It has been cold. Not Buxton cold but several weeks below 20C which is unusual. This has exacerbated the electric difficulties as we have been using heating all day, not just after dinner.
The standard electric supply allows a total current of 25 amps. In practice this means that as well as the lighting and the fridge freezer we can use any two of the electric fire, the two air conditioning units/heaters, the oven, kettle, microwave, rice cooker, deep fat fryer or iron. Any more than 2 and the earth leakage circuit breaker cuts out and you have to turn off an appliance and reset it in the dark. This involves knowing what the other person is doing and for some meals a considerable juggling of appliances. it also explains why on;y tworooms have air conditioning
Last autumn it was suggested we could get a higher wattage supply so we decided to action it. The electrician said no that was only for workshops but as the house is built as 2 flats we could get a second 25 amps supply. We decided to go for it.
Unfortunately it involved Moroccan Bureaucracy and considerable coming and going.
First we needed permission from the planning department
2 visits; one all day wait.
then from the electric board;
3 visits,
We have a piece of paper and the sparks can start the work. He can go so far and then we need another paper from the local precinct;
3 visits
When we attend we are rejected because we only have a photocopy of one of the documents (from when the house was built over 10 years ago) but when we return with a friend the photocopy is accepted. The document we need is stamped 4 times with different ink pad stamps in duplicate and then 2 postage stamps are added to each. Beloved and I each sign twice in duplicate ledgers.This is a result.
We then have to wait for "the committee" (building control in my terms) to inspect. They come on Thursday and we are told we need to go back to the Electric Board on Friday to sign for the supply. We can't do that as I have to go to Agadir to the dentist. (This is another story; a crown has broken and cannot be replaced so I have to have a "petit dent" or plate. This takes 4 visits to Agadir in 10 days.) We agree to go on Monday when our friend will text.
No text Monday, to dentist Tuesday and Friday but the only text says
"We need to make modifications. We need steel nerfs."
We have visions of all the work being undone to allow the insertion of steel nerfs. We can find no translation for nerfs on google except "gristle". Why do we have to insert beef tendon into our electric supply?
Saturday an explanation is forthcoming. A certificate is required from the architect when the house was built. The first one he supplies shows the owner as the builder. This has been rejected as the builder is now deceased and "we can't issue a supply to a dead person". Our friend returns to the architect and obtains one in our names. This is rejected because it describes the house as "residential". As there is an integral garage it should read "residential and commercial". Our friend has obtained another certificate from the architect with whom he is becoming quite good friends, and we hope this will be accepted. As he texted he needs "nerves of steel"..
Meanwhile Beloved has decided we should replace all our light bulbs with LED bulbs because they use a tenth the current. As our standard light fitting uses 9 bulbs this is actually quite a saving but the shop assistants boggle at our purchase of 60 odd bulbs.
If all goes well the kitchen will be on an entirely separate consumer unit to the rest of the house so heating and cooling won't affect the use of appliances and I will have two additional sockets where I want to use them. The down side is that the wiring is done before the application of Tajlick and tiles so all the new wiring has to be done in external conduits
and they do not use ring mains so that adding sockets means creating a whole new circuit. However the Sparks who is not tall supported me in the discussion over the placement of the board with the circuit breaker .It is lower down where I can reach.
The original one needs Beloved to press the button. I would have to find , in the pitch dark, something to climb on in order to reach.
No comments:
Post a Comment