Outcry From Electricians Over Fuse Upgrade Rules

- Coming up on this week's news. There's been an outcry in the trade over changes to the rules governing incoming fuse upgrades. An electrician is found guilty over the electrocution of a tradesman and sparks lose their patients over the increasing amount of packaging on electrical products. Welcome to Electrical News Weekly in association with Solar Trade Sales, your easy one-stop-shop for all things solar. Whether you're listening in the van, on site, or down at the wholesale counter. I'm Joe Robinson and I've been through the best of the electrical industry news to save you the trouble. And this week's challenge word competition is supported by the good people at Compleo, the complete solution for EV chargepoint installers. If you think you've spotted the two words that I've been challenged to slip into this week's show, comment with them below for the chance to win a prize. Independent electrical contractors have cried foul over new rules, which allow Octopus Energy to change the fuse when they're installing an EV charger, a heat pumper or the renewable devices. National Grid Electricity Distribution agreed to the arrangement last week in a bid to clear the mounting backlog of requests for income upgrades. But both firms were clearly unprepared for the outcry that followed the announcement. The electrical trade took to the internet to come down harder than a hammer on an ironmonger's anvil and decry the special allowance for octopus, which they say gives it an unfair advantage in the booming market for renewable technologies. But it was the technical and safety issues that dominated. Message boards were busy with many pointing out that there was more to consider when upgrading the fuse, not just the extra power needed for an additional technology in the home. Other issues to take into account include the cabling, the local capacity, and crucially, whether the property is looped to others in the area. Octopus boss, John Szymik says that,"By carrying out fuse upgrades at the same time as EV chargers and heat pumps, not only would homeowners save time, but it would open up a whole new world of possibilities for those who are itching to switch to green technologies." He said that UK Power Networks had shown vision with the new arrangement and the two companies had worked closely to prove it can be done in a compliant and safe way. In other news, the ECA has published a technical bulletin on bonding in commercial kitchens. It gives advice on where bonding is required and special considerations on where equipment is installed. The publication follows close on the case of New Zealand electrician, Stephen Burton, who has just been found guilty of breaches of the country's electricity act after a tradesman was electrocuted by a cooker hood. Burton was sentenced to eight months home detention over the death of handyman, Craig Johnston, who died after touching the metal work of the appliance in March 2020. Nelson District Court ruled that Burton failed to correctly test electrical work. Namely, the installation of a socket outlet knowing the failure would likely cause harm. WorkSafe New Zealand said that the earth conductor of the socket outlet installed by Burton was connected by way of a three core cable to the live rather than the earth pin at the wall switch. As a result, when the wall switch for the circuit to the socket outlet has turned on the earth pin of the socket and in turn, the explosion metal work of the cooker hood became live. WorkSafe says he failed to test the prescribe the electrical work that he'd done or that the results of his tests were not understood. It says that Burton knew that a failure to test an installation in circumstances where the installation was or could become electrically live was likely to cause serious harm. Judge David Ruth said that Burton's failure to remove a wall switch plate was pivotal. He said, "Had he done so, he would've seen the nominal earthwire had been connected in such a way it wasn't operating as an earthwire. It was, in fact, live." The judge added that if Burton had removed a handful of screws, the incident could have been avoided. Burton was also ordered to pay 72,000 pounds in emotional harm reparation. Now we come on to our question of the week hosted on both YouTube and LinkedIn. Last week we asked the question,"Which of the following would be an acceptable solution to 100 amp incoming supply combined with a 16 amp PV system connected to 100 amp rated CU?" And we outlined various options. The good news is that 80% of you on YouTube got it right, but only 59% on LinkedIn knew that the correct option from those listed was to put an 80 amp fuse in the 100 amp supply. To be fair, it's a complex issue that raised a lot of questions. To gain a bit of clarity, check out the free CPD we made on Circuit Protection Mythbusting with Lewden Palazzoli that discusses this and many other fractious issues. I've left a link in the show notes, so check that out. And why not have a go at this week's question. In product news, a new app for tradespeople has been unveiled. Yepic is a way of recording, organising, and managing multiple jobs. It also automatically sorts photographs of each project into albums, so no more scrolling through your phone. It uses your phone's location to automatically create time sheets and you can add tasks to each job to keep track of what needs to be done. There's both a free and a premium version with more functionality. I've popped the link in the show notes. Metrel has introduced a safety tester for solar panels. The MI 3115 PV Analyser is designed for 1500 volt PV installations. As you'd expect, it comes with loads of functions including a remote unit that you can use to measure irradiation and the cell temperature of the photovoltaic modules. You can also measure the insulation and graph the current and voltage curves. There's an auto test function for EN 62446 category one tests. Selectric has developed a range of kinetic switches. These are wireless switches, which don't even require batteries. As the action of pressing down your finger generates the power for the signal transmission. You can instal the Grid360 Kinetic on any surface, even on glass as the switches don't need cabling. The range is complimented by a series of on-off wireless receivers, which can switch loads of up to 2 1/2 amps. There's also dimming options for lighting loads. Finally, it appears that electricians have finally lost their patience over the increasing amount of packaging on electrical product. It appears that manufacturers and suppliers have been increasing both the amount and the strength of plastic wrapping, increasing pollution, and making it harder and slower to use accessories. Now, contractors have taken to internet platforms, such as Reddit, to complain. One said, every part he receives is wrapped in 10 layers. Another complaint that increasingly every component from a cable gland to terminal box comes in its own individual bags. What's your experience with packaging? Is it a problem in your world? Let us know in the comments below. And the lone daffodil in my front garden would suggest that spring has sprung, and so a reminder in the month of March, we're focusing on heat pumps and ventilation. We'd like to feature your stories, your projects, and your recommendations as we'd like to share them with the wider eFIXX community. Send us pictures of your instals or let us know if you've come across any new kit that's making your job easier. Get in touch via admin@efixx.co.uk or via our social media accounts. And just before we get to your favourite bit of the show where I reveal last week's challenge words and winners, we want to thank our premium partners. We couldn't make the news without you. First up, they're the people who've created the Swiss Army knife of solar investors along with all weather batteries, very much the boy scouts of the solar industry, it's Sunsynk. And testing, testing. One, two, testing. If you've got something you need to measure or a piece of test equipment to calibrate from multimeters to power quality analyzers, then it can only be Test Instrument Solutions. Are you a bit of a control freak? Motor control that is. If so, with huge stocks and excellent service, check out Crompton Controls as they said to me in a recent conversation,"If we don't have it, then we can build it." Now, who doesn't live a freebie? With their incredibly simple and totally free EV charger management platform, they're helping installers wind jobs and saving their customers thousands a year, it's Tap Electric. With their high-quality and reliable EV charging equipment and industry leading customer care, you could say they're leading the Evlution, it's Hydra EVC. The best thing to come out of Yorkshire since stainless steel, the home of EV-Ultra and other groundbreaking and quality products, it's Doncaster Cables. With an incredible range of equipment from EV charge points through industrial sockets and switches to kit for explosive areas, plus they supplied gear for a Campari factory, so they'll always have a place in my heart, it's Scame. Big thanks to you all. We really appreciate your ongoing support for the news. If you think you know the words that I've smuggled into this week's show, pop your guess into the comments and we'll take all the correct guesses and select one at random to be a winner of an eFIXX goodie bag prize. Answers submitted after about lunchtime on the Thursday after release will not be entered into the draw. Now let's reveal the winners of last week's challenge word competition supported by Compleo, the complete solution for EV chargepoint installers. Last week's words were bunion and vaping and simply loads of you got it right. We put all of your names into an electronic hat, and the first one to be plucked out as a winner was regular commenter and friend of the show, @seanthespark. So welcome to you, Sean. Make sure you click the Get Involved link in the show notes to claim your prize. Also, just a couple of honourable mentions from last week's comments. It seems as a trend to suggest words that I never said in the stream at all, such as ocelot and liebfraumilch from Sean Passant on LinkedIn and quiche and sparkles from @Lexify on YouTube. Either they have overactive imaginations or maybe I just blacked out during the recording last week. Also @theChipmunk2008 commenting on my ongoing attempt to grow a beard, which was quickly leapt on by some anonymous member of eFIXX to suggest that a family of squirrels were moving and pretty sure that anonymous person was Gordon. I'm getting pretty good at recognising my colleagues idiolects now. Anyway, I look forward to reading all your comments this week. Thanks for listening to this episode of Electrical News Weekly, in association with Solar Trade Sales, your easy one-stop-shop for all things solar. Make sure you subscribe to receive the next update. Thanks for listening. And until next time, have a great week. Stay safe out there. And remember, there's no such thing as a talk calibrated it on.