Garden Lights

Last week I was asked to alter some garden lights for a customer at her home. I don't know who had installed these nor do I know who had made alterations to the installation.
I do know that the installation had become dangerous due to water penetration into junction boxes.
There was other evidence of poor workmanship as well.
If you have changes to make to exterior lights or fittings, it is wise to call in a properly qualified electrician rather than try to do the job yourself !!

Upgrading your electric shower

I had a case this week where a customer called me in. He had recently replaced his electric shower with a much more powerful model . The switch had begun to smoke during use and then the shower  stopped working altogether.

I examined the installation - fortunately the fuse had melted and stopped current flowing in the circuit.

I need to make several modifications to that circuit, including replacing the electric cable with one of larger c/s area, capable of carrying the increased current to the new shower.

The lesson to be learned here?
Consult a qualified electrician before replacing electrical appliances yourself. Fortunately, in this case there were no serious consequences !!

A useful battery powered pump for emptying cisterns etc

I came across this useful little pump the other day. Works using re-chargeable AA batteries It's very handy for those hard-to-get-at places. You can use it to empty or fill without any spillage !!

I got it from http://www.dohead.com/   Phone me if you have difficulty getting it.

So far I've found several uses for it. Saved me a pile of time the other day when I needed to empty a header tank that was really close to the roof.