ago, and took our whole house full of electric stuff, I had to put local plugs on all our U.K. appliances. I was surprised to find 90% of devices, power tools, gadgets etc, didn’t have an earth wire in.

And every single item worked perfectly, regardless which way round the live/neutral was plugged in.

The only item we had trouble with was the new washing machine. That did have an earth, but it simply didn’t want to work properly. I thought it was the hz difference, as the pump just refused to work. I managed to find a local pump exactly the same, but 60hz, but it made no difference.

When we had our new build house wired I insisted on having an earth system in the kitchen and utility room, for washing machine, fridge etc, but the rest of the house didn’t have it.

 

[Smallfry]

My parents house had old lead sheathed twin wiring when they bought it.

With those lovely buckle clips ? Would like to get some lead covered stuff and these clips for our outside toilet.

 

[Hotstuff]

With those lovely buckle clips ? Would like to get some lead covered stuff and these clips for our outside toilet.

I was going to comment that lead sheathed cable is obsolete and with good reason but…..you still have an outside toilet.

 

[Morrisman]

When I was at college, part of my apprenticeship, we were taught how to use and terminate some sort of copper tubing with electrical wires in, filled with white powder. It was about 10mm diameter and had specific glands on the end to seal the powder in. It was for mains voltage wiring installations.

I’ve never ever, seen it since then, and I cant remember what it was even for.

 

[jsf55]

That's the fire alarm stuff ? I did it when i did a electrics for engineers course, best week i had off from work

 

[Robotstar5]

With those lovely buckle clips ? Would like to get some lead covered stuff and these clips for our outside toilet.

I found a box of those clips when clearing my dads shed in the 80's, had to go in the skip as we were moving to a much smaller house

 

[Robotstar5]

When I was at college, part of my apprenticeship, we were taught how to use and terminate some sort of copper tubing with electrical wires in, filled with white powder. It was about 10mm diameter and had specific glands on the end to seal the powder in. It was for mains voltage wiring installations.

I’ve never ever, seen it since then, and I cant remember what it was even for.

MICC more commonly called Pyro, I had to learn how to make it off as an apprentice, still used today in certain applications.

 

[Onoff]

When I was at college, part of my apprenticeship, we were taught how to use and terminate some sort of copper tubing with electrical wires in, filled with white powder. It was about 10mm diameter and had specific glands on the end to seal the powder in. It was for mains voltage wiring installations.

I’ve never ever, seen it since then, and I cant remember what it was even for.

Mineral Insulated Copper Clad.

I still have a few sets of the tooling for it here. By and large replaced by FP now.

 

[Cobbler]

With those lovely buckle clips ? Would like to get some lead covered stuff and these clips for our outside toilet.

When I worked for a electrician, back in the late 60’s I preferred the buckle clips to the plastic ones, both were available at that time, if there were several cables running parallel you could get them neater. Even a single cable could be done tidier, just took longer though.

 

[sparkysy]

Buckle clips are still available, I use them occasionally on old properties where the customer doesn't want walls damaged and the cables need replacing, they take a bit longer but do look neat and period for the age of the house.

 

[Erie Fred]

You are on 110 volts though ? Here that would be a 200 amps or so, so still a lot !

No, 400 amps at 240 vac spit phase.
I installed such a meter box at the shop, for future expansion, and am now in the process of adding
a second main panel (200 amps), in a second building.

FWIW some farms that don't have 3-phase avail. have 800 amp 240vac single phase service.
I think that may be the limit around here, that's a large imbalance on the network.

 

[Smallfry]

I was going to comment that lead sheathed cable is obsolete and with good reason but…..you still have an outside toilet.

Yes indeed. Inside toilet is disgusting and unhygienic. Whatever next ? Indoor cooking AND open plan. Why would anyone want their soft furnishings covered in, and smelling of chip fat ?

 

[Hotstuff]

Yes indeed. Inside toilet is disgusting and unhygienic. Whatever next ? Indoor cooking AND open plan. Why would anyone want their soft furnishings covered in, and smelling of chip fat ?

 

[Morris]

Our house still had rubber covered cable in parts. I bought it in 1997 and only found out about 17 years ago. It was cracked to the point of the cables being visible in places and in some places it was like a soft goo.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Reckon 1970s would be fundamentally fine...modern wiring had come in. Only problem would be the lack of sockets...on mine it was easier to just rewire!

Anything earlier and it'll likely have the full evolution of electrical regs...like our 1930s which had steel pipes, lead, aluminium etc.

I particularly liked the vertical cable drops from upstairs to sockets down stairs!

 

[brightspark]

MICC more commonly called Pyro, I had to learn how to make it off as an apprentice, still used today in certain applications.

i used to get the job of terminating it as an apprentice the guy i worked with was crap at it .ive done hundreds of them and ony ever cocked one up