DIYer Electrocuted After Drilling Through Underground Cable

a swindon man is electrocuted after drilling into a mains cable under his garden we reveal the three greatest hazards to electrical contracts installing solar panels the fake branded tools aimed at getting unsuspecting electricians to part with their cash and their easy to install pulsar max ev charging point finally arrives in the uk welcome to electrical news weekly whether you're listening in the van on site down at the wholesale counter or if you're a designer and you've made it safely to your desk wherever you are i hope your week is off to a great start i'm joe robinson and i've been through the best of the electrical industry news to save you the trouble and as always don't forget to listen out for the two words that i've been challenged to slip into today's show comment below or tag us on social media if you think you've spotted them a homeowner from swindon has electrocuted himself and caused a huge power outage when he accidentally drilled through a mains electricity cable under his garden the diy accident triggered a major emergency response with two air ambulances sent to the scene he's understood to have suffered a cardiac arrest as a result of sustaining a huge electric shock the burned out drill that he was using at the time was found charred in the garden the man was transferred to south mead hospital in bristol where he remains under examination the incident sparked a localized electricity outage which was later restored by west and west utilities we at efix send our best wishes to the man for a speedy recovery in fact electrocution has been named as one of the three major hazards for contractors installing solar panels identified by test equipment maker fluke the company warns that faulty insulation of cables damaged insulation of safety covers and improper grounding can all lead to live conductors becoming accessible the likely places for this to happen are at combiner boxes the equipment grounding conductor the pv source and the output circuit conductors the second hazard comes from the shift from a thousand volts to 1 500 volts for solar installations over voltage category cat 3 1500 volt systems are being more widely used and so cat 3 and cat 4 equipment is essential for pv systems at high altitudes the final hazard is arc faults and arc flashes arc faults between two or more conductors can result in discharge causing heat that can lead to the deterioration or even to the burning of wiring insulation systems are particularly vulnerable to arc faults caused by disruption in conductor continuity or by unexpected current between two conductors often the result of ground fault arc faults are of course being addressed in the amendments to the 18th edition and the requirement for arc fault detection devices or afds comes into effect in september however testing and inspection body bureau veritas is urging the electrical trade to adopt the changes immediately there are so many changes in the regs it's best to start getting used to them straight away for a quick and easy rundown on the major changes in the second amendment check out our special news at penn episode i'll leave the link to it in the show notes the experts at bureau veritas also recommend that electrical contractors see these regulations as a minimum standard to work from not up to and that things like full testing of rcds is still a best practice approach to ensure maximum safety and mitigate risk a great place to brush up on best practice will be at the installer show which takes place next week at the national exhibition center in birmingham although it started as an event aimed at plumbing and heating contractors the good news is that it has now expanded to include electrical contractors it's a natural move as we head towards the electrification of heat and the need for multi-skilled contractors you'll recognize lots of familiar names on the exhibitor list from google nest to nipex tools now we've been through the exhibitor list and there's lots of stands that we'll be making a bee line for snapit is a tech company which is aiming to be the deliverer of trades it will supply key electrical parts on demand for contractors with some kit arriving as quickly as 30 minutes ford will also beat the installer show so it will definitely kick the tyres of their new hybrid and electric vans german tool brand iben stock will be showing some really interesting twin diamond wall chasers which we think could save a ton of time on a job and also showing its latest launches is huawei now you may know it as a mobile phone equipment maker but now the chinese company is aiming for a big slice of the solar pv and battery storage market we'll report back on the hot tech we find as soon as we can another innovator that we'll be visiting is mixergy you may remember that we first came across the mixergy intelligent hot water tank during our visit to park erin in wales we're really looking forward to seeing what they're going to be exhibiting to get ahead of your visit and see how an intelligent hot water tank functions as part of an electrified house check out the video on the mixer gtech that we made when we went to park erin i'll pop the link in the show notes and indeed links to all of those brands exhibiting there's also a link to register for the event and remember to give us a shout out on social media if you're planning to attend we just love meeting up with our efix viewers and putting names to commenters another product launch that we're really excited about here at efix is the news that the pulsar max ev charger from wallbox has just been launched in the uk as well as being really easy to install the pulsar max looks great and is compatible with loads of car brands including tesla vw porsche audi jaguar and mercedes it delivers a chunky 22 kilowatts of fast charging power and is compatible with type 1 and type 2 cable connections no earthing rod is required and there's integrated pen fault protection we hope to give it a full efix bench test and if we do i'll add the review to the show notes and to the eevee installation playlist another exciting ev technology is so called vehicle to grid power this is where your car provides electricity to your neighbors via the national infrastructure of cables and pylons octopus electric vehicles uk power networks and g99 professional services have got together to introduce a new device called power limit this will for the first time allow uk homes with compatible cars solar panels and batteries to connect them and sell power back to the grid it's all part of a trial into how electric vehicles of households could be used to help balance the grid make the most of green electrons when they're abundant and even save people money on their energy bills the resilience of the uk grid was called into question this week however with a report from ofgem interstorm arwen you'll remember that storm are when ripped across the country in november with wind speeds reaching 98 miles an hour in some areas it resulted in over 1 million customers losing power the report says that in many cases consumers were badly let down offgem has come up with a list of recommendations which it says it expects dnos to implement in order to improve the network's resilience for future storms young families especially mothers with children under the age of five are especially hit by power cuts say experts and a charity is set out to provide additional support in case they lose electricity in the future the young mums support network has partnered with uk power networks to ensure residents in south london don't miss out on free extra support in case of a power cut they're encouraging them to join the electricity firm's priority service register the charity identifies families in need of support through their social care work children's centres and through employers another way of protecting yourself from power cuts is to use a piece of kit called an uninterruptible power supply or ups this week schneider electric is introducing a new 24 volt dc system called easy ups it's been created for commercial and industrial environments where power disruption risks harming productivity the ups minimizes downtime and protects equipment resulting in reduced machine maintenance and improved control over industrial infrastructure another new piece of kit designed to provide resilience and eliminate weak points in industrial and commercial premises is a thermal imaging camera that's just been unveiled by teledyne flier the e52 camera offers professional quality thermal resolution to ensure that images are super easy to read the camera can detect the hidden early signs of possible failure such as hotspots on weak electrical connections and yet another nice tool out this week is a new heat gun from makita uk it delivers an air temperature of up to 550 degrees celsius and both this temperature and the air volume are adjustable there is also a quick release toolless mechanism to allow you to replace the nozzle easily without having to touch any hot metal in the process could be handy for heat shrink sleeving we absolutely love the inventiveness of makita products here on efix please click the link in the show notes to check out all the videos that we've made on their gear we've had a warning this week about fake tools hitting the market cktools have told us that fake versions of its top-selling cable cutter are in circulation in the uk after being targeted by counterfeiters they've asked the efix viewers beyond alert for the imitations of the 3963 the printed packaging is reasonably convincing but the handles are a brighter red than genuine ck tools and have a grey color at the top our final bit of gear news is that snickers the workwear people has unveiled its summer range well maybe not a range as such more like a pair of shorts but the lightweight work shorts will be the must-have item on the nation's building sites this season at least that's what it says here we have to concede that the shorts are actually pretty cool in all senses of the word they're made of a quick drawing technology fabric that includes a sun protection factor of upf-40 they're also text deductible and it says here they have a special four-way stretch panel at the crotch to which one of our writers has commented what else does a man need well thinking about it maybe a man could do with a state-of-the-art panel light as well happily ansel lighting has just dropped the pace plus led panel which it says that at 180 lumens per watt is the most efficient backlit led panel light available on the market it's aimed at offices schools colleges and healthcare buildings and comes in three power selectable outputs 11.5 watts 13.5 watts and 17 watts all in one luminaire another interesting light that's just been launched is a new luminaire for shops called the sino the cno is made by zumtabel and it's designed to adapt to the many changes that happen in retail outlets the luminaire rotates the wings which house the led modules can swivel so you can put light on the merchandise wherever it moves to you can get light outputs of up to 14 000 lumens colour temperatures between 2 700 kelvin to 4000 kelvin and there's a set of honeycomb louvers you can add to reduce glare so it can be used to illuminate anything from teabags to tiaras in people news this week it's been announced that alastair grant who's been an electrical contractor for over 40 years has just been elected as the new president of select select is the trade association for the electrical contracting industry in scotland and alistair is pledging to put apprenticeships and regulation of the sector at the top of his agenda he also tells us that one of his main ambitions is to push forward the select campaign to introduce protection of title for electricians congratulations alistair and we wish you every success in your new role another qualification that apprentices can achieve has been introduced by aco the alarm firm has launched a city and guild's assured qualification on domestic fire and carbon monoxide alarm systems the qualification is a continuation of aco's fia cpd accredited expert installer training which provides installers with the essential knowledge to correctly install eco fire and carbon monoxide alarm systems and environmental sensors this is a one-day course and it focuses on the design installation maintenance interconnection siting and electrical connection of domestic alarm systems if you'd like to consider adding this qualification to your roster i'll pop the link again in the show notes in other good news for young electricians it's been announced that the prestigious apprentice of the year award is to return after a two-year absence it's hosted by the eca and supported by edmondson electrical the winner will receive an array of prizes including a 1 500 pound cash prize a state-of-the-art toolkit and a unique study trip overseas if you like the sound of that again i've put the entry page in the show notes in other awards it's been announced that screwfix has been named as the best customer experience in the highly respected retail week awards screwfix innovations include screwfix sprint it's hyper convenient 60 minute same day delivery service an app that we think deserves an award is tradify a really easy to use bit of software on which you can almost run your entire business it was set up by electrical engineer curtis bailey and it's a dedicated platform for uk trades people now schneider electric has partnered with tradify to support electricians across the uk the partnership will help electrical contractors to manage all aspects of their business through tradify and help them work more efficiently helping their businesses grow tradify includes things like online job management scheduling quoting invoicing materials tracking and real-time project updates it boasts effortless accounting and syncs with software like xero sage myob and qbo to reconcile your invoices and payments in other words it sorts out all those issues that normally serve to discombobulate electricians running their own businesses another nice bit of tech design to make life easier is a virtual ecs card which you can now download and use for easy site access this digital ecs card is then checked by the cscs smartcheck app ensuring the right people get access to uk construction sites developed by the 38 schemes displaying the cscs logo cscs smartcheck allows those responsible for checking cards to verify all two million cards using one app on their smartphone or tablet it works like a train or plane ticket you show the qr code and away you go so you don't need to remember to bring anything just your smartphone coming up this week on our youtube channel it's not often electricians fall in love with electrical products but we team up with our old friend marcus barrett to see how deep is his love for the hamilton verve range of wiring accessories it's also a live stream week so make sure you subscribe to our youtube channel to view this week's episode of efix tv with special guest will winter managing director of primspec or hansomwill as we know him and david draper product manager for vargo on the challenge wall it'll be interesting to see how he gets on with screw terminals you can just picture him looking around for the levers can't you and also a q a video that is bound to trigger a few people on the subject of torque setting devices and how we can check they're working correctly so stay tuned for all of that coming up this week now last week's challenge words for the podcast were kangaroo and partygate so if you managed to spot them in our newscast well done and special congratulations to callum clark who was the first to comment with both correct words on last week's podcast well done to you callum click the get involved link in the show notes to get in touch and claim your prize although unlike screw fix we don't do 60 minute delivery more like 28 days on a good month if you think you know the words that we've smuggled into today's show pop your guess into the comments and we'll dig out a goody bag prize to the first to get the right answers make sure you subscribe to receive the next update thanks very much for listening and until next time have a great week stay safe out there and remember there's no such thing as a torque calibrated arm