Beyoğlu

On the side streets of İstiklal the ground floor fills for evening service, and the floors above are old houses divided into short stays. The riser still stands as a thin line pulled for lamps and a radio. The restaurant oven, the glass washer, the under-counter fridge and the window lighting were added to that line later. The bar's bottle cooler keeps drawing after service ends. At the same hour the kettle and the hair dryer in the flat above land on the same phase. The terminal heats, the screw loosens, and the arc carbonises the Bakelite. The call usually opens as a burnt socket. A new cover does nothing except hide the carbon. The circuit is made dead, the box is opened, the carbonised NYA tail is cut back to sound copper, and the remaining conductor is read under load with a True-RMS clamp. The reading is written once with the counter running and once with it off, so the flat's own load and the bar's load separate on the paper. If the current is more than the conductor section can carry, the breaker rating is not increased. A 1.5 mm² line does not go above 16 amperes. If the section is short, the restaurant and bar branch leaves the flat branch on the board after the meter. That split is not moved to the side before the sealed meter.

On a Tarlabaşı stair the same riser may be shared by a workshop, a small bar and several flats. The sockets are two-wire. There is no earth conductor. A fridge chassis shocks because it was clamped to a water pipe or left floating. A water pipe is not an earth. If there is a shock, the plug comes out. If there is no 30 mA Type A residual-current device, the board moves ahead of a new cover. The device is not bridged so the bar fridge stays quiet. A bridge leaves a chassis leak sitting on cloth insulation. Each line is read with a 500 V megohmmeter. Appliances are disconnected before the test so the test voltage does not reach the fridge board. A branch under one megaohm is renewed before it is landed on a new breaker. Where the cloth insulation turns to dust between the fingers, that line goes into halogen-free trunking on the inner stair wall, and the street facade is not chased. Before a rewirable board comes off, the floor each fuse feeds is written down. Schneider or Siemens DIN breakers, with a breaking capacity matched to the board, go in its place. The cooker, the fridge and the air conditioner are not left on the same 16 ampere way. The old fuse wire is not kept in a drawer as a spare, because it will be fitted again at the next outage.

In a short stay the guest plugs a kettle, a steam iron and a hair dryer into one socket together. In most of these houses that socket is 1.5 mm² NYA and two-wire. The cover yellows and the inside of the box blackens. A new cover does not lower the resistance of heated copper. The circuit is made dead, the carbonised tail is cut, the screw is tightened without crushing the conductor, and the load is read again with a True-RMS clamp. If a socket spur was stolen from the lighting pair, that tail goes back to lighting. The lighting pair is not a socket circuit and it is not a camera supply. If a washer or a dishwasher is to be put in this flat, the earth conductor is pulled separately inside halogen-free trunking. A radiator or a gas pipe is not used as an earth. If an air conditioner was added later, the old 16 ampere way is not enough on its own. The air conditioner gets its own branch, its own breaker and its own fuse under the protection of a 30 mA Type A device. The line runs in halogen-free trunking, apart from the socket branch. A joint whose cover will not close is not a finished job. Phase, neutral and earth at the end are different colours. The earth is not bridged onto the neutral bar.

When the key changes hands, the previous guest's adaptor block stays on the wall. The block carries the heat of a carbonised box into the room, and it comes off. If a cloth conductor leaving the wall crumbles in the fingers, that room is not chased under the plaster. Thick lime and old plaster are not broken for the sake of a trunk. Halogen-free trunking along the door architrave is enough. Inside it the NYA colours run correctly, and joints stay inside boxes where they can be seen. A joint is not left under the plaster with tape. On the same visit the body of the corridor switch is felt as well. If the body is warm, the lighting pair is tired. That pair is left neither to a camera nor to a guest's socket spur. The flat owner gets a written note: which room, how many amperes were read, which tail was cut, and whether an earth is present. The note goes onto the appointment paper. If there is a burning smell or a shock, the flat moves to the front of the same day. If there is neither, the job stays on the appointment day that was named. Traffic on the Golden Horn bridges is not written on that paper as a minute figure. The technician states any tariff difference on the phone before setting off. A larger ampere rating is not promised on an unfinished measurement.

On the Galata slope the floors are not on one line. The riser drops through small boxes on the stair landings. The box is often behind a wardrobe or a timber lining. When the bar on the lower floor takes load, the lamp in the upper flat flares or dies. The caller blames the socket. The reading is written at the flat intake, under load: phase-to-neutral, phase-to-earth, neutral-to-earth. When the neutral weakens, phase-to-neutral climbs above 180 volts. The fridge and the television come off their plugs. The loose screw on the slope may not belong to one flat. The riser belongs to the building. A written note is left with the manager: which landing, which phase, how many amperes were read. The side before the meter seal is a separate line and it is a BEDAŞ report. The side after the seal, the phase and neutral entering the flat, is ours to tighten. We do not open the seal. If the seal is already broken, or the meter side is hot, the company is called and the board after the meter stays with us. The fall of the slope also lets a cable creep out of a terminal under its own weight. Crept copper is cut back, the new tail enters fully, and the screw does not crush the conductor. The neighbouring floor's reading goes on the same paper, so the same flare is not called in again the next night.

Cameras and Cat6 are not shared with the lighting pair. A short-stay operator or a bar wants the recorder tied to the spare wire in the ceiling rose. In most of these houses that wire is cloth or thin NYA, it is switched, and it is common with the corridor lamp. When the camera adaptor sits on that pair the lamp dims, the rose heats, and the recording drops at night. That pair is not used for data. Cat6 runs in its own halogen-free trunk, away from the socket and lighting lines. The trunk follows the inner wall of the slope. Facade plaster is not broken for it. Where the floors are offset, the cable is not forced as if a straight shaft existed. The room name is written at both ends. The RJ45 ends are proved with a cable tester. They are not left because a picture appeared. A camera supply that leaves for the courtyard is not taken from the lighting pair. The courtyard side gets wet. That supply runs from the board after the meter, on its own fuse, in NYY, as far as the adaptor. NYY is not a data cable. Cat6 and NYY are not crushed together in one grip. The bar's music dimmer and the camera adaptor stay on separate ways. The ways are split so the dimmer's leakage does not drop the same 30 mA Type A device that feeds the camera.

The 2026 bands are labour excluding materials, and in Beyoğlu they move on site. Fault finding sits in the 750-1,500 TL band. A True-RMS reading with the bar load on and off, and a 500 V megohmmeter test, belong in that band. A breaker or residual-current device sits in the 1,250-3,200 TL band. A Schneider or Siemens DIN breaker fitted in place of a rewirable fuse, and a 30 mA Type A device, sit inside that band. A socket or a light sits in the 650-2,800 TL band. One carbonised NYA socket and the corridor lamp are not written as one item, because one is a socket branch and the other is the lighting pair. An air-conditioning circuit sits in the 2,400-5,500 TL band. An air conditioner added later to a short-stay flat is not landed on the old 16 ampere way. A separate line is what that band covers. A flat board sits in the 6,500-16,000 TL band. If more than one fuse has carbonised, the board moves into a flame-retardant modular enclosure. The survey fee comes off the job if the repair is accepted. The binding figure is written after measurement and before work starts. Workmanship is guaranteed for one year. Materials, trunking, NYA, NYY and Cat6 sit outside that figure. Work on the sealed meter does not enter these bands, because that work is a BEDAŞ report.

A Beyoğlu call is written in the appointment book. A burning smell, arcing or a shock is moved to the front of the same day. If there is no smell and no shock, the job stays on the appointment day that was named. Traffic on the Golden Horn bridges and on the Tarlabaşı boulevard is not a minute promise. The book records whether the street is the İstiklal side, a Tarlabaşı stair or the Galata slope, whether the ground floor is a restaurant or a bar, whether the upper floor is a short stay, whether the meter seal is in place, and whether a residual-current device is present. A larger ampere rating is not promised on missing information. The bell transformer at the door is checked on the same visit. If the body is hot, the bell circuit leaves the socket circuit so the coil does not feed socket carbon at night. The entry phone gets its own thin pair. A camera supply is not piled onto that thin pair either. When the job ends, the paper keeps which screw was tightened, which tail was cut, and whether the device answered its test button. The paper also states which job the one-year workmanship guarantee belongs to. The length of the guarantee does not grow or shrink because of a delay on the bridge. If the meter cover is warm and the seal is intact, the company is called separately, and the flat board stays on its own line the same day.