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[sir moanalot]

a. your fusebox is
b. your stopcock is
and do you know how to use them ?
im suprised how many people dont know where either is during a home visit......
i tell them "your having a big flood what are you now going to do"? 90% say panic and run out of the house !!!
and on the electrics i say "theres sparks coming from a socket what are you going to do"? and 75% say run out of the house..........
so spend 2 minutes today and look for your stopcock (and turn it off and on to see if it works) then familiarise yourself with your fusebox- with the later types you can even diagnose faults yourself even down to a single socket !!!   

[aaronjb]

I think the problem you're facing here is that 95% of the population are mouth breathing morons.. but maybe that's just my cynical opinion

[Banjax]

unfortunately i know exactly where our fuse box is as i'm regularly replacing 5amp fuse wire on our "art deco" (ie 1930's) wiring 

the stopcock for the water is outside the house under a plate on the pavement and turns of ours and 2 neighbours water 

[aaronjb]

unfortunately i know exactly where our fuse box is as i'm regularly replacing 5amp fuse wire on our "art deco" (ie 1930's) wiring 

I was going to say something about 'How many people have a fusebox, anyway?' ... apparently the pace of change is a tad slower north of the border?

My stopcock is out in the street too (with the water meter) - although the first time I used it I turned off the water for next door instead as theirs is closest to my house and mine to theirs (IYSWIM) Ah well, I don't like them much anyway

[Varche]

I know where both are.

When we moved in the (bodgers) electricians moved our fusebox inside and left it without an earth. I have since moved it to a better location and connected an earth. With it being a third world country with regular power outages you need to know where the reset is anyway.

Mains water stop valve. An essential piece of hardware when you live in the Spanish countryside. We have on average one leak a fortnight. I have stop valves on every single tap nearly. I have got a leak now that I am in the process of eliminating. We inherited a lot of buried 30 year old 1 inch cold feed plastic pipe. It has a leak under a wall. So I am putting 15metres of conduit in to pull new quality thick wall pipe through. Just need to make two more joins - rubber seal compression joints!

[Martian]

a. your fusebox is

By the front door

b. your stopcock is

Underneath the kitchen sink

and do you know how to use them ?

Having been in the building game for the last 25 years or so, I'd hope so.

then familiarise yourself with your fusebox- with the later types you can even diagnose faults yourself even down to a single socket !!!   

Only if that single socket is own it's own dedicated circuit.

[sir moanalot]

no martian, what im stating is, if the tripping fault is with a faulty appliance you can isolate that PLUGGED in socket as the fault.
 ie fault on downstairs socket circuit- unplug 1 appliance at a time and try to reset rcd if it resets then the likelyhood its a faulty appliance on that peticular socket
obviously confirm by replugging back in appliance and watch it trip the rcd.........

[Martian]

no martian, what im stating is, if the tripping fault is with a faulty appliance you can isolate that PLUGGED in socket as the fault.
 ie fault on downstairs socket circuit- unplug 1 appliance at a time and try to reset rcd if it resets then the likelyhood its a faulty appliance on that peticular socket
obviously confirm by replugging back in appliance and watch it trip the rcd.........

Aha, with you now (although I'd unplug everything and reintroduce the appliances one at a time instead).

[sir moanalot]

99% of the time when i go out on a callout the customer has a "vague" idea what the problem is but dare'nt tell ya incase they have done something wrong and will be charged extra.......
leaving a 1 hour diagnosis until you find that bit of bodged wiring in the loft........