The last couple of months have been busy for Electricien Anglais En France, with two long term projects for recent house purchases in Dept 79. What is particularly interesting when buying French homes are the electrical diagnostics, which checks the state of an electrical installation and offers advice on areas that should be rectified for safety reasons.
No two houses are the same, and the two houses that we have been working are no exception. Property 1 was a purchase of an unfinished project and the purchaser is more or less working with a blank canvas and we are working alongside other trades as the house takes on a new transformation. Property 2 was a house purchase which was very much liveable and cosmetics are as a result of the inhabitants taste.
Both boards were complete with RCD and MCBs which provides protection.
No two houses are the same, and the two houses that we have been working are no exception. Property 1 was a purchase of an unfinished project and the purchaser is more or less working with a blank canvas and we are working alongside other trades as the house takes on a new transformation. Property 2 was a house purchase which was very much liveable and cosmetics are as a result of the inhabitants taste.
Both boards were complete with RCD and MCBs which provides protection.
Although Property 1 was an unfinished purchase, the previous owner had attempted to carry out various electrical works themselves. We assessed the work ourselves and much of it was of a reasonable standard. What was worrying was that there was no earth. Every fuse board MUST have an earth connection to ground externally with a resistance reading under 100ohms. This means that under fault conditions any current will travel back to earth via the earth connection and not through your body! Fortunately for new owner, we have installed the earth. Earth connections must be made at all points, such as sockets, light fittings and exposed metal pipework. Earth connections do not apply where fittings are plastic or enclosed and NO metal parts exposed. Any metal pipes coming into the building must also be bonded [connected by an earth cable]. This makes touching sink taps safer without fear of shocks.
With these areas rectified we have proceeded to install sockets, cabling and lighting as we work alongside other trades such as plasterers. We have installed a number of downlights and spotlights to enhance those much loved beams.
Whilst working around other trades on Property 1, we have been able to dedicate some time to Property 2.
On our initial assessment of Property 2 we identified a joint box [pictured left] which harboured a number of cables, none of which were labelled only to find that it was supplying a number of sockets and lighting throughout the house, all supplied from one 16A fuse. Furthermore we identified some of the lighting circuits were without earth [very common in French homes].
On our initial assessment of Property 2 we identified a joint box [pictured left] which harboured a number of cables, none of which were labelled only to find that it was supplying a number of sockets and lighting throughout the house, all supplied from one 16A fuse. Furthermore we identified some of the lighting circuits were without earth [very common in French homes].
Having identified all the cables, labelling and re-wiring where necessary, [working in 4 inches of space!] we followed up this aspect of our work by installing additional circuits for power and installed 2 new circuits for lighting a] this should be separated and b] lessen the load on the circuits for example, should the lighting on a circuit trip you have operation of lights from another circuit.
We continue to work on Property 2 making sure that all wiring is correct and electrical loads are evenly displaced on circuits and increasing the number of sockets and lighting throughout the house and correcting earthing cable where necessary.
We continue to work on Property 2 making sure that all wiring is correct and electrical loads are evenly displaced on circuits and increasing the number of sockets and lighting throughout the house and correcting earthing cable where necessary.
RSS Feed
