Engineer Dies in Live Working Accident

Coming up on this week's news investigators reveal  how an engineer died while live working on board   a luxury super yacht MCS unveils the long awaited  changes to its certification process and thieves   dig up copper cables days before the opening  ceremony of a showpiece EV charging station   welcome to Electrical News Weekly this week  at normal speed Following last week's backlash   and the first episode to be shot in our brand new  studio for those of you watching the video version  

of the podcast and wondering why the lighting is  so terrible in here it's because we haven't sorted   out the light in here yet also many apologies  to anyone who was temporarily crestfallen at my   little joke about it being the last ever episode  of the news last week we're not going anywhere   folks so whether you're listening in the van  on site or down at the wholesale counter I'm   Joe Robinson and I've been through the best of  the electrical industry news to save you the  

trouble and if you think you've spotted the two  words that I've been challenged to slip into this   week's show comment with them below for the chance  to win a prize investigators say they now know the  

backstory to how an engineer was electrocuted  on board a British super yacht Father-of-two   Roy Temme from Southampton died on board the  Isle of Man-registered boat, the Baton Rouge,   last February the investigation team from the  UK Marine accident investigation Branch say   that the sequence of events began on the evening  of February the 22nd that night the luxury vessel   worth some £48 million suddenly went dark power  was quickly restored but a ventilation damper  

in the engine room failed to reset this device  automatically closes the air duct to prevent the   spread of fire it's believed that Temme then  went below decks in an attempt to replace the   damper's actuator investigators say he started  work without isolating the electrical supply it   appears he didn't want to restrict The Vessel  to emergency power only this would have meant   that functions such as non-critical lighting air  conditioning and entertainment systems shutting  

down investigators say that at some stage the  experienced engineer came into contact with live   230 volts ac conductors while working on the  dampers electric circuit he was electrocuted   and suffered a massive heart attack despite  efforts to resuscitate him his heart could   not be restarted and he was pronounced dead in  hospital the investigators say that Temme didn't   have a permit to work for electrical maintenance  the 63 meter Baton Rouge has now been put up for  

sale by its French billionaire owner Martin  Bouygues boss of the engineering group of the   same name it's understood he was not on the yacht  at the time of the incident once again the team   here at eFIXX would like to extend our sincerest  condolences to the friends and family of Mr Temme   just a tragic tragic accident in other news the  microgeneration certification scheme has unveiled  

its major shakeup this week it's responding to  criticism in the trade that it's too bureaucratic   the MCS says it wants to cut paperwork and focus  on evidence of quality installations for customers   first off the requirement to be a member of a  consumer code has been dropped another major   change is that the frequency of Assessments  will change this will now depend on what MCS   is calling your risk of non-compliance that's  because as an MCS certified installer you must  

also be a member of a certification body such  as Napit these certification bodies conduct   regular assessments to ensure that members can  competently install Technologies such as solar   panels and battery packs installers whose MCS  operations are relatively simple and who have   a number of satisfied customers and few complaints  will be rewarded with fewer assessments installers   with more complex operations such as those  involving lots of subcontractors and whose  

projects are found to be poor will be assessed  more often MCS says it will also specify the   content of each rating rather than leave it to  individual inspectors there will also be a new   requirement for a named technical supervisor for  every job this replaces the current requirement   for a nominated technical person the technical  supervisor will be the person who's qualified   to sign off a completed job the MCS has now  published a host of the new documents on its  

website these include a booklet on install or  operating requirements and one on Conformity   assessment guidelines to help you comply there  are also eight installation standards for solar   heat pumps batteries and wind turbines and  six pre-sale documents to give to customers   the MCS says you'll need to carry on with your  current requirements until a notification body   gives you the option to transfer this includes  maintaining membership of a consumer code for now  

the transition is expected to roll on throughout  2025 and into next year still on certification a  

government Watchdog has slammed a local authority  over the electrical testing of its properties the   regulator of social housing hit out at Portsmouth  City Council after it found that 85% of its   homes haven't had an electrical condition test  certificate for over 5 years a number of those are   in high-risk communal blocks on top of the EICR  failures the probe found that fewer than 40% of   the Portsmouth Council homes had been surveyed  within the past 5 years more than a third had  

been surveyed more than 10 years ago and nearly  10% had no record at all the regulator of social   housings Kate Dodsworth said that the health and  safety of tenants is non-negotiable responding   Darren Sanders of Portsmouth Council said that the  local Authority was aware that there was room for   improvement to meet the new regulator standards  he said the council accepted the findings of the   regulator and would work on constructively  to fix the problems meanwhile in Scotland  

the unveiling of a showpiece EV charging station  in Paisley has had to be postponed after thieves   dug up the copper cables days before the opening  ceremony osprey's charging Network's high power   hub was promoted by the firm as a state-of-the-art  installation but an organised gang operating under   the cover of Darkness managed to dig up and  cut off a section of a major electrical cable   it's expected to be sold for its copper on the  illegal Market Lewis Gardiner operations director  

at Osprey said the company had CCTV footage of  the incident at Paisley which it's provided to   the police the company said it would be pressing  for a prosecution in relation to the incident   the crime comes at the same time as Chancellor  Rachel Reeves announces a £65 million boost for   on Street charging unusually she's investing most  of the money in private provider Connected Curb   the money will go on a dramatic expansion of its  Network turning to Circuit safety now and Scottish  

trade body select has just released a video  on neutral current diversions neutral current   diversions or NCDs are a Hot Topic in the trade  right now a neutral current diversion can happen   in the event of the loss of a protective Earth  neutral conductor on a TNCS electrical supply the   installation then loses its intended connection  to neutral and Earth the current is diverted and   will find its way back to the supply Transformer  any way it can one common route is through shared  

metallic pipe work such as gas and water pipes as  you can imagine these routes can be very dangerous   the 20-minute video produced in partnership with  the IET shows you how to test for it and how to   deal with it if discovered select technical expert  Bob Cairney said that ncds constitute an unknown   risk and have huge safety implications I've put  a link to the video in the show notes in product  

news this week lighting control giant Lutron has  launched no fewer than three major Innovations   first up is Radio Ra 3 a system for high-end  residential applications it uses the company's   proprietary radio frequency to control lights and  blinds the company says it's made installation   Easier by combining the Wi-Fi repeater and the  bridge into a single device I am a big fan of   the Ra 2 system and used it for years in my own  home so I'm looking forward to seeing what the Ra  

3 is capable of also out this week is the V keypad  which features backlighting and weighted buttons   it's designed to integrate smoothly with the radio  Ra 3 finally the brand has launched its own LED   strip the Lumaris tape is colour changeable to  either red green or blue as well as white tuning   it dims down to 0.1% which is just incredible  and again is designed to integrate seamlessly   with the other kit next next week in the product  slot of the news we're going to round up the most  

Innovative emergency lighting kit for installers  the following week we'll be focusing on circuit   protection so if there's anything we shouldn't  Miss for either of those subjects get in touch   directly or via the comments before we go a couple  of dates for your diary the newly opened Basildon  

branch of HDM solar wholesale is holding an open  day on Friday the 21st of February it's inviting   electricians to come and take a look at the  facilities and check out the latest kit top brands   including Solix Sunsynk give energy and Growatt  will be showing on their latest kit there'll   also be experts if you need technical advice on  a project from a proper geek and I mean that as   a compliment I've put a link to the invite in the  show notes the event runs from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00  

p.m. also a reminder that voting is now open in  LEW Electrical Distributors Love Your Apprentice   competition this contest celebrates the talented  young people coming into the trade entrants have   been asked to post creative and inventive images  of themselves on the tools doing what they do   best all you've got to do is give them a like  on Facebook whoever gets the most likes wins a   premium CK electrician toolkit so show him some  love our dear beloved Apprentice Tool Time Rick  

is of course the Benchmark against which all are  marked here he is doing what he does best voting   starts today the 10th of February and ends on  Monday the 17th of February the link as ever is in   the show notes and our usual reminder that we're  in the market for your stories your projects and   your recommendations as we'd like to share them  with the wider eFIXX community so send us pictures   of your installs or let us know if you've come 

across any new kit that's making your job easier  

and just before we get to your favoUrite bit of  the show where I reveal last week's challenge   words and winners we want to thank our premium  Partners we couldn't make the news without you   first up they're the people who've created the  Swiss army knife of solar inverters along with   all weather batteries very much the Boy Scouts  of the solar industry it's Sunsynk and speaking   of solar with manufacturing powered by a massive  250 megawatt solar PV array they're literally the  

greenest test instrument maker in Europe both  physically and ethically it's KPS now are you   a bit of a control freak motor control that is if  with huge stocks and excellent service check out   Crompton Controls as they said to me in a recent  conversation if we don't have it then we can build   it with their new award winning Lumo consumer unit  and offering Complete product support from their   highly trained team it's CPN Cudis and the best 

thing to come out of Yorkshire in stainless steel   the home of EV Ultra and other groundbreaking  and quality products it's Doncaster Cables click   the links in the show notes to find out more about  these great Brands big thanks to you all we really   appreciate your ongoing support for the news if  you think you know the words that I've smuggled  

into this week's show pop your guess into the  comments we'll take all the correct guesses   and select one at random to be the winner of an  eFIXX goodie bag prize answers submitted after   about lunchtime on the Thursday after release will  not be entered into the draw now let's reveal the   winners of last week's challenge word competition  last week's words were faithful and traitor the   challenge word committee clearly enjoying the  Claudia Winkleman BBC show at the moment for  

our video viewers here's a picture of the time  I met her anyway the person to be selected from   our electronic hat this week was Edward Bretherton  who won this competition once before about a year   ago now I think so well done to you Edward make  sure you click the get involved Link in the show   notes to claim your prize thanks for listening  to this episode of electrical news weekly make   sure you subscribe to receive the next update  thanks for listening and until next time have  

a great week stay safe out there and remember  there's no such thing as a torque calibrated arm