On Wed, 22 Oct 2014 08:24:18 +0100, harryagain wrote:


"Uncle Peter" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 21 Oct 2014 21:54:04 +0100, newshound
wrote:

On 21/10/2014 20:34, Uncle Peter wrote:
On Tue, 21 Oct 2014 20:26:00 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 21/10/2014 20:13, Uncle Peter wrote:

A woman just told me she had her house rewired because it hadn't been
done for 30 years. Have you ever bothered? I mean if it works, why
not
just leave it? Wire doesn't rot.

The copper wire might not but the insulation around it certainly does -
especially if there is some ozone about.

What ozone source are you referring to?

Take a look at what happens to
Post Office rubber bands after a year or so and then worry about it!

That might apply to flex, but my house wiring (twin and earth etc)
doesn't seem to go the same way.

If you are still on prehistoric round pin plugs and wire fuses then it
is probably time for a rewiring by now.

Nope, 1979 wiring. Wire fuses and square 13A sockets. I prefer wire
fuses as they aren't over-sensitive. The only circuit beakers I got
(plug in type in place of the consumer unit fuses) was for the lighting
circuits, as a blown halogen bulb could damage a PIR sensor before the
fuse blew.

There is also the risk of rodents sharpening their teeth on your wiring
with accumulating damage until they bridge live and neutral. But that
can happen to modern wiring sometimes if you are very unlucky.

I've had rodents in the house a few times, but they've never gone for
wires, only things like cushions and poly bags. If they did it should
blow a fuse, or the rat.

You might find sockets are a bit thin on the ground by modern standards,

Adapters and 4 way strips suit me just fine. Or a couple of extra sockets
can be added without changing the whole house.

and "consumer units" have changed and improved; fuse wire is a bit dated
to my mind.

It performs precisely the same function.

Any "trip units" can deteriorate with age. More powerful
electric showers are now available, needing circuits 30 amp.

Why would I want that? The original electric showers work just fine.
There is no need for more power. If I did want one, that's one wire to
the CU, not the whole house needing redone.


Miniature Circuit Breakers provide a much closer degree of protection
compared with fuse wire.
Fuse wire will carry four times the rated load for around half an hour
before melting.
Long enough to start a fire.

The trouble with breakers is you get a lot of nuisance trips. A lot of things might use 4 times the rated load for a bit.

Since MCBs appeared, electrical fault-fires have reduced by 90% so they are
hugely more safe.
They are designed to be failsafe.

PVC/polythene wire does not deteriorate as long as not subjected to strong
sunlight.
Switches and other hardware does but is easily changed.

The remaining source of fires is mainly mechanical damage of various forms.
Rodent chewing wires, people drillling holes in walls etc.

Wouldn't you notice if you drilled through a wire?

And flexes running along/under flammable things like carpets and curtains.

CFL are less likely to start a fire as they run cooler.

Hmmmmm..... I always thought the quick tripping was for electric shock safety only. And that fires were normally from shorts which tend to break a fuse just as well as a breaker. And that the fires that didn't trip/blow the breaker/fuse were not carrying more than the circuit's rated current.

--
I was telling a girl in the pub about my ability to guess what day a woman was born just by feeling her boobs.
"Really" she said, "Go on then.... try."
After about 30 seconds of fondling she began to lose patience and said, "Come on, what day was I born?"
I said, "Yesterday."