On 11/01/2018 10:48, Terry Casey wrote:

The Housekeeper would walk around after everyubody had left
for the day, checking that all was well. If they included the
basement in their tour, the neon on the switched spur
instantly attracted attention, so they'd switch it off!

This became such a regular occurence that we got our own
electricians to visit every building and swap the switched
spur for an unswitched one and all the problems stopped!



Often we are given a 13A socket rather than a spur unit for the TV system.

We had a spate of these problems when the district heating on an estate
was being rebuilt. The plumbers would cheerfully disconnect our
equipment and connect their lights and kettles, then leave ours
disconnected at the end of the day.

It was happening time after time and we got fed up so we submitted
photographs and a detailed explanation to the owner. The plumbers had
all our call-out costs deducted from their payment. It was a lot of money.

Other causes of mains failure at various sites include:
1. Cleaner unplugs our mains to use kettle, does not reconnect after tea
has been made.
2. We found a blown 13A fuse in the plug. Since we always use 2A or 3A
fuses someone had stolen our fuse!
3. A squirrel committed suicide and blew the fuse.
4. A tenant somehow connected mains to their aerial socket. The socket
wasn't an isolated type. The 0.5mm three core mains lead at the head-end
was the only system earth. It burnt out all along its length and that
caused the mains to go off. This was in someone's loft, and it's a
miracle it didn't set the house on fire. I took a lot of pictures.
5. Underground work without checking the drawings.
6. District heating pipe leak in an underground duct. Flooded a repeater
down there. Head end transformer had a too-small fuse value.
7. Roof leak flooded the head-end. Caused the RCB to cut out.
8. Same, basically, but snow blew in because the underdrawings had
rotted away in places.
9. In a boiler room someone (halfwit hotel manager) fitted a double
adaptor in our mains socket so he could run a temporary illuminated
display in the corridor. Draped the wire over the boiler. A loop dropped
through a hole in the casing and touched the boiler. Wire melted.
10. TV amplifier was in a cabinet in the hallway. Tenant broke in and
connected a mains lead because his electricity had been cut off. Somehow
he tripped the supply.This was a few years ago; I don't think they cut
people off nowadays.
11. When the amp is under the stairs there's often straightforward
vandalism. They break in and smash everything up. Timers, door entry,
our supply, the lot.
12. With equipment in external wall boxes at reachable level there is
often vandalism or theft leading to the mains going off.

Bill