Thread: is this legal? taped wire only and live?

The brace is not to code either!

Originally Posted by China

The brace is not to code either!

yes i noticed that as well, people have a lot of trouble changing fans there as once you take old fan down thats its, that piece of timber just floats and you cant get hold of it easy again.

Is that a live cable? Doesn’t appear to be?

Is that a fan or just a light fitting? the wiring looks like it's part of a daisy chain feeding a number of light fittings.

A ceiling fan would only need a twin & earth single cable unless there are a number of ceiling fans on one circuit controlled by one switch

Originally Posted by Camelot

Is that a fan or just a light fitting? the wiring looks like it's part of a daisy chain feeding a number of light fittings.

A ceiling fan would only need a twin & earth single cable unless there are a number of ceiling fans on one circuit controlled by one switch

ceiling fan, there are multiple in the units and multiple lights all daisy chained going to the same group of switches

Originally Posted by Beardy

Is that a live cable? Doesn’t appear to be?

not sure but not going to touch it to find out. didn't have my tester with me.

Originally Posted by wozzzzza

ceiling fan, there are multiple in the units and multiple lights all daisy chained going to the same group of switches


not sure but not going to touch it to find out. didn't have my tester with me.

Without a tester if there is a RCD breaker at the board just touch neutral and earth to trip the circuit

Originally Posted by Camelot

Without a tester if there is a RCD breaker at the board just touch neutral and earth to trip the circuit

Dont rely on this method to confirm the circuit, it will only trip if there is current flow in the neutral at the time.
Test all conductors for voltage potential and isolate the circuit before any investigation.

Originally Posted by droog

Dont rely on this method to confirm the circuit, it will only trip if there is current flow in the neutral at the time.
Test all conductors for voltage potential and isolate the circuit before any investigation.

Yes true, there would need to be some load on the consumer board, so turn on a few lights and or appliances, before touching neutral and earth to trip the RCD.

This video demonstrates what I mean, the neutral busbar is common to the consumer board so if the RCD controlling the board is active then all breakers are active and there will be a flow of current back to the neutral busbar from any circuit demanding power.

The OP was suggesting testing the live wire without a tester just by touching it, I was saying stay away from the live and use the neutral & earth to trip the RCD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTkuoMplER8&t=474s

Originally Posted by Camelot

Yes true, there would need to be some load on the consumer board, so turn on a few lights and or appliances, before touching neutral and earth to trip the RCD.

This video demonstrates what I mean, the neutral busbar is common to the consumer board so if the RCD controlling the board is active then all breakers are active and there will be a flow of current back to the neutral busbar from any circuit demanding power.

The OP was suggesting testing the live wire without a tester just by touching it, I was saying stay away from the live and use the neutral & earth to trip the RCD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTkuoMplER8&t=474s

As RCD’s detect difference in the current flow between active and neutral on a circuit then to trip the RCD any differential must be on that particular circuit.
The link provided is for an RCD protecting multiple circuits, this must not be confused with RCBO’s protecting individual circuits with separate neutral returns.

Originally Posted by Camelot

Yes true, there would need to be some load on the consumer board, so turn on a few lights and or appliances, before touching neutral and earth to trip the RCD.

This video demonstrates what I mean, the neutral busbar is common to the consumer board so if the RCD controlling the board is active then all breakers are active and there will be a flow of current back to the neutral busbar from any circuit demanding power.

The OP was suggesting testing the live wire without a tester just by touching it, I was saying stay away from the live and use the neutral & earth to trip the RCD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTkuoMplER8&t=474s

thats what gets me a bit here, isnt neutral bar supposed to be connected to the ground bar in the subboard there? or doesnt it matter as long as in the main switchboard its connected together?

Originally Posted by wozzzzza

thats what gets me a bit here, isnt neutral bar supposed to be connected to the ground bar in the subboard there? or doesnt it matter as long as in the main switchboard its connected together?

The link is totally misleading and indicating that the neutral from the load returns to the neutral bar.
RCD’s or RCBO’s the neutral from the circuit returns through the protection device.
With RCD’s multiple circuit neutrals may return through the protection device but are not tied to earth on the load side of the protection device.

I would point out that it is dangerous to assume that any fitting on particularly a light (& fan) circuit has RCD protection at all!

So much depends upon the age of the installation, the wiring rules at the time of build, actual compliance with the code of the day, and then what has happened since the original build!

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

I would point out that it is dangerous to assume that any fitting on particularly a light (& fan) circuit has RCD protection at all!

So much depends upon the age of the installation, the wiring rules at the time of build, actual compliance with the code of the day, and then what has happened since the original build!

Hence the WARNING at the top of this sub-forum

body corporate manager is going to get that unit owner to get electrician in to inspect.