Nothing to do with Astro, but a warning!

[Horwig]

This has nothing to do with astronomy, other than you might see stars if it went wrong.

This is a general appeal to all of us, me included here, to use the correct connector for the job, not something that happens to be to hand, especially since our hobby means we operate in damp dark conditions.

I'm doing some work in the bathroom, and was replacing a mains illuminated mirror, when I took it of the wall this is what I found

Now as you can probably tell, the guy who owned this house before me worked for BT, and obviously had a van-full of kit, and couldn't be bothered to find a real chock-block.

The Type 8 gel connector is neat enough, and the likelyhood of touching a bare connector in a properly made up joint is low, but is a connector designed for 48volts, and signal current REALLY the best choice for mains.

I shudder to think what else I might uncover.

Huw

 

 

[JimT]

Brings back memories as a BT engineer but only when I was down holes and certainly not in the house, crazy!!

Jim

[MarkyD]

That's nothing compared to what I have seen in some properties when doing electrical work.  Last one was last week when fault finding a faulty light circuit in a shower room.  The installer had used the CPC as the switch wire for the fan instead of installing 3 core & E

BTH if you want to use connectors WAGO are some of the best screwless

[SonnyE]

Well, at least you have an idea of what to look for now.

Start by redoing the connections in every box you can find. And I mean every....

And buy good fire insurance, just in case...