Coming up on this week's news, a flood light allegedly fixed with cellar tape has resulted in a footballer's electrocution and charges for the firm involved. We reveal the secret to cutting noise from heat pumps. And electricians are warned not to buy what's being dubbed the world's worst tool. Welcome to Electrical News Weekly in association with Sungrow, making every watt count literally since 1997. 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. We're being lit by Flex 7 with their lightning fast pre-wired modular lighting connection system that keeps your installation times razor sharp. And 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. And while you're there, click the links in the show notes to check out what our sponsors offer. A leisure company has been charged over the electrocution of a footballer by a faulty flood light. 34year-old Albert Xhediku died after coming into contact with the lights pylon at Mountbatten Leisure Centre in Portsmouth in 2016. Now Parkwood Community Leisure Limited, which operated the pitch at the time, has been charged with failing to protect the public. Xhediku was playing Five a side football with friends when he went to retrieve the ball which had gone over the boundary fence. While climbing back over the fence, he made contact with the mast of the adjacent light. He screamed and went into a seizure as he suffered an electric shock. Xhediku, who was originally from Albania, was given CPR by paramedics, but later pronounced dead at the nearby Queen Alexander Hospital. The incident sparked a major probe by the health and safety executive, HSSE inspector Michelle Canning, told his inquest in 2019 that previously other players had received minor shocks from the control box at the base of the flood light. The box was damaged and had apparently been repaired with cellar tape. The inquest was told another man who climbed the fence to retrieve a ball had also received an electric shock from the flood light just months earlier. He reported the incident to staff on site at the time. Parkwood Community Ledger Limited has been ordered to appear at Portsmouth Magistrate's Court on the 4th of December. Still in the courts, a hotel in Northamptonshire has been fined £75,000 over fire safety breaches. The county's fire and rescue service says that the Hind hotel in Wellingborough Town Centre failed to comply with an enforcement notice requiring improvements to its fire safety measures. Among the concerns at the practically fossilised grade two listed property was a faulty fire alarm system. This appeared to have been inoperative for an extended period potentially since 2021. The hotel must also pay £4,200 costs and a £2,000 victim search charge. In other news, it's been announced that the NIC is to begin certifying installers under the microgeneration certification scheme. The organisation was accredited by UKCAST and says it's working with MCS to smoothly move contractors over to the recently revamped scheme. If you're registered with MCS under the current scheme, there's nothing for you to do. Simply continue to adhere to current scheme requirements until further notice. At the same time, the certification body will update its application process to welcome new businesses into the scheme. The NIC tells us that it will contact existing MCS certified firms directly with more information in due course. In product news, electricians are being warned not to buy a power tool that's been described as the world's worst. The Rontaly YC2801 cordless combination drill may look super professional, but that's where the professionalism ends. In fact, the products present a high risk of electric shock to the operator. That's because it has poor quality connections and wires soldered directly onto the printed circuit board, says the Office for Product Safety and Standards. The creepage and clearance distances are also insufficient. The product labelling and marking are not compliant and need improvement. Furthermore, the tool doesn't meet the requirements of the supply of machinery safety regulations of 2008. Oh, and its plug doesn't meet the requirements of BS363. Apart from that, it's brilliant. The drills have been rejected at the border and destroyed, but it's feared some may have found their way onto the grey market. So, if someone tries to sell you one, we suggest you politely decline and report the offer to your local trading standards office. And right at the other end of the product quality scale with top-of-the-line smoke detectors keeping watch over you and your loved ones, it's this week's fire protection sponsor, Fireangel. Now, heat pumps may have slashed the cost of heating for many homeowners, but they have an Achilles heel. Their noise, a poorly installed unit, can lead to complaints from neighbours as well as the customers themselves. But now, MCS has drawn up advice for electricians who want to leave a quiet job behind them. The organisation says positioning is crucial. The product should be put away from reflective surfaces, corners, and neighbour-facing windows. Installers should use antivibration feet, grommets, pads, platforms, and flexible hose connectors where appropriate. In some cases, acoustic barriers, sound absorbing fencing, or compressor insulation jackets can help, provided they don't impede air flow or performance. Ultimately, your goal is to comply with the MCS02A sound assessment, which requires heat pumps to stay below 37 dB. I popped a link to the downloadable advisory in the show notes. If a customer doesn't fancy a noisy heat pump, what about a data centre instead? It might sound bonkers, but that could be the future of home heating if a new trial is successful. An Essex couple have become the first people in the country to heat their home using a data centre in their garden shed. Terrence and Leslie Bridges have seen their energy bills slashed after they replaced their gas boiler for a heat hub, a mini data centre containing more than 500 computers. As the computers crunch data, they generate enormous quantities of heat. This is then captured by oil and then transferred into the Bridge's hot water system. The bridges say they can't fault the heating system and say it's a 100% improvement on what they had before. You won't need to go to a sauna after coming to the house, says Mrs Bridges. Sounds like there'll be enough leftover heat to make plenty of lovely chutney, too. The heat hub was developed by the which is part of UK power network shield project. The bridges heat hub will eventually be part of a remote distributed data centre involving many units processing data for customers. They're not designed for the heavy processing needed for artificial intelligence, but for applications and the analysis of large volumes of data. It's not the first time the heat generated by silicon chips has been put to good use. Exmouth Leisure Centre in Devon uses a data centre the size of a washing machine to heat its water to a toasty 30° C. Clean power brand Sungrow has announced that its three-phase battery and inverter combination is now available in the UK. The two products have been designed to work seamlessly together from the off. The modular and stackable SBH battery storage system is a high voltage lithium ion phosphate battery unit. It's modular and expandable, allowing you to scale it up to meet energy needs. You can stack up to eight modules in one unit, and you can put four units in parallel. As each module is 5 kW hours, that gives you a maximum of a whopping 160 kW hours maximum. This fast charging unit is designed to be paired with the SHT series of high performance hybrid inverters. This provides the intelligence and power conversion for the energy storage. It's rated at IP65/C5, so it will perform even in extreme environments. In terms of safety, it features a 200 millisecond shutdown time in the event of arc faults. Sungrow always provides comprehensive training on its products for installers, and the SBH and SHT combo is no different. In fact, the company has produced a special webinar. I've popped the link to it in the show notes. This week, we're focusing on smart home innovations. And the standout for us is a light switch which has every claim to be the most beautiful and intelligent that's ever been produced. The Tewke Tap replaces any standard light switch and turns it into a complete home automation platform. It features a crisp high resolution OLED touchscreen measuring 3 in by 3 in and can be installed in minutes. What's more, Tap's patented no neutral technology means that it can be retrofitted into literally any property. But TAP is so much more than just a light switch. It's packed with nine integral sensors which provide a range of additional smart functionality that includes real-time energy pricing insight as well as temperature and humidity monitoring with a time of use tariff. It guides users on when to switch their appliance used to cheaper times of the day so that they can save on their bills. It's also matter compatible so it can talk to other devices in the home such as Shelly smart plugs. It's not a static product either. Tap benefits from regular overtheair updates keeping it futureproofed. Already Tewke has announced that it will add voice controlled personal assistance powered by Google Gemini in 2026. And there's a lot of other functionality planned. It's intended for installers who need a compact interface point for zone lighting, scene control, and small load automation without deploying a full control panel at a fraction of the cost of some of the other smart lighting systems and super easy to install. It fills a gap between traditional smart systems and standard lighting for those customers looking to make the move to smart technology, but without a complete rewire or breaking the bank. You commission it using an app or a web browser. Nightsearcher has introduced a rechargeable head torch designed for electricians. The Lightwave 800R combines a focused LED spot beam for precision tasks with a chip onboard flood light bar for wide area illumination. As its name implies, it gives out a powerful 800 lumens in three settings. It boasts a hands-free wave sensor, so you can switch the light on or off with a simple hand gesture. Ideal when wearing gloves or working with dirty hands. You charge it up via its USBC connection and it takes just 2 and 1/2 hours to do a full recharge. It has a run time of up to 5 and 1/2 hours on LED high mode. It has an ingress protection of IPX6 and impact protection of IKO7. It weighs just 103 g with an adjustable head strap for all day wear. And right now you can get 10% off that torch and indeed off everything on the Night Searcher website by clicking the link in the description and using the discount code eFIXX. Get over there while the offer lasts. Now, it's that great moment where we get to celebrate the sterling work being done by the next generation. Our learner of the week slot is brought to you by Eltako, German manufacturer of premium actuators, sensors, and energy meters for smart homes. And our learner this week is Kaiden Greenway of Cheshire College South and West. He's a full-time level two electrical learner on the crew campus. When Gary visited the college to talk about the benefits of a social media profile, the next week, Kaiden had a comprehensive LinkedIn page. Gary says, "Adding a QR code to a LinkedIn profile on a CV can give a potential employer instant access to a wealth of highquality training, achievements, and progress. It's hugely valuable when applying for an apprenticeship. Kaden has really grasped the nettle, acted quickly, and taken the right steps to support his future in the electrical industry. Congratulations, Kaden, on being the eFIXX learner of the week in association with Eltako. Now, if you're looking to break into the industry, we can help. EIX has set up a dedicated LinkedIn group for people training in electrical installation. It's aimed at apprentices, full-time learners, and adults training in the evening. Just log on to LinkedIn and search for UK electrician apprenticeships and career support. I'll also put a link to that in the show notes. And now to the lighter side of the electrical news. Yes, it's time for a tea break with Quickwire and its range of incredibly rapid electrical connectors. A group of electricians have served 100 breakfasts to goats. Yes, I read that right. Goats. Sparks from UK Power Networks took a break from electric circuits recently to dish up a delicious morning meal to the residents of Buttercup Sanctuary for goats in Maidstone Kent. It's a non-judgmental safe space which offers emotional rehabilitation and medical treatment for the animals. In their previous lives, the goats had been neglected, abandoned, or unwanted. So, they were more than deserving recipients of the buffet breakfast. The electricians also mucked out their pens and helped prepare a new medical room. It was all part of a special volunteer day. That's the lighter side of the news in our tea break with Quickwire and their range of incredibly rapid electrical connectors. Click the link in the description to check them out for yourself. Now, 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 like having an Italian Star Striker in your premiership team. It's Lewden Palazzoli. And with over 5,000 product lines, from heating, lighting, ventilation to wiring accessories, if you need it, they've got it. It's electrical distributor CED Group. And the best thing to come out of Yorkshire since stainless steel, the home of EV Ultra, and other groundbreaking and quality products, is Doncaster Cables. Click the links in the show notes to find out more about these great brands. If you think you know the words I've smuggled into this week's show, pop your guess into the comments. We'll take all the correct guesses and select one at random to be the 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. Last week's words were penicious and quintessential. And literally only one person got it right. And you're not going to believe this, but that one person was once again Jason FKM5MQ. This really is starting to get a little tiresome now, Jason. But to be fair, if no one else gets it right, what's to be done? So, well done to you, Jason. And make sure you click the get involved link in the show notes to claim your prize. This week, we've been lit by Flex 7 with their lightning fast pre-wired modular lighting connection system that keeps your installation times razor sharp. Don't forget to click the links in the show notes to find out more. Thanks for listening to this episode of Electrical News Weekly in association with Sungrow, making every watt count literally since 1997. 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 torque calibrated arm.