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NIGEL SMITH: HERE WE HAVE A BIT OF 0.5 FEEDING AN UNDERSTAIRS CUPBOARD WITH POWER AND LIGHTING. NO FUSES, NO SWITCHES, IT’S JUST STABBED STRAIGHT INTO A SOCKET THAT’S ALREADY BEEN SPURRED OFF. NICE JOB!
Wherever you find a ‘serial DIYer’ or anyone who wants to re-purpose an area for little outlay, you’ll often see this kind of potential fire and shock arrangement.
It’s not something that we, as an industry, should ever promote as all electrical work should be carried out only by someone competent to do so.
As a general rule, the understairs cupboard is usually full of seldom used objects which gather dust and/or are of a combustible nature etc. There’s also not much headroom, so it’s likely that being in one from time-to-time will mean the user will come into contact with any light fittings in there.
So, we have a socket-outlet and a light fitting, being supplied by what looks to be a piece of flex, probably re-purposed from a disused appliance. The flex is undersized for the final circuit overcurrent protective device, and it is not fused down via a fused connection unit, so it has no protection against overload.
There is no cpc as the flex is only 2-core (which is why I’m sure this is a DIYer), which means there is no fault protection. All of this is in an area that is likely to house dusty combustible material, with accessories coming into contact with the installation’s users.
As such, the coding for this is only going to go one way, unfortunately.
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