cowboys
the technology - washing machine and kettle

the hack - a small weird timer unit, looked a bit like a tachometer from a lorry.

i was asked to help fix my mates washing machine as she said "its a bit cranky, needs a bit of a kick if it goes off mid cycle but is now sparking a bit in the socket". I thought that this was probably a minor hack to do with this weird timer unit (looked like it could be from a vehicle) used to get the economy 7 deal overnight. So i have a little look. First question, wheres the fusebox?. Now my friend is a pretty girl, and although we should assume nothing from that she has zero electrical knowledge - so i assumed she was wrong. Every house has a fusebox!

she was right. her nightmare ex husband had obviously hooked in next door, 10 years before, and was stealing leccy.

This left a problem - how do i turn off the supply to check the socket? Well i didn't. I kicked the machine back and call a pro.

The pro was an ex contractor earning a few quid in his retirement and knows his stuff. He worked on it as live, unhappily but taking the required precautions. At this point he asks for a cuppa. The kettle was moved into the front room, and when the kettle reached near boiling point, the lights all went pop. He had decided it was too much trouble to fix the sockets to the socket circuit, so put it on the lighting circuit. It had popped next doors supply off on their RCD to protect it.

It looked like a minor techno timer addition, it saved 20p per night leccy on the washing and heating. And they had no leccy bill. It nearly killed loads of people though. Well worthwhile.

We never found the full scale of this, and she moved just before the seller packs came in. Phew. Caveat Emptor.
( bazza van der trance , ooh baby baby, baby baby. Get up on this., Fri 21 Aug 2009, 13:16, Reply)