TRS wiring in house

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SomeoneSomewhere

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#2690440 10-Apr-2021 11:00

I'm going to need a source on that one... I don't think I have any laying around, but I've never seen anything that looks like steel in TRS.

It's all just tinned copper.

David321

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#2690555 10-Apr-2021 12:08

Cheers for all the info guys, have certainly learnt a lot here. With that in mind do any of the people here have a rough estimate on cost of replacing all the wiring in my house to modern cable? Its a 2 bedroom place 100sq. Kitchen is all new wire apart from one plug.

_David_

gregmcc

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#2690562 10-Apr-2021 12:26

David321: Cheers for all the info guys, have certainly learnt a lot here. With that in mind do any of the people here have a rough estimate on cost of replacing all the wiring in my house to modern cable? Its a 2 bedroom place 100sq. Kitchen is all new wire apart from one plug.

Get your electrician out to quote it, asking here sight unseen is a bit like telling your mechanic "my car is broken tell me how much to fix" without giving details on make model or fault.

Keep in mind that due to the age of the wiring you will most likely have re-wirable fuses all which will need to be replaced, most likely the service mains will need replacing to the overhead point of connection, the panel in the fuse board will most likely be the black asbestos type.

Things like the pitch of the roof may require some of it lifting for the wiring to be replaced. There are a whole lot of factors which are best discussed with your electrician.

Fred99

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#2690868 11-Apr-2021 14:08

SomeoneSomewhere:

Extensions to lighting circuits are not required to be RCD protected; this is an exception. Extensions to power circuits are.

But if the OP's existing lighting circuit doesn't have an earth (almost certain if it's old), the extension has to, thus there's a new lighting circuit back to the switchboard, and as it's a new circuit and not just an extension, it should be RCD protected.

This not according to me (I'm not a sparky), my son is and doing some lighting circuit extensions including bathroom/kitchen fans in rentals, older homes with no earth on lights, he's putting in RCDs as he's running a new cable to the board. IIRC he says that adds about $30 cost, plus a bit of labour and mark-up I expect.. The fans are double insulated, the earth termination in the fan connects to nothing, but the earth wire has to be there apparently. It seems a bit crazy, but he tells me that the fan is considered the same as a (new) light "fitting" as far as the regs goes.

If another sparky on this thread can confirm or deny, please do.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#2690871 11-Apr-2021 14:16

I think the regs allow you to consider a fan to be a lighting point, but don't require it. I think it's a holdover from more prescriptive older versions of the regs that said you are allowed x lighting points on a y A lighting circuit.

It's not really something I deal with much.

New lighting points are indeed required to have an earth present.

mattwnz

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#2690902 11-Apr-2021 16:34

I wonder how many houses that are on the market need the wiring replacing. I went to an open home today and asked, and they agent said it had only been partly rewired. So is always a question that should be asked. That plus the black plastic plumbing pipe that was used can be a ticking time bomb.

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gregmcc

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#2690904 11-Apr-2021 16:34

Fred99:

SomeoneSomewhere:

Extensions to lighting circuits are not required to be RCD protected; this is an exception. Extensions to power circuits are.

But if the OP's existing lighting circuit doesn't have an earth (almost certain if it's old), the extension has to, thus there's a new lighting circuit back to the switchboard, and as it's a new circuit and not just an extension, it should be RCD protected.

This not according to me (I'm not a sparky), my son is and doing some lighting circuit extensions including bathroom/kitchen fans in rentals, older homes with no earth on lights, he's putting in RCDs as he's running a new cable to the board. IIRC he says that adds about $30 cost, plus a bit of labour and mark-up I expect.. The fans are double insulated, the earth termination in the fan connects to nothing, but the earth wire has to be there apparently. It seems a bit crazy, but he tells me that the fan is considered the same as a (new) light "fitting" as far as the regs goes.

If another sparky on this thread can confirm or deny, please do.

You can run a new earth wire from the dist. board to the first new lighting point, but what is more important is you have said that your not a sparky and then said your doing electrical work on rentals - no home owner exemption there, hopefully your sons is an electrician and you are working under the "supervision" of him?

Bung

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#2690908 11-Apr-2021 17:17

No, Fred99 said his son was an electrician doing work in rentals. It's no wonder 4 sparkies on the old electricalforum could jump to 5 conclusions :-)

richms

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#2690914 11-Apr-2021 18:01

I'm wondering how soon we will have something like the UKs EICR's in place here to deal with these shoddy installs that people have refused to maintain over the years.

Richard rich.ms

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#2690962 11-Apr-2021 18:16

richms:

I'm wondering how soon we will have something like the UKs EICR's in place here to deal with these shoddy installs that people have refused to maintain over the years.

There is already something in place, dodgy installations can be reported to Worksafe

Fred99

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#2705713 10-May-2021 18:22

gregmcc:

richms:

I'm wondering how soon we will have something like the UKs EICR's in place here to deal with these shoddy installs that people have refused to maintain over the years.

There is already something in place, dodgy installations can be reported to Worksafe

I'm changing my mind about there being a need for electrical inspections - at least on rental homes in particular.

Having gone out to look at a few homes that need to be brought up to "healthy homes" standards, I'm amazed at how awful some are.

Today's one took the cake, owner's agent (we know the owner of the agency) wanted a "fixed price quote" to install exhaust fans. As a favour, we went with no intention of giving a fixed price quote. The existing wiring was a mix of TPR, but some older cloth wrapped rubber cable, plus a bit of newer TPS. The side casing of the switchboard in the lounge room literally dropped on the floor when sparky boy touched it. Some of the decaying TPR behind the board had been wrapped with red insulation tape to try to hold the crumbs together. Every single power outlet had cracked or broken faceplates and/or surface mounts, there was exposed cable running along the wall - you could reach it from the bathtub/shower, elsewhere over the past 100 years of so, an assortment of cables had been installed behind impromptu wooden conduit - poking in and out of walls etc, all the old WW2 era light switches with round screw-on covers were glued together forever with paint, the existing kitchen exhaust fan had failed and was vented into about 4 inches of ceiling space, powered by a dangling cord with a 3 pin plug that plugged in to a socket placed just above the range elements.

There was a brand new budget brand heat pump sitting on the floor - still in unopened cartons. I guess the owner bought it from Save Barn or whoever, hoping that he'd be able to find someone to install it. I expect any heat pump installer would run away from that job about as fast as we did.

Whoever the tenant was, they deserve a service medal, diggers in WW1 trenches probably survived safer conditions. Was mouldy, neglected, rotten, but the poor bugger(s) living there kept it tidy enough. On the way out, I just about dropped a leg in a gaping hole on the front porch.

I should have taken photos - to start a "slumlord" gallery. Thoroughly disgusting.

I'm guessing that the place was probably uninsured, most insurers would probably decline unless something that old was rewired and inspected. I guess the owner's logic was that if the place burned down, then that would save on demolition costs. Too bad about the tenants.

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Fred99

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#2705930 11-May-2021 12:28

Fred99:

Today's one took the cake, owner's agent (we know the owner of the agency) wanted a "fixed price quote" to install exhaust fans. As a favour, we went with no intention of giving a fixed price quote.

Ahhh - the "worm turned". They got told "nope" and the reasons for that, then come back. It was probably some kind of a test.

From an apparent waste of time and declining to do the work on any basis because of the poor condition of that property, the agent is offering a regular flow of work carrying out routine electrical inspections on rental properties they manage. The agent wants to nail shonky landlords - they are okay after all.

Rikkitic

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#2705939 11-May-2021 13:02

Fred99:

I'm changing my mind about there being a need for electrical inspections - at least on rental homes in particular.

Having gone out to look at a few homes that need to be brought up to "healthy homes" standards, I'm amazed at how awful some are.

Reminds me a lot of a friend's beach bach I took a look at several years ago. I'm not qualified to do electrical work but I know enough to make an assessment. This place was simply unbelievable, straight out of the roaring 60's. When I opened the fuse box to take a look, the crumbling insulation actually fell off the wiring. I very carefully closed it and quietly backed away. The ceiling light in the bedroom extension had been DIY installed with what looked like (very thin) speaker wire tacked to the panelling. Power to the back room had long since ceased to function at all. The best conclusion I could come to was some kind of break behind the walls. There were lots of mysterious cables that seemed to go nowhere. I told my friend she was in mortal danger and the entire structure needed to be demolished and exorcised. She sold it soon after.

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